There are other signs too... Not only are the vast majority of people I follow now here, but they are also posting less on Twitter. My feed is starting to look like tumbleweed.
I’m still ‘instinctively’ going to Twitter but getting better at catching myself and coming here instead. But if the momentum here continues then it won’t be too long before there isn’t really any reason to not just disregard Twitter entirely.
Currently listening to your Peter Mandelson interview and it’s quite the ride re Trump and Musk. Struggling with the logic that we can’t call out authoritarian fascistic behaviour because the great majority would not understand the words.
I’ve not been able to delete X yet, but I’ve removed it from the Home Screen and the Bluesky logo is sat where it was. Habit bringing me on this instead.
With you 100% - I was a prolific bird app user until about 5 days ago. As of now I’m checking that feed maybe twice a day, whereas bluesky is now a perpetually open tab in my browser.
I love it because the ads in most other places were driving me mad. I stopped watching certain TV channels for the ads, then got bombarded in s media. I now have only what I have chosen to follow, & I can even tweak in the app settings to get the best of who I follow in my feed. That’s a big win!
Unfortunately, Windows is the goto for controls programming, otherwise I would ditch it, things that could be done with a couple of clicks now take about 5 or six, and many of the crucial settings are hidden, but it is what it is, and I don't think Microsoft are interested in my opinion.
Hope it can keep the momentum up; there's been a slow but steady takeup of Bluesky over the past year or so, but this one does seem different. Lots and lots of new accounts, flurry of activity etc. It's feeling like a genuine shift.
@lewisgoodall.com - is it correct that the real @jonsopel1.bsky.social is now on Bluesky?
I ask because his post announcing his arrival didn’t include any mention of his book, so I’m some what dubious as to whether its the real JS or an impersonator… 😉
I gave up today, just popped on to see if the same topics were being talked about, in the main they are, but the tone is very different, I could almost feel my blood pressure rising as I read. So I bit the bullet and deleted the app. FREEDOM👏
Yeah sometimes you just need to see someone getting their head smashed in to give you the little dopamine boost but on the whole it’s largely pretty decent on here
It’s just gone nuts. I hadn’t heard of it before last week. I was a twitter addict for the football, politics and cat videos. Within a weekend I’m full time bluesky and it’s like a big comfy blanket
Crazy the growth on here. Think this account was on 20-30k this time last week. Now broken 100k. Astonishing how suddenly the X glacier has just melted.
I think people have wanted an alternative for a while, it just wasn't obvious where to go. The election and Musk's behaviour around it were the push people needed to go and find it (or make it).
James, Carol, and Lewis wouldn't be here if a massive amount of non-media people hadn't made the move to come here first. This move has been led by the people. It's good that they've followed us at last.
Yes it was the regular folk that kept this platform going. I've been here for around 10 months I think, so I noticed the upsurge when Vorders joined, obviously the US election has had a massive effect, but it helped that big accounts amplify the move.
I've been on Bluesky for a few months but it is only last week that I finally started to use it as a Twitter replacement. I'm glad I stuck around through the quiet months.
I dont think it's just Elons political leanings that have caused this to happen, it's that everything just works better on this app and you are pretty sure that people you are interacting with are actual humans!
Also the interaction levels on here make me realise just how much for how long they were being suppressed on X if you weren’t spouting conspiratorial hard right tropes or misinformation… https://bsky.app/profile/lewisgoodall.com/post/3lbdb73jsvs2y
1) lots had left Twitter completely
2) lots (like me) were still on it but had grown weary of it - not just because of the bad stuff but the ads, the general poor user experience etc
3) regardless, did it need a reset, a spring clean as such, to reengage?
As soon as the blue tick for anyone who paid for it came in then we lost mostly everything that made Twitter worthwhile with only the most important, favoured, or reasonable comments being promoted.
This is so true. I had stopped all interaction in the other place for fear of being shouted at for having an opinion. So far, I’m enjoying the interactions.
And isn't it wonderfully refreshing that the first thirty replies to posts made by you, Jon or Emily aren't from bots, trolls and swivel eyed loonies? Viva Bluesky!
I wouldn’t be surprised if many people actually stopped engaging in case they got called a “commie twat” or something similar. Certainly, in my case if I saw the other replies to a tweet were particularly bad, I would hesitate to respond in case I faced the same abuse.
I had my X account on private so could never interact - to stop a constant stream of porn bot follows. I'm sure others did that too.
Also I've noticed people more likely to call it X on here once they've left, as though to make sacred the historical memory of twitter, and forsake the new X.
It's not just you. Nobodies like me have three times as many followers in a week and get engagement from well known personalities, internationally known actors, journalists and everyone. It seems like an actual conversation between everyone, famous or not is happening here as equals.
