The phone number requirement immediately makes this a no-go for me. It’s a hill I will die on. I know many are okay with giving their number, or even suggest using a temporary number, but the fact...
The phone number requirement immediately makes this a no-go for me. It’s a hill I will die on. I know many are okay with giving their number, or even suggest using a temporary number, but the fact that phone numbers are typically one per person and easily able to be tracked to the actual owner, I will always refuse to use any service that requires one.
I’ve finally deleted my Reddit account, I’m on the verge of downloading an archive of my Instagram account and deleting that, and I don’t use any other social media (besides Tildes). I tried both Lemmy and Mastodon, and didn’t like either.
I’m not sure if I’ve just grown past the whole social media craze, or if the “enshitification” of every platform is the thing that’s soured me to the whole idea. I guess I’ll just go back to following blogs and RSS feeds…
Huh, that's surprising. I joined through an invite and didn't have to give a phone number. I guess the reasoning is probably because it can be easily tracked, it lowers the number of trolls and such.
Huh, that's surprising. I joined through an invite and didn't have to give a phone number. I guess the reasoning is probably because it can be easily tracked, it lowers the number of trolls and such.
Phone number requirements are basically required for social media these days. If you don't collect a phone number, bans and blocks are entirely useless. Realistically, if you are that concerned...
Phone number requirements are basically required for social media these days. If you don't collect a phone number, bans and blocks are entirely useless.
Realistically, if you are that concerned about your privacy, a public social media account probably isn't what you want anyway.
Pen names are a well established thing in writing, and numerous musical artists use assumed names and even go so far as to wear helmets during live performances to keep celebrity nonsense at...
Pen names are a well established thing in writing, and numerous musical artists use assumed names and even go so far as to wear helmets during live performances to keep celebrity nonsense at arms-length. Normalizing everything you do being inextricably linked to your legal identity is horrifying and would have a chilling effect on art.
I'd go so far, as someone who was on the internet before social media, that it's incredibly naive to think real names should be thrown around online heavily in the first place. Real names don't stop people from having bad opinions or trolling, but they do make it easy for people to harass, stalk and threaten you.
If a writer or musician wants to be published by a publishing company, then they will reveal their name to the publisher. There are ways to avoid revealing that information if you want to do it...
If a writer or musician wants to be published by a publishing company, then they will reveal their name to the publisher. There are ways to avoid revealing that information if you want to do it all yourself, but if you want to partner with someone or use someone else's platform then they'll want to know who you really are. You can remain anonymous to the general public, but not to whoever is putting your work out there.
I've been online since pre-AOL days. In general, I tend to feel the same way you do. Anonymity provides protection and allows people to say and do things they wouldn't otherwise, which can be a tremendous social benefit as much as it can be problematic. There are white nationalist forums, but there are also abuse support groups. There was Jan 6th, but there was also the Arab Spring. It's a double edged sword, and there's no alternative for the good that it provides.
But we are not in the early days anymore. We're in an age where state agencies coordinating groups of bad actors to run psyops is so commonplace as to be banal. If it's not foreign governments trying to sway elections, it's corporations running PR and marketing campaigns with bots and sock puppets.
The problem isn't bad people saying bad things. The problem is that we've reached a point where you can't even trust that you're talking to a real person. Considering the speed that AI is taking off, that problem is going to get much worse quicker than we can wrap our heads around. I don't like having to provide personal data either, but there needs to be some way to verify that an account belongs to a real person.
I wonder how many foreign startups specialize in throwaway phone numbers to thwart verification schemes.
Phone number requirements are basically required for social media these days. If you don't collect a phone number, bans and blocks are entirely useless.
I wonder how many foreign startups specialize in throwaway phone numbers to thwart verification schemes.
Usually the throwaway numbers are detectable and just get rejected by the platform. The easiest way to get new numbers is to just buy a month of an eSIM plan and sign up. But when it costs $10...
Usually the throwaway numbers are detectable and just get rejected by the platform. The easiest way to get new numbers is to just buy a month of an eSIM plan and sign up. But when it costs $10 every time you want to troll someone, the trolling stops pretty soon.
I feel pretty strongly about that too. If they require me to add a phone number, I'm just not going to. I'm not giving these companies my phone number. If they won't take a Google Voice number, I...
