What are your thoughts on Bluesky?

[GlitchyZorua]

I never thought I would make a post like this, but I've been seeing more and more people online talking about BlueSky.

I wanna know your thoughts and feelings around BlueSky, and to those who use bluesky, Why do you use it?, what do you love, and hate about it?

In addition, what's your thoughts on Bridgy fed, a project letting you to bridge your posts from BlueSky to mastodon (and Mastodon to BlueSky), https://fed.brid.gy/

I personally never use bluesky, because I don't see a need to use bluesky, too much social media for me!    (i have mastodon, my website, and, well, the melonland forum!).

[Målingen]

In my opinion (combined with a conversation we had on the LCC this Sunday roughly or Saturday iirc), Bluesky is great for the general populous thanks to its familiar and user friendly design at the cost of its source code being closed source. Mastodon is essentially the inverse where I think it's more tuned towards developers and hobbyists than regular people. Bridgy Fed is pretty useful though I don't use Mastodon a lot if at all so it's kind of just there with the account they gave me, plus linking a site is kind of complicated tbh if you're using a free domain like me with Vercel. Also Bluesky/Mastodon is definitely more connected with how people can see other people way more easier without the algorithm bothering anyone! I've encountered tons of random people on there, some of which follow me, instead of just mutual people I'm aware of and the 1% of encountering a random person I saw on Twitter.

Though a mutual thing we can all agree on is that both Bluesky and Mastodon is anti-millionaire and federated (ironically with different protocols)!

[Skykristal]

I don't see a need to use bluesky, too much social media for me!

I have a bluesky account, but I keep forgetting about it. I don't like/care to use social media anymore.. it's kind of stressful and something you constantly have to keep up with. On the other hand, I like sharing my art, my ocs.. comments and attention on my content would be cool but literally nobody does that. I don't even get any reshares. so.. I don't really see the point. It's a waste of time and energy and is not making me happy.

I prefer to spend time on my site that people can visit and read. It's something I'm actually passionate about. If I want some sort of communication outside of the website space, I visit forums primarily. I also love playing forums games (not here) to get comments on my work instead. Its a lot more thoughtful and fun as well.

If I actually *consume* (which is what I mainly use social platforms for) I frequent either YouTube or Twitch. But not Bluesky. I don't really care about anything there too much tbh. The site itself isn't bad.. its just that I don't care for the most part.
One issue I have with it however is people not filtering their NSFW content. I got jumpscared multiple times with RL pictures browsing art tags. You can block tags, which is amazing, but it still happened occasionally. But that's an issue with most +18 sites. (like X)

[GlitchyZorua]

In my opinion (combined with a conversation we had on the LCC this Sunday roughly or Saturday iirc), Bluesky is great for the general populous thanks to its familiar and user friendly design at the cost of its source code being closed source. Mastodon is essentially the inverse where I think it's more tuned towards developers and hobbyists than regular people. Bridgy Fed is pretty useful though I don't use Mastodon a lot if at all so it's kind of just there with the account they gave me, plus linking a site is kind of complicated tbh if you're using a free domain like me with Vercel. Also Bluesky/Mastodon is definitely more connected with how people can see other people way more easier without the algorithm bothering anyone! I've encountered tons of random people on there, some of which follow me, instead of just mutual people I'm aware of and the 1% of encountering a random person I saw on Twitter.

Though a mutual thing we can all agree on is that both Bluesky and Mastodon is anti-millionaire and federated (ironically with different protocols)!

I'm not really sure if anyone uses bluesky AT protocol, I hardly ever see someone use it, which kinda defeats the purpose of having a decentralized protocol.

Unless someone can prove me wrong, of course! 

[Målingen]

I'm not really sure if anyone uses bluesky AT protocol, I hardly ever see someone use it, which kinda defeats the purpose of having a decentralized protocol.

Unless someone can prove me wrong, of course! 

Well, and I suppose this is sort of cheating, there's a bunch of other apps made by other people that take Bluesky and turn it essentially into Instagram or Tiktok. Otherwise if you mean just using the protocol raw, then yeah I don't know.

