Bluesky adds 700,000 new users in a week
www.theverge.com
There are now more than 14.5 million users total on the platform.
  • Prethoryn Overmind@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    24 hours ago

    I use both Mastodon and BlueSky and I don’t really care for platforms like Twitter. Both Mastodon and BlueSky are good in their own ways but I think BlueSky is user friendly. Easy to setup looks super similar to Twitter, easier to navigate.

    Plus, I have heard about it pretty much everywhere. It is commonly compared to Threads. I only know and heard about Mastodon on Lemmy.

    • Prethoryn Overmind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      24 hours ago

      I am always a little surprised that everyone is surprised as if people are intentionally avoiding Mastodon.

      I like Mastodon but it is empty by comparison to BlueSky people want a social media app where there are people to talk to on quantities. BlueSky is also user friendly by comparison, IMO. Easier to setup.

      “Well Mastodon would be busier if people would stop going anywhere else.”

      No one is avoiding Mastodon I think it is odd it has never occurred to anyone that BlueSky is talked about way more. I had never heard Mastodon before Lemmy but I saw talks of BlueSky everywhere.

    • glowinfly@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      At least it can be bridged, and people can partially self-host. If you take a look at Mastodon and Bluesky, you’ll quickly realize the gap between Twitter-like feel between Bluesky and Mastodon, maybe a different interface that puts it more close to Twitter and mobile apps with it would help… a lot of Twitter users used it on mobile app.

  • futatorius@lemm.eeEnglish
    384·
    1 day ago

    An even better alternative is to replace it with nothing. The Twitter-like messaging paradigm is only good for trivia and rumor-mongering.

        • moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          11·
          1 day ago

          Yeah but no. It’s not an RSS feed per se. It’s researchers sharing what they publish and what other publish with ints or resumes sometimes. Then people would comment and researchers reply.

          • brilokuloj@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            1 day ago

            Never went away, they’re still used by independent websites. A potential hurdle was that Firefox dropped native support at one point

            • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              1 day ago

              …and a lot that are not that independent. I never stopped using RSS. It’s only because it’s not so easily monetized that it’s not more widely known, I bet.

    • marx2k@lemmy.worldEnglish
      105·
      1 day ago

      …or following people and interests you want to follow and keeping up with their updates.

      ffs stop gatekeeping social media

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        82·
        1 day ago

        The facebook/mastadon format is much better for individuals, no? And Reddit/Lemmy for niches, as long as they’re supplemented by a wiki or something.

        And Tumblr. The way content gets spread organically, rather than with an algorithm, is actually super nice.

        IMO Twitter’s original premise, of letting novel, original, but very short thoughts fly into the ether has been so thoroughly corrupted that it can’t really come back. It’s entertaining and engaging, but an awful format for actually exchanging important information, like discord.

      • BruceTwarzen@lemm.eeEnglish
        23·
        1 day ago

        If i ever wan tto know what Natalie Portman ate for breakfast, i’ll walk into the ocean

        • dezmd@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          Everyone knows it was hot grits, and she poured them down your pants.

          Just /. things.

  • recapitated@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    24 hours ago

    I signed up, out of curiosity but I don’t have any friends there that I know about. Kinda like Lemmy, but Lemmy but works great for not having friends.

  • Mwa@lemm.eeEnglish
    222·
    2 days ago

    as a Bluesky / Mastodon user, Mastodon is wayyyy better.

    • Scrollone@feddit.itEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      I think that for the average Joe Mastodon looks too confusing and unpolished, compared to Bluesky.

    • priapus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      Also, a Bluesky and Mastodon user, although I use Mastodon significantly more. Both have upsides and downsides. Mastodon’s onboarding experience has improved, but it’s still worse than Bluesky’s. Also, the fact that Mastodon doesn’t federate likes is honestly very strange. It makes the platform look dead at first glance, which really hurts first impressions.

      I still prefer Mastodon, federation is great and I’ve had an easier time finding people to follow there. Bluesky’s feature of following community made feeds is really cool though.

