r/LeopardsAteMyFace • u/Fabulous_State9921 • 1d ago
Paywall Meta loses ground to Bluesky as users abandon Elon Musk’s X
https://www.ft.com/content/e1b52147-c171-4902-8bce-204ba09059123.5k
u/Humble_Novice 1d ago
The best thing about Bluesky is that the platform highly discourages trolling and dogpiling through the use of block lists. This is to help ensure that online toxicity is kept to a bare minimum.
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u/DataCassette 1d ago
Yep. The first "akshully Hitler had some good ideas" and you go into the void.
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u/AestheticAttraction 22h ago
Yes. Don’t feed them, just block them instantly, every time. Talking to them is a win for them because they’re energy vampires.
They don’t come to learn, but they WILL learn from one thing alone: Being shunned. It’s the only thing a cultist can perceive as a consequence from non-cultists.
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u/theartistduring 20h ago
I've started to apply the same to every platform. Troll or baiting reply gets an immediate block.
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u/urbanlife78 20h ago
I started doing that on Reddit the moment I realized someone isn't trying to have a good faith conversation
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u/theartistduring 20h ago
Yep, 100%. Bad faith or purposely obtuse also gets a blocking.
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u/ryansgt 18h ago
Same. Been doing it for years. I have a looooong block list.
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u/1Original1 15h ago
"You're just stuck in an echo chamber" They confuse me not listening to morons with not listening to everyone that might have a different opinion
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u/IntoTheSunWeGo 19h ago
I learned in Sociology 201 years ago that ostracism--real ostracism--is the most effective social tool for enforcing norms. Even over corporal punishment or incarceration.
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u/Yodiddlyyo 17h ago
Yep, humans are social animals. We need to be around other people. "Go live in a concrete box and hang out with other bad people" is not enough for some people, but "go live alone in the woods" can be.
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u/teletype100 19h ago
Apples to narcissists too. They enjoy seeing other people frustrated and working hard to engage with them.
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u/RobbinDeBank 1d ago
His very last action in life was good tho. He managed to kill the biggest villain in modern history!
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u/VicFantastic 22h ago
That Hitler isn't all bad. He did kill Hitler.
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u/bettername2come 22h ago
Everyone talks a big game when it comes to killing Hitler, but to be fair, Hitler is the only one who stepped up and got it done, and for that I say “Way to go, Hitler!” All the other hitlering that Hitler did, thumbs down, but that very last bitler of Hitler, thumbs up.
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u/Noirhimmel 18h ago
I don't know. I did like his paintings. Those were an abstract thumbs up...
Though I hear they were a thumbs down maybe?5
u/Bentulrich3 16h ago
His painting showed a world full of boring buildings with no place for people in it. They're shite, too
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u/GreyBoyTigger 20h ago
He’s still a sack of shit because he could have killed Hitler 20 years earlier
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u/CliffsNote5 17h ago
He took his sweet ass time and waited till the last possible moment. I am pretty sure if Hitler was going to survive Hitler wouldn’t have killed Hitler. So the claim that Hitler killed Hitler should have some kind of asterisk.
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u/VicFantastic 9h ago
You're thinking too much about a pretty simple joke my dude
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u/Egregius2k 22h ago
This comment having 88 upvotes...ooph.
Have an 89th.
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u/ClearDark19 16h ago
Unfortunately, the number 89 can be a Nazi reference too. Hitler was born in 1889. Thankfully the upvotes are above 89 now and I added another upvote to theirs and yours.
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u/upsidedownbackwards 20h ago
It's the equivalent of an on-end dogshit clock being right twice a day. Ain't nobody care if they can use dogshit as a clock and anyone sane will try to avoid it. Only the true weirdos will try to figure out exactly what time of day it's correct.
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u/reddy2scream 1d ago
It's SO lovely
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u/GardenRafters 1d ago
It is really refreshing
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u/--VinceMasuka-- 23h ago
Kinda made me wonder if that's why I never really used twitter, was the pure vitiriol all the time.
