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Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

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131–140 of 357 posts

Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#131

I don't understand how Bluesky is going to continue to exist past 2026, based on the sharply declining usage, their headcount, and the amount of funding they've taken. It has apparent value propositions past the social network, but none of those use cases are visibly taking off and none of them appear to be monetizable. The social network itself is what will be evaluated when they go out for more funding. And I don't…

What I've found is that most of the people I really want to follow are exclusively on bsky. BUT most of the people I'd prefer to casually follow either exclusively or mostly only posts on Twitter. And the 2nd group is a much larger pool than the first group.

I really dislike Mastodon so gave that up a while back. I know there are a few people I'd like to follow who only post there, but such is life.

Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/04/public-hea... I supported blm and still do. The CDC should have stayed out of it.

The one mention of the CDC in that article doesn't mention anything about it changing guidlines for BLM. So you're lying.

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Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#133
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense?

Social media is bad for you. Though I'm not sure that social media enjoyed a "social media is good for you" phase. There are certainly studies I'm sure that are out there, but the general consensus seems to be negative.

Oh, at least here in Brazil, people still find it strange if you say you don't have an Instagram account. There's this idea of being a bit weird for not following this trend.

Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a second, if you’re saying that this is not a feature of good activism, are you implying you are more convinced by activists who practice dogma over objective thinking? What is a scientist to do when they discover a vaccine or cure for something; say fuck it who cares if we change behavior? Are you saying a good vaccine advocate is someone who ignores the underlying science and acts dogmatically? It just feels l…

I have yet to observe an activist practice objective thinking. That was the root of the argument. Activists sometimes do back the correct argument, but not because they are practising scientific reasoning. Most activists are swayed by rhetoric, a good story. That's an emotional response, not a logical one. To answer your second point, science has a process for disseminating new findings. It's not perfect, but it work…

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Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X is not politically neutral, Elon openly talks about recalibrating Grok whenever it says something too liberal like recent discussions about gun violence. Scientists should embrace decentralization and use Mastodon in my opinion. Bluesky will meet the same fate as Twitter and X one day

On a side note, I still can't get used to how wanting to restrict access to guns is considered a "liberal" stance.

The freedom to not have to fear death when going to school comes to mind. You know, like everywhere else in the western world.

Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opening an account on Mastodon was a pain even for me, a long-time Internet user and a nerd. I'm confronted with a choice of servers, but if I love cheese and golf, do I open my account on the cheese server or the golf server? What will be the disadvantages of choosing one over the other? Instant blocker right in the sign up process that made me actually give up several times. If it was like that for me, imagine how…

How is it a pain when you can just skip the server selection process and use mastodon.social like pretty much everyone else?

This. I still don't understand why there's so much consternation over choosing a Mastodon server. It doesn't limit who you can follow. I suppose if you're the sort of person who actually likes seeing random content from people you don't explicitly follow it could matter, but that's not for me.

Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#137
post #6

It would be nice if scientists started being just scientists again instead of activists. Hopefully being cloistered on bluesky will bring the old vibes back

When the government (or the public) starts asserting basic facts aren't true, scientists become activists against their will

Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#138
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no true activists anymore, what a tragedy.

90% of activists probably do good boring unseen work, you only see the 10% who make a stink on social media or protest on the streets.

You might be confusing activists with volunteers. Those who donate their time and money are not necessarily vocal about their pet projects. I'm part of the latter and do not consider myself an activist.

Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#139
post #6

It would be nice if scientists started being just scientists again instead of activists. Hopefully being cloistered on bluesky will bring the old vibes back

So firstly most scientists already aren't really activists in any meaningful way, it seems like you're implying most are on twitter/bluesky doing activism and the vast majority aren't really. Secondly I'm confused who people think should be able to be activists in a democracy? Scientists seem like a good candidate for people that should do activism in a healthy democracy.

Re: Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

#140
post #6

It would be nice if scientists started being just scientists again instead of activists. Hopefully being cloistered on bluesky will bring the old vibes back

If you’re gonna cut science funding on a massive scale, scientists will become activists.
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