I feel pretty strongly about that too. If they require me to add a phone number, I'm just not going to. I'm not giving these companies my phone number. If they won't take a Google Voice number, I just stop. I don't want an account that badly. I don't want your two factor authentication going to my mobile number, give me TOTP. You don't need my number for anything. And I'm not even one of the people this could actually hurt. People whose governments can target them, for example. Even "minor" disenfranchisement of people who only have a VOIP phone number over wifi/data, like I did for many years. Perhaps that's why I got used to just not signing up.
I'm mostly past most active social medias, I post 3-4 times a year on Instagram, and that's just to archive some good memories with friends and share them with those people.
I'm mostly past most active social medias, I post 3-4 times a year on Instagram, and that's just to archive some good memories with friends and share them with those people.
I'm all for social media needing something concrete to pinpoint people these days. It needs regulation. The amount of harm fake news and hate speech is doing to everyone needs to be addressed. To...
I'm all for social media needing something concrete to pinpoint people these days. It needs regulation.
The amount of harm fake news and hate speech is doing to everyone needs to be addressed.
To live and participate in society I need my identity number. Social media should be the same.
I haven't been able to find a consistent way to find the people I follow on Twitter over at bluesky, and I have less than 0 interest in following the random "influencer" types that show up on my...
I haven't been able to find a consistent way to find the people I follow on Twitter over at bluesky, and I have less than 0 interest in following the random "influencer" types that show up on my discover feed. That pretty much killed my interest in the site, since even with the fair number of people I did find to follow, there were almost no posts.
The “discover” feed is quite terrible and I recommend removing it. But I remember having trouble finding people I wanted to follow on Twitter and Mastodon, too? That’s easy to forget once you’ve...
The “discover” feed is quite terrible and I recommend removing it. But I remember having trouble finding people I wanted to follow on Twitter and Mastodon, too? That’s easy to forget once you’ve found some accounts you like.
I don't really feel like starting from scratch though, I have a core group of individuals that I want to see posts from, specific people and not just genre's of accounts. If they don't jump ship...
I don't really feel like starting from scratch though, I have a core group of individuals that I want to see posts from, specific people and not just genre's of accounts. If they don't jump ship to Bluesky, I won't really use it.
I know what you mean, most of the artists I follow on Twitter haven't made a bluesky account and if they have the handle is different or they don't post anything at all. I think the initial boom...
I know what you mean, most of the artists I follow on Twitter haven't made a bluesky account and if they have the handle is different or they don't post anything at all. I think the initial boom of bluesky passed and there are many idle accounts that don't post anything because they don't get the same level of engagement as Twitter. Again hopefully this grand re-opening changes things.
Bluesky Social no longer needs an invite code to join. I hope this boosts the number of active users consistently, it’s been quiet since I joined a couple weeks ago. Their approach to federation...
Bluesky Social no longer needs an invite code to join. I hope this boosts the number of active users consistently, it’s been quiet since I joined a couple weeks ago.
Their approach to federation and the AT protocol is exciting and I’m fully on board for new tech trying to redefine something as broad as social media. How do y’all feel about bsky so far? Will it see unbound growth with this opening or will it fall off?
I’ve been on Bluesky for probably about two or three months and I’ve really enjoyed it. I appreciate that the interface is simple and I personally find it much easier to use than other things like...
I’ve been on Bluesky for probably about two or three months and I’ve really enjoyed it. I appreciate that the interface is simple and I personally find it much easier to use than other things like Mastodon. I managed to find a nice nucleus of the people I used to follow on Twitter, but I also used switching as an excuse to find new accounts and follow a bit more freely. I remember when I first got Twitter back in 2009 my account languished for a long long time while I found interesting accounts to follow. Same as Reddit, before I really honed the list of subreddits to follow.
What makes it better than Mastodon in your opinion? I find the UI comparable, though I mostly just lurk my personal feeds (and use the default app on Mastodon).
What makes it better than Mastodon in your opinion? I find the UI comparable, though I mostly just lurk my personal feeds (and use the default app on Mastodon).
I'm sure its mostly personal preference and me not putting the time in on Mastodon. When I joined Mastodon, I unfortunately chose a somewhat sparsely populated instance (that was geared towards my...
I'm sure its mostly personal preference and me not putting the time in on Mastodon. When I joined Mastodon, I unfortunately chose a somewhat sparsely populated instance (that was geared towards my field, astrophysics, but unfortunately there were not a lot of astrophysicists around at the time). I found it difficult to find people on other instances and for them to find me, and even when I did I would often not get their posts in my feed, and I found the settings quite confusing to fix that. I ended up kind of abandoning my account there.
