February 3, 2026
Peer review meets vibe check
Show HN: Octosphere, a tool to decentralise scientific publishing
Scientists blast their papers onto Bluesky — but the email crowd isn’t having it
TLDR: Octosphere pipes research from Octopus into Bluesky to make science more public and shareable. The crowd split fast: some want peer review baked in, skeptics say academics won’t leave email, and others plug rival projects—raising the stakes in the race to modernize how science gets seen.
Octosphere wants to take scientific papers out of dusty journals and straight into the social spotlight, auto‑syncing research from Octopus to the open Bluesky network (aka the AT Protocol). Sign in with your researcher ID (ORCID), hook up your Bluesky, link your Octopus page, and boom—your publications can be posted for the world. The community instantly turned this launch into a crossover episode: verdverm said there’s already a researchers hub forming on Bluesky and name‑dropped “Boris” as the super‑connector, plus teased a full conference day on ATProto and science. It’s giving academic LinkedIn meets Reddit vibes.
But then the hot takes landed. gnarlouse threw down the gauntlet: integrate peer review and you’ve got a real “disrupter.” Meanwhile, 11101010010001 went full iconoclast: publishing is broken, academics won’t leave their inbox, so “turn publishing into email.” Cue memes about the “Inbox Impact Factor” and whether peer review should come with a Bluesky vibe check. Others pushed alternatives too—rsolva shouted out Open Science Network (Bonfire)—turning the thread into an ecosystem tug‑of‑war. The drama? Builders vs. skeptics: one side racing to socialize science, the other insisting researchers won’t budge unless it looks like email with receipts.
Key Points
- •Octosphere syncs research publications from Octopus to the AT Protocol network.
- •The AT Protocol (“the atmosphere”) supports social apps like Bluesky, expanding research visibility.
- •Authentication is done via ORCID to verify researcher identity.
- •Users connect a Bluesky (or any AT Protocol app) account and link their Octopus author page.
- •Publications can be synced once or automatically for future outputs.