Not the community's wishes: Bluesky brings live stream display and “Cashtags”

On Bluesky, accounts can now indicate when they are currently live streaming and link directly to it. The team made this public but pointed out that it currently only works with streams on Twitch – other services could follow. Version 1.114 of the microblogging service also supports so-called “Cashtags”, thus once again adopting a feature from the time of “old Twitter”, before Elon Musk's takeover. Similar to a hashtag, posts are collected under specially marked keywords, but the marking here is done with a “$”. Placed before a ticker symbol like “AAPL”, the dollar sign makes the “Cashtag” clickable. Subsequently, one can view all posts with it.

Regarding the live stream indicator, Bluesky explains that it is an experimental feature. Anyone who starts a live stream on Twitch can now mark their avatar on Bluesky accordingly. Clicking on it leads directly into the stream. The microblogging service points out that other social networks “punish” linking to external pages, meaning such posts are displayed less often in the feeds of other users. “We think linking outwards should be easy,” writes the Bluesky team. However, under the announcement, there is mainly criticism of the restriction to Twitch and the prioritization of new features: above all, the ability to edit posts retrospectively is demanded there.

With the Cashtags, Bluesky once again emphasizes the extent to which the team is taking its cue from old Twitter. The microblogging service, now renamed X, introduced these special keywords in 2012, and nine years later they were expanded to enable tipping accounts. It can currently be doubted whether the interest in Cashtags on Bluesky is particularly high. The composition of the user base and the particularly passionately discussed topics do not suggest that conversations about stock market topics are among the priorities there. Under the presentation of the new feature, there is therefore only criticism.

(mho)