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

Post by gusfoo » Sun, Sep 28, 2025, 9:36 AM UTC

shrinks99 wrote: post #148

tptacek wrote: post #111

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…

Sharply declining usage? I don't see the stats to back that up on https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats Usage has absolutely declined from peak switching periods where inevitibly some users won't stick around, but that's to be expected. Most stats seem to be leveling off (which isn't exactly stable growth either so the rest of your points stand).

Post by immibis » Sun, Sep 28, 2025, 12:32 PM UTC

ethbr1 wrote: post #232

altcognito wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The edu-only era of Facebook was good, as well as the preceding livejournal era.

Post by kelipso » Sun, Sep 28, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

Braxton1980 wrote: post #325

snickerbockers wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What if the issue is related to their expertise? NTA but I think one example which deserves far more scrutiny than it gets is all the public health experts[1] in the early months of COVID who were telling people to stay inside, don't gather in groups even if you're outside, don't go to church etc only to suddenly change their minds and say that gathering in large groups is actually very safe as soon as the protests…

>but the abrupt change in policy was obviously motivated by their political leanings March - The CDC publishes Covid guidelines on mass gathering in March “Interim Guidance: Get Your Mass Gatherings or Large Community Events Ready for COVID-19” May 26th - The George Floyd protests start June 4th - The CDC directory tells congress he fears the protests could be a Covid seeding event [1] June 12th - The CDC publishes n…

Post by jeremie » Sun, Sep 28, 2025, 5:22 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #216

Larrikin wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does anyone need to invest at all? Why can't Jack Dorsey just run it instead of needing it be a hockey stick start up?

See, that's a good question, but it has an answer: first, they took a priced round, and those investors will need to see a return, and second, when the funding runs out, someone is going to have to put more money in --- substantially more money --- to keep the lights on. What's probably true is that if they found a stable source of revenue they wouldn't have to answer these kinds of questions. But this is just back t…

Post by tptacek » Sun, Sep 28, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

jeremie wrote: post #347

tptacek wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, that's a good question, but it has an answer: first, they took a priced round, and those investors will need to see a return, and second, when the funding runs out, someone is going to have to put more money in --- substantially more money --- to keep the lights on. What's probably true is that if they found a stable source of revenue they wouldn't have to answer these kinds of questions. But this is just back t…

I’m one of the (independent) board members of Bluesky and I can say with confidence that I don’t have any of these concerns, everyone involved is deeply aligned to the PBC’s purpose of “To develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation.”