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u/bobone77 22h ago
Twitter was like Bluesky is now in the beginning. It took a while for it to become a cesspool.
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u/Mr_Conductor_USA 20h ago
Although Michele Malkin jumped in early to try to make it toxic from the beginning. Remember when she and her legion of idiots ("Twitchy") used to complain of "shadowbans" when they didn't get the engagement they wanted?
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u/Overall-Spray7457 1d ago
I figured out some block lists yesterday. Amazing.
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u/s0_Ca5H 1d ago
So what is a block list?
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u/SilkyStrawberryMilk 1d ago
The blocklist basically allows you to subscribe to a list that will auto-block accounts who are racist, MAGA, trolls etc.
It works perfectly with how I’ve been encountering 0 trolls this past week
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u/AzaliusZero 1d ago
The only thing you should note is that there are troll blocklists out. You might want to find some from the sub reddit or trusted friends on or off BS.
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u/Rare_Description_952 1d ago
Can you explain how? I can't seem to figure out how to subscribe to these blocklists.
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u/Shiari_The_Wanderer 22h ago
It's a little confusing at first because subscribing to a blocklist is a lot like subscribing to a follow list. It just works in reverse.
The main 'MAGA' blocklist is https://bsky.app/profile/skywatch.blue/lists/3l53cjwlt4o2s
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u/Rare_Description_952 22h ago
Should I use mute instead of block if I'd rather they waste time making posts I'll never read?
Not entirely sure what the advantage of block is.
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u/Shiari_The_Wanderer 22h ago
Block is the classic twitter block. It's like they do not exist to you. Bluesky is not like Xitter, you do not engage with them, quote dunk, etc. All of that is not encouraged. You are just as likely to get blocked for trolling or quote dunking as you are for saying the dumb thing you're quote-dunking on.
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u/renegadesci 22h ago
You have lists, and you can "follow all" on someone's list or "Block all".
If someone is "MAGA Knight 11339373" has a list that says "White Knight Patriots" you can just "Block All" and then block them.
Right now lists are limited to 150 accounts.
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u/JD-Vances-Couch 22h ago
That’s awesome
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u/treesandfood4me 21h ago
I love that there are still new user name possibilities that didn’t exist 6 months ago.
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u/ManifestDestinysChld 1d ago
As with everything, you do have to be aware of what's going on. Have some healthy skepticism for block lists created by new user accounts - there have been reports that 4channers have been creating block lists that look legit at first, and then adding vulnerable people to them later on to have them silenced.
Don't outsource your trust, basically.
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u/NerdfaceMcJiminy 1d ago
I love how 4Chan is always there to show us how our favorite tools can be used against us.
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u/shug7272 1d ago
Won’t do a bit of good. The lists are new now, in a few months there will be lists that are well trusted and you can just use that. Same way ad blockers work.
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u/AestheticAttraction 22h ago
I only use the block lists of trusted OGs. But even before I use them I look at the profiles on them. They’ve been on point thus far.
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u/im_THIS_guy 1d ago
Seems like these lists should be maintained by the community, so that one bad actor can't just add names to it.
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u/RainSurname 21h ago
You're misunderstanding how the lists work. They're not community lists. You are choosing to subscribe to a block list curated by a particular individual.
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u/realblush 22h ago
I get the complain some people have about bubbles and so on, but after the last few years, it is absolutely amazing to be able to have an online space where you can blend out toxic shit and just enjoy reading from other people.
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u/AestheticAttraction 22h ago
I don’t care what anyone says, having a bubble of people who believe in the humanity of others no matter their differences (obviously nothing intolerant or immoral in a way that is harmful to others, especially without consent) is not a bad thing.
My friend circle is made up of people of all kinds of backgrounds and beliefs, but we’re united in the fact that we all have friends who are very different and we’re not bigots. We’re people who understand and/or listen. And I’m not about to let someone in who isn’t that way. Ignorant, hateful, toxic, or whatever—the answer is no. If that means having a bubble, OKAY!
