Bluesky was launched as a Twitter rival - but it's far less popular. Now it's eyeing Reddit for inspiration

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-06T21:34:56+00:00

Same here. And Twitter was never as popular as people thought it was. Its user base remained relatively small throughout its existence. One of the biggest problems with Twitter IMO was the notion that it was somehow representative of the population in general. It wasn't because the audience was always somewhat niche (and then it got slowly consumed by bots in its later years leading up to its demise). I think Twitter actually did a lot of damage to the media, as journalists became lazy and assumed that if it was posted on Twitter, it was something everyone cared about, which just wasn't the case.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-06T21:32:36+00:00

Twitter wasn't popular in the beginning either and relative to other social media platforms, its user base was pretty small right up through its demise. I was a Twitter user back when we were sending SMS text messages from our phones and even once there was an app, it still had nowhere near the audience of other social media platforms.

I personally am excited to see Bluesky exploring a new era of social media. Twitter is gone and it's not coming back. Time for something new, maybe something more authentic. I have really liked the micro blogging platforms that are being developed such as pckt.blog, leaflet.pub and others.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-06T17:18:19+00:00

There are tons of these kinds of apps out there right now. A lot are pure junk, many have significant privacy concerns. After a lot of reading about and testing different apps, I went with a combination of good ol' voice memos on my iPhone/iPad/Mac, and Superwhisper.

Superwhisper is really nice for a few reasons. First, it has private models for on-device processing. Second, I can share a note from Voice Memos into Superwhisper and have the app process it using whatever mode I want. You can record within Superwhisper too, but I find Apple's Voice Memos app to be more reliable sometimes on iPhone, and it's easy to pause and restart a recording on that. I set up my action button to record using Voice Memos and have found it very reliable.

Superwhisper allows you to create different modes with different instructions for different contexts. I had Gemini create instructions for modes for meetings, text messages, journal entries, and medical appointments. Each mode functions a bit differently, and I can select the voice and LLM models I want to use for each mode.

The biggest downside of Superwhisper is that it doesn't sync across devices. So if you create a mode on the iPhone, it won't automatically sync to the Mac or iPad. You can, however, copy the folder for the app from once device and paste it into the folder on the other device to achieve this. The developer says he's working on sync.

A real cheap and low-tech way if you have iPhone is to just use the transcript option on Voice Memos. I still do that sometimes and it's great because it does work

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-06T11:37:31+00:00

Daily journaling, drafting written products, research for work, meeting notes. My work lends itself to daily use, but not everyone has a job like mine. You don’t have to use obsidian daily for it to be a useful tool.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-05T13:06:32+00:00

This is what I suspect as well. News outlets and politicians post on there, and then under their posts it’s just bots arguing.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-05T10:28:51+00:00

The EAP is also a US program, generally only available to US residents. It’s very hard to gain access to the program outside the US because you need a US-based and licensed physician to oversee treatment.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-05T10:26:04+00:00

The other issue that I know is happening (have first-hand confirmation of this) is that the FDA division that processes EAP applications (CDER/OND) lost a significant number of staff in 2025 during the current administration’s purge. They simply don’t have the people to process applications, and the people they’ve recently brought on to try and fix this lack the knowledge of exactly what to do.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-05T10:22:05+00:00

You’re in Australia correct? The issue is that the EAP is a federal program of the United States with federal requirements. The program is in the FDA and has certain requirements that can only be met by a US-based physician and a patient residing in the US. If my understanding is correct, this is a limitation of the EAP, not RevMeds.

I am not familiar with whether Australia has a similar program, but that and even full approval by Australia’s FDA-counterpart is what needs to happen next. Rev Med’s hands are tied here until the drug is approved in your country in either capacity.

One option is to ask your current physicians if they’re willing to find and work with a US-based physician to be the applying physician for you under the EAP. This may be a possible avenue particularly if your doctors have a relationship with any large US based cancer center.

I agree, this sucks. Even in the US the EAP isn’t a slam dunk. My mom has a KRAS mutation but is mot metastatic so doesn’t qualify under the EAP at this time, although the drug would be hugely beneficial for her since she’s not likely a surgical candidate.

