Late last week, Jay Graber, the CEO of the new Twitter alternative BlueSky – a social platform that so boldly answers the question of “What happens when your $44 billion sale does not include non-compete clauses?” – learned a tough lesson about spearheading a shitposter’s paradise: Ask and thou will certainly receive one hell of a roasting.
As the Jack Dorsey-backed platform, which has reportedly been in development since 2019, beta launched its iOS version back in February, began gaining more traction last week under its invite-only model, several users decided to pay a horny homage to its predecessor, nicknaming posts “skeets.”
“Skeets’ which is a mashup of “Bluesky” and “Tweets,” which definitely doesn’t sound like another word pertaining cum or anything in the JRCU (jizz-related cinematic universe), Graber was less-than-enthused with the nickname, imploring users to call posts literally anything else.
the CEO of bluesky is pleading with new users to not call posts "skeets." this platform might have the juice pic.twitter.com/Admv3cqGgM
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 28, 2023
“Guys, please don't let ‘skeets’ stick,” she pleaded in a post shared on BlueSky on Thursday, April 27.
“The experiment in decentralized naming decisions has resulted in the worst possible term,” she continued before suggesting the truly terrible alternative – “skoots.”
“Can we bring back skoots?” she asked. “BlueskyOGs, help me out here, remember skoots?”
Despite Graber’s wishes, skeets have (unsurprisingly) proven to be VERY sticky, the nickname for the platform’s posts, which are simply referred to as such on the Bluesky interface, per The Verge, even permeating primetime TV, much to the chagrin of a very uncomfortable Jake Tapper.
“Senator Brian Schatz, just, uh, skeeted, on Bluesky,” the CNN anchor explained during a segment on the platform.
"There's a new social media app called Bluesky and on it @brianschatz just skeeted..." -@jaketapper pic.twitter.com/tmWiWXU4N2
— jordan (@JordanUhl) May 1, 2023
But it’s not just CNN. The New York Times also refused to concede skeeting, detailing the futility of Graber’s efforts in a recent write-up on the platform.
“Bluesky’s users appear to be having fun with the app’s similarities to Twitter, including calling posts on the app ‘skeets,’ as a play on tweets,” reporter Sheera Frenkel wrote in a piece published the following Friday. “Not even a plea from Ms. Graber on Thursday to change that name seems to have deterred them.”
Skeeting – it's here to stay whether Bluesky likes it or not … and who doesn’t love a good skeet!
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