        • priapus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          Bluesky does have federation, it’s not at the level of Mastodon’s, but it’s improving. You can host a personal data server, which lets you host your account from your own server. You do still access this account through the main BlueSky website and apps, but authentication is done through your own server.

        • mke@programming.devEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          Speaking of features, I’m somewhat surprised more people aren’t interested in Misskey and co., especially compared to Mastodon’s overwhelming share of the Fediverse pie.

          • Mwa@lemm.eeEnglish
            11·
            1 day ago

            Oh yeah true, when more people became unhappy about Twitter so they all went to bluesky and mastodon. So it makes sense.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    2 days ago

    eh it is good to leave that shit hole behind but Elon already got very high returns from his investment on Shitter (got his daddy elected) so it’s too late.

  • lagomorphlecture@lemm.eeEnglish
    601·
    2 days ago

    I honestly don’t understand why people waited so I don’t use mastodon but I did cancel my Twitter account literally the first week he bought it. It wasn’t hard to see this coming and I just don’t get the delay.

    • TachyonTele@lemm.eeEnglish
      115·
      2 days ago

      I still don’t understand why people even use Twitter or mastodon or blue sky. It all just looks like a Facebook feed to me.

      • Ĺįĺįţĥ ţĥę §ęŕpęŋţ🍏🐍@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        2 days ago

        I joined bluesky a year ago to check it out. There wasn’t much happening on it at the time, so I got bored of it real quick. It was like the original version of Twitter. The day after the election, I got on X to see what kind of shit show was going on there, but my account was permanently suspended. I was just on there the day before the election with no problem. I rarely posted anything on it, but I have made some left leaning posts in the past. Like, 2 years in the past. Kinda weird to suspend my account right after the election. Whatever, I was never a big X user. So, I opened bluesky to see if it improved at all, and holy shit, it’s bopping. It’s still like old Twitter. It’s open source, no ads at all, and they make it really convenient to find accounts to follow with “starter packs”. I gotta say, I love it. There are almost no fake accounts or bots. They get weeded out pretty quick. That’s become my new Twitter, and Lemmy is my Reddit.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      7·
      2 days ago

      I use(d) Twitter for niche interactive hobbies that didn’t have enough people on Mastodon to engage with.

        • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          I feel you, but Mastodon has about 9 million users and BlueSky has 15 million (if the first results from a search index are to be trusted), but I could not find anywhere even close to 60% of the people in this hobby on Mastodon as I have on BlueSky.

          There was a very concentrated push recently of artists (I think it was artists originally) to go to BlueSky and it’s sort of echoed into similarish hobbies. So that’s probably why the user makeup is a little different.

  • FauxPseudo @lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    2 days ago

    I’ve seen the effect. It’s just like after Brazil cut Twitter off. My very niche account has been gaining new followers by the hour.

    I have no idea how people interested in Heathcliff are being found by new people. Much less people interested in Heathcliff without Heathcliff.

  • troed@fedia.io
    2393·
    3 days ago

    We’re seeing a substantial increase on the Mastodon instance I help moderate too, but there’s no aggregate marketing department at Mastodon so we don’t get any headlines.

    • Dasnap@lemmy.worldEnglish
      822·
      3 days ago

      I’m using both platforms through Openvibe when I’m on my phone.

      • realitista@lemm.eeEnglish
        24·
        3 days ago

        Thanks for letting me know about this. Just installed it. Now if they supported multiple mastodon accounts, I’d really be cooking.

      • Jinni@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Thanks for reminding me of this app. Really wish 'open’vibe would be on Foss stores like fdroid though.

        Has 3 trackers too. Google Analytics, firebase, and sentry.

        Edit: Downloaded it and it is pretty cool but I wish it had more support for bluesky feeds. It supports the ones I already have but I can’t search for more.

      • RampageDon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        191·
        3 days ago

        You have now taken your first steps to the dark side and becoming a corpo overlord. It is a subtle but slippery slope.

    • Jin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      I was on Mastodon, but host or whatever you call it, didn’t like what I said and got banned.

      Feel like bluesky wouldn’t have that kind of power and control by one person and be more open and popular.