[GlitchyZorua]

Well, and I suppose this is sort of cheating, there's a bunch of other apps made by other people that take Bluesky and turn it essentially into Instagram or Tiktok. Otherwise if you mean just using the protocol raw, then yeah I don't know.

welp, that's one way to make a decentralized project fail. oh well. lets just wait and see what happens.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I was the one who said that it isn't fully FLOSS @ the chat, @Målingen
This is technically true, but the "only" component that isn't under a free license seems to be their content-display-algorithm. Not as fatal as Twitter, Facebook, or Google (and their respective child-projects), but you still don't know what is exactly done with the data you provide - which I see as a major flaw.

I regard BlueSky largely as an industry plant. They received their initial funds from Twitter, and - according to the Wikipedia - the current owner has a net-worth of several million dollar, and was involved in cryptocurrencies, while the other funder went ahead to utmost dubious shores. As far as I'm concerned, a single of these things would be enough to give enough reason for distrust.

But there is another thing that itches me, and this also is kind-off true for Mastodon: People leave Twitter (...or Facebook, Reddit, Youtube...), but I see that they are often unwilling to question the fundamental logic behind those platforms. All the substitutes more or less replicate the idea of "content-creators" and "followers", and I believe it is this - inherently authoritative - logic that makes a good part of the harmful potential of social media. And on top, some of the "black patterns" and "nudges" (the things that cause addictive behavior) can be also found in most - if not all - the "liberated"-copycats (I don't know a single Mastodon-Frontend that doesn't utilize infinite-scrolling, to give an example). They might are better than the absolutely centralized platforms (and I use Mastodon a bit, mainly to drum a bit for my projects - since I enjoy my games being played by at least a few people, and I admit it does me a better service than all of the classic social-media-pages did ;)), but I don't have high expectations about any of the "decentralized social media-versions", and for BlueSky - that seems to be the most corporate and least visionary ("Lets use Twitter like it is 2015 again") - my expectations are by far the lowest.

[Blue]

Bluesky is really Twitter if you remove all the batshit stuff the musk man has created. The block feature is functional, so if there are conservatives there, I never see them because the list block feature works quite well too (the main way you get rid of everyone you don't want to see). The ability to make your own feed is neat (though I don't think I know how to use it still lol). All I see are people I follow and what they post in the said feed, and the follow page is that + all their reblogs (since I don't see those on my custom feed). I don't even use the discover feed tbh, never had the need to even.

All this being said, all my internet usage is centered around fandom, and that for Bluesky is neat. My current one is small, so Twitter is still a need if I want to interact with friends + keep up on game updates, as not many people use Bluesky still. Honestly, I don't even spend that much time there since I get to what I've seen already two minutes while on site (since I do use PC more than my phone for everything) and it can be a breath of fresh air since you can customize it pretty well when it comes to what you want to see.

[CosmicRot]

As someone who just wants to be able to reach an audience and also be an audience [ie, I love interacting with other artists, and hanging out with people, and I like being social..] as well as an artist who wants to do art for a living [I'm disabled and can't "work" outside of art stuff...] it's kind of impossible to exist on the internet without far-reaching social media.

Most mastadon things I've gotten into are too niche [though I do have an account] and in general it seems like as it's already been said, mastadon has a lot more like hobbyists, developers, and those who are into very niche things, instead of a more general populous, so I rarely get consistent interaction [not "interaction" as in "oo number go up", which is ew, "interaction" as in the literal definition of interacting with people! I like talking and sharing things] and more often than not even if I'm super active on there I rarely get any kind of replies or interaction.. like... at all. lol
The same is to be said for A LOT of social spaces that are niche, like forums, or other such fully federated type things etc.

Bluesky and tumblr are the only spaces I've ever been in that didn't constantly feel like they were meant just for advertisers and influencers and no one else, and there's a big culture of just blocking folks and moving on instead of platforming creeps, abusers, trolls, etc, on bluesky, which has been really nice. I also appreciate that if you don't use the discover page there isn't an algorithm so you have to search out things entirely yourself or follow starter lists and the like, so 99% of my feed is just art and creatives. It's one of the only places where people actually respond to me too xD so it's nice to both get the social part of it, and have the greater populace so I can hopefully get commissions or people to buy my crafts and what not...

My other main socials are sheezy.art [which is more a gallery site than social media since they have very few social things built in], and tumblr. I used to use Cara, Gaiaonline, and Mastadon a lot more for social stuff, but now it's mostly just bsky and tumblr.

[Rosaria Delacroix]

I have an academic BlueSky, which I use to follow fellow academics and my school's social updates- it's just where a lot of them wound up, and is the most 'normal' social media to hand out in those situations where I need to have an account or else come off as strange in a weird way to people- similarly, I have an Instagram I maintain solely for group projects and class notes: if you don't have an Instagram, most of my peers have treated it as if you were deliberately hiding something suspicious, and it's easier/safer than handing over my phone number. I only use these accounts for a functional purpose: to connect with peers on an as needed basis. I do not otherwise check their notifications and such.

I have another BlueSky under this pen name, and I don't really use it. I did for a bit, but found that I like yapping into the void on status.cafe better. I have a friend whose profile I will check in on, as they tend to post updates there that are relevant to their books and/or life that they might not personally text to their friends. I recently followed a few other writers in the writing group I've joined recently, just to have their handle in the event the Discord explodes or something.

But other than occasionally logging in to check said friend's profile, and repost a few cute cats or bump art related posts from my friends, I don't use it. It is helpful for having a more normal social media profile for various private groups to verify/check your identity, which has been the case for some creative spaces I've been looking into joining, though I also link my personal website so they can get a better feel for my personality and such.

BlueSky basically just feels like Twitter before Twitter went to hell in a handbasket to me, but I'm not a super active user.

[House]

     I can't tell you how many times I've created, or seen other artists create new accounts on new sites with the hopes that we would move to something better/less predatory. I have an IG, Mastadon, and Bluesky account but over time I couldn't get anything to stick. I was struggling to find much of a community on Mastadon or Bluesky tbh, and IG feels like a staple just to keep being seen by other artists. Thats sort of why I've been debating on whether or not to connect these other accounts to this one- posting there feels almost like an obligation to not be forgotten in the timeline than anything else. Maybe the problem is my headspace tho- sharing art from work or otherwise has felt insurmountable.

[Spots]

I think social media is a complete dead end for the future of the Internet, so I've never even considered joining Bluesky. I hesitate to comment on it too much since I've hardly spent any time on it, but I find it unappealing for the same reasons I find other social media platforms unappealing. I personally left social media because feeling like I was obligated to post stuff to maintain any semblance of relevancy just made me anxious and served no purpose anyway, and Bluesky would have the same problem. I keep hearing people say that Bluesky doesn't have much of an algorithm, but going on the main page immediately presents me with a discover feed and trending topics, which is enough to make me not want to touch it with a 10-foot pole. I understand that it's not even remotely as bad as Twitter, but I think any amount of algorithmic content/topic recommendation is a death sentence for an online platform.

[Eunice]

I have a Bluesky account. I find it to be even more Americentric than Twitter ever was, oddly. It gets annoying when every second post is about current American politics. I get that that was why it was set up, but it is annoying. I mostly follow people with cat photos, or other nice things.

[BlazingCobaltX]

As a non-user, I have to say I appreciate the built-in RSS feed, making it easier for me to stay off the platform entirely. This post convinced me that social media is a net waste of my time so I've never considered it. I was never much of a Twitter user to begin with (was exclusively there for one fandom) and so far I have not seen that fandom migrate to Bluesky for me to justify getting an account.

That said... I can feel some peer pressure. There's once again news that Tumblr may be breaking down at some point due to recent staff firings, and although I'm firm in that I will leave social media behind... I know I will dearly miss that broad fandom culture Tumblr has cultivated so well. Especially with a recent poll saying that most people will move to Bluesky or Mastodon in the event of a Tumblr breakdown.

[Vidknight]

I already went on a bit of a tangent on another post where I expressed my dislike for social media (Looking back on it my post was a bit too harsh ). Bluesky unsurprisingly fit along with my dislike for social media I just don't really see a reason for why I need to create an account there. With that being said I can't lie when I say that bluesky does have a massive strength over other platforms which is the ability to create your own feed, and not deal with a BS algorithm controlling what you see. You have control over what you want to see. Granted I still see other problems with bluesky, but it's something over other platforms. Hell I go even as far to say that bluesky is my biggest recommendation for social media.