I read Chris Webber’s essay and I kinda agree. Bluesky is really just another twitter.
That being said I think we are entering into an era of diversification, not perhaps how we would like (through federation) but rather, through people understanding finally that the platform itself is making a choice in what kind of content it serves. We used to have this idea that the platform was just a “neutral third party” like a phone company. But in fact, it’s a publisher with its own editorial line. It pushes that line through algorithms and what voices it wants to amplify or suppress.
As people understand this more, they are going to be much more critical of not just “the media” but also “the platform” and why it chose to show that media to its audience.
Mastodon and Xitter are missing a lot of the quality of life features of Bluesky.
Good user verification
Add lists
Block lists
Subscribable topic feeds
Configurable algorithms
These things make Bluesky very easy to get started with and more powerful even than Xitter was. It’s simply a better product if you have any requirements other than federation. Getting a good feed up and running doesn’t take more than an hour or two. It’s basically possible now on Twitter and it’s very difficult on Mastodon.
Yes, its federation is more or less bullshit, but for most users, that feature is a distant priority when compared to the rest.
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I read Chris Webber’s essay and I kinda agree. Bluesky is really just another twitter.
That being said I think we are entering into an era of diversification, not perhaps how we would like (through federation) but rather, through people understanding finally that the platform itself is making a choice in what kind of content it serves. We used to have this idea that the platform was just a “neutral third party” like a phone company. But in fact, it’s a publisher with its own editorial line. It pushes that line through algorithms and what voices it wants to amplify or suppress.
As people understand this more, they are going to be much more critical of not just “the media” but also “the platform” and why it chose to show that media to its audience.
It’s more like a better Twitter
Mastodon and Xitter are missing a lot of the quality of life features of Bluesky.
These things make Bluesky very easy to get started with and more powerful even than Xitter was. It’s simply a better product if you have any requirements other than federation. Getting a good feed up and running doesn’t take more than an hour or two. It’s basically possible now on Twitter and it’s very difficult on Mastodon.
Yes, its federation is more or less bullshit, but for most users, that feature is a distant priority when compared to the rest.