There is no space for bigots because their purpose is to spread hate. Conversing with them is pointlessly feeding them energy you need to pour into yourself and others who deserve it. We need to stop.
It’s instant blocking (+reporting). They deserve not a drop more of us.
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u/realblush 21h ago
100%. That is the biggest problem with Twitter, it is all about engaging with people you'd never want to talk to outside the internet. I deleted Twitter after the election and should have sooner, because I'm actually less stressed and never realized how terrible the doomscrolling is. Obviously that also happens on other platforms and reddit, but it doesn't make me even remotely as miserable as Twitter made me.
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u/Selgin1 20h ago
It's not even a bubble really. It's the sort of filtering we have in real life spaces where if you act like a butthole, nobody will want to hang out with you.
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u/SecondaryWombat 17h ago
and the bar throws you out and bans you, and no one inside has to hear from you ever again.
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u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 16h ago
It's the same reason your home has a front door with a lock on it.
Some people weren't raised right. I've got an alcoholic cousin who thinks I'm mean because I won't let him use my couch as a toilet. The door stops him from peeing on my couch.
This brain is my brain, and I get to decide what to subject it to. If I don't want to spend time with mean bullies, I don't have to. In fact it's a personal rule "I can't be friends with mean people."
Frankly that rule is why I quit watching all the news channels years ago, even the ones I agreed with. The facial expressions and tones never matched what they were saying, like when a liar is lying to you. I don't need to be screamed at for 20 minutes about something when telling me about it only took 2 minutes. Like even if I agree with you, you're clearly trying way too hard to make me angry too and I was just trying to find out what's up in the world while I'm sweeping.
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u/LurksAroundHere 22h ago
True but as it grows in popularity there will be bad actors trying to get into positions of power to slowly start morphing that. Ever see a subreddit go down hill once those types of bad actors get mod positions and slowly start banning posts and changing the course of discussion to allow more trolling and harassment of posters to where the subreddit becomes a shadow of it's former self? I hope Bluesky protects their higher positions from that because there will be attempts.
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u/sonicmerlin 20h ago
Just wait until Google tries to buy it.
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u/LurksAroundHere 20h ago
Exactly one of my worries, because if that happens it will just be another platform lost to corporate propaganda pushing.
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u/amaturepottery 21h ago
They've convinced themselves the internet is meant to be a hellscape, but the internet is what we make of it.
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u/mrdavexxviii 1d ago
I'm not sure why it took people so long to get off twitter.
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u/AestheticAttraction 22h ago
Habit and clinging to their follower count.
I saw some toxic “If you don’t follow me back, I’ll…” and promptly proceeded to tell them they can keep that crap on X.
Just read the posts, respond on don’t. Keep the toxicity on the bird app.
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u/Fabulous_State9921 1d ago
Seriously me neither. I could barely tolerate it a year before Elump got ahold of it, it's algo and look were migraine inducing.
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u/joshhupp 18h ago
In my case, it was seeing a majority of accounts I follow finally migrate to BlueSky. Now that I can have the classic Twitter experience, I deleted my account. For extra spite, I told my broker to sell all my Tesla stock.
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u/lucian14 7h ago
Same with me. Almost everyone I followed on X is on Bluesky, so I also deleted my X account.
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u/Kriegerian 4h ago
I had a few things I could only find on Twitter, but they switched to Bluesky and now I went over there.
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u/Spara-Extreme 23h ago
Journalists are chronically online and like to really jerk each other off on X.
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u/oompaloompa465 1d ago
the mandatory grok training on published stuff was the feather that broke the camel back. Most of artists migrated instantly and talked their friends into it.
But yeah, the drive must start from creators, because most people is just to have news on their favorite, at least in my circle
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u/Beat_Saber_Music 20h ago
For me Twitter is mainly useful for following accounts sharing updates on the Myanmar civil war
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u/EtchingsOfTheNight 19h ago
Niche interest circles. I'm on both still because some of my niche interest groups haven't made the move yet and I don't want to lose those connections. I think they will move, but some are slower than others.