      • BeeDemocracy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        13 hours ago

        I think it’s the opposite. On Mastadon you can make a new account on a better server ie mods more aligned with you. On bluesky if you make a new account and say a similar bannable thing again you’ll be banned again.

        • Jin@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          10 hours ago

          But people are sensitive, rather not jump server to server because that 😅 something on equal terms like bluesky seems good.

      • Pasta Dental@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        the problem is its easier to use because there is virtually no federation. Ive yet to see a user thats not from the flagship bsky.social instance

        • priapus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          I just opened BlueSky to see how many people I followed using their own PDS instance and the fourth post in my feed was from someone using one, and the 7th was from Washington Post who also uses their own.

        • mke@programming.devEnglish
          2·
          9 hours ago

          Maybe you’re already aware, but bluesky doesn’t operate with instances like in ActivityPub land.

          I’ve seen many people I believe are using their own PDS, but yes, discoverability is likely better because a relay is meant to aggregate and share all data it can (look up “bluesky firehose”).

          P.S. Mastodon’s devs are part of a new initiative to improve this area of the Fediverse. Because it’s so recent, we’ll have to wait to see how it goes.

    • nao@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      31·
      2 days ago

      Mastodon or Lemmy, because you would have to choose an instance and a client. Threads, because why would you?

        • pixelscript@lemm.eeEnglish
          25·
          2 days ago

          Choice is an irritating speed bump to people who don’t care to choose, which unfortunately is most of them.

          • priapus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            1 day ago

            It doesn’t need to be, as long as there is also a proper default for those who don’t care. Lemmy and Mastodon both unfortunately lacked this during the periods where they both had the most opportunity to grow.

            Nowadays Mastodon does it pretty well. Users don’t need to know anything, they just download Mastodon from the app store and register on the instance it chooses by default.

    • Nadru@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      I’ve been stupidly trying to convince them to use Mastodon on the same thread on reddit yesterday.

      Some prefer the interface, but I guess the real issue is what stopping them from selling it to another Musk like they did with Twitter.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
      778·
      3 days ago

      I think this is the crowd that tried Mastodon and then abandoned it when they realized it required a modicum of effort.

        • Liz@midwest.socialEnglish
          393·
          2 days ago

          This man ran into the weirdos on Mastodon. I’m over there hanging out with people posting about ass-pennies and no one cries “content warning!” You’re the one who decides who you follow and who follows you. If your hanging out with folks too sensitive for your liking, that’s on you.

          • Uruanna@lemmy.worldEnglish
            7·
            2 days ago

            I don’t even know what Mastodon looks like and I don’t know who the guy is, but I’m just assuming he’s lying because it sounds like the usual “crazy pronoun libs” dog whistle.

        • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          263·
          2 days ago

          wtf kind of lame criticism of mastodon is this…there are constantly cute pictures of pets being posted on mastodon… and like anywhere else with humans these posts are very popular on mastodon.

          I would say these posts are MORE popular on mastodon because without an algorithm cute animal photos are going to stick out as popular even more.

          This is all nonsense anyways, Bluesky is considered “cooler” by techy types with a childlike awareness of history, politics and power because the tech is cooler when considered in the abstract.

          Coincidently none of these technical details have the capacity to make bluesky a truly open and free place otherwise those investors would sue bluesky for purposefully and willfully not pursuing profit for shareholders. This won’t stop certain types from pointing at pictures in the sand and reciting idle words thrown to the wind by the people in charge for now.

          Bluesky exists as a legal instrument of profit, all else about bluesky is malleable and changeable and will eventually be bulldozed or undermined in the pursuit of profit for shareholders.

          edit 2 this is a real human, and I was grumpy and while it was satisfying to point fingers it just makes me into the asshole so I removed that, but my broader point still stands

        • Sabata@ani.socialEnglish
          132·
          2 days ago

          Being complicated will keep the Facebook moms, and my casually racist uncle away.

      • mke@programming.devEnglish
        26·
        2 days ago

        I doubt this sort of attitude helps, too. Mastodon developers know at least some of its failings. Migrating to Bluesky is not effortless.