Bluesky feels much more like Twitter, which reduce the overall friction to me joining. It was simple to search for people, and once I found a few that I knew, it was even easier to find others by going through their follows. The Feeds feature on Bluesky is nice but I don't actually end up using them all that much.
The lack of instances makes it work much better. You just sign up like a normal account. You don't have to find an instance that has signups open. You don't have any drama about instances shutting...
The lack of instances makes it work much better. You just sign up like a normal account. You don't have to find an instance that has signups open. You don't have any drama about instances shutting down or having unhinged admins.
Realistically I don't see the benefit in having all social media connected up in one homogeneous blob. I'm perfectly happy to visit different sites/apps for different kinds of content and discussion. I don't need to subscribe to hacker news threads through the same app I share art on. Or see twitter arguments next to serious discussion.
I follow some constitutional law scholars and students, I find it interesting to follow their thoughts on some of the supreme court cases we've been seeing so far. I also follow an eel historian...
I follow some constitutional law scholars and students, I find it interesting to follow their thoughts on some of the supreme court cases we've been seeing so far. I also follow an eel historian and a lot of people within physics and astrophysics. Here are some assorted accounts I like:
I'm actually a graduate student in astrophysics, but I have found having my feeds less focused on that is more enjoyable — I think about that stuff enough during the day that I don't necessarily...
I'm actually a graduate student in astrophysics, but I have found having my feeds less focused on that is more enjoyable — I think about that stuff enough during the day that I don't necessarily need it when I log on to the socials!
I haven't been able to give away bluesky invitations in months. It doesn't seem that great to me. It feels like an incomplete Twitter. I think it shows poor judgement to make their federal...
I haven't been able to give away bluesky invitations in months.
It doesn't seem that great to me. It feels like an incomplete Twitter.
I think it shows poor judgement to make their federal protocol instead of just using ActivityPub. Even Threads is implementing ActivityPub.
With Bluesky, Threads, etc. I'm wondering: do we need a Twitter replacement? The medium is the message: having our public discourse and political movements mediated by tweets feels like a net...
With Bluesky, Threads, etc. I'm wondering: do we need a Twitter replacement?
The medium is the message: having our public discourse and political movements mediated by tweets feels like a net negative for our society. Molding our discourse to emphasize the arguments that get more retweets, that fit best in less than 300 words effectively eliminates nuance from the public conversation.
Twitter has colonized our brains as a platform; we think in terms of what's sharable. We think in terms of arguments that work in >300 characters. When we leave Twitter behind we not only leave what became a toxic platform, but we can and should leave behind a specific mode of thinking that is, in my view, directly harmful to our humanity.
I don't think Bluesky is really going to make it; it's in too awkward of a position. For one thing, I think we've all seen that it's quite difficult to get people to switch platforms in serious...
I don't think Bluesky is really going to make it; it's in too awkward of a position. For one thing, I think we've all seen that it's quite difficult to get people to switch platforms in serious numbers. Network effects and inertia are tough challenges to overcome.
Secondly, even before Twitter was bought out, the general vibe I got from people (not having used the platform myself) was that it had gone downhill and its "villain of the day" algorithm led to a ton of exhausting outrage and toxicity. So Twitter 2, from the guy who brought you Twitter 1, is going to be a hard sell to a lot of people.
So Bluesky's pitch read, to me, as trying to get people to go through all the effort of jumping ship, for a return to when things were better but still a long ways from good. There is a small community there, and small communities can keep going for quite some time, but that's not going to look like success to big tech companies and the VC money I'm guessing is behind it.
Technically Jack got Twitter to give a grant for it, but he's not really bringing Twitter 2. Jay Graber is the CEO, Paul is the lead dev and last he wrote about it, has never met Jack. Jay and...
So Twitter 2, from the guy who brought you Twitter 1
Technically Jack got Twitter to give a grant for it, but he's not really bringing Twitter 2. Jay Graber is the CEO, Paul is the lead dev and last he wrote about it, has never met Jack. Jay and Paul have a ton of experience building niche p2p social networks, but I agree with you that I don't feel like BlueSky ultimately will make it. But if it does, it will be because Jay and Paul are extremely excellent builders. Jack seems to have mostly abandoned BlueSky for Nostr.