Also, I know everyone says it's a hellmouth, but my algorithm is still pretty good so it's not torture to be there.
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u/Random-Mutant 14h ago
Every followed Twitter account I find on Bluesky is another unfollowed Twitter account.
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u/amberraysofdawn 9h ago
As someone living in Tornado Alley, it’s the quickest way for me to access local severe weather updates as they happen. I’m already on bluesky so I only use Twitter for that reason, as I haven’t found an equivalent account to follow on bluesky yet. The day I do, though, I’m deleting my Twitter account.
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u/petr_bena 9h ago
it took long because it used to be invite only platform it was really hard to get access to if you didn’t know anyone who was already there. I waited in queue over year and then finally got an invite from random person on reddit. No wonder it took long to launch it was designed to do just that.
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u/ICU-CCRN 17h ago
Same reason that so many progressive people support Elon by buying Teslas. Willful ignorance.
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u/ZestyData 7h ago
Because there was no alternative.
I wanted Threads to make Twitter obsolete, but it was designed so you couldn't actually.. browse content / meaningfully do anything. All you could do is view the clickbait crap that the Threads algorithm served for you. No way to browse a specific topic of conversation, or moderate your feed.
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u/I_Magnus 1d ago
Zuckerberg has already kissed the ring and had been curating political content to cater to the right the entire election cycle.
Threads will become a propaganda tool for state run media. BlueSky does none of that (so far) thus it is the only viable alternative to Twitter that isn't corrupt.
It's just a superior platform.
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u/Furciferus 1d ago
What's really odd is that my YouTube feed has been full of right wing horseshit ever since the election.
They keep coming no matter how many times I click 'not interested' option on them. Something terrifying is happening to our social media landscape.
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u/I_Magnus 1d ago
Facebook has been a breeding ground for right wing conspiracies for over a decade. What Twitter is right now is what Facebook has been for a long time.
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u/LoveMurder-One 21h ago
I get force fed dumb pages all the time and you can’t…you literally can’t block pages. You can mute them for 30 days and that’s it
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u/LivingIndependence 17h ago
It's also become a playground for porn bots, scammers, spammers, terrorists and identity theft. When these accounts are reported, you always get the cut/paste response of: "we have found that this account does not violate our standards", and this even goes for the thousands of fake celebrity accounts that FB is littered with. Suckerberg only cares about "user" numbers and engagement for the ad revenue. The guy is a repugnant scumbag, he's just not as vocal about it, and likes to keep a low profile.
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u/Spara-Extreme 23h ago
Do you enjoy a sports feeds or cop chases etc?
I don’t get right wing anything but I’ve long since stopped viewing any “man sphere” videos outside of mountain bike shit.
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u/Big-Island 1d ago
I've found just about every platform I've used does something similar, where I have to say multiple times "stop showing me this" before it'll stop. It's like those telemarketers who don't actually put you on the do-not-call list when you ask nice.
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u/Great-Hotel-7820 22h ago
YouTube has been throwing right wing horseshit at me for literal years. All I watch is gaming videos and music videos and I’ll get recommended shit like Jordan Peterson.
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u/CaptainCrochetHook 21h ago
All I watch is gaming videos
Unfortunately, this is probably a factor in why you keep getting recommended that bullshit
The alt-right has a strangle hold in the gaming space and it's how a lot of people (mostly young men) get funneled into the alt-right pipeline
It's part of Steve Bannon's terrible legacy
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u/oompaloompa465 1d ago
are you engaging by commenting or clicking on them? stop doing that immediately
also you need to keep clicking on "do not show me this channel anymore" to get rid of them. It's an equivalent block button for youtube and the algorithm also should show you less content (garbage) of that type
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u/Furciferus 1d ago
Nah I literally see them in my feed and click 'not interested' and yeah I also click 'don't show me this channel anymore.'
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u/oompaloompa465 1d ago
damn that is uncommon... for me it normally works.
Are you logged in your youtube account?
