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Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

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Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#191

Post by mikhmha »

There are too many bots on BlueSky. Atleast in the niche I post within (game development). There are lots of automated accounts out there meant to like, repost, and signal boost. I appreciate the gesture but when all your engagement comes from these accounts it’s frustrating. I don’t want retweets and likes, I want people to engage with what I post.

Bots are also an issue on twitter. But I get way more actual engagement there than I ever got on BlueSky. What gives? The most insidious bots are those that leave replies based on keywords in your post. It looks legitimate until you go to their profile and see they are cranking out replies every second to posts in a topic.

Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#192

Post by gota »

mikhmha wrote: post #191

There are too many bots on BlueSky. Atleast in the niche I post within (game development). There are lots of automated accounts out there meant to like, repost, and signal boost. I appreciate the gesture but when all your engagement comes from these accounts it’s frustrating. I don’t want retweets and likes, I want people to engage with what I post. Bots are also an issue on twitter. But I get way more actual engagem…

> Bots are also an issue on twitter. But I get way more actual engagement there than I ever got on BlueSky. What gives?

I don't think there's anything other than - there are more people on twitter; due to first mover advantage and inertia

Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#193

Post by gniv »

krapp wrote: post #104
conradfr wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building a social network with people in love with shared blocking lists is not a great recipe.

It's the worst recipe, apart from all the others. Unless you want to expose yourself to the constant inundation of piss that social media has become, you have to curate and block aggressively. Shared block lists that you just subscribe to are one of the few useful innovations Bluesky has made and they need to be standard for all social media in the future.

Blocking is way too harsh a mechanism. If they wanted to innovate they should have invented some soft-block feature.

Thanks to those lists I am blocked by 165 people. I don't insult anyone, I don't even swear. I suspect I get on these lists simply by being a white male (which is I guess obvious from my posts).

Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#194

Post by jcrben »

dewey wrote: post #114
hamburglar wrote: post #99

I notice that the stat the article repeatedly quotes is MAU for usage of the mobile app, but one of the things I love about Bluesky is that you don’t need to use a mobile app to have a good UX. I use the mobile browser to access it, so I’m not in that MAU number. Perhaps bsky has a larger number of active users that don’t use the app?

Not having the app installed but being a monthly active user, not just someone who's driving by because they clicked on a link on mobile seems like an edge case and I'm pretty sure it won't make a difference to the numbers.

One of the main reasons I don't use the app is that it makes it harder to bookmark.

Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#195

Post by jghn »

mikhmha wrote: post #191

There are too many bots on BlueSky. Atleast in the niche I post within (game development). There are lots of automated accounts out there meant to like, repost, and signal boost. I appreciate the gesture but when all your engagement comes from these accounts it’s frustrating. I don’t want retweets and likes, I want people to engage with what I post. Bots are also an issue on twitter. But I get way more actual engagem…

Concern about engagement is IMO the root cause issue going all the way back to Twitter. Somewhere around 10 years ago people started focusing on "engagement" instead of just interacting with people organically. Worrying about how to improve their engagement. Not wanting to post on a site if they didn't good engagement. How to monetize engagement. And so on.

Twitter was at its best when it was just a bunch of people figuring out what the fuck it was in the first place. Posting into the ether. Responding to random strangers. Chatting with friends. Whatever.

These sites need less focus on driving engagement, less tools to direct attention to one's post, and more of a focus on organic posting.

Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#196

Post by spacebanana7 »

mexicocitinluez wrote: post #130
ecshafer wrote: post #30

Bluesky and Threads both have a fundamental issue in that their entire pitch is "We are like Twitter, but we are not run by Elon Musk, a Republican." Which only energizes the most radical, fringe, terminally online, who happen to be the ones that were most disliked on regular Twitter in the first place. When you whole pitch has zero appeal to 95% of people, its dead.

lol Twitter's fundamental issue is that it's entire pitch is "You can say the most outrageous things on the planet, share race-baiting videos, and be a scumbag as long as it doesn't anger Elon. Also, we're down with child pornography" Which only energizes the most radical, fringe, terminally online, who happen to be the ones who were most disliked on regular Twitter in the first place. See how that works?

Twitter's first mover advantage meant that it was the first place analogue celebs/politicians/etc went to share content with the general public.

Much of this has eroded over the years because of competitive platforms like Instagram but these initial conditions remain formidable.

Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#197

Post by 0xy »

dragonwriter wrote: post #29
nxm wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter's not doing too bad: 550 and 600 million monthly active users according to platform disclosures and industry estimates So maybe the trick is to not just cater to left on your platform.

The only way in which BlueSky is preferentially catering to the left is by existing as an alternative to X and specifically providing tighter control of what is in your feed; and this is only “catering to the Left” because of the groups towards which X either has weakened or stopped enforcing its policies against harassment towards. (In a market with strong network externalities, being the dominant player is self rei…

Didn't they immediately ban JD Vance on his first completely innocuous post on the platform?

That's aside from the blatant echo chamber nature of the platform. Both the left and the right post on Twitter. Only the left post on BlueSky.

This probably contributes to the decline, but I think the biggest contributor is the lack of interesting content. If you wanted to gorge on leftist viewpoints wouldn't you just read a leftist subreddit?

Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#198

Post by dewey »

jcrben wrote: post #194
dewey wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having the app installed but being a monthly active user, not just someone who's driving by because they clicked on a link on mobile seems like an edge case and I'm pretty sure it won't make a difference to the numbers.

One of the main reasons I don't use the app is that it makes it harder to bookmark.

My problem is usually that I bookmark in the app, but then forget about the bookmarks as they are in the walled garden. I've built something for that a few years ago (https://getbirdfeeder.com) that just sends me my Bluesky (And X, Mastodon etc.) bookmarks straight to my email inbox once a month.

Re: Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app

#199

Post by jryle70 »

mexicocitinluez wrote: post #132
jryle70 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

lol So stating a fact means you're more likely to be on Bluesky? Sign me up. As long as it's not run by a guy who is so pathetic he lies about the video games he plays.

I'm sure you'll find it home right there
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