1 wk. ago • 94%

Bluesky is having a moment... on Threads

www.engadget.com Bluesky is having a moment... on Threads

Bluesky seems to have a bold new strategy to entice potential new users: posting on Threads.

51 comments

So stupid. Just use Mastodon. No algorithms. No billionaires. No monetization. No bullshit. And some really great folks, too.

138
- No algorithms isn’t a selling point to the average user. My Mastodon feed is kinda sad and boring, if I’m not on top of it I’ll just miss interesting posts that happened in the days I didn’t open the app.
  
  Bluesky custom feeds really help with that, while still providing the chronological no-algorithm view as your main feed. It’s just a more interesting experience for people that aren’t chronically online.
  
  165
  
  Yep, discovery is still a major pain point for pretty much every Fediverse platform. Probably the biggest issue the Fediverse faces right now, IMO.
  
  Part of it is due to technical limitations due to the way ActivityPub/federation in general works. But another big part of it is (what feels to me like) a stubborn aversion to convenience, a trend I see a lot in FOSS dev communities. When you have devs that would be content reading a news feed off of a .TXT file passed to them on a 5" floppy, and users who want features on their platform, you end up with the situation we're in, where it's impossible to convince the mainstream user to migrate. If the mainstream user doesn't already know who is even on the platform in order to follow them, and has no effort-free way of discovering accounts to follow, they're not going to stick around. Especially when on just about any Mastodon server you join, your local/global feeds are almost all politics and high-level tech discussion.
  
  I think that the average user would be supportive of FOSS and the Fediverse in general, and probably likes the idea of a non-corpo platform where they have more control over their feeds and their content. But I feel that it's not worth trading away discovery or "algorithmic" tools for most users.
  
  I think if Mastodon (or a Mastodon-adjascent platform like Misskey or Pleroma) could find a way to develop an algorithmic recommendation engine that respects user privacy (perhaps basing recommendations on a file stored on the user's account, which they can modify/backup at will), we could see a sizable increase in Fedi users.
  
  68
  
  Follow hashtags, not just people. That makes your timeline much more interesting.
  
  10
  
  If the developers could fix search, it would go a long way in improving Mastodon.
  
  7
  
  My Mastodon feed is kinda sad and boring
  
  Either you’re following the wrong people or this says more about you than it does about mastodon
  
  if I’m not on top of it I’ll just miss interesting posts that happened in the days I didn’t open the app.
  
  Oh no!! Heaven forbid you miss a social media post!! Whatever will you do?!??
  
  -85
- No algorithms.
  
  Could we please use words for their actual meaning?
  
  15
  
  How would you say "no obscure algorithm to determine your timeline, hiding posts of people who follow and showing posts of people you don't" without having to write a full paragraph each time?
  
  8
- I very much appreciate the technology and philosophy behind Mastodon, but the content discovery on bluesky is much better. the feeds and the "popular with friends" tab are great. being able to click and see who someone is following is also quite good for discovery, and this seems to be broken for me on mastodon. on mastodon all i have is the wall of everything.
  
  9
  
  Weird. You don’t use the search function?
  
  -2
- I didn't understand the appeal of following individuals on social media
  
  5
  
  It's like subscribing to a YouTube channel if you understand that. Some people consistently post interesting content so by following them, you will never miss out.
  
  5
Bluesky is my default social network when I don’t feel like having slap fights with nerds.

When I do feel like having slap fights with nerds, I come here. Or mastodon.

114
- Using 2 different versions of a technology for different usecase?
  
  131
  
  Them's slappin' words.
  
  20
- This is gospel truth.
  
  10
With as much bad faith antisocial sociopathic shit Mark Zuckerberg has done, I truly don't understand why anyone would use anything associated with meta. He's Elon Musk with more experience at being.. that.

Bluesky isn't going to be the savior of social media, but with the death of Cohost it's the least bad option available.

46
- Hes a cunt. Lets be clear, he is an enormous asshole, shut person who is likely making up for having not been liked. He is dangerous.
  
  But he isnt Musk. There two different enormous turds.
  
  5
  
  I'd say Zuck is smart enough not to show to the world what an asshole he is. That's the main difference between him and Musk.
  
  5
  
  Leon is compromised, zuck is a greedy asshole.
  
  1
- The problem for me is that everyone use Meta stuff so it's either lose out in making connections with other people or giving up privacy.
  
  3
“We're not like the other girls... we're not owned by a billionaire,”

Just founded by a billionaire. I guess it’s nice that they’re a public benefit corporation. Those are supposed to be better than regular corps, or am I being naive?

42
- I really think the blue sky is bad stuff is overdramatic xbox vs PlayStation kind of stuff.
  
  The fediverse needs a lot of work, blue sky is a different and interesting model that's different from what we've seen so far (even if they haven't let people start hosting their own blue sky instances).
  
  I say let them complete...
  
  52
  
  (even if they haven't let people start hosting their own blue sky instances).
  
  They have, but they're still dependent on BS servers, so they're functionally indifferent.
  
  12
  
  I really think the blue sky is bad stuff is overdramatic xbox vs PlayStation kind of stuff.
  
  That's a very apt analogy, in the sense that they're both shitty proprietary walled-gardens and people should actually be using something entirely different instead.
  
  8
- They also kicked Jack to the curb went he tried to go full Musk on content moderation.
  
  8

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