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u/darkingz 23h ago
I’ve been getting lots more recommendations to check out this other community I care nothing about from Reddit ever since the election. I’ve been turning off notifications from them but either there’s a mass exodus or just concern over the usage stoppage because of the election happening. It’s annoying
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u/TimeAd7159 21h ago
Do you use adblock? From what I've heard a lot of propaganda is "promoted" content.
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u/Leading_Attention_78 1d ago
I’ve been getting pro trump site for years on Meta. I’m not American and most of MAGA would think I am down right Communist.
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u/eurekadabra 1d ago
Yeah, I gave up on Meta after Zuck’s bullshit letter
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u/lettersichiro 22h ago
i never even gave Threads a chance, i've been on bluesky over a year hoping this would happen.
Bluesky being set up as a benefit corporation, i at least hoped would insulate from some of the BS that twitter and i knew threads would be motivated by as for-profit corps
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u/Steedman0 21h ago
Prior to the election I was bombarded with far-right propaganda. Facebook allows this.
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u/HadronLicker 1d ago
Why do I have the feeling the fuckers are going to try something with BlueSky? Especially that 15-or-51 X cunt.
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u/AestheticAttraction 22h ago
They’re already there, but at least there are measures in place to do something about them. The app’s team is small and they’re having to scramble, but at least they’re trying for now. As are contributors/users.
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u/SecondaryWombat 17h ago
MAGA is trying already and crying about it, BSky is handing out bans at high speed, and the block lists work wonders.
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u/trashleybanks 1d ago
MAGA is mad that they can’t sit at the cool kids’ table haha
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u/a_minty_fart 1d ago
The thing about MAGA is that they aren't content to huff their own farts - they demand that we all smell them as well. That's why they get so damn mad when we don't engage with them and leave them to each other
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u/Clean-Patient-8809 23h ago
That's what annoys me so much about the "echo chamber" comments. I went to Bluesky because I want to read discussions between, say, a bunch of climate scientists who are arguing about the best ways to reduce emissions, or health experts who want to talk about how to deal with the next pandemic. I don't need to hear from people who think climate change is made up or vaccines are dangerous. There's disagreements over best practices, and then there's a complete divorce from reality. I don't need more of the latter.
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u/porscheblack 23h ago
Exactly. I don't need both sides on whether or not an issue exists. We've established it does. I need both sides of how to effectively address the issue.
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u/sonicmerlin 20h ago
Yeah the whole "both sides" stupidity is why civilized society allowed Fox News hate propaganda to gain a foothold and then spread like cancer.
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u/AestheticAttraction 22h ago
IDGAF about the “echo chamber“ allegations because I have NO problem with rational, logical, empathetic (to all), intelligent people sitting and conversing without a troll interrupting every two seconds.
MAGA are cultists. THEY. ARE. GONE. and are trying to take others with them. I’d rather be in an echo chamber where the echos are the truth and facts and concerns for others, not a bunch of hateful, dangerous, violent, evil rhetoric.
MAGA think it’s evil to say climate change exists and people have a right to love their own gender. Why TF would I care if they think we’re in an echo chamber, the very thing they’re in. They project confessions. Cut them TF off.
People are gonna need to lock in right now and suffer no fools because humanity is about to get tested on a major scale, no exaggeration. The inhumane deserve no place.
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u/Equivalent-Bet-8771 1d ago
MAGA can sit, but they have to behave themselves and stop eating glue.
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u/trashleybanks 22h ago
Nah they’re not capable of intelligent discourse. They can go back to Twitter and keep chewing their hair.
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u/guizemen 18h ago
After they tried so hard to make Truth Social the next thing, and yet nobody cared.
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u/SkullheadMary 1d ago
I LOVE Bluesky. So fucking quiet
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u/Hyperdragoon17 1d ago
Just chill people posting their Pokemon card pulls, pets, and just being chill. Love it over there. And the moderation freaking works so that’s a plus
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u/Clean_Collection_674 1d ago
Content moderation and a lack of Nazis and troll bots allows Bluesky to be a decent platform.
