I spent quite a bit of time on BlueSky for several months and found that if you’re a nobody there is close to no engagement.
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@moshimotsu @urlyman ” Following” and user-defined Lists have chronological feeds, but Bluesky also has a ”Discover” feed that I glance at every so often.
The ATproto system architecture is pluggable, so anyone can process the firehose and generate an algorithmic feed (or multiple personalized ones) that people can subscribe to; I only follow one.
The way comment propagation works here on Fedi makes the place seem smaller than it is, since you mostly don’t see others’ conversations.
Perhaps scale was the issue or maybe I just got unlucky. I wasn’t expecting loads of interest, just some discussion.
I followed plenty, made hundreds of posts and replies. Whatever the reason, I generated close to no connection. Far less than on Twitter before it
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@urlyman Re: Engagement
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@urlyman And funnily enough, contrary to the experiences many others report, I get far more engagement here than on Bluesky. I somehow have built up 3x the followers here.
I suspect it’s to do with the use here of hashtags here; they’re very egalitarian, anybody can use them, and strangers can find each others’ posts on the specific interest they share.
Whereas on Bluesky people are I think using feeds a lot, and I guess my posts aren’t hitting those.
@Brendanjones could be. It is hard to discern what generates interest. I certainly didn’t expect my reflections above to become my most engaged with post
Nice to know you here Brendan
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@urlyman I reckon if she made the same analysis now, she’d get very different results on Bluesky. Plenty of trolls on there now, some of them I suspect are bots.
@Brendanjones I wish Katharine every success with what she wants out of it.
But at its most basic level, I feel that doing things at humongous scale is unhealthy and algorithmically sorting people is toxic
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@urlyman You had half the active fediverse on this thread Mr Nobody, but not of course Her Highness whose post gave rise to it [yet] ;-/
@wavesculptor heh!
Katharine does vital work and I’m happy that she finds BlueSky to be a place for it
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"..use Mastodon in two different ways ...
...tech bloggers and magazines post links to their content. ... don't expect replies. [!]
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posting about my own interests and boosting and commenting on other people's creative work or insights..."_This is it here_, summarized. I like it that there is just a bit of cross-over too.
Sometimes I'll write stuff as replies to the former, not aimed at them as they prob dont read and less reply, but to others following. Some do tho., if it complements what they're posting.
@wavesculptor @Anne_Delong @dabeaz @patrick_h_lauke
Good points, thank you all. Mastodon certainly seems more interested in whole people. For me, BlueSky, like Twitter before it, seemed to want to fit people into boxes
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Democracy, the level playing field of Mastodon, ActivityPub, and Federated