Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's one metric that matters – revenue per user. Bluesky's is, I assume, zero, and soon that will have to change. Threads meanwhile has the largest social media ads and monetization platform in the world behind it ready to make the dollars flow at the push of a button.
If the revenue per user is enough to cover costs, does it matter? Will it have to change? We’ve all had “hockey stick growth!” shouted at us so many times that we’ve internalised it but Bluesky is a team is 20 odd people. They don’t have the kind of footprint Meta has and right now they don’t need it. I hope they stay small and chart a different path to success.
Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
191–200 of 355 posts
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the revenue per user is enough to cover costs, does it matter? Will it have to change? We’ve all had “hockey stick growth!” shouted at us so many times that we’ve internalised it but Bluesky is a team is 20 odd people. They don’t have the kind of footprint Meta has and right now they don’t need it. I hope they stay small and chart a different path to success.
They just raised $15M. Surely their investors expect a large return.
> Bluesky Social is a benefit corporation; as such, it is allowed to use its profits for the public good, and is not obligated to maximize shareholder value or return profits to its shareholders as dividends.
I have no idea but I suspect the investors see monetary value in an open social network not owned and operated by today’s tech giants. There’s a difference between users making money via the social network and the social network making money via the users. But both involve making money.
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#193Twitter does not need a replacement. There seem to be a popular opinion that it does, but it's not something people are willing to act on. It's a better app than it used to be, overall.
You can't view Tweets without being signed in. API access is banned. Third party apps are banned. A verification badge used to signal trustworthiness, now it can be bought. All your posts are being used to train an AI model without the ability to opt out. Every second Tweet is a crypto scam. How exactly is the experience better than before?
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#194I still feel that an enormous amount of why threads shows up in data analytics is because Instagram just added it on and made an account for everyone. It wasn't adopted, it was falsely created. I'd go even further to say that it isn't a social network, it's an add-on to another social network.
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#195I still feel that an enormous amount of why threads shows up in data analytics is because Instagram just added it on and made an account for everyone. It wasn't adopted, it was falsely created. I'd go even further to say that it isn't a social network, it's an add-on to another social network.
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#196Low quality article aside, Threads also had a major spike in usage that quickly dropped off. I could be wrong, but I’m going to guess Bluesky will be the same. They don’t seem to offer anything new/different other than moderation, which I’m not convinced is enough to shift momentum from x to bluesky
The difference in moderation is night and day. Soon after Musk took over, I started having accounts wishing me violent deaths, repeatedly commenting on everything I said with graphic details (broken bones, poisoning, dragging my body over the pavement, etc.). That happened occasionally before, but they typically got banned. After the takeover, those were gone (and my account got blocked a couple of times for quoting…
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#197I hope if backfires, mostly draws in users from existing speech-unfriendly platforms and then the number of social media platforms will multiply from here onward and a large number of platforms will compete based on who is most permissive with regards to speech.
Most of the highly suggestible masses already moved off X to Threads... So now that Bluesky is being pushed hard, I hope the suggestible people from Threads will switch over and split up their censorship ecosystems.
It makes sense from that perspective. The censored ecosystems should be separated into lots of small platforms because you need a lot of different filter bubbles to maintain the deceptions and impermeable information silos. A large centralized ecosystem will create too many opportunities for exposure to alternative information so it cannot be controlled as well.
In the future, there will be a different platform for every kind of delusion and each one will focus on its own delusion and will make up stories to discredit rival platforms so people always doubt information received outside.
It's a matter of time before large corporations start preventing their employees from using non-approved platforms. They'll probably use cybersecurity safety as an excuse. They might carry out hacking false flags on their own employees to convince them to not use other platforms they won't feel forced.
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that doesn't really matter right? They got tricked into using it but they're still using it
It does. If all you do is tap on a post then immediately hit back you’re not really engaging with the platform. But I’m sure they’ll still count you as an active user. The meaningful stats would be number of posts seen, engaged with, and number of posts the user made themselves.
And the ads, I can't skip, I hate those MFers.
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
A feature of Bluesky is the ability to change your feed algorithm (or code your own - yes I wrote ‘code’). You can easily filter all political (labeled) content. To say that BS is an echo chamber is untrue, though I do not disbelieve that you observed that algorithmic choice when you first tried the app. There are many echo chambers for sure, but the protocol is designed to permit you to exclude or join them. Unlike…
Right, and what's more the charge of echo chamber has always been intellectually lazy. You can have a fruitful exchanges of ideas and information and debates on a foundation of similar values in a way that amounts to more than just repeating ideas back and forth. Using the term as a catch-all for a shared desire for conversations to have certain ground rules or certain community values, or subjects that spark your in…
Yes, people on X seem very upset that they can be blocked on bluesky. But if I've heard what you have to say and don't want to hear the same thing 1000x, that's not an echo chamber. That's me hearing you, disagreeing, and you having nothing more of value to add.
Discussion requires communication, not simply repeating propaganda over and over and over, which is 99% of the time all that anyone crying "echo chamber" tends to do.
Re: Bluesky is on the verge of overtaking Threads in all the ways that matter
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
While “the left” in the US is incredibly nebulous, largely composed of groups and people that rarely agree on nearly anything at all, let alone a literary style, this recent article(1) about Bluesky has an eloquent description of “the right” when it comes to online spaces. > Liberals and the left do not need the right to be online in the way that the right needs liberals and the left. The nature of reactionary politi…
This is quite ironic considering that the last 8 years 'Liberals on the left' have done nothing but react to whatever Trump was doing that day.
>The assumption that strangers on the internet are interested in or obligated to engage with “debate me bro”-style theatrics any time a person feels like summoning them to is very much a specific example of hyperreality that is particularly endemic amongst “the right”
If you don't want to have an online debate don't post in places that have comments.