after 10 years of big social media telling us no one wants posts that link out to other websites, it turns out it was really just the big social media companies that didn't want that - ThreadSky

willoremus.com • 220 days ago

after 10 years of big social media telling us no one wants posts that link out to other websites, it turns out it was really just the big social media companies that didn't want that

Reposted from Mike Masnick

So I don't check my analytics that much, but this is the first time I've noticed that Bluesky topped the list of referrers to Techdirt (for non-search based traffic, Google still sent a lot more).

Comments

joejerome.com•220 days ago

There’s a big wide web out there that everyone mooched off of and then gave nothing back.

peterme.com•220 days ago

i've never heard big social media saying 'no one wants posts that link out.' it's always just been a ploy to keep you 'engaged' on their service.

willoremus.com•220 days ago

they don't say it quite like that. they do things like post "guidance for creators" that includes advice like "we've found that users prefer video posted natively"

willoremus.com•220 days ago

and then (in at least some cases) they back it up with algorithmic weightings that ensure the prophecy is fulfilled

artlung.com•220 days ago

"That's such a nice link, it would be a shame if nobody saw it."

pdutta.net•220 days ago

Facebook deserves a special callout here.

Threads’ deprioritising of posts with links (leading to “link in comments” type posts) is particularly icky.

noeldickover.bsky.social•220 days ago

Is that why they do that???? I didn't know that but am always annoyed when I have to go down a level.

thoth.ptnote.dev•218 days ago

Yeah, basically every platform deprioritizes links, which is a REAL PAIN IN THE ASS for the rest of the universe.

noeldickover.bsky.social•217 days ago

Does @bluesky do that as well?

thoth.ptnote.dev•217 days ago

No, bluesky does not deprioritize links.

noeldickover.bsky.social•217 days ago

Love it. Which I knew that on Twitter rebranded as porn site. It explains a lot.

mikedancy.bsky.social•220 days ago

I hope there is a BlueSky version of Facebook on the horizon

yaygya.ca•220 days ago

I remember Diaspora Social was trying to be just that. The project still exists, but it’s pretty niche.

thoth.ptnote.dev•218 days ago

The Diaspora folks seem to be pretty cool. The project doesn't seem super active, but it did get a release this year? Hubzilla and Friendica also both support the Diaspora protocol and like Diaspora they're more facebookey and have a richer social vocabulary than Mastodon or bsky.

jonmasterson.bsky.social•219 days ago

Or maybe the entire concept of Facebook was creepy and flawed and it should just die

mikedancy.bsky.social•219 days ago

The one thing I do like about facebook is it’s no BS tolerance for fake names. I like the bird app and even here. I hate cowards who hide behind fake profiles.

vraghuram.bsky.social•220 days ago

I wonder what will happen when big media outlets start demanding link taxes from BlueSky as they do from big social media platforms today. Would bsky be forced to be more hostile to links?

davidjorgonson.bsky.social•220 days ago

Not related, since Twitter is not subject to those laws, and discourages all external links, not just news sites. And is fine with news content, just not with links that might lead to users leaving the site. So-called link taxes on Google & Facebook are on content, not just links.

jonmasterson.bsky.social•219 days ago

Link tax? When Google/Facebook steal content from other websites to keep people inside their walled garden, they should have to pay for that content. This is not a walled garden. Websites value all the traffic they can get, and it appears they will get a lot more from Bluesky

555tee.bsky.social•218 days ago

Now they should bring back the RSS readers!!

drewcurtis.bsky.social•220 days ago

Even dumber, turns out linking out has no negative impact on site traffic. And possibly a positive one. Known this on @fark.com for years

tboggia.bsky.social•220 days ago

I stopped using Facebook because every time I posted a link my posts got eaten by rats in a basement.

ezralevin.bsky.social•220 days ago

cc: @semaforben.bsky.social given his book Traffic. Would be curious on his take here.

savthorpecap.bsky.social•220 days ago

That book rules. Maybe even worth a reread in the coming weeks.

ezralevin.bsky.social•220 days ago

legitimately fascinating

johnfallot.bsky.social•220 days ago

My hunch is, if this was deliberate, it was a ploy to drive up “time on site” metrics.

willoremus.com•220 days ago

it was, and it was

kerthulhu75.bsky.social•220 days ago

Reminded of Jason Pargin and the Cracked hands talking about the death of comedy websites.

jasonpaddock.bsky.social•220 days ago

Embedded content changed the way people experience the internet. I much prefer independent websites that can create novel and innovative experiences, which is only incentivized if people leave feeds and go to actual websites. While less convenient in some circumstances I much prefer links to sites.

luxawellness.bsky.social•220 days ago

Incentivization is different, so they act in our interests instead of the interests of advertisers 🙂

francoisknyc.bsky.social•220 days ago

I never thought disabling hyperlinks was that 'no one wanted it'.

From the very start, it clearly was about keeping users penned into a walled garden, too passive and dopamin'ed to attempt to go elsewhere.

The saddest part of this being that they were 99% right!

...also probably because catgifs 😹

runswithspoons.bsky.social•220 days ago

This is one of the things I dislike most about tiktok. You can't click through to read citations or references.

Instead you have to watch a video of someone's face in front of a partial screenshot of reference material.

Maybe the reason why tiktok is so bad at determining what is actually true

turningphrases.bsky.social•220 days ago

I wonder who might benefit from how TikTok works and is designed to spread disinformation?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/24/tiktok-election-misinformation-voting-politics

crazystevied.bsky.social•219 days ago

Correct, they are actively trying to hold your eyeballs instead of creating a good user experience.

daphnek.bsky.social•220 days ago

This would be true in the alternate timeline where Google didn’t kill Reader. Probably that’s what they meant.

jim.londoncentric.media•220 days ago

This is undercounting due to the IOS Bluesky clicks not registering!

thatpinguino.bsky.social•220 days ago

I hope Blue Sky can continue to resist the siren song of an advertisement driven revenue model. Allowing ads is what incentivizes keeping people on your app for as long as possible. If you keep that revenue model out, you probably can maintain an organic link environment in perpetuity.

thoth.ptnote.dev•218 days ago

They can't use that model. The moment they do, someone will put out an ad-free bluesky client and everyone will switch to it, and there's nothing they can do to stop it without destroying everything.

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