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Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

chrisholdgraf.com

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Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#371

Post by rors »

LittleTimothy wrote: post #358

I think the entire attitude of the author coming in to this is wrong. It's zero sum. It's an assumption that you're either gaining from the platform or the platform is gaining from you. This is wrong. The platform has network effects that make everyone well off. Google owns Youtube, yes it gets enormous value from creating/owning the platform. But Youtube isn't exploiting Mr Beast, Mr Beast also gains enormous value…

The value of content creators on YouTube will follow a power law distribution. There will be a very small number of hugely profitable creators and a vast sea of people who do ok. This power law distribution makes YouTube very different to setting up a physical retail store in London. Even if I do well with my shop, I won't outperform my neighbour 1000x.

If anything Mr Beast is an argument for not using YouTube. Alphabet is incentivised to keep him happy so that he doesn't move to X. I'm sure they consider his needs before they change their algorithm, at the expense of almost all other creators on YouTube.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#372

Post by EarthMephit »

ineedaj0b wrote: post #198

I’ve been very happy on X. My algo keeps showing me memes and tech stuff. Very little political grandstanding… but it did get a little warm during the election. A lot of Ai guys are X with cool stuff and still a ton of great posts in Japanese if you can read it.

Japanese users are migrating rapidly to Bluesky away from X.

Mainly for the extra features, apps & integrations that Bluesky offers:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/11/25/companies/b...

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#373

Post by rsynnott »

Ukv wrote: post #247
iteria wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is definitely a perk. If I see someone whose posts are abhorrent and someone is following them, then I understand that they share values in some way and I don't want to see them either. Some people are block happy, but being able cut off chains of people is a perk. I'm also pretty sure OG Twitter and Mastodon let you see followers. If you could make them private, I never found any user that actually did that.

> then I understand that they share values in some way Is it expected that people only ever want to see content that aligns with their views in their feed? I feel it's relatively common for someone to want to keep an eye on, say, what Trump is posting even if they detest him. Probably becomes self-reinforcing in that by treating follows as a public endorsement, many people start following only what they want to be se…

It can be a decent _heuristic_ for “I probably don’t want to hear from this person”. Like, it’s not bulletproof, but the _cost_ of a false positive is low. I think “follows Trump” would be a not-great heuristic, for the reason you mention, but, say, ‘follows libsoftiktok’ is probably a good heuristic for filtering out arseholes.

It can also be pretty effective for stopping brigading. Back in the day, when he was still a darling of the far-right, I managed to offend Milo Yiannopolis on Twitter (turns out he twitter-searched his own name) and he siced his followers on me. It took about a day of mass blocklists (back when these kinda worked on Twitter), and individual blocking, to stem the flow of spam; a button to simply block everyone who followed Milo Yiannopolis would have been convenient, and nothing of value would have been lost.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#374

Post by someothherguyy »

ggm wrote: post #281
someothherguyy wrote: post #246

It seems like any discussion concerning a social media or news media site is quickly filled with polarized takes on its users, editors, moderators, or the organization itself.

Why do you think that is? I no longer use socials outside of this one, and I know a strong element of my continuing use is the moderators and users.

Not sure, maybe its a consequence of being a social human?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_conflict

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_polarization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_reinforcement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophily

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_chamber_(media)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_exposure_theory

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#375

Post by rsynnott »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #157
brightball wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO Mastodon is the only real place for a truly decentralized option. BlueSky became immediately political in its narrative and many people just view it in the same light as Truth Social now. It has a future, but the branding in very tainted.

Isn't Truth Social a fork of Mastodon (that might or might not be compatible any more). Or am I confusing with Gab ?

Both are non-federating Mastodon instances.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#376

Post by goykasi »

antonios wrote: post #353

Regarding Bluesky's decentralization: https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/ (hint: not that decentralized after all)

Bluesky is not decentralized. It is a reference app built on top of a decentralized, social networking protocol -- AT Protocol.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#377

Post by glenstein »

dsr_ wrote: post #81
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, people are confused by it. I think this is at least partly because there's even less to differentiate the different mastodon domains than there was to differentiate gmail and yahoo. And, of course, there are a lot of people growing up now who don't really use email, so the analogy can't be taken for granted.

Stages of enlightenment: 1. That didn't work as I expected. 2. I am confused! 3. Oh, that's how it works! I learned something. Humans go through this every day, in domains technological and not.

Right, and this is all you need to point out to burst anyone's bubble who insists on behalf of "the people" that it's all too hard.

It just goes in circles with personal anecdotes that always coincidentally corroborate whatever position someone was already arguing for anyway. What would be really interesting to see is someone making the case against Mastodon but acknowledging that "people I know" weren't confused by it or vice versa.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#378

Post by epolanski »

Open question, why do people keep caring about socials that much?

Especially educated people should stay away from that toxicity. Boards like HN and occasionally Reddit, where it's mostly about discussing and being anonymous are the only places worth contributing on the internet other than personal blogs.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#379

Post by Heliodex »

nunobrito wrote: post #344

Would be interesting to ask the author for a review of NOSTR afterwards. At NOSTR the account functions without servers, you get private keys that certify your messages as yours no matter where or when you post them. From that perspective there isn't a private castle since you can send your messages to any of the several hundred relays existing today. It isn't VC funded but doesn't really cater to woke people and the…

I love Nostr and run my own personal relay, as it's much simpler to set up than a Bluesky or Mastodon instance.

The idea of nonexistent moderation is untrue. The big relays get big because they only commit to the minimum necessary moderation, though there are plenty of smaller or topic-centric relays based on user allowlists, payments (regularly or per note), or admins enforcing pretty standard moderation systems. The system caters just fine to woke people.

'No moderation' isn't always the same as 'Freedom of speech'. Whatever you're posting, there will always be at least one relay willing to take your notes (if not, run your own) which you can broadcast to your followers.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#380

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

doshaa wrote: post #335
josteink wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things like this? https://lunduke.locals.com/post/6505039/bluesky-bans-lunduke... And this: https://x.com/clownworld_/status/1858194893249917377?s=46 And this: https://x.com/immeme0/status/1872482191869132932?s=46 Etc. They seem REALLY ban-happy over there.

You see it as a problem, i see it as a benefit, Main reason i dislike twitter/X is the amount of pointless grift that goes around, some for monetary reasons, Either behave like a human or leave, "I posted some dog whistle and got banned for it" is actually a great ad for Bluesky.

I've never been able to find it again, but there was a really interesting discussion on [ATP](https://atp.fm/) a long while back where John Siracusa was floating the idea of a 'less free' social network and I've really, really wanted one ever since. Honestly, Hacker News is pretty close to that in the sense that low-value content is unceremoniously removed, which must contribute to the overall better quality here.
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