Bridgy Fed Config & Patreon
Today, we're launching two projects we've been excited to unveil for a while: a settings page for Bridgy Fed and a Patreon for all the folks who have asked us how they can support our work.
Let's dive in!
Bridgy Fed Config
Until now, if you wanted to bridge your various accounts, you had to go to the Bridgy Fed profile for the protocol you're on, follow it, and then test it to see if it's working. Then, if you wanted to change any settings, you would need to DM the profile with commands. If you wanted to turn off bridging, you would need to block the profile. What we loved about this model is that it's native to the platforms you're already on. At the same time, we learned that the steps can feel unintuitive and unfinished for an average user.
To improve this experience, we're launching Bridgy Fed Config, a settings page that allows you to log in with your Bluesky, Mastodon, and/or Pixelfed account and turn bridging on and off with a simple switch. We're also planning on adding Threads support soon.
For Mastodon and Pixelfed, we're also adding a way for you to add a custom domain for your bridged account so you look more native on ATProto-based platforms like Bluesky. The best part is that if you've set up a custom domain on Bluesky before, you'll also know exactly how to do it on Bridgy Fed!
We plan to add more features to the Config page soon and would love to know what else you would like to configure. Please feel free to reach out to us with more ideas!
Patreon
Numerous folks have asked how they can help support our work, and we can't thank you enough.
Today, A New Social is a fiscally sponsored nonprofit that is fully self-funded. While we're passionate about this initiative and are happy to volunteer our time, running Bridgy Fed is an ever-increasing expense that only gets more costly as it grows.
And we have big plans to grow! We're in talks with multiple platforms about making it easier for users to bridge their accounts, but the biggest blocker at the moment is ensuring we can afford to run this critical infrastructure for the long haul.
So, today, we're launching a Patreon with multiple subscription tiers. Each tier will come with benefits, and we'll add more benefits over time.
If you're on the Sponsors tier or higher, you will also receive a code for a merch shop we're launching next week! We'll have more to share on that soon, but here's a teaser of what we're dropping:
We appreciate all the support the open social web community has given us thus far, and we're so excited to show you what else we have up our sleeve in the coming weeks.
What's Next?
We have a jam-packed roadmap ahead of us! Next week, as mentioned earlier, we're launching our merch store. The week after, we'll be at FediForum teasing a brand new product we're releasing in the next couple of months.
We're also working with platforms, clients, and other bridges to make it easier to bridge, know when you're interacting with a bridged account, and play well with other bridges. This is still in the early stages, but if you're interested in working with us, please contact us at letsbuild@anew.social.
And this is just some of the work we've been up to in the background. Stay tuned for more soon 👀
See you next week!