Should I join Bluesky?

November 17, 2024 11:01 PM

A few years ago I asked Mefites if I should join Twitter and was talked out of joining (many thanks for keeping me out of that cesspit, Y'all). Now I am wondering if joining Bluesky would be worthwhile?

I see folks recommending Bluesky postings frequently but I can't see the links without joining. I don't want to be exposed to the nasty US political news that is about to unleashed but I would like to see posts about books, art, cats, science, and silliness. Is Bluesky a place where a mild mannered hippie would be welcome? Is signing up with my real email address safe or do I need a new email address that won't get spammed? Thanks for any tips on how to sign up or reasons I should not.

posted by a humble nudibranch to Computers & Internet (25 answers total)

Bluesky provides extensive blocking and muting tools, including curated lists of people by topic and tendency.

They expect their users to use that ability to make their own experience.

Take from that what you will.

I don't see what you mean about using a false email address. BlueSky is the only organization that sees your email address, and even if in some future they started sending you spam, you would be able to unsubscribe. To my knowledge the same is true of Twitter.
posted by constraint at 11:24 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Sure, there's been a Metatalk and an FPP about Bluesky this weekend, because tons of people are signing up. Mild mannered hippies are definitely welcome there. When you get there, there are a couple of good ways to find interesting content. You can pin feeds to the top of your 'Home' page, where they will appear as tabs you can browse. Or you can use starter packs to find people to follow, causing their posts to appear in reverse chronological order on your 'Following' tab.

Since you don't want politics, you may want to go into your 'Settings' page, find the moderation section, and create a long list of muted words and tags: last names of notorious figures, topics you find stressful, etc. That much should work fine. Blocking is something different that also keeps people from interacting with you. Bluesky does have plenty of bots and scammers--e.g. someone whose profile claimed they were a Mefite sent private messages to a bunch of Mefites today with a sketchy story looking for money. If someone tries to interact with you and it's even a little off, I agree with Mefite jscalzi's advice: "it doesn't matter if it's a bot or not. If a comment feels out of bounds to you, then it is. Block the sender and don't give it another thought." Note that your block list can be discovered, but users are blocking pretty freely.

People are also sharing some negative opinions about Bluesky this weekend, e.g. who might be associated with its funding and what's the story behind deletion of some accounts. I don't know much about the first, just that it doesn't seem to be a significant decision criterion yet for many people, and the latter appears to be an issue with sharing GoFundMe posts too soon after joining up, causing Bluesky to suspect the user is a bot / spammer. If / when Bluesky is eventually a problem, my supposition is people will just move away from it to the next thing, maybe revisiting Mastodon along the way, since it is thoroughly decentralized.

Since you have concerns about it, I guess I'd suggest signing up with a new email address, etc., because (browsing the settings page) it looks like you'll have the ability to change your email address, display name, and handle later if you want to be more public. That said, I used a unique email identifier there at the beginning of the year, and I don't seem to have gotten any spam at that address yet.
posted by Wobbuffet at 11:35 PM on November 17 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I see folks recommending Bluesky postings frequently but I can't see the links without joining.

If it helps: you should be able to explore a bit without having an account. Visibility of posts to people who aren't logged in is an account-level config setting (and when you go to share a post, the system gives you a heads-up if the author has that setting turned on). Lots of people have chosen to keep their posts fully publicly visible.

For instance, here are some posts tagged with #Nudivember, the month-long celebration of nudibranchs currently in full swing. I've never logged into Bluesky on this computer, so the links should work as well for you as they do for me.

I've been on Bluesky for a while, and I'm happy there. I have a lot of words and hashtags muted, and my feed consists almost entirely of books, art, cats, science and silliness (and nature, and history).

The stuff about funding looks to have been debunked.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:03 AM on November 18 [4 favorites]

> I can't see the links without joining

Everything is publicly visible with AT Protocol, unlike Twitter.
At the moment there are no Nitter-like 3rd-party crawlers that show all posts and it's Bluesky's servers mediation that makes it appear like posts are exclusive to logged-in users but I expect that will eventually change considering the recent rise in popularity.

It goes without saying but expect it to turn into a cesspit like any other SNS sooner rather than later.
posted by Bangaioh at 3:20 AM on November 18

Example of what's possible under AT Protocol: ClearSky
posted by Bangaioh at 3:46 AM on November 18

More on Bluesky's funding and leadership situation.

Personally, I'm sitting tight on Mastodon. I don't want to recapitulate my somewhat-dysfunctional relationship with Twitter.
posted by humbug at 4:51 AM on November 18 [8 favorites]

I'm there and I like it! The blocking and user-level moderation tools are great, it's hit the network effect level where a lot of the people you know you want to follow will likely be there, the vibe (at least in my feed) is weird and fun and full of cat pictures. It doesn't have the unavoidable Twitter bad times of people quote-dunking on something shitty all the time because quote-dunking doesn't really work - if you try it and the target blocks you, it kills the whole thread dead, and even if they don't, they can remove their content from your quote post. (Plus the whole user-level moderation stuff that Wobbuffet goes into above.

I haven't had any visible uptick in email spam since signing up - that doesn't seem to be a problem (at least for a gmail address.)

I don't know that they have a viable business model, but who does, these days? Mastodon relies on volunteers, nothing else has lasted this long.
posted by restless_nomad at 4:53 AM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Oops, missed edit window: a takedown of the Dave Troy thread. Sorry, meant to post that alongside it.
posted by humbug at 4:55 AM on November 18 [5 favorites]

Yeah don't skip that takedown - there's a lot of bullshit about Bluesky going around and it's important to have perspective (for example, Jack Dorsey is no longer involved in any way and hasn't been for quite a while.)
posted by restless_nomad at 5:01 AM on November 18 [5 favorites]

If you've survived so far without ever using twitter, I don't think there's anything useful to be gained by joining bluesky.

I've been on twitter for years but am an infrequent user, have very rarely ever posted anything, and only ever got contend from people I followed, same as bluesky. The reason I've moved more to bluesky is that several people I followed on twitter moved to bluesky. If you want to avoid patronizing Musk, that's a good enough reason to avoid twitter, but not good enough to join bluesky if you've never wanted the product to begin with, imo.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:08 AM on November 18 [4 favorites]

I'm on Bluesky and I like it but I'm also pretty clear on what I get out of it (chats with friends, many of whom I met through Metafilter, trans community, and a place to put my silly little thoughts and jokes) so I'm able to use it in a way that works for me. I would think about what you're hoping to get from joining and, if you decide to do it, make sure the people you're following are actually providing what you want and either leaving or reconsidering who you follow if you find you're getting what you didn't want or not getting what you wanted.
posted by an octopus IRL at 6:00 AM on November 18 [2 favorites]

I had a rarely-used Twitter account. It was helpful when watching, e.g. Eurovision, but even then it moved so fast I couldn't keep up.

The thing I didn't like about it is that my mind works in a very linear fashion, so I like Metafilter and to some extent Reddit, where comments appear in chronological order, and, using the Tampermonkey scroll tag script, it's easy to jump back into a long thread without losing my place.

But I found Twitter to be all over the place, I couldn't work out how to reply to things, or even to read other people's replies, I'd see something and then never be able to find it again, and the whole interface just made me anxious. So if Bluesky works along the same lines, it's definitely not for me.
posted by essexjan at 6:04 AM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Best answer: A person's decision on BlueSky comes down to whether: a) its current situation (suddenly large and growing, nice moderation tools, picking up momentum) makes you see it as a chance to do Twitter the right way; or b) its structure (still corporate, some crypto/blockchain people in charge) makes you feel there's an inevitable enshittification arc coming.

I know smart people who feel both ways. Given that our relationships with apps are not binding, there's no reason you can't try BlueSky and see if it's for you. Or even just set up an account so you can see the links, even if you don't plan to use it (that's what I did). If what you are looking for is a chance to feel plugged into the zeitgeist, trying out BlueSky may be an easy call. It really is gaining momentum and now may be a nice early adopter/but not too early moment to start. Journalists/famous people/artists/politicians/etc. are starting to show up en masse.

That said, given that your stated goals are not about following journalists, tracking trends, or keeping up to date on the latest news, but rather that you "would like to see posts about books, art, cats, science, and silliness" and find "a place where a mild mannered hippie would be welcome" you could probably consider the Fediverse (which is a loosely conglomerated bunch of interconnected stuff, usually shorthanded as Mastodon because that is the most famous app/domain).

MetaFilter has its own informally associated instance for that, MeFi.social and it has been very, very fun. The Fediverse is great if you want to microblog with other friendly weirdos in a low stress way. You are less likely to find particular people you are looking to connect with, but it's active and there will be plenty of people around. There are a bunch of MeFites. We have a nice time. People will repeat years-old info about how "difficult and complex" it is to get started on the Fedi, but all a MeFite has to do is send a message to Pronoiac. It takes maybe five minutes after that.

The one caveat is that Mastodon/the Fediverse being decentralized, tools can still be pretty nascent/wobbly when it comes to weeding out bad actors. As a consequence, a white person who posts about anime and their cat can have an entirely chill, asshole-free existence, whereas a Black or trans person may have to devote some real, regular effort setting up fences to keep themselves safe from racist/transphobic trolls who will try to pop up one after another, whack-a-mole style. It's a known issue and one with improving workarounds but it would be disingenuous not to call this out.

I personally am more comfortable betting that the decentralized/cannot be monetized community solution will eventually solidify better mass blocking tools and draw in a critical mass of users than I am that the corporate option run by crypto folk will hit its moment of crisis/monetization and choose to do the right thing.

But I could definitely be wrong.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:45 AM on November 18 [6 favorites]

I am enjoying my time on Blue Sky. The vibe is different from X and Threads. It is friendly, with an apologetic attitude towards blocking trolls, walruses, and people just asking questions.

I haven't visited that much since the election -- going on a news diet -- but a lot of my feed is filled with nature photos and weird stuff like still shots from Gumby cartoons, so it's not that activating. I repost and reply but tend not to post much original stuff.

I wouldn't call it a cesspool by any measure at all. Quite the opposite. But whether it's worth your time is something you'd need to decide based on what you hope to get out of it.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:59 AM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Twitter used to be important for me professionally. I’m a freelance book editor, and authors used to hang out on Twitter all the time. I made a lot of relationships there, and got a lot of business there… Before it really changed. I got out about a year ago and ended up settling at blue sky, which was sleepy and wasn’t really doing what I needed it to do. Some of my people were there, but not very many. That has all changed since the election. My community really moved over en masse. With that migration has also come a lot of the fun accounts I used to follow— cats, and art and comedians, etc.

The number one thing I like about it is that if I stay on my main feed, it is only the people that I follow. So I’m not getting the topics that I don’t want to see. I don’t want to spend all day wallowing in the pain of this new administration, and I’m blue sky, I do not have to.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:27 AM on November 18 [2 favorites]

You can have an account there for the purposes of seeing links and not really use it for anything else, if you wish. You could have done that with Twitter too.

But it does have a number of things rolled in that make it harder to be as cesspool-y as Twitter was. It's all in how YOU use it, you don't have to follow people you don't like. You don't have to engage with anyone if you don't want, and you get to choose who.

People act like Twitter held them down and forced them to see things they didn't like or behave in ways they didn't choose. There were plenty of ways to use it without particularly engaging with those features. But because bluesky is more or less algo-free in its nearly-default format, and the culture (at least up until now) has discouraged the worst Late Stage Twitter behavior, it is at this time a lot cleaner there.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:10 AM on November 18 [1 favorite]

I like it. I like it because I am here to be a goofball and post pics of my cats and talk about horror movies. I have muted every single word possibly associated with Trump because I ain't here to entertain "both sides". If people want to argue with right-wingers like they did on Twitter, fill your boots, but I ain't doing that shit.

Also, this is the best way for me to keep in touch with Barbelith friends, who exceed MeFi by a country mile in terms of online/IRL friendship. To me that is the most important part. I've known my fellow former Barbelithers for over twenty years and we all follow each other from platform to platform.
posted by Kitteh at 8:17 AM on November 18 [1 favorite]

BlueSky's biggest challenge yet might be right now. Their explosive growth means that in the 24 hours leading up to Friday, they had 42,000 moderation reports (after 360,000 in all of 2023.)

That's a bit over 40x more their previous rate.

Verge called it moderation hell.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:30 AM on November 18 [1 favorite]

I am there and like it. I was on twitter largely for science /climate stuff and that has moved over en masse.
posted by leslies at 10:16 AM on November 18 [2 favorites]

I miss Twitter and find BlueSky hard to use, but plenty of people get accounts to at least save their preferred usernames. I regret not signing up for my IG handle earlier.
posted by yueliang at 12:23 PM on November 18

I just joined Bluesky; I like it just fine and it basically replicates the Twitter experience from an average user perspective.

One thing I'm a big fan of is that the Discover and Popular With Friends tabs are separate from the Following tab, so unlike Twitter it doesn't try to shove algorithmically-suggested content into my feed, but I can also easily go find algorithmically-suggested content if I want new things to follow.

One concern I've heard a lot of people raise is that it's possible to see (using 3rd party apps) who has blocked you on Bluesky. Specifically, if you block a high-profile account known for harassing behavior, they could let their followers know that you have blocked them and ask their followers to target you.
posted by capricorn at 12:46 PM on November 18

Response by poster: Thanks for all the useful info. I still haven't decided if or when to sign up but I'm just a slowly kind of person.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:19 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

If you do decide to make an account there are two features that might help you find your space:

Feeds: Feeds aggregate posts around a given theme or topic, and show up as bookmarks/tabs (ie, not on your "home" feed). These can be super broad ("Science") or very niche ("Fountain Pens") and are generally user-created. Following the feed does not follow any individual user--you could solely use feeds and never follow any individual if you wanted to.

Starter packs: curated lists of accounts that you can use as a way of jump-starting your following list. For example, here is a list of starter packs for science fiction authors. If you sign up via the starter pack it will automatically follow all the accounts in the pack; however, if you make an account the regular way, you can still see starter pack lists and follow individual users later (in other words, you don't have to sign up using the starter pack in order to get the benefit of them).

Like all social media, BlueSky is very much what you make of it. If you think you might like it, give it a try; if you decide later (or immediately) that it's not for you, then close the account. Worst case, you've spent a little time learning about a part of culture you didn't know before.
posted by radiogreentea at 11:11 AM on November 19

> Everything is publicly visible with AT Protocol, unlike Twitter.
At the moment there are no Nitter-like 3rd-party crawlers that show all posts and it's Bluesky's servers mediation that makes it appear like posts are exclusive to logged-in users but I expect that will eventually change

And there you have it: Skyview. No need to create an account to view any Bluesky posts.
posted by Bangaioh at 2:24 AM on December 3

Btw, the Skyview website almost certainly already existed at the time of OP, I simply did not know about it yet, and there are probably others like it.

If copy-pasting the Bluesky URLs is too big a chore, consider using the LibRedirect extension to auto-convert any clicked bsky links to their Skyview counterparts.
posted by Bangaioh at 3:04 AM on December 3