Dedicated landing pages for per-protocol subdomains like ap.brid.gy

[shiribailem]

Simple request, mostly has to do with clueless Bluesky users.

A Lot of Bluesky users don't comprehend how to search for a username, I know it's a low bar but I'm not kidding. It's made worse by the fact that most usernames just work as URLs so it's reinforced.

Currently ap.brid.gy redirects to fed.brid.gy which is informative but for the people mentioned is completely overwhelming... and odds are if they're putting in ap.brid.gy they've already been told what it is, on top of that the profile description says what it is so I don't think there's reasonable concern of trickery.

Changing it to redirect to the bluesky profile page will ease entry.

[Tamschi]

That works for the moment, but we may need a landing page with "via Bluesky" etc. buttons once there is support for another relevant protocol. (Web works a bit differently, I believe.)

I agree that searching for users on Bluesky is subpar though, since it defaults to showing posts only on the results page.

[snarfed]

@shiribailem just to make sure I understand you, you're saying lots of people are trying to follow @ap.brid.gy on Bluesky by typing it into their browser's URL bar? That's the only place where making it HTTP redirect to https://bsky.app/profile/ap.brid.gy would help.

The other catch is that Bridgy Fed is multi-network, web as well as fediverse and Bluesky, and we plan to add more networks in the future, many of which also use domains for handles or related purposes. It could confuse people on those other networks if ap.brid.gy went to Bluesky specifically.

[shiribailem]

Correct.

Most Bluesky usernames (anything .bsky.social) are accessible via just URL bar, I believe that's an intended design feature.

Though to be clear it's more than just that because these are domains they are also links when shared in most places, Bluesky users have gotten used to just being able to click the link to open the profile so they're completely confused. A dead link would be more helpful in my experience than the current link to the front page.

That works for the moment, but we may need a landing page with "via Bluesky" etc. buttons once there is support for another relevant protocol. (Web works a bit differently, I believe.)

This should work just fine when it comes to it, a simple bright button with the Bluesky logo and "Open Bluesky Profile" or some such would probably work okay when there are multiple systems using that domain. Additionally at that point there can be a link to the front page in that list.

I wouldn't use a landing page yet until there's really additional things to it, but this is a trivial element imo because it's just sending a redirect to a different URL.