I read in The Times that X/Twitter is shedding users at a rate of 14% a month — on account of too many trolls, I assume. Meanwhile BlueSky, the Times says, has been growing by 1 million a day.
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As soon as I learned about it, I signed up! I left Twitter before Musk took over and I never looked back. It's exciting to be back tweeting again! Howdy all!!!
And not just the trolls. The relentless stream of porn adds and fake porn phishing followers were a factor for me. Most of all though was not wanting to be in any way supportive of a billionaire fascist using it as a tool for massive disinformation.
Impressive but needs to be a bit faster. To get to a billion users within a year it needs to add 2.5 to 3 million a day. I hope it does.
(As a journo who writes about the intersection of media and tech I'm spoilt by scale)
Comparing a percentage with an actual figure seems a tad mathematically illiterate, but unfortunately typical of journalists. X has several hundred million accounts. Bsky still only 20 million including already spammy sex bots. A very very long way to grow.
Assume Bluesky are working on anti-bot solutions otherwise it’ll soon be overrun. But it’s a small team managing a huge surge so that could be an impossible task
Good morning @johnsimpsonnews.bsky.social . My list of gripes was growing, but the constant downlisting of Ukrainian & pro UA accounts,the clear bias for Trump/MAGA, RU troll bots + finally threatening Europe if we dare try to sanction X was it for me.
And having poked my nose into the other place today, I've got half a dozen new followers who aren't wearing much in their profile pics, haven't posted anything, don't have any followers and follow thousands of people. Sums it up really.
Personal view… I don’t think the Xodus is because of trolls, I think it’s because of a lack of effective moderation, a lack of belief in the balance of the algorithm and a level of revulsion at the recent political behaviour of its owner. 🤔
As soon as you go to Twitter you know why, it is a rightwing cesspool of disinformation and fascists who are dreaming of revenge against all Trump's enemies!
What's more, I won't end my twitter account, so those numbers don't include (people like) me.
It seems like @bsky.app is just springing to life!
I will just get my information and conversations over here.
I don't need twitter anymore, it seems.
I'm a happy person.
Too many trolls.....and one irritating little troll in particular called Elon who kept popping up every four posts or so to tell me how right he was about everything...
More useful to know how 14% of X users per month relates to 1 million a day BlueSky additions. Also presumably a proportion of those BlueSky additions haven’t also left X.
All support to BlueSky here, but what you say isn’t terribly meaningful, sorry
Wow, that's really interesting! Social media dynamics are changing so fast. It'll be fascinating to see how platforms like X/Twitter and BlueSky adapt to these shifts. Thanks for sharing this insight!
First of all there is moderation here, actual moderation, so what was tolerated, even encouraged, on X will not work here.
Secondly you can mute or block people.
And a key difference is that blocks are visible and block lists can be created, copied and used.
Without a system of genuine verification don't see how any system like this can protect itself from bad actors. After watching Twitter go from being a great place to post to being the plaything of a billionaire don't think we can afford complacency. Risk small while bluesky was small but now...?
Only after ditching Twitter for here has it occurred how much I tuned out the abuse & mendacity. This place may not stay that way but it serves as a contrast & that'll do for now.
I am keeping my account locked for now and deleting posts. I do not want my followers and @ to end up in someone else’s hands.
I joined BlueSky back in September of 2023
It has exploded in users lately and I am loving it!!
I don't know - if left after the US election, I would have left before, the user experience was awful & the for you feed the inverse of what its title suggests. My mistake was not letting my followers know, but I'm not logging back in to tell them as I'll risk being lured down the rabbit hole
Friendly reminder John to take your daily medications! “Medication nonadherence for patients with chronic diseases is extremely common, affecting as many as 40% to 50% of patients who are prescribed medications for management of chronic conditions such as diabetes or hypertension.” (Perm J, 2018).
I go on Twitter for 5 minutes, just constant bots now... I look through their accounts and nothing about their personal lives.. no football clubs or any sport or any interests.. nothing.
May be more. I've stopped using Twitter and deleted the app, but didn't actually close the account. So I guess I'm still counting towards their users. Must be more like me.
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https://bcounter.nat.vg/
20 Million users!
https://bsky-users.theo.io/
At some point the advertisers will be advertising mostly to bots and onlyfans customers.
Anyway… 🥱
(As a journo who writes about the intersection of media and tech I'm spoilt by scale)
It seems like @bsky.app is just springing to life!
I will just get my information and conversations over here.
I don't need twitter anymore, it seems.
I'm a happy person.
All support to BlueSky here, but what you say isn’t terribly meaningful, sorry
Secondly you can mute or block people.
And a key difference is that blocks are visible and block lists can be created, copied and used.
Leon took away blocking so that any violent a hole you had blocked could read whatever you wrote about them.
Felt really unsafe.
A healthy platform doesn’t lose 25% of its users
I joined BlueSky back in September of 2023
It has exploded in users lately and I am loving it!!
Just spamming K GB News and known Nazi links.
This place is ... so nice... no bots so far.