And by design too; it's all bots on Twitter, so the abuse and intimidation all part of Musk's plan to shout over the top of anyone with a different opinion.
Personally, one of the reasons I closed my Twitter (I refuse to call it X) was the number of bots that auto replied to everything /1
It would be really interesting to hear a followup to the newsagents episode which was explaining reasons for staying over there. Obviously things have changed here to make it more viable. But I’d be interested in all your thoughts now on pros/cons and any reflections. Like this one
Just a couple of months ago, you asked the question on the pod & Emily replied with a load of self-serving guff about how it was 'fingers on the pulse' and too valuable a tool to give up.
It would be interesting to hear her thoughts now more people have woken up & smelt Musk's Trump!
100%. I wasn't a big account at all on X. A little over 1k. Yet NO ONE saw anything I posted. Even replies were restricted to ppl already in the thread. The difference is astounding. That X is run by someone who calls himself a free speech absolutist is the biggest lie since goebbels.
It's probably something to do with the algorithm. Just watched a video on YouTube of a guy that posted identical messages on here and X. Despite only having a tenth of the followers on here he had 4 times as much interaction.
Ok, but please stop reposting almost every comment people make about your posts. Everyone can read comments themselves if they want. No meed to fill everyone’s feed with people telling us how wonderful you are. 🙄
What specifically makes this unimaginable compared to a couple of weeks ago? The timing of the exodus simultaneously seems correct and odd. To an extent it feels like we should have all gone over a year ago.
It was invite-only last year on launch Chris when I first tried and only went public this year. It looks like BS is enjoying its Peak of Inflated Expectations phase and the stampede of an Early Majority triggererd by the election.
Definitely, and a lot to do with the fact that it looks and feels very familiar, I never had the same feeling with Threads (I did try). Hopefully Bsky will keep up the momentum and see its usage drop like threads did, it help that people see it as the goto app.
Likewise. I really had to train myself with Threads, but in the end got bored of tall the engagement bait. It was actually your post about the site being biased against news content that convinced me to try over here. I'm 2 days in, and overwhelmed by how many are here. It's like Twitter 5 years ago
I'm also checking into the other place less often. It used to be where the action was, but now, not so much as my favourite people are here now. Also, the comparison is getting more stark. One place is your favourite local, the other is that pub where you know a fight's inevitably going to kick off.
Yes. Bluesky on the front page on my phone; the other place on page five, between the app that tells me which bins are collected when and the local garden centre’s loyalty scheme. Actually those two are way more useful…
Think it’s also the familiarity of the calm blue and white app icon rather than the cold hard aggressive tone of the other place’s steely edged icon for me.
Me too. I Want to close my twitter account but at the moment,there are a few accounts I really want to stay in touch with that have'nt moved here yet...so I will hang on a bit longer.
I just de-activated my account completely last week, because sometime the best thing in the World is the chance to tell an entirely rancid multi-billionaire like Elon to 'Go Fuck himself'. 😉
Already relegated the site that should not be named to the 5th page on my phone and notifications are off. Not completely deleted as I’m concerned about withdrawal cravings, each day gets a little easier..
I realised earlier I'd been on here for over 20 minutes without seeing anything that made me tut, swear or turn it off.
Really positive difference compared to the other place and hope it lasts. 🤞
I've deleted my Twitter account. There are also services on here for porting archives from X into your history on here too to make it indexed and searchable.
Yes same here, just waiting for one or two accounts to move over and then I’ll have no use for the other place. It’s nice to scroll and not get angry, frustrated or fall into despair
Me too. It helps if you jump and just delete. No matter the urge to check on what “they” are still talking about. I think we can guess at this point. So glad to have made the switch around the same time as you lot from LBC. When is LBC moving?!
The most refreshing thing over here is that replies aren’t monopolised by Musk fanboys with their pathetic blue ticks. You can actually go into comments and find a reasonable discussion.
By the time I closed my account the other day my feed was almost entirely limited to posts from media outlets and journalists. Almost nothing from individuals.
A swift block and they cease to be an issue 😊- can't avoid objectionable people appearing on a public platform, but can certainly curate things to your liking.
I've been doing the instinctual "www.tw enter" on my web browser when I want to procrastinate, seeing I'm not longer on it, smiling, and hitting Apple+W to close the tab. So satisfying.
Boring question! What is the planned running time of the News Agents show at the Albert Hall please? Asking on behalf of a couple of oldies coming up to the big city! We need to know what time to book our return train journey. Thanks very much 🤔
Six months ago, my order was Insta (get it out of the way, no need to check it again today), Twitter, FB, Threads. Now it's Insta (same reason), Bluesky, Threads, FB, Twitter.
