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Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

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Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#171

Post by jimininy »

consteval wrote: post #159
threeseed wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) Given what happened with X during the election, Meta unquestionably made the right call with Threads. If you want news/politics then simply follow your desired journalists. But forcing it on people who don't want it is not making the world better. It's just allowing bad actors a clear vector on how to make it worse. b) You can switch to the chronological feed which is much better. But as you say you can't make it…

> If you want news/politics The problem is that the right has largely moved politics into a cultural space. When you can't talk about being trans or being gay is that really politics? Self-identity isn't a political position, but it has been forced to be one, as those people are under constant attack. In addition, they're the "out group", so they will actually be targeted. Certainly, nobody cares if you post your gir…

> Self-identity isn't a political position

It is when policy is changed to prioritize self-identity over material reality.

The outcomes of such policy are often harmful, for example: https://4w.pub/male-inmate-charged-with-raping-woman-inside-...

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#172

Post by bufferoverflow »

consteval wrote: post #157
bufferoverflow wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it an echo chamber, when everyone is allowed to post? It's the opposite. BS is the echo-chamber by design.

It's an echo chamber because people who pay have a significantly louder voice. The only people who pay are avid musk supporters, who tend to be of a certain ideology. So those people are at the top of replies, creating an echo chamber. In addition, many people who oppose musk's ideology have left the platform, further creating an echo chamber.

That doesn't match my definition of echo-chamber.

Anyone has the ability to speak, and to pay.

If people leave at their own will, that's their decision. Compare it to censored social networks, where you're kicked out for the wrong-think.

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#173

Post by verdverm »

6bb32646d83d wrote: post #165
bhouston wrote: post #2

I can attest that BlueSky is really nice right now. Feels less combative than Twitter. I started to use it 25 days ago and got 400 or so follows pretty quickly. I am here: https://bsky.app/profile/benhouston3d.bsky.social I used this tool to find accounts that match on both platforms: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sky-follower-bridge...

I just scrolled 5mn on the landing page of bluesky, unlogged, and it looks like r/politics (mostly anti-Trump, anti-Musk posts). Hardly appealing for someone like me who goes on twitter less because there's too much politics

You have to curate your discover feed, like joining any new platform with a recommendation engine. The nice thing is there are many custom feeds for various topics beyond the singular main feeds (discover, following, friends) and you can write your own and use it from their app.

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#174

Post by verdverm »

karaterobot wrote: post #70

My hypothesis is still that the problem isn't Twitter per se, but that Twitter-like failure modes are built in to that structure. A communications platform that has certain qualities will tend to become Twitter-like: Many-to-many, short messages, reposting, etc. These are mechanics that will just create certain kinds of behaviors. So, that would predict Bluesky having many of the same problems as Twitter sooner or la…

What makes Bluesky different is ATProto. The four core components (data hosting, app view, algo feed, moderation) are all separate, pluggable, and open for anyone to implement their own.

What that means is moving is easy, meaning competition is possible, without the need to migrate platforms and rebuild followings and the network. Beyond that, ATProto supports custom record types, so one can build all the social media application types (Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Substack, ...) on the same social media fabric (ATProto)

I'm inclined to say the custom record type is a fifth core component that now exists thanks to ATProto. Monetization hasn't been widely discussed yet, Bluesky team has something besides ads in mind, but haven't publicly disclosed.

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#175

Post by mike_hearn »

rsynnott wrote: post #168
mike_hearn wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk is claiming that it recently reached record usage highs, as measured by "user seconds". It's a bit unclear whether he is counting X as a different platform to Twitter though, and "user seconds" is pushed upwards by video content that takes longer to consume. But usage hasn't obviously declined since the takeover either. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1854777813464662307

Hint: when people start using a weird metric that no-one has ever hard of before, they are generally doing so because real metrics are, ah, less favourable. For the ultimate example, see WeWork’s old ‘community adjusted EBITDA’, which was pretty much just revenue.

I don't think it's that weird assuming it's defined in the obvious way. Such a metric is obviously harder to game than MAU or similar as it's less affected by occasional users who don't really use the site but click through links from time to time. It also seems more aligned with what advertisers care about (how many seconds are spent looking at ads).

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#176

Post by consteval »

jimininy wrote: post #171
consteval wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want news/politics The problem is that the right has largely moved politics into a cultural space. When you can't talk about being trans or being gay is that really politics? Self-identity isn't a political position, but it has been forced to be one, as those people are under constant attack. In addition, they're the "out group", so they will actually be targeted. Certainly, nobody cares if you post your gir…

> Self-identity isn't a political position It is when policy is changed to prioritize self-identity over material reality. The outcomes of such policy are often harmful, for example: https://4w.pub/male-inmate-charged-with-raping-woman-inside-...

"Material Reality" is not so, that's simply your opinion, and a rather anti-science one. We've known about the divide of gender and sex for a while, and our notions of gender are almost entirely socially constructed. That's why some people are able to live their life, convincingly and without suspicion, as the other gender.

And, to be clear, the vast majority of rape is performed by heterosexual men who are not trans. Trans people are an incredibly small amount of the population. They're merely a scapegoat, because they're "weird" or "gross" or "perverted". It's nothing new, it's the same things people said about homosexuals.

There's no forcefield around women's restrooms, for instance. One does not need to take 5 years of hormone therapy and surgery to walk into the women's restroom and sexually assault someone. Men already do that, right now, and in MUCH greater numbers.

