Oh no

[cimorene]

Was reading some Hugos controversy (...) and I kept seeing Bluesky mentioned a lot, so I finally looked it up on Wikipedia. And oh no, that looks like a terrible idea... the same people who were behind Twitter enshittification?!

I saw someone say they were so tired of social platforms funded by venture capital, and I really feel that, but the alternatives seem to be DW and mastodon. I guess I need to investigate the latter again, which I've been meaning to get around to for at least a couple of years now.

It feels like using DW for everything might be nicer, but then I definitely do understand the benefit of having a shorter form alternative.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

the same guy who founded Twitter, certainly, I don't know anything else about either the history of Bluesky or the pre-muskrat history of Twitter

[cimorene]

Well, it had already started adding ads and had made multiple attempts to switch to a non-chronological feed; the biggest issues were abuse and non-banning of Nazis, though, I think. It wasn't really anything compared to what's happened since.

[ursamajor]

Yeah, I am ... apathetic, I guess, about what exists out there for short-form text-based conversation/social right now. Because Threads is still a Meta property and entirely beholden to algorithmic BS; Bluesky has ... a few people I know, but none of my friend groups have centralized on it; Mastodon has some people but again none of my friends posting consistently on it. And at least the latter two recognize the primacy of reverse chronological reading order, but none of them have ended up being the place where my people are, across the various spheres of my life. And Discords and Slacks occupy an entire other sphere, because you have to know about them to be invited to even see the conversations. And also it just feels like so many of my friends and peers just don't have time for online stuff outside the walled garden anymore, even their Facebook and Instagram posts are fewer and further between, and hard to find even when they do make them because above-mentioned algorithmic crap.

[cimorene]

Yeah, it's so sad that so much of fannish like, fandom-related discussion has moved onto discords. It's so much more insular and the accessibility is so poor in comparison even when you access the history! I mean, there's a reason we used mailing lists and message boards alongside IRC back when. Chatrooms are just not the ideal format for preservation!

[phosfate]

Also Discord is blocked a lot of places as a game site.

[msilverstar]

I quite like Mostodon, it feels like the good parts of Twitter (except most of my friends aren't there). I can recommend the server fandom.ink as a very safe corner of the Fediverse

[cimorene]

That's good to know! I've heard that one mentioned before

[princessofgeeks]

I don't know what I would do without Dreamwidth and I hope I never have to find out.

[cimorene]

Fortunately not venture capital funded, so you're unlikely to!

[phosfate]

I like Bluesky so far. Mastodon is like watching paint dry. I'm keeping my Twitter so nobody can snatch my name, but right now, fuck that place.

[laurenthemself]

Whereabouts on Mastodon are you, if I may ask? I can invite you to https://blorbo.social/about if that appeals; it's run by fans for fans.

[syderia]

Count me in with the people who like mastodon.
A lot of the people I used to follow on Twitter have gone on to Bluesky. I haven't, because I don't trust Jack, and I've found a nice spirit of community on Mastodon, similar to the cat Dreamwidth feels.

[laurenthemself]

I use Mastodon, and if blorbo.social as an instance appeals to you, I can send youy an invite; you can basically sign up for more or less any instance and still be able to follow other people, but blorbo.social was founded by fandom friends of mine. More info here: https://blorbo.social/about .

[cesy]

I see a lot of fandom people have namesquatted on Bluesky and some are active there, some are active on Mastodon, but neither yet has the critical mass in my friendship group for me to check it regularly. For the ones on Mastodon, I have the RSS added to my DW reading page which is nice.