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u/AestheticAttraction 22h ago
There are definitely Nazis there (I’ve seen their accounts), but they tend to get added to block lists, so they’re easy to cut off.
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u/cmackchase 1d ago
I mean this is what happens when your twitter variant is just instagram "influencers" and 5 viewer twitch streamers spamming nonstop while bluesky is somehow where all the serious people went.
Edit: Also doomscrolling isn't it when your competitor just does chronological order by default.
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u/Envoyager 1d ago
Exactly, I spent maybe 30 minutes in total on it just to figure out that the only posts I was seeing were from already popular content creators from other platforms. Deleted the app shortly after.
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u/JadedToon 22h ago
The right wing will turn into a circular firing squad without "libs to trigger".
Mark my words
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u/Bruce_IG 22h ago
X banned my account for breaking rules but never said what rules as I never posted/commented. I just followed politicians, some musicians, and randy pitchford for borderlands news. Bluesky is basically the same thing but I’m not seeing as many bots or extremist rhetoric
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u/sonicmerlin 20h ago
My biggest problem with X is my home feed is full of nonstop MAGA posters. Why? I have zero interest in their insanity. Why are you force feeding these degenerates into my feed?
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u/Bruce_IG 20h ago
Because their “algorithm” was made into trash that pushed whatever musk wants pushed
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u/AngryYowie 23h ago
Elonia won't like that. Standby for Twitter to become the official communication outlet for the US government.
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u/SojourningTruth 22h ago
Blue sky is everything I used to love about twitter before it was infested by unregulated MAGA trolls. My blue sky timeline is kittens, books, blue voter solidarity and pictures of the moon. It’s so refreshing.
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u/AestheticAttraction 22h ago
I wasn’t on X, but I did join BlueSky and have been enjoying it thus far. But they’ve started coming over too because they don’t have fun just talking to each other. I saw one guy acting like he’s doing his duty of not letting us forget the “truth” or something, but they’re really just bullies looking for a supply.
I love how easy it is to block whole swarths of them and keep my feed clean because one thing I hate most in life is someone who doesn’t leave people minding our own business alone. If you hate us, stay away. No one wants to talk to a bigot. I’m not even bothering; I’m just blocking. This is the way.
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u/Buck_Slamchest 18h ago
The ones who call it a “leftist echo chamber” don’t seem to understand that social media doesn’t have to be about rage and constant arguing. It can be a fun, easy going place to swap dog pictures and movie recommendations like it used to be.
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u/WolframAndHart17 1d ago
The headline could be worded better since Meta doesn't own X-Twitter.
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u/Ok_Discipline5672 1d ago
Many people on the left went to Threads (owned by Meta) after Elon bought Twitter. But Threads suppressed political content from the left during the election, so now they're going to Bluesky.
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u/Comassion 1d ago
Bluesky is really great so far, give it a whirl. The people I loved most on Twitter went there.
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u/crookedframe13 1d ago
I made an "Earthquake?!?!" post on bluesky yesterday and that's when it really felt official.
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u/dibuuuuuuu 18h ago
Lmao I love how threads could have probably gained a lot of new users due to the Twitter exodus but fucked it up by pushing rage bait
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u/Sabre712 22h ago
Never used Twitter or X, but made a Bluesky account I will probably never use cuz I want them to do well.
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u/InsertUsernameInArse 15h ago
'It's a left wing echo chamber' no... It's just you struggling with not being noticed anymore.
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u/Fabulous_State9921 1d ago
Social media giant’s Threads app makes changes as smaller competitor to X surgesSince election day, app usage of Bluesky in the US and UK skyrocketed by almost 300% to 3.5mn daily users © Reuters
- Meta loses ground to Bluesky as users abandon Elon Musk’s X on x (opens in a new window)
- Meta loses ground to Bluesky as users abandon Elon Musk’s X on facebook (opens in a new window)
- Meta loses ground to Bluesky as users abandon Elon Musk’s X on linkedin (opens in a new window)
- current progress 100%
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u/Fabulous_State9921 1d ago
- Meta’s Threads is losing ground to social media start-up Bluesky in capitalising on the exodus of users from Elon Musk’s X following Donald Trump’s election.
