Skeet (Bluesky Slang)

About

Skeet is a slang term comprised of a portmanteau of "sky" and "tweet" used by users of the social media app Bluesky Social as a self-referential name for their posts (similar to a tweet on Twitter). The name "skeets" and usage of "reskeet" has proven contentious among some on the site (since "skeet" is a slang term for "semen"), with different alternatives being suggested and ignored by the social media platform's user base.

Origin

In January 2023, Bluesky user @Chris^[1] suggested the usage of "skoots" as the official terminology for the site's posts. This suggestion eventually made its way to the CEO @Jay,^[2] who posted in late January 2023 about the design ideology behind changing from using "posts" to saying "skoots" with one of the hesitancies being that the word "skoots" sounds dirty (shown below), without directly referencing the term "skeets" (slang for "semen" that originated in hip-hop culture during the early 2000s^[6]).

Spread

Discussion about the naming convention for posts continued on Bluesky for months leading up to the release of beta invites, but in March 2023, the user @southside^[3] made the outward declaration that "Post > Skoot, skoot too close to shoot or skeet" as one of the earliest examples of "skeet" itself finally being used on the site (shown below).

On April 20th, 2023 the Skeeter @chatsworth^[7] re-ignited the trend of Skeeting with his reskeet of an earlier prompt he asked the community on what to call the Bluesky version of Tweeting (shown below). This re-emerged idea of Skeeting as the main name for posting was picked up by other members of the site, such as @illumi^[8] and @ptrlrd^[8], with memes being made as newer users started to enter the site due to invitations.

The term started to be attributed to the site outside of itself thanks to a meme posted by Bluesky user @helenor^[4] on April 27th, 2023, showing the Peaky Blinders character Thomas Shelby holding a gun to the viewer, with the word skeet being used in it. This meme and the interaction with the possibly first-ever deleted Bluesky account, @valeriemichaels, went viral on Twitter shortly after, subsequently cementing the word skeet as the proper nomenclature for a post on Bluesky (shown below).

CEO Pushback

The following day, on April 28th, 2023, the CEO Jay^[5] posted to the community pleading for the word "skoots" to be readopted instead of skeets, with many users replying to the post with memes made including the term skeet in an attempt to pushback and make the word stick (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References