The accelerator behind Bluesky's migration success
Starter Packs: move communities together
What happened?
Bluesky introduced "Starter Packs" in June 2024. Think of it as a playlist for accounts - users can create and share themed collections of accounts to follow. New users can join these curated communities instantly with just one tap, making it easy to find their people on Bluesky.
Image credit: BlueskyHow it works
Visit the Starter Packs tab on your profile to create a pack with up to 150 recommended users and 3 custom feeds.
Choose between auto-generating recommendations or selecting users manually.
Share your pack using the provided link or QR code.
Get notified when someone joins Bluesky through your pack.
Users can opt-out by blocking the pack creator or report packs to moderation.
Why it matters
As users were looking for alternatives to X/Twitter, Starter packs played a crucial role in their migration to Bluesky. Here's why it mattered:
1. Solving the Cold Start Problem
When users migrate, they start with zero connections.
Starter packs solved this by enabling communities to move together, reducing time to first meaningful interaction by 50%.
During the X/Twitter ban in Brazil, Portuguese-language starter packs helped Brazilian users migrate as a community.
2. Reaching critical mass
Starter packs drove 43% of daily follows at peak, with 94% of these connections remaining active.
This quickly built the critical mass needed for the network to become self-sustaining.
3. Preventing AI/algorithms dominance
While centralized curation is vulnerable to spam and manipulation, decentralized curation lets users control what they see.
Decentralized curation allows users to control their discovery rather than being fully controlled by recommendation engines.
Reality limits
Reinforcement of Inequality ("Rich Get Richer" Effect)
While already-popular accounts gained even more visibility, these packs have created a widening gap between popular and less-known accounts.
Worth thinking about:
When you're competing against dominant platforms:
Identify the "switching costs" that keep users locked into existing platforms.
How can you creatively lower these switching costs?
How can you help new users find value in your platform more quickly?