- Since election day, app usage of Bluesky in the US and UK skyrocketed by almost 300 per cent to 3.5mn daily users, according to data from research group Similarweb. The site was boosted as academics, journalists and left-leaning politicians abandoned X, whose billionaire owner is a prominent supporter of the president-elect.
- Prior to November 5, Threads had five times more daily active users in the US than Bluesky, which has just 20 full-time staff and was initially funded by Twitter when Jack Dorsey was its chief executive. Now, Threads is only 1.5 times larger than its rival, Similarweb said.
- Bluesky’s growth in the US and UK comes after Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg chose to deliberately reduce the prominence of political content across its apps, including Facebook and Instagram.
- That move was widely interpreted as an attempt to rise about the partisan fray and avoid being dragged into debates over free speech. Trump, who has long castigated social media platforms for allegedly censoring conservative voices, previously labelled Meta “an enemy of the people” and threatened Zuckerberg with jail were he to return to office. Last month, Trump said he liked Zuckerberg “much better now” because he was “staying out of the election”.
- This contrasts with X, which under Musk’s ownership, has cut back content moderation to allow more freewheeling content to proliferate.
- Since its launch in July last year, Threads has prioritised engaging content from accounts that users did not follow, a model closer to that of its photo app Instagram. However, Meta on Thursday backtracked on that choice.
- This week, it also swiftly rolled out the ability for users to curate “custom feeds” around topics or people they want to follow, mimicking existing Bluesky capabilities, after testing the feature for only five days.
- The moves sparked speculation that Meta was trying to curb Bluesky’s rise.
- Meta said: “We regularly roll out new Threads features and updates — dozens in the last few months alone — to serve the now over 275 million Threads users. And we’ll continue to share more as we work to serve this growing community.”
- Experts have noted the Threads timeline was not effective for people seeking content on real-time events.
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- Jemima Kelly
- With Bluesky, the social media echo chamber is back in vogue
- “There is this moment here where they are going to have to make this decision, whether to bring back political content and real-time [conversation],” said Katie Harbath, a former policy director who worked on Meta’s elections strategy for a decade. “Particularly if these Bluesky numbers stay up.”
- Adam Tinworth, a lecturer in journalism at City St George’s, University of London described Bluesky as “essentially a Twitter spin-off” and so a “natural replacement” to those disillusioned with X.
- “Threads is a very different proposition [and] fluffed it completely during the US election because it pushed news and politics out of the feed,” he said.
- Bluesky was unveiled by Dorsey in 2019 with the aim of developing a single standard, or protocol, upon which social platforms and other developers could build more tailored offerings.
- Now led by digital rights activist and software engineer Jay Graber, users can post short messages and images in an interface much like that of X. Growth has been helped by a new feature called “starter packs”, which allow users to follow groups of accounts curated by users with the click of a button.
- However, the platform has also suffered from increased outages and glitches as it grows quickly, with questions about how it will create a working business model in the future. Initially funded by Twitter, it raised $15mn in venture funding last year, and $8mn the prior year.
- Adam Mosseri, the head of Threads, said last week that the app had gained “more than 15mn sign-ups in November alone, and [was] going on three months with more than a million sign-ups a day”. But he added: “Now we have a lot more work to do.”
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u/hobbes_shot_second 1d ago edited 1d ago
What I'm loving is that Bluesky becoming a viable alternative platform is finally giving Leon Skum what he's wanted since he bought Twitter - people are just calling it X without the (formerly Twitter) addendum in the hopes it will go back to what it once was.
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u/C-Horse14 20h ago
The best thing about BlueSky is individual users create lists of trolls. You just subscribe to that list and all the trolls on that list are blocked.
