'A place of joy': why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky
Bluesky's user base has surged to nearly 21 million, attracting scientists with better content control and moderation than X. Its popular Science feed faces concerns over spam and bots amid rapid growth.
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Bluesky, a social media platform, is experiencing a surge in popularity among scientists seeking an alternative to X (formerly Twitter). Since the US presidential election, Bluesky's user base has expanded from approximately 14 million to nearly 21 million. Researchers are drawn to Bluesky for its user-friendly interface and enhanced content control, which allows them to filter out unwanted material and engage with a community of peers. The platform's moderation features, such as blocking and muting, are seen as improvements over X, where content moderation has declined since Elon Musk's acquisition. Bluesky's Science feed has become particularly popular, attracting thousands of contributors and significant daily views. While many researchers appreciate the safe and collaborative environment Bluesky offers, concerns remain about potential issues arising from rapid growth, such as the influx of spam and bots. Some scientists continue to maintain their X accounts to ensure their presence and influence remain intact, while others have chosen to leave entirely. The overall sentiment among users is that Bluesky provides a more enjoyable and controlled space for scientific discourse and networking.
- Bluesky's user base has grown significantly, reaching nearly 21 million users.
- The platform offers better content control and moderation features compared to X.
- The Science feed on Bluesky has gained popularity, with thousands of contributors.
- Concerns exist about potential spam and bot issues as Bluesky's user base expands.
- Some researchers are keeping their X accounts while others are fully transitioning to Bluesky.
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13 commentsMy guess is bots are used to simulate realistic fake users to eventually pump other Twitter posts for the revenue sharing?
I’ve noticed not all bots are pornographic / mean spirited / etc. They just make a lot of low value content that crowds out comment sections.
Regardless, I think this is more the new home effect. When you move into a new house, it is clean and you design it with intention. Over the years, it gets dirty and you start to hate the art you liked (people you followed) years ago.
I'm curious why that is. I didn't see anything in either of them that should be particularly controversial.
Like 'old Twitter': The scientific community finds a new home on Bluesky
on platforms like twitter, this means that the posts are disproportionately made by people with unhappy and limited lives, who have too much invested in their status and image on social media, because that's who has time to post. this makes for an unpleasant environment and is also fertile ground for mobs, bullying etc.
after this most recent wave of migration, bluesky feels fairly pleasant, but that's not stable. lots of normal people just moved their accounts over and are still engaging. but they will become less active soon leaving only the "power users" who will make the site unpleasant again.
probably bluesky will once again become just as bad as pre-Elon Twitter was at its worst. however this would still be much better than the current situation on X, where at some point you will be exposed to people advocating rape and people celebrating the Holocaust, or other such horrible things, so I don't think people will move back to X the way they did last year.
Bluesky will be old and busted, monetized and enshittified.
Then all of the "interesting" people will pioneer some new proprietary platform instead of building their own websites and DMing each other on Signal, though some might try the Fediverse again, only to abandon it because (like Lance Ulanoff) they couldn't find William Shatner there.
I'd love to be wrong about this, but we'll see.
I personally haven't tried it - if people know any interesting folks to follow who are on Bluesky and not Fediverse, please post their profile!
Also, some people on Mastodon are/were very much against this bridge. I believe the author made some effort to make changes to appease them. So don't be surprised if you see articles from 5 months ago attacking it.
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Bluesky gained 700,000 users after the US election, reaching 14.5 million, as users leave X due to misinformation concerns. The platform offers moderated features and has notable endorsements.
How Bluesky, Alternative to X and Facebook, Is Handling Growth
Bluesky, a decentralized social media platform launched in February 2023, has surpassed 15 million users amid rapid growth, facing challenges like outages while promoting user control and developer engagement.
Bluesky is ushering in a pick-your-own algorithm era of social media
Bluesky has surpassed 20 million users, offering customizable algorithmic feeds to reduce harmful content exposure, promoting user control and community engagement, though challenges in personalization remain.
'A place of joy': why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky
Bluesky's user base has surged from 14 million to nearly 21 million, attracting researchers with its content control features and popular Science feed, despite concerns over potential spam and bad-faith actors.