I looked more into the devs behind bluesky and honestly the technical advisors they have are some huge names in software engineering. Like apparently the author of Designing Data-Intensive...
I like AT Protocol for the merklized data, portable identities, content addressing, and e2e auth, but BlueSky itself has been failing to stick for me as product, and I don't think they are...
I like AT Protocol for the merklized data, portable identities, content addressing, and e2e auth, but BlueSky itself has been failing to stick for me as product, and I don't think they are federated yet which I'm excited to see eventually.
I have been using https://warpcast.com/ a lot more lately, which has channels for a sort of reddit-like UX, and frames which offers what I think is the most interesting social media feature to come out in a while (think something like an iframe, someone put DOOM in a frame.) And is decentralized via the farcaster network, so it already sort of fulfills a lot of the mission of BlueSky.
I have been on there for a while now and have only found like two accounts worth following. Everything else seems like garbage that I stayed away from on Twitter. It's been completely useless for...
I have been on there for a while now and have only found like two accounts worth following. Everything else seems like garbage that I stayed away from on Twitter. It's been completely useless for me so far. Maybe opening up will help it, or just make it that much worse
Again, how are "user-developed" algorithms different from joining the instances you want and following the people you want? As far as I know, you don't even need to add a whole instance, but you...
Again, how are "user-developed" algorithms different from joining the instances you want and following the people you want? As far as I know, you don't even need to add a whole instance, but you can just follow a person on another instance. BlueSky solves a problem that doesn't exist.
Those are not remotely the same thing. However you curate your mastodon followings, you'll still get a chronological timeline. Here are some feeds that I subscribe to: Most popular posts from the...
Those are not remotely the same thing. However you curate your mastodon followings, you'll still get a chronological timeline.
Here are some feeds that I subscribe to:
Most popular posts from the last 24 hours
Posts from your quieter followers
A mix of popular content from accounts you follow and content that your follows like.
I'm not familiar with the Pleroma but the simplicity of creating an account, downloading the app, signing up. I don't use Mastodon, but when people first started talking about it, it was confusing...
I'm not familiar with the Pleroma but the simplicity of creating an account, downloading the app, signing up.
I don't use Mastodon, but when people first started talking about it, it was confusing and a bit overwhelming to try to figure out what was where and how to access it all.
Being told you can join an instance or setup your own server - what happens if you go to the pleroma website - is not as intuitive as "sign up, open app, have access". I found Lemmy confusing and...
Being told you can join an instance or setup your own server - what happens if you go to the pleroma website - is not as intuitive as "sign up, open app, have access".
I found Lemmy confusing and ended up not continuing because I didn't have the spoons to figure it out. Bluesky i didn't have that barrier. I follow a lot of authors and they're on bluesky so it sort of works out
What sets BlueSky apart from Mastodon or Pleroma is the federated protocol it's built on top of. Mastodon and Pleroma use ActivityPub, while BlueSky uses the AT Protocol. The implementation...
What sets BlueSky apart from Mastodon or Pleroma is the federated protocol it's built on top of. Mastodon and Pleroma use ActivityPub, while BlueSky uses the AT Protocol. The implementation details go a bit over my head, but I believe the the gist of their differences is what level of control a user has over their own personal data and the content they see. You can read more about why they chose to build their own protocol here.
Do we really need another microblogging platform?
I still use Twitter, and if the pitch for BlueSky is "Twitter but with more user control" I'm going to give an earnest shot. Do we need it? I don't think we need a new platform but social media does need reform. I want to support a platform that's trying to change social media for the better.
From that link: Maybe if mastodon is the first thing one heard about. There are many websites built on top of AP: link aggregators, imageboards, photo sharing platforms, and they can all talk to...
From that link:
ActivityPub is a federated social networking technology popularized by Mastodon.
Maybe if mastodon is the first thing one heard about. There are many websites built on top of AP: link aggregators, imageboards, photo sharing platforms, and they can all talk to each other, so with one AP account you can access many different services and platforms. With a BlueSky account you can only access the BlueSky ecosystem.
The phone number requirement immediately makes this a no-go for me. It’s a hill I will die on. I know many are okay with giving their number, or even suggest using a temporary number, but the fact that phone numbers are typically one per person and easily able to be tracked to the actual owner, I will always refuse to use any service that requires one.
