🌐 Atmosphere
The open social web where you actually own your stuff. Here's what that means and why I'm spending my free time building things here.
What Is It
The atmosphere is the ecosystem of apps and services built on AT Protocol, the same protocol that powers Bluesky. But it's bigger than any single app.
Think of it this way: the old internet had email, and email worked across providers. You could use Gmail or Outlook or your own server and still email anyone. The atmosphere does that for everything. Social posts, links, photos, messages, whatever people build next. Different apps, same network, same data.
Anyone can build an app that reads and writes to the atmosphere. Your data isn't trapped inside any one of them. That's the whole point.
And people are building. Blacksky for Black community and culture, Leaflet and pckt for blogging, Pinksky for photos, Frontpage for links, Pollen for microblogging, plus everything on Bluesky itself. All using the same protocol, all reading from the same data.
Your Data
When you sign up for most social networks, your posts live on their servers. If they shut down, change the rules, or just decide they don't like you? Your stuff is gone. The atmosphere works differently.
Personal Data Server
Your PDS is your own little corner of the internet where your stuff lives. Posts, follows, likes, messages. Everything you create lives on your atmosphere account, not on any app's servers.
You Own It
You own it, you control it, you can take it anywhere. Apps are just windows into your data. If an app disappears, your data doesn't. Switch apps anytime; your stuff comes with you.
Logging In
When you see "Sign in with your Atmosphere Account" on one of my projects, that's your identity on the AT Protocol network. Atmosphere accounts work across Pollen, Bluesky, Linkring, and any other app built on AT Protocol. One account, every app.
- 👋
Already on Bluesky? You're set. Your Bluesky handle is your atmosphere identity. Sign in to any atmosphere app with it.
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Want your own server? pollen.place is the PDS I run, powered by Tranquil (a Rust-based AT Protocol server). Anyone who signs up there owns their data on infrastructure I maintain. You get a
*.pollen.placehandle, or bring your own domain. - 🔄
Can you move? Yes. That's the point. If pollen.place disappears tomorrow, you can migrate your entire account to any other PDS. Identity, data, followers, all of it. No lock-in, ever.
Why I Build Here
The atmosphere reminds me of the early web, when you could just make things and people would find them. No app store approval, no API keys that get revoked, no platform risk. The protocol is the API. You publish data, apps consume it, and anyone can build something new.
I'm building fun, experimental things here because it's genuinely exciting to work in an ecosystem where interoperability is the default, not a feature request. I've been making Pollen (a Tumblr-inspired microblog), Linkring (a webring for the atmosphere), and more. Check out the projects page for all of it.