      • asudox@programming.devEnglish
        207·
        2 days ago

        Whatever will they do without algorithms recommending their low effort posts to other users?

        • XNX@slrpnk.netEnglish
          255·
          2 days ago

          This smug attitude is why the fediverse will stay niche. People get jobs from twitter and Bluesky showing their posts to people. Its why im on the platforms as an artist. But sure lets talk shit at everyone who doesnt want to post to the void on mastodon.

          Also your feed is chronological by default on bluesky and you can stay chronological and enable some posts from your custom feeds to show in your chronological feed. Best of both worlds

          • timconspicuous@lemmy.mlEnglish
            141·
            2 days ago

            Seriously, I’m so tired of this “we on Mastodon are the Eloi and they on Bluesky are the Morlocks” type bs, that kind of hostility to regular users makes me not want to be on the Fediverse at all.

            • XNX@slrpnk.netEnglish
              16·
              2 days ago

              It’s a problem in the open source community as a whole. People ask for it to be a little easier because they’re not super skilled with tech and then the reaction is “if your so dumb you cant use this then maybe you shouldnt use it” or something to that extent

          • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            4·
            2 days ago

            There’s a lot of artists selling stuff on Mastodon but I don’t think you can have a job as a mastodon influencer

      • ComradeMiao@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        2 days ago

        Honestly I can’t figure out how to find people I’m interested in… or maybe there isn’t much academic/buddhism stuff on there? :/

        • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
          9·
          2 days ago

          You just search hashtags or set up a column so you have a feed giving you everything under a given hashtag, though it may be those communities are so niche there isn’t much on the Mastodon instance you chose. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a specific instance for Buddhism itself, though, given that it’s such a massive world religion.

    • pwalker@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      I just learned that before their fundraising round Bluesky called themselves a “public benefit LLC” and I thought thats nice of them to benefit the public 😅 , then I found out about US corporate law and what it actually means…

    • 4grams@lemmy.worldEnglish
      334·
      2 days ago

      Sigh, here we go again. I jumped on board because it’s where my friends are. Was pleasantly surprised that most of my old twitter follows are already there. Still, given the history I’m being careful and ready for the next enshittification exodus.

      I wish folks would just embrace self hosting and decentralization but we obviously love to make the same mistakes again, and again, and again…

      • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        2 days ago

        Decentralization is a bit like showing people “Here’s how to make friends. I won’t actually introduce you to anyone, though.” I kind of want to at least get a starting point off a general topic.

    • Chadus_Maximus@lemm.eeEnglish
      318·
      2 days ago

      That is actually an advantage. Centralized platforms are able to achieve larger audiences, increasing the chance that I will be able to find content I actually care about.

        • Grangle1@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          Pretty much how Bluesky took off at all. It’s just the polarization of the platform style reflecting the polarization of society: Twitter/X went right-wing so the (center-)left made their own platform. It’s the same thing the right did when Twitter was politically censoring right-wing content before Musk bought it and Trump made Truth Social, the only difference being that Bluesky got the Big Tech and mainstream media blessing. Musk said he would stop that sort of censorship but just reversed it to censor left-wing content. Nobody actually wants a truly free platform, they just want their echo chamber.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.eeEnglish
        2311·
        2 days ago

        Centralized platforms get top-down control. You’re trading your freedom for convenience.

        Stop pining for the algorithms. They’re making you stupider by guaranteeing that you only see the content you want to see, and never the content you need to see.

        • leftytighty@slrpnk.netEnglish
          6·
          2 days ago

          That’s giving the algorithms too much credit. They don’t encode user desires they encode user engagement bait. Like everything under our capitalist system the motivation is profit: in this case ad revenue. Sometimes positive things or agreeable things drive engagement, sometimes negative or divisive things. As long as users spend time scrolling on the platform they’ll both be given equal weight.

          As with anything profit motive driven it’s just about what makes more money not what makes more sense or what makes better outcomes. The core assumption of capitalism (at least how it’s sold) is that profit causing activity correlates with improvements to human well-being. How anyone still believes that, I’m not sure.