How bluesky creators build and maintain custom feed middleware
Middleware for Feed Recommendation in Practice: How Feed Creators Build, Maintain, and Sustain Custom Feeds on Bluesky
Human-Computer Interaction
Summary
Decentralized social media platforms want to let independent developers create their own feeds instead of relying on one big algorithm. This study looked at how people who build such feeds on Bluesky do their work, what challenges they face, and how they keep going. The authors found two main types of creators: those who make feeds to provide useful content and those who aim to build communities. Feed creators often lack detailed user data and technical skills to improve their feeds, and they mostly do it as unpaid hobbies with little support. The paper suggests ways to help strengthen this ecosystem.
What this means in practice
- •For social media platform developers: Design features that provide feed creators with better user interaction data and platform support to sustain custom feed middleware.
- •For independent feed creators: Identify strategies and challenges in building and maintaining custom feeds to improve community engagement and utility on decentralized platforms.
Authors
Tony Zhou, Leijie Wang, Amy X. Zhang
Abstract
Scholars have long proposed third-party middleware as an alternative to centralized algorithmic feeds: feeds built and distributed by independent feed creators. This vision saw no large-scale instantiation until Bluesky, a decentralized microblogging platform, introduced custom feeds in 2023. Although central to the middleware ecosystem, we know little about how feed creators understand their role, build feeds, and sustain them. Through interviews with n = 26 feed creators and third-party developers of feed-building tools, and analysis of n = 88,302 custom feeds, we identify two creator orientations---utility-providing and community-building. Additionally, creators struggle to maintain feeds that fully realize middleware ideals: they lack granular interaction data, receive little feedback, and lack technical expertise to act on either. Finally, creators sustain their feeds as unpaid hobbyists with little platform support and are divided on whether to monetize beyond covering costs. We conclude with design and policy implications for strengthening the middleware feed ecosystem.