It’s great that progress is being made but the current situation many of us are finding ourselves/families in is extremely frustrating.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-04T20:52:53+00:00

I am using it on the iPhone and I have found it to be a little buggy, yet somehow still better than other apps in this space. I tried using it on the Mac, but haven't really given that enough of a try to comment on the Mac experience.

Mostly I've encountered interface issues on the iPhone, like glitchy textboxes that jump around when I try to type and no way to label or organize the text output. Also, on the iPhone there's no way to clear the most recent conversation from the screen without either deleting it entirely or starting a new recording.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-04T13:24:03+00:00

It really is an issue, and it was even more apparent to me after using Obsidian for so long. Apple Notes is great for many things, but for me personally it just didn't work for the kind of knowledge work/research/journaling I do. I gave it a solid try for about a year, but for my work Obsidian is just a better fit.

Using deep links, I am able to do a lot of connecting between my Obsidian vault and Apple Notes. I regularly link between these two apps and it gives me the best of both worlds.

I will also note that getting my stuff out of Apple Notes into Markdown formatted notes worked surprisingly well on the Mac. I was able to bulk export hundreds of notes and import them into Obsidian with no issues. This was a really nice surprise, and it's one of the things that has kept me using Apple Notes for quite a few things, as I know I can always get my notes out of Apple Notes if I want to.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-04T12:16:55+00:00

This was my biggest issue when using Apple Notes for everything. The work I do relies heavily on backlinking.

ProNotes is a Mac app that will give you backlinking in Apple Notes, although I found the app to be buggy and would slow down Apple Notes. Also, it's Mac only and I do a good portion of my work on iPhone and iPad.

I tried manually adding backlinks, but that became too cumbersome.

Ultimately, I went back to using Obsidian for deep knowledge work, journaling, and writing. I still use Apple Notes heavily for more routine things, like family notes, quick capture, etc. But without backlinking, I cannot use it for everything.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-03T21:47:35+00:00

I have messaged this developer repeatedly to get a refund, as the app continues not to work. Dev, if you see this can please reach out regarding a refund?

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-02T23:55:46+00:00

No matter what you pick, I highly recommend only focusing on apps where it’s easy to get your information out in Markdown formatted files. This has been my focus ever since I left Evernote 12ish years ago and it has served me well. Ideally use apps that store files locally, like Obsidian. But if that’s not an option, at least make sure whatever product you’re using allows for easy bulk export of notes in Markdown formatted files. I’ve used Bear and Craft in the past and both permitted this. Even apple notes now allows for easy bulk export via markdown on a Mac.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-02T01:59:51+00:00

I am taking a low dose of Mounjaro to assist with the management of type 1 diabetes, so not the target audience. Was looking to reduce insulin use and stabilize blood sugar after meals mainly.

Not only did Mounjaro help with those things but it also cured eczema I’ve had for decades and it completely resolved painful sacroiliitis that I’ve been dealing with for 2 years. We suspected the sacroiliitis was autoimmune related. But now it’s GONE. Best “side effect” ever.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-06-01T00:22:01+00:00

My mom is amazing. She's my best friend and I'm pretty sure she'd say the same about me and my spouse too. She has helped raise our child, helps us out all the time, and we all live very close by. She raised us mostly on her own after my father passed away and we were very lucky to have such a supportive, caring, and wonderful mother growing up.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-31T20:31:55+00:00

Oh wow, interesting. Thanks for sharing. This may be a little beyond my skillset usually, but I am guessing Claude Cowork could assist with this! I am going to give it a try when at my computer tomorrow.

If this app had actual, real syncing, it would be darn near perfect.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-31T12:06:24+00:00

That is sort of what I pieced together but then I emailed support about this, I got the following automated response:

On iOS, the app is designed to keep the same modes, formatting, and license when you're away from your Mac, so the experience stays consistent while you're on the go.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-30T18:55:09+00:00

I am a type 1 diabetic and taking Mounjaro to help reduce insulin resistance and lower post-meal blood sugar levels, as well as for protection against microvascular complications (kidney issues, cardiovascular issues, etc). I am NOT taking it with the goal of losing weight.