I’ve finally deleted my Reddit account, I’m on the verge of downloading an archive of my Instagram account and deleting that, and I don’t use any other social media (besides Tildes). I tried both Lemmy and Mastodon, and didn’t like either.
I’m not sure if I’ve just grown past the whole social media craze, or if the “enshitification” of every platform is the thing that’s soured me to the whole idea. I guess I’ll just go back to following blogs and RSS feeds…
Time to go back to yelling at clouds.
Huh, that's surprising. I joined through an invite and didn't have to give a phone number. I guess the reasoning is probably because it can be easily tracked, it lowers the number of trolls and such.
Phone number requirements are basically required for social media these days. If you don't collect a phone number, bans and blocks are entirely useless.
Realistically, if you are that concerned about your privacy, a public social media account probably isn't what you want anyway.
People don't want to be silenced, some people might not want to put their name on something.
Pen names are a well established thing in writing, and numerous musical artists use assumed names and even go so far as to wear helmets during live performances to keep celebrity nonsense at arms-length. Normalizing everything you do being inextricably linked to your legal identity is horrifying and would have a chilling effect on art.
I'd go so far, as someone who was on the internet before social media, that it's incredibly naive to think real names should be thrown around online heavily in the first place. Real names don't stop people from having bad opinions or trolling, but they do make it easy for people to harass, stalk and threaten you.
If a writer or musician wants to be published by a publishing company, then they will reveal their name to the publisher. There are ways to avoid revealing that information if you want to do it all yourself, but if you want to partner with someone or use someone else's platform then they'll want to know who you really are. You can remain anonymous to the general public, but not to whoever is putting your work out there.
I've been online since pre-AOL days. In general, I tend to feel the same way you do. Anonymity provides protection and allows people to say and do things they wouldn't otherwise, which can be a tremendous social benefit as much as it can be problematic. There are white nationalist forums, but there are also abuse support groups. There was Jan 6th, but there was also the Arab Spring. It's a double edged sword, and there's no alternative for the good that it provides.
But we are not in the early days anymore. We're in an age where state agencies coordinating groups of bad actors to run psyops is so commonplace as to be banal. If it's not foreign governments trying to sway elections, it's corporations running PR and marketing campaigns with bots and sock puppets.
The problem isn't bad people saying bad things. The problem is that we've reached a point where you can't even trust that you're talking to a real person. Considering the speed that AI is taking off, that problem is going to get much worse quicker than we can wrap our heads around. I don't like having to provide personal data either, but there needs to be some way to verify that an account belongs to a real person.
I wonder how many foreign startups specialize in throwaway phone numbers to thwart verification schemes.
Usually the throwaway numbers are detectable and just get rejected by the platform. The easiest way to get new numbers is to just buy a month of an eSIM plan and sign up. But when it costs $10 every time you want to troll someone, the trolling stops pretty soon.
I feel pretty strongly about that too. If they require me to add a phone number, I'm just not going to. I'm not giving these companies my phone number. If they won't take a Google Voice number, I just stop. I don't want an account that badly. I don't want your two factor authentication going to my mobile number, give me TOTP. You don't need my number for anything. And I'm not even one of the people this could actually hurt. People whose governments can target them, for example. Even "minor" disenfranchisement of people who only have a VOIP phone number over wifi/data, like I did for many years. Perhaps that's why I got used to just not signing up.
I'm mostly past most active social medias, I post 3-4 times a year on Instagram, and that's just to archive some good memories with friends and share them with those people.
We just do that on our Discord server.
I'm all for social media needing something concrete to pinpoint people these days. It needs regulation.
The amount of harm fake news and hate speech is doing to everyone needs to be addressed.
To live and participate in society I need my identity number. Social media should be the same.
This may not be a solution you want to deal with, but you could make a phone number with Google Voice to use for sign up.
I haven't been able to find a consistent way to find the people I follow on Twitter over at bluesky, and I have less than 0 interest in following the random "influencer" types that show up on my discover feed. That pretty much killed my interest in the site, since even with the fair number of people I did find to follow, there were almost no posts.
The “discover” feed is quite terrible and I recommend removing it. But I remember having trouble finding people I wanted to follow on Twitter and Mastodon, too? That’s easy to forget once you’ve found some accounts you like.
I don't really feel like starting from scratch though, I have a core group of individuals that I want to see posts from, specific people and not just genre's of accounts. If they don't jump ship to Bluesky, I won't really use it.
