Bluesky now has 30 million users • Hacker News Board

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#41

Post by ChicagoDave » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:31 PM UTC

No Ads.

100% user-centric moderation controls. Blockity block! Block lists are a godsend. This is what made Dorsey quit the board and abandon the platform. He actually believed the masses wanted a libertarian platform that forced you to listen to assholes. We don’t.

No opaque algorithms controlling your timeline.

Feeds to create topic centric timelines.

Decentralized. You can host your own data. Other hosts can offer refuge if Bluesky went rogue. Bluesky doesn’t own the data.

Many independent journalists have moved over so we’re getting significantly better news and not the false equivalence nonsense peddled by most of the major media outlets.

And kittens, birds, dogs, deer, raccoons, and other heartwarming animal posts.

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#42

Post by FreeTrade » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:31 PM UTC

homebrewer wrote: post #3

You would think people would learn from their mistakes and not move onto another centralized platform backed by VC money, but here we are.

Having looked at a lot of these platforms, only Hive (formerly Steem) operates in a properly decentralized manner.

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#43

Post by prmoustache » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:32 PM UTC

richrichardsson wrote: post #16

vr46 wrote: post #11

Yet another shitshow-in-waiting. I know Mastodon isn’t as polished but leaving one frying pan to get into another is a lost opportunity. I failed to convince somebody to move to Mastodon recently.

In my experience there's a huge barrier to entry for Mastodon. I've tried finding a server that worthwhile signing up to on 3 past occasions, every time I found one that seemed like a good fit they weren't accepting signups. Bluesky I got in before it was opened up by adding my email to the waitlist. Simple. And now it's even easier because there is no waitlist.

Did you use this: https://joinmastodon.org/servers ?

I used it and found a decent one, managed by someone relatively local and active. Most of my followed accounts are on other servers but I haven't seen that as a big issue.

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#44

Post by Shacklz » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:32 PM UTC

benob wrote: post #10

What's the real business model behind it? Sell "custom" names? That's not going to get you very far.

I wish there wasn't a need for a business-model to begin with for social media. Honestly, being business-driven is what turns them all to shit, as far as I'm concerned.

That being said, the lights need to be kept on somehow... some model similar to what Signal or wikipedia does might be a solution. Content-moderation is probably the big challenge though that they do not have to deal with to the same extent, so not quite sure how that could fly either...

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#45

Post by mytailorisrich » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:32 PM UTC

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #39

mytailorisrich wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter/X has shown to be no more than a self-promotion and PR platform as soon as it became popular. Just disposable snippets (pretty much the definition of a 'twit') to drive views. The same will apply to Bluesky. It does not matter whether it is centralized or not, VC money or not, as long as it serves that purpose. In fact a centralized system probably serves this purpose better as it is easier for the users and…

The fundamental difference is that X is focussed on its "For You" feed while Bluesky focusses on "Following". They are similar tools, but the different approach means one is far closer to "self-promotion and PR" than the other, and I don't think it's inevitable that Bluesky will descend to X's depths.

What's the point of posting on those platforms? Self-promotion and PR. The difference you highlight is very superficial and ultimately it is the same thing.

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#46

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:32 PM UTC

ayhanfuat wrote: post #40

firecall wrote: post #21

Bluesky - the Social Network where everybody posts screenshots of the awful things people post on other social networks!

Exactly. I saw way more Elon and Trump posts on Bluesky than I saw on Twitter.

I saw Elon posts on my following feed (whatever X now calls it) even though I wasn't following him. I even got notifications for them! I don't really know how anyone can think that's acceptable.

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#47

Post by CalRobert » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:32 PM UTC

homebrewer wrote: post #3

You would think people would learn from their mistakes and not move onto another centralized platform backed by VC money, but here we are.

I’m on mastodon but the people I want to follow mostly aren’t :-(

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#48

Post by Kelteseth » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:33 PM UTC

ayhanfuat wrote: post #40

firecall wrote: post #21

Bluesky - the Social Network where everybody posts screenshots of the awful things people post on other social networks!

Exactly. I saw way more Elon and Trump posts on Bluesky than I saw on Twitter.

Then you clearly follow the wrong people. I do not have this issue...

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#49

Post by donohoe » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:34 PM UTC

firecall wrote: post #21

Bluesky - the Social Network where everybody posts screenshots of the awful things people post on other social networks!

Then perhaps you’re following the wrong people? I’ve not had that issue.

Re: Bluesky now has 30 million users

#50

Post by retskrad » Mon, Feb 03, 2025, 12:34 PM UTC

Monthly active users in a vacuum docent mean anything. Facebook has 3 billion monthly active users but has zero relevance. Bluesky and Threads have no cultural foot print compared to X.