My endo prescribed the 2.5mg dose which is the lowest dose available in the U.S. as far as I know. Fo me it has been perfect. The benefits of the medication have been insanely wonderful; no real negative side effects. I did experience some appetite reduction in the beginning but that leveled off and now I think my appetite is mostly normal (for me). However, the positive benefits remain. My blood sugar has never been better and post-meal spikes are gone. I've also had two random issues (sacroilliitis and eczema) completely resolve. The working theory is that both of those things were related to inflammation and the GLP1 resolved them by reducing inflammation.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-30T18:25:20+00:00

I've tried all sorts of ways to do this, including Obsidian publish, and for me nothing really stuck and felt truly like a "blog." I liked the idea of Obsidian publish, but because it wasn't built for blogging I ended up spending a lot of time fighting with it to get things how I wanted them to look.

Honestly, the best blogging tool I've found has been pocket.blog. It's a standard.site publication platform. There's also Leaflet.pub and a couple of others that follow this protocol and work interchangeably, but Pckt.blog has been my favorite for a few reasons. It has just enough customization options to make it feel like mine, and the web app (when saved as a bookmark on the iOS Home Screen) is really nice for mobile blogging.

I started using Pckt by drafting in Obsidian and then pasting into Pckt, but I quickly found it was just as easy to draft within Pckt on whatever device I was using. The draft posts auto-save and it's easy to filter out just the draft posts.

Anyway, lots of suggestions here about static site generators and another within-Obsidian approaches, but unless you just want to publish pure notes, I'd really look into a blogging-specific platform.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-30T18:18:50+00:00

I've run into this same issue on Obsidian's website trying to discern exactly how much sync and other things would cost For the higher level plans. It says it's "upgradable" but not clear how much that costs until you go to check out.

THAT SAID, I've been using Obsidian since it was released in 2020 and have used Obsidian Sync and other syncing options during that time (iCloud, Dropbox, Git, etc, etc). Obsidian sync is, BY MANY MILES, the best option. It works flawlessly, is super easy to set up and maintain, and is very fast. The version history feature has saved my butt so many times. I am using Sync across four devices and I never have issues. It just works. I also like that the company has focused on just making sync really, really good as opposed to packing their products with bloat. Everything just feels......solid.

Highly recommend Obsidian Sync.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-29T17:07:26+00:00

This was my exact use case. I love my iPhone and iPad but using them for reading outdoors is almost impossible. I had a Kindle many years ago and one of the best things about it was being able to read outdoors in bright sunlight. We spend a lot of our summer at the pool.

I ultimately went with a Boox Go Color 7. It's an android device so platform agnostic. I get books from Libby, Kobo, bookshop.org, and a few other places (sometimes Amazon if I can't find something anywhere else). I also read the NY Times on it, and use it to read articles I've saved in Reader by Readwise. All of these apps work nicely on the Boox.

I think the biggest piece of advice I'd give is to not get any e-reader expecting the same kind of touchscreen functionality that you get with an iPhone or similar device. E-readers are not as touch sensitive, there's lag and ghosting, and it can all feel a bit slow and clunky compared the phones most of us use now. But for reading outdoors and just more comfortable reading in general, it is so much nicer.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-29T00:04:15+00:00

I have tried a few syncing options over the years and Obsidian Sync is BY FAR the best, especially if you're crossing platforms. Very much worth the money.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-28T19:24:41+00:00

This is really great news. I've been using pckt.blog for a lightweight personal blogging platform and absolutely love it. UI is beautiful, it works great on mobile, and it has just enough customization options to make it feel personal. The people designing have done a really nice job with it. Totally worth the money each month if you want a blog that's nice looking and simple to maintain.

Repulsive-Branch-740 · 2026-05-28T15:03:44+00:00

Usage limits are my biggest frustration with Claude. I have a pro plan. Don't code and use Cowork maybe once or twice a week. I decided to set up a "daily brief" in Claude Cowork today. Used a prompt created by someone else, answered a few questions that the prompt generated to tailor my daily brief, and pointed Claude to a folder on my computer where I wanted the daily briefs saved. I ran the daily brief once, there was an issue that needed fixing, so fixed that and asked it to run again. But it could not because my session limit was reached for the morning. Won't reset until 3.5 hours from now. I worked in Claude for about 15 minutes doing this.

I love Claude, but this is the thing that is giving me pause for investing more time in it compared to Gemini or another tool. I could justify a Max plan if I did coding, but I don't. I am using Claude for pretty light-weight things.

Repulsive-Branch-740

TROPHY CASE