10 Comments

Hey Alex,

thanks for this lively writeup, I really enjoyed to read it!

I understood you are not sure that after it started like this — niche, wild, and fun — it might eventually be ruined as soon as the masses join.

Actually, I'm quite bullish that this won't happen, because I have read their ideas about content moderation. Did you see the CEO's blog post? https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/4-13-2023-moderation

Basically works like this: If someone goes wild and creates hate speech (just for example), Bluesky will simply label it as such, using an algorithm that does text analysis. And now the magic happens: Every user can decide whether they want to see hate speech or not. In the options panel, there are switches called "hide", "warn" or "show".

For hate speech, for example, the default setting is "hide". As a user, you must explicitly switch this to "show" to be able to see hate speech.

So when the masses come in, hate speech, racism, etc. will simply not be heard. Haters, racists, etc. will post into the virtual void. Poof!

Cool, huh? I like that. 😄

Cheers,

Matthias

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I'm all for new social platforms but concerned about user engagement/retention (or lack thereof). Looking at you Post News/Mastodon.

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Apr 28Liked by Alex Kantrowitz

Bluesky, a new social media app funded by Jack Dorsey, is gaining popularity as an alternative to Twitter. The app's loose culture, ease of use, and decentralized nature have attracted a diverse user base, and it has seen a recent surge in new users. As the platform continues to grow, its success may be measured not only by user numbers but also by maintaining a lively and non-toxic environment.

Facts

🚀 Bluesky, a Twitter alternative funded by Jack Dorsey, is gaining popularity and attention.

🌐 The app encourages a loose culture and allows users to rebuild their social graphs from scratch.

⬆️ On Thursday, new users doubled, and Bluesky trended on Twitter, even experiencing a brief server outage due to high traffic.

📉 Elon Musk's controversial changes to Twitter have contributed to users being open to new platforms like Bluesky.

🏗️ Bluesky will eventually be distributed, enabling developers to build their own apps and experiences on its protocol.

🥅 A successful alternative to Twitter may be one that is large enough to be engaging but small enough to avoid toxicity.

🤔 Bluesky's future depends on maintaining its unique community dynamic and overcoming the pitfalls of other Twitter challengers.

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Hate the facts that its invite-only

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any invite codes ? :-)

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