Also, as a sidenote, these TERFy articles and such should be taken with a massive grain of salt. Typically, when attacking minorities the strategy is to take aim at vulnerable populations, usually women and children. When homosexuality was breaking the mainstream, the main concern was pedophilia, because that's how you harm minorities. Naturally, any aim at transgender people will do it from the lense of "protecting women". Never mind that trans women are already at high-risk of sexual assault.

None of this means I think people AMAB should be allowed in women's prisons. But you have to understand, for people who are transgender women, if they go to men's prisons, they WILL be raped. Without a doubt and with no exceptions.

The problem isn't as simple as conservative pundits would like you to believe. Women don't want burly, masculine trans men in their restrooms either, for example, which would be the end result of a lot of conservative policy.

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#177

Post by consteval »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #172
consteval wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an echo chamber because people who pay have a significantly louder voice. The only people who pay are avid musk supporters, who tend to be of a certain ideology. So those people are at the top of replies, creating an echo chamber. In addition, many people who oppose musk's ideology have left the platform, further creating an echo chamber.

That doesn't match my definition of echo-chamber. Anyone has the ability to speak, and to pay. If people leave at their own will, that's their decision. Compare it to censored social networks, where you're kicked out for the wrong-think.

That does match the definition of an echo chamber. An echo chamber doesn't need to be enforced staunchly - people can willingly form an echo chamber. It's still an echo chamber.

Also, Twitter is very much still censored. In addition, almost all of Elon's tweets are just straight up disinformation. Like... blatant lies.

If you prefer living away from reality, then Twitter is a perfect place to be.

The reality is censorship can, and does, have value. For example, this forum you're on right now is censored. And that's why we're not battling trolls who spout the n-word. On Twitter, everyone is battling trolls who say the n-word. That's why you and I are here, and not on Twitter.

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#178

Post by asdf123wtf »

minimaxir wrote: post #69
threeseed wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fidelity who invested in X have said it's worth 20% since Musk took over. So it definitely is dying. It will just take another year or two.

With Trump winning the election, X will either be merged into Truth Social or nationalized.

Surprised to see few grappling with this reality. Twitter is like state affiliated social media now. What real barriers can remain between anyone's twitter data and a hostile state regime that's promised to abuse it's power to target it's opposition? It's actually horrifying.

And to the extent that Elon believes Twitter was useful in attaining his current position, it doesn't really matter if it's profitable on the balance sheets or not - it's a loss leader.

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#179

Post by AnthonyMouse »

sofixa wrote: post #116
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the audience, it's the monetization. Why are so many things that ought to be a blog post now a YouTube video? Because YouTube has video ads, which pay better. And it's not just from the perspective of the creator. Lots of people would write blog posts for free, if people would read them. But then Google dumps them out of the search results in favor of YouTube videos that take ten times as long to tell you th…

> And it's not just from the perspective of the creator. Lots of people would write blog posts for free, if people would read them. But then Google dumps them out of the search results in favor of YouTube videos that take ten times as long to tell you the same info, and then the bloggers stop writing because nobody is reading. I disagree with this take. I hate learning by video unless it's for physical stuff where se…

> I've never had issues with Google pushing videos too much in search results. You have an initial "videos" results block I just scroll past by, and that's that.

The issue is that some large portion of people don't do that, they watch the video because it's listed first. Which drops the readership of the later-featured blogs below the threshold where the author keeps making them.

Re: Bluesky adds 700k new users in a week

#180

Post by AnthonyMouse »

threeseed wrote: post #113
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk overpaid for Twitter. That doesn't mean it's dying any faster than incumbent social media platforms do in general. Someday Twitter will be AOL, but so will TikTok and Facebook and all the rest of them, because nothing lasts forever. People who think it's going to die immediately are just hoping that it will, but that's generally not how it works. They die when something else replaces them, and even once the thin…

Fidelity has downgraded X by 80% in 2.5 years. And X has competitors in Bluesky and Threads both of which have seen record user numbers and growth. For example, Threads has grown to 275m MAU in 1.5 years. There is no reality in which X should be remotely compared to any of the other major social media platforms. It is failing at an unprecedented rate and based on user growth in Bluesky/Threads is continuing to rapidl…

> Fidelity has downgraded X by 80% in 2.5 years.

Hence overpaid.

They've also lost advertisers, which is obviously bad for Fidelity but not all that relevant to the people using it. And it's not clear to what extent that has any staying power because companies get a one-time story written about them when they do the initial announcement and soon they're back to wanting to run ads everywhere they can because running ads that reach a different user base gets them otherwise-unavailable sales.

> And X has competitors in Bluesky and Threads both of which have seen record user numbers and growth. For example, Threads has grown to 275m MAU in 1.5 years.

Threads is Facebook. It has users because Facebook is pushing it with both financial resources and the network effect of an incumbent social network, and even then it has fewer users than Facebook itself and its users are disproportionately converts from Facebook/Instagram rather than Twitter because that's where it's being pushed.

Bluesky has like 7M users. It's the sort of thing that could replace Twitter, in ten or twenty years.

> There is no reality in which X should be remotely compared to any of the other major social media platforms.

It has hundreds of millions of active users.

> It is failing at an unprecedented rate and based on user growth in Bluesky/Threads is continuing to rapidly decline.

Musk changed some things and a small percentage of people left, many of them performatively because they later came back. Network effects are strong.

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