Ask HN: Why do so few tools import data from their competitors?

by sigalor on 6/24/2025, 7:53:26 AM with 1 comments
Let's consider Bluesky for example. When you sign up there, your timeline is empty. But many people are switching to Bluesky from a platform like X.

It would be super simple for Bluesky to add a "Import your X account data", where you log in with X and then it reads out all your profile data (e.g. profile picture, bio, all posts etc.) automatically. Step by step, the users themselves would "reconstruct" X within a technologically more advanced (e.g. federated or peer-to-peer) platform. Not an external tool, but an official importer developed, built-in and promoted by Bluesky.

I've seen the same thing in so many other regards, that there seems to be a strange aversion to importing data from competitors (or it's just not been done), even though it would improve usability and ease of transition to something better soooo much. Why is this?

  • by dtagames on 6/24/2025, 1:07:20 PM

    I think there are two reasons. First, Bluesky the company isn't in the business of making apps using the AT protocol. They're just trying to keep the protocol servers themselves alive so that other people can write apps.

    Your idea of a conversion app is a good one, and there's nothing stopping you or anyone else from writing one right now. The issues are technical ones and perhaps TOS ones. It may be more difficult than it appears to write a client program that can extract your timeline and convert to AT posts. You might run afoul of X's terms of service trying to do so. And the result you could post to Bluesky would only be new posts as the protocol isn't going to let you post something in the "past."