I just read but didnt quite understand the mechanism that bluesky will automatically protect your "@bsky.social" handle from squatting when change to a custom domain, but I dont know if that's only for people doing it now or what since I did mine a few weeks ago. this is a dear lazyweb
Here's a helpful explainer from @simonmackie.uk (thanks, Simon!) if you're doing the bluesky custom url name thing this for a https://Wordpress.com site. Key detail: on https://Wordpress.com, there's no slot explicitly labeled "domain" -- instead, "_atproto" goes in the "Name" slot.
As @emilyliu.me noted recently, Bluesky now reserves your old https://bsky.social username for you when you upgrade to a custom url name, which is great for thwarting scammers. And links WITHIN the app automatically redirect from your old to your new username. But OUTSIDE links don't redirect, alas.
Very interesting. This should be part of the protocol imho. People will move around over time, and it will be increasingly important to trace the provenance of an identity (eg scammers, trolls, notables)
One weird thing I noticed: When I temporarily switched back to my original https://bsky.social username to reconnect it so it could be reserved, outside links to my custom username *did* forward to my https://bsky.social profile. 🤔
So now I'm updating various website & social media posts where I plugged my old https://bsky.social username to feature my new custom url username instead. A bit of a drag - any chance of retroactively making those outside links redirect to the updated names, @emilyliu.me and @pfrazee.com? (And thank you!)
Here's what it looks like if you click a link to https://bsky.app/profile/gregpak.bsky.social from outside this website. I've done quite a bit of evangelizing about Bluesky on other social media sites. Since I updated to a custom handle, all those old links to my profile are dead now since they don't redirect.
I haven't tried that, but I don't think that works any longer because my old handle has now been reserved by my account -- so if I tried to register it as a NEW account, the system shouldn't let me.
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https://simonmackie.uk/2024/11/28/how-to-use-your-wordpress-com-domain-as-a-bluesky-handle/