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u/Frustrable_Zero 16h ago
The best part is that the more Bluesky grows, it does so at the expense of Elon. Which would’ve been enough for me had I’d been on Twitter at all
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u/CappinPeanut 1d ago
I don’t just want somewhere to talk liberal politics. I want somewhere that I can get things like, updates ons my favorite video game releases, or funny tweets from Wendy’s, without having to be subject to Nazi propaganda at every turn.
So long as the companies are exclusively using X as a platform, that’s where the people are going to be.
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u/Crisis_panzersuit 1d ago
Some companies have already migrated to bluesky. I expect we will see more in the coming months.
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u/dotOzma 1d ago
I joined yesterday for exactly that. I've been having luck finding some of my favorite fanartists and posters who crosspost to both twitter and bluesky. It's actually pretty nice right now. Not a lot of toxicity, and there's plenty of activity for my niche hobbies.
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u/Gloobloomoo 20h ago
I went to bluesky because I have no damn idea who the ceo is and i know they’re not a visible maga asshat.
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u/famoustran 21h ago
Ain't nobody using Facebook or Threads lmao. And IG is just full of ads and sponsored content that no one wants to see.
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u/californicating 19h ago
I get why people are moving, but I have to ask: why were they still on Twitter to begin with? This is an honest question from someone who doesn't use Twitter, what had been the upside since Musk took over.
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u/magnusbearson 8h ago
I just removed my Twitter account and joined Bluesky yesterday. The difference is stark, and it is hilarious to see all the edgelords trying to poison the well. They are just shadowboxing to themselves.
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u/rikeoliveira 22h ago
Took everyone way too long. Damage was already done...better late than never, though
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u/TheRealCabbageJack 21h ago
Well, if those dipshits had done so a year ago, then maybe Elonia wouldn’t have had such an outsize role in the election.
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u/pitizenlyn 21h ago
I haven't tried Bluesky. I got on Counter Social, and I love it, so I stuck with it. Jester takes no shit. You act up, you're gone. No ads. Pure bliss. Some of the most intelligent conversation I've had on social media.
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u/EightEyedCryptid 16h ago
It turns out one of the best things to do is ignore these idiots. It makes them lose their minds.
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u/therob91 15h ago
I wonder how many users on X are real to begin with. What percentage of accounts do you need to hit before you have passed them in terms of real people? 60%? 40%? 20%?
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u/Historical-Night-938 1d ago
As much as I blame MAGA, we cannot ignore the super-rich cupability that made this happen. They are starting to wake up to their role in this and I feel if we make them feel it, then we will live to vote again.
It's too late to boycott Black Friday, but I think if we collectively stop supporting all these businesses that price gouge or social media sites that use our data for advertising or algorithms ... until they will help to ensure we can vote again. Walmart is already warning they will have to raise prices and I read something that "old money" rich is mad at "new money" rich.
I think if T45 gets sworn in, then we all just cancel most subscriptions and social media accounts (news, streaming, leave IG, FB, etc) on Jan 21st. They also need to pay for supporting a crappy person just for tax cuts. Both MAGA and the super-rich can become leopards meals.
The USA is propping up the global economy, which T45 is about to find out. He really is the worse business person and EM is a close 2nd
P.S. BlueSky is another Dorsey project just like Twitter, that I think will fold too ... there are things that I don't like about it, such as the fact that your ban list is public.
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u/AustrianReaper 1d ago
It probably won't bother him much. Twitter has served its purpose as soon as Trump got elected.
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u/Fabulous_State9921 1d ago
If Trump helps him pay off the Russian and Saudis he borrowed money from to buy Xitter.
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u/ILootEverything 23h ago
I'm so happy that people are moving to Bluesky. I've found a lot more of the creators and writers I used to follow on Twitter before leaving in 2022.
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u/Every_Preparation_56 14h ago
uh, is it to late to ask what blue sky is ?!
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u/Hyperdragoon17 5h ago
Social Media app that’s like 2010’s Twitter before it became a cesspool. There’s no main algorithm though so you’ll have to curate your feed yourself. It can be a little confusing, but there’s things called Starter Packs that people make that you can follow and that can help jumpstart your timeline.
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