# Blacksky Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/blacksky/ 18 people recommended Blacksky in Hacker News comments, 7 had mixed feelings and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 12 months, in 12 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** An independent AppView for the AT Protocol that runs its own full stack and kept working during a Bluesky outage. Caveat: Bluesky moderation can still limit interaction with its users. Summary written by Claude from 35 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 31 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Runs its own full stack (8 comments in the sample): "Blacksky is the/one of the furthest along in building competing versions of each part of the AT proto stack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47095856)) "Blacksky has their own full appview for bluesky nowadays + relays and PDS w/ something like 60-70k users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46760261)) "Blacksky finishing their full forking does finally give them a much stronger leg to stand on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48602537)) - Keeps working during Bluesky outages (4 comments in the sample): "a completely independent AppView with different moderation that was up for the entirety of a 24hr outage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47949193)) "If Bluesky goes down, Blacksky will probably be fine. They are, however, yet another US company" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48943031)) "I was able to use Blacksky to post onto Bluesky while Bluesky was down" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48606088)) - Practical working alternative AppView (3 comments in the sample): "many people switched to using another AppView like Blacksky and things worked just fine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617647)) "Seems to be fine if you're using another appview like blacksky's one" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47799140)) "Blacksky is extremely practical in its formation & purpose" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47303163)) - Broader vision for AT Protocol (3 comments in the sample): "The Blacksky team has a much broader vision for which they decided ATProto was the right architecture." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47304277)) "It's facetious when people question why BlackSky need to exist 40+ years after the "14 words" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47305862)) "I support what Blacksky is doing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48935806)) ## What people warn about - Pushes sign-in to Bluesky (2 comments in the sample): "The link in the article for Blacksky (blackskyweb.xyz) has a dark pattern that attempts to get you sign up for bluesky instead of blacksky" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47581970)) "I can't comment, follow, like, or anything like that without getting the "Sign in or create your account to join the cookout!" popup" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47309144)) - Interaction limited by Bluesky moderation (1 comment in the sample): "when logged into BlueSky, I can't interact with BlackSky accounts at all" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47303593)) ## Other social networks people recommend - [Mastodon](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mastodon/): 201 recommend, 56 mixed, 202 criticize - [Bluesky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bluesky/): 180 recommend, 103 mixed, 347 criticize - [X (formerly Twitter)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/x/): 119 recommend, 102 mixed, 920 criticize - [Instagram](https://hackerapproved.com/p/instagram/): 79 recommend, 111 mixed, 666 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://blacksky.community/) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Blacksky", https://hackerapproved.com/p/blacksky/ (18 recommend, 7 mixed, 3 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.