FAQ

General

What is Bubbles?

A community-ranked feed of blog posts from independent, personal blogs. New posts flow in automatically from curated sources. You vote on the good ones. The good stuff bubbles up. The rest pops. Bubbles launched on March 21, 2026.

Who is this for?

Anyone who misses the old web. People who enjoy reading blog posts about things other than startups and JavaScript frameworks. If you've ever fallen down a rabbit hole on someone's personal website and thought "why can't I find more stuff like this?", that's who this is for.

Is this like Reddit?

Structurally, a little. People vote on things. But nobody submits links. Everything comes in automatically from RSS feeds of thousands of curated blogs. There's no self-promotion, no karma farming, no moderators removing your post because it violated rule 7b.

Why "Bubbles"?

Because good writing bubbles up. Because every blog is its own little bubble. Because the front page is ephemeral, like soap bubbles: what shimmers today will be gone tomorrow.

Sources

Where do the blogs come from?

We drew from various curated sources, including ooh.directory, indieblog.page, Bear Blog, blogroll.org, IndieWeb Webring, and personalsit.es. There is no automatic sync with any of these. Blogs newly listed there don't automatically appear on Bubbles.

How do you decide which blogs to include?

Every blog was reviewed individually. We filtered out blogs that are clearly commercial, heavy on ads, only republishing other people's content, or haven't published anything in years. Broken feeds and unreachable servers were skipped as well. What's left is personal, independent writing. Blogs that consistently publish more than one or two posts per day get flagged and removed. Bubbles is for writers, not content machines.

Can I suggest a blog?

Anyone can suggest blogs. Send the blog URLs to suggest@bubbles.town and we'll take a look.

My blog doesn't appear on Bubbles. Why?

Your blog may not have met our criteria, or your RSS feed had issues when we last checked. If you think something is wrong, email us at feedback@bubbles.town.

Can I see the full list of blogs?

Yes. We publish the complete list of all active blogs: blogs.txt (plain text) and blogs.opml (OPML, importable into RSS readers).

I don't want my blog on Bubbles.

Email us at feedback@bubbles.town and we'll remove it. No questions asked.

Voting and ranking

How does the ranking work?

Two things matter: votes and time. Every post starts equal. Votes and comments push it up, time pulls it down. The full formula is on the about page.

How much does my vote matter?

A lot. A single vote can keep a post on the front page for half a day. Comments count equally. Fresh votes on new posts have the most impact.

Can I downvote?

No. You can vote something up or not. If a post isn't interesting, it sinks on its own.

Fediverse and accounts

Do I need an account?

To read, no. To vote or comment, you need a Fediverse account.

What's the Fediverse?

A network of connected, independent social platforms. Mastodon is the most popular one. You create a free account on any Fediverse server, and that account works across all of them, including Bubbles.

Why Fediverse and not email/password login?

We don't want to manage accounts. No passwords to store, no emails to verify, no spam accounts to moderate. The Fediverse handles identity for us, and no single company controls it.

I don't have an account. Where do I sign up?

mastodon.social is the largest server. Create a free account, then use it to log in to Bubbles. Takes about two minutes.

Which platforms are supported?

Anything with Mastodon-compatible OAuth: Mastodon, Pixelfed, GoToSocial, Pleroma, Akkoma, Misskey, Sharkey, Hometown. Bluesky, Lemmy, and Threads are not supported.

How do comments work?

Every blog post on Bubbles gets a corresponding post on @bubbles@social.bubbles.town. Reply to that post from your Fediverse account, and your comment shows up on Bubbles.

Are comments moderated?

We can hide individual comments if needed, but we don't actively moderate. You should report problematic comments on the Fediverse instance where they were posted.

Reading and tools

What are Top, New, Hot, and My?

Top is the front page, ranked by votes, freshness, and community engagement. New shows every post as it comes in, unranked. Hot shows posts generating discussion right now. My shows new posts only from blogs you follow (visible when logged in). Scores are recalculated every fifteen minutes.

What are the categories?

Every blog on Bubbles is assigned a category based on its primary focus: Tech, Design, Science, Gaming, Books, Film & TV, Music, Art & Photo, Food, Nature, Culture, Crafts, and Life. You can filter any view by category using the dropdown next to the navigation tabs.

How do I follow a blog?

Visit any blog's page (click the blog name next to a post) and hit the Follow button in the top right. New posts from that blog will then appear in your My feed. You can also discover which blogs you vote on most under Your Favourite Blogs.

What is the Hall of Fame?

The Hall of Fame shows the all-time most voted posts and blogs on Bubbles. A good starting point if you're looking for blogs to follow.

Why did a post disappear from Top?

Everything fades over time. Even a well-voted post will eventually sink as newer content comes in.

Can I subscribe via RSS?

Yes. We have feeds for every view, filtered by vote count, and more. See the RSS page for the full list.

Are there keyboard shortcuts?

Yes. Press ? on any list page to see them. Navigate entries with j/k, vote with v, open articles with o, jump between views with t, n, h.

Can I change how Bubbles looks?

Yes. The button in the footer cycles through several themes including dark mode, OLED, sepia, and a few surprises.

I'm reading a blog post. Is it on Bubbles?

You can look up any blog post URL on Bubbles. If the post is listed, you'll see its entry page where you can vote and read comments. Two ways to do this:

Bookmarklet (desktop): Drag Open on Bubbles to your bookmarks bar. Click it on any blog post.
Share menu (mobile): Install Bubbles as a PWA (look for "Install" or "Add to Home Screen" in your browser). Then use your phone's Share button and pick Bubbles from the list.

Are there any easter eggs?

Click the Bubbles logo for a random post. And if you know the Konami code, try it.

Privacy

What data do you store?

Your Fediverse handle, your votes, and which blogs you follow. That's it.

What don't you store?

Emails, passwords, IP addresses, browser fingerprints, tracking cookies. We use Plausible for cookieless analytics. Our dashboard is public.

Can I delete my data?

Yes. Email feedback@bubbles.town and we'll remove your votes, follows, and handle from the database.

Do you use cookies?

One session cookie to keep you logged in. It's httpOnly, secure, and expires after 30 days. No tracking cookies, no cookie banners.