I know what you mean, most of the artists I follow on Twitter haven't made a bluesky account and if they have the handle is different or they don't post anything at all. I think the initial boom of bluesky passed and there are many idle accounts that don't post anything because they don't get the same level of engagement as Twitter. Again hopefully this grand re-opening changes things.
Almost ironic considering the emphasis on 'choosing your content'. On the introductory page.
Bluesky Social no longer needs an invite code to join. I hope this boosts the number of active users consistently, it’s been quiet since I joined a couple weeks ago.
Their approach to federation and the AT protocol is exciting and I’m fully on board for new tech trying to redefine something as broad as social media. How do y’all feel about bsky so far? Will it see unbound growth with this opening or will it fall off?
From what I saw recently, it will need a valid mobile number though. So I'm glad I did sign up before that.
I’ve been on Bluesky for probably about two or three months and I’ve really enjoyed it. I appreciate that the interface is simple and I personally find it much easier to use than other things like Mastodon. I managed to find a nice nucleus of the people I used to follow on Twitter, but I also used switching as an excuse to find new accounts and follow a bit more freely. I remember when I first got Twitter back in 2009 my account languished for a long long time while I found interesting accounts to follow. Same as Reddit, before I really honed the list of subreddits to follow.
All of that is to say, I like it.
What makes it better than Mastodon in your opinion? I find the UI comparable, though I mostly just lurk my personal feeds (and use the default app on Mastodon).
I'm sure its mostly personal preference and me not putting the time in on Mastodon. When I joined Mastodon, I unfortunately chose a somewhat sparsely populated instance (that was geared towards my field, astrophysics, but unfortunately there were not a lot of astrophysicists around at the time). I found it difficult to find people on other instances and for them to find me, and even when I did I would often not get their posts in my feed, and I found the settings quite confusing to fix that. I ended up kind of abandoning my account there.
Bluesky feels much more like Twitter, which reduce the overall friction to me joining. It was simple to search for people, and once I found a few that I knew, it was even easier to find others by going through their follows. The Feeds feature on Bluesky is nice but I don't actually end up using them all that much.
The lack of instances makes it work much better. You just sign up like a normal account. You don't have to find an instance that has signups open. You don't have any drama about instances shutting down or having unhinged admins.
Realistically I don't see the benefit in having all social media connected up in one homogeneous blob. I'm perfectly happy to visit different sites/apps for different kinds of content and discussion. I don't need to subscribe to hacker news threads through the same app I share art on. Or see twitter arguments next to serious discussion.
What accounts do you like so far? I just joined and I'm trying to find people to 'follow' (I hate that word)
I follow some constitutional law scholars and students, I find it interesting to follow their thoughts on some of the supreme court cases we've been seeing so far. I also follow an eel historian and a lot of people within physics and astrophysics. Here are some assorted accounts I like:
https://bsky.app/profile/greenleejw.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/hurricanexyz.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/techconnectify.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/robin.berjon.com
https://bsky.app/profile/buildsoil.bsky.social
The best way to find new people so far has been to first find some interesting people (hard part), and then see who they interact with or follow.
Thanks! Much appreciated, I presume you are a lawyer or a law student. I too follow an eel pit guy on YouTube...
I'm actually a graduate student in astrophysics, but I have found having my feeds less focused on that is more enjoyable — I think about that stuff enough during the day that I don't necessarily need it when I log on to the socials!
I haven't been able to give away bluesky invitations in months.
It doesn't seem that great to me. It feels like an incomplete Twitter.
I think it shows poor judgement to make their federal protocol instead of just using ActivityPub. Even Threads is implementing ActivityPub.
With Bluesky, Threads, etc. I'm wondering: do we need a Twitter replacement?
The medium is the message: having our public discourse and political movements mediated by tweets feels like a net negative for our society. Molding our discourse to emphasize the arguments that get more retweets, that fit best in less than 300 words effectively eliminates nuance from the public conversation.
Twitter has colonized our brains as a platform; we think in terms of what's sharable. We think in terms of arguments that work in >300 characters. When we leave Twitter behind we not only leave what became a toxic platform, but we can and should leave behind a specific mode of thinking that is, in my view, directly harmful to our humanity.
I don't think Bluesky is really going to make it; it's in too awkward of a position. For one thing, I think we've all seen that it's quite difficult to get people to switch platforms in serious numbers. Network effects and inertia are tough challenges to overcome.
Secondly, even before Twitter was bought out, the general vibe I got from people (not having used the platform myself) was that it had gone downhill and its "villain of the day" algorithm led to a ton of exhausting outrage and toxicity. So Twitter 2, from the guy who brought you Twitter 1, is going to be a hard sell to a lot of people.
So Bluesky's pitch read, to me, as trying to get people to go through all the effort of jumping ship, for a return to when things were better but still a long ways from good. There is a small community there, and small communities can keep going for quite some time, but that's not going to look like success to big tech companies and the VC money I'm guessing is behind it.
Technically Jack got Twitter to give a grant for it, but he's not really bringing Twitter 2. Jay Graber is the CEO, Paul is the lead dev and last he wrote about it, has never met Jack. Jay and Paul have a ton of experience building niche p2p social networks, but I agree with you that I don't feel like BlueSky ultimately will make it. But if it does, it will be because Jay and Paul are extremely excellent builders. Jack seems to have mostly abandoned BlueSky for Nostr.
I looked more into the devs behind bluesky and honestly the technical advisors they have are some huge names in software engineering. Like apparently the author of Designing Data-Intensive Applications, Martin Kleppman, wrote a white paper on their AT Protocol: https://bsky.social/about/bluesky-and-the-at-protocol-usable-decentralized-social-media-martin-kleppmann.pdf
Ah, serves me right for going off vague memories instead of proper research. Thanks for the correction.
I like AT Protocol for the merklized data, portable identities, content addressing, and e2e auth, but BlueSky itself has been failing to stick for me as product, and I don't think they are federated yet which I'm excited to see eventually.
I have been using https://warpcast.com/ a lot more lately, which has channels for a sort of reddit-like UX, and frames which offers what I think is the most interesting social media feature to come out in a while (think something like an iframe, someone put DOOM in a frame.) And is decentralized via the farcaster network, so it already sort of fulfills a lot of the mission of BlueSky.
I remember when we had to stop using iframes because they were a security hazard. I recon we're going full circle.
I have been on there for a while now and have only found like two accounts worth following. Everything else seems like garbage that I stayed away from on Twitter. It's been completely useless for me so far. Maybe opening up will help it, or just make it that much worse
I haven't been into twitter or any other social media in over a decade... but I really like scifiart.
What sets bluesky apart from Mastodon or Pleroma? It looks exactly the same as twitter/X. Did we really need another microblogging platform?
Algorithmic feeds. And not some opaque outrage-driven feed, but open-source (?), user-developped algorithms.
Again, how are "user-developed" algorithms different from joining the instances you want and following the people you want? As far as I know, you don't even need to add a whole instance, but you can just follow a person on another instance. BlueSky solves a problem that doesn't exist.
Those are not remotely the same thing. However you curate your mastodon followings, you'll still get a chronological timeline.
Here are some feeds that I subscribe to:
I'm not familiar with the Pleroma but the simplicity of creating an account, downloading the app, signing up.
I don't use Mastodon, but when people first started talking about it, it was confusing and a bit overwhelming to try to figure out what was where and how to access it all.
Joining an instance of pleroma or mastodon is as easy as going to that instance and signing up. You then add instances/accounts to your feed.
Being told you can join an instance or setup your own server - what happens if you go to the pleroma website - is not as intuitive as "sign up, open app, have access".
I found Lemmy confusing and ended up not continuing because I didn't have the spoons to figure it out. Bluesky i didn't have that barrier. I follow a lot of authors and they're on bluesky so it sort of works out
What sets BlueSky apart from Mastodon or Pleroma is the federated protocol it's built on top of. Mastodon and Pleroma use ActivityPub, while BlueSky uses the AT Protocol. The implementation details go a bit over my head, but I believe the the gist of their differences is what level of control a user has over their own personal data and the content they see. You can read more about why they chose to build their own protocol here.
I still use Twitter, and if the pitch for BlueSky is "Twitter but with more user control" I'm going to give an earnest shot. Do we need it? I don't think we need a new platform but social media does need reform. I want to support a platform that's trying to change social media for the better.
From that link:
Maybe if mastodon is the first thing one heard about. There are many websites built on top of AP: link aggregators, imageboards, photo sharing platforms, and they can all talk to each other, so with one AP account you can access many different services and platforms. With a BlueSky account you can only access the BlueSky ecosystem.