Lewis, my muscle memory used to make me click on the X icon but after I moved it off my phone’s homepage and put the Blue Sky in the same spot on the first page, instant switch. An unthinking switch. ☺️
It’s quite a personal tipping point when that starts to happen, isn’t it? Relieved to discover that my curiosity can be rewarded without having to also be appalled…
I've removed Twitter from my social media app folder and placed Bluesky where the Twitter icon used to be. So much of it is muscle memory! That's what's really got me using Bluesky.
I've actually rearranged the icons in my 'Socials' folder on my phone so that this app is top left, where my finger automatically goest to when I open that folder. I've moved X to page 2
I assume you are still cross posting. I’m not looking at X to see what you have posted there. Would be interesting to hear if there is a difference in the quality and quantity of the two audiences.
Have been here for over a year (when an 'invite' code was required). It wasn't exactly tumbleweed central, but... Then sometime at the end of last week, it reached a critical mass of users that has, as you intimate, made it the 'go-to' first SM site. X will be dead to me very soon.
Same here, it’s also nice to see more and more of my previous follows signing up. Genuinely a pleasant experience compared to twitter and I have everything crossed it stays that way.
I removed Twitter from my home screen yesterday. Now TNAs are all here on 🦋, & my beloved @middlesbroughfc.bsky.social, I don’t feel I need to go back to the dark side. Ironically 2 weeks ago I didn’t even know about this site.
I’m not a big one for nostalgia but even so I am loving how much flicking open Bluesky reminds me of Twitter Dipping of years gone by (before it got converted into a Rage Generator)
It’s very easy to “us and them” what happened at X but it’s simple: the algorithm was changed to show everyone the views they would most deplore. Then they just sat back. To the alt right “trolls” our liberal opinions are just as offensive. So they bite. It’s not a pile-on. It’s simple mass baiting.
They'll slither their way over soon enough. Watch out for a new phenomenon: politicians who'll post opposing views on each platform, while claiming to mean the same thing.
e.g. Climate change -
X: Net zero has gone too far!
BS: We must do more to save the earth!
Comments
🤓🌱🕊
Can you explain why Labour won't come over to the blue skies?
I ask because his post announcing his arrival didn’t include any mention of his book, so I’m some what dubious as to whether its the real JS or an impersonator… 😉
#Trumpisatwat
#Muskisatwat
#Magaisacult
Steadily climbing #5-10 in the rest of Europe + Japan & S. Korea, also appeared in #10-20 in the rest of the world and climbing
BlueSky is number one app in all English speaking countries + now several in Europe. Soon more to follow.
It's a bit hypnotic
Twitter is now nothing more than a hard right racket for grifters and trolls.
On BlueSky there seems to be decent, respectful conversations
1) lots had left Twitter completely
2) lots (like me) were still on it but had grown weary of it - not just because of the bad stuff but the ads, the general poor user experience etc
3) regardless, did it need a reset, a spring clean as such, to reengage?
Also I've noticed people more likely to call it X on here once they've left, as though to make sacred the historical memory of twitter, and forsake the new X.
Personally, one of the reasons I closed my Twitter (I refuse to call it X) was the number of bots that auto replied to everything /1
It has served it's purpose for Musk after Trump was elected
It would be interesting to hear her thoughts now more people have woken up & smelt Musk's Trump!
That now-instinctive process has helped the switch infinitely easier.
A sign of the times…
Sans suprematists, flat earthers, tinfoil lunatics, fascists etc
Meantime, here's a vintage classic 😂
Be the change!
Me too.
Really positive difference compared to the other place and hope it lasts. 🤞
@support.bsky.team
👃 😅😂 🤓 🌱🕊
😃
I’m wary of subscribing to whole blocklists because I’ve seen quite a few where the inclusion criteria seem a little enthusiastic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi_Farms
https://bsky.app/profile/jburnmurdoch.bsky.social/post/3lbdekbj4r22b
Blue Sky just needs to be on top of the fakers
Me too. Twitter is there in the background but just for my direct message group. Soon as I have one on here I’m off it
You'll like yourself more next morning.
My Facebook feed is full of AI generated pro musky pages.
My blocked pages list must be extremely long.
Doesn't feel like it's a constant screaming match between people you barely know
https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FTwitter%2Fcomments%2F1crp56l%2Ftwitter_mobile_consumes_a_lot_of_internet_data%2F&utm_campaign=aga&utm_source=agsadl1%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4
e.g. Climate change -
X: Net zero has gone too far!
BS: We must do more to save the earth!
Even though you occasionally make me want to vomit.
Sorry. But it's true.
Please stop normalising Bad enough