HN Reader

Network effects have a certain amount of unpredictability. A highly political group split off from X to BSky, and, imo, gave the network an extra amount of escape velocity. We're seeing a receding, but it did show X's network effect wasn't almighty. BSky will be better prepared for a next wave, wherever that may come from.

I don't think any of us can predict how this will play out, but it certainly is interesting to watch the user growth/receding and watch the waves.

Bluesky is just Twitter 1.0 - it's a good metaphor for american politics; both sides are virtually identical, one is openly racist and hateful, one likes to pretend it's above such things but inhabits virtually the same platform and eyes enviously the attention they get for being dumb and heinous in public.

Meanwhile actual platform change is considered "unrealistic" but is actually a ton of fun and perfectly fine if you like connecting with other people more than stroking your ego with numbers obtained by sucking up to the system/algorithm and/or consumerism

At this point is Nate silver just a professional rage baiter?

Freelance journalists, adjunct professors, and anonymous posters are not a unique threat. They are one of many threats. Nearly every person on Earth has their own tailored infinite black mirror. The mechanisms of the medium encourage it. The idea that social media was ever not sectarian is silly.

This is not surprising. In my circles, the people that most enthusiastically migrated away from X to Bluesky did so specifically because of their distaste for Elon Musk. They are largely centered about the West Coast of the US. And because X is so much bigger, it's capable of being more diverse.

Furthermore, I already had a lot of mute words and blocks set up on X to keep it palatable. I don't see any politics over there and it's entirely focused on creative work. If I did this on Bluesky I imagine I'd significantly cull my feed down to it seeming dead.

Maybe I live in a bubble but these are not problems I’ve ever heard expressed until now. Bluesky seems perfectly fine for those who use it?

Social Media as we know it is non-viable in a world of troll armies, AI slop and spam, and professional propaganda. I give it less than 10 years to live.

The future is private enclaves like Discord, Slack, private networks, private forums, and chat apps. The open Internet is a dark forest.

How many popular conservatives can you name on BlueSky, at the top of your head?

None?

Congratulations, it's de-facto a bubble. It's just math, half the electorate isn't on the table.

Couple sectarian social media, with higher levels of social isolation, and ready access to guns, you get what we had yesterday. Partisans whip themselves into a frenzy in the comments section of hand wringing post amplifying another hand wringing post.

Honestly X has the biggest mix of partisan viewpoints. Many subreddits, bluesky, have become mentally unhealthy places to spend your time if you’re left leaning.

There are plenty of people that seem to celebrate what happened yesterday on these places. It’s the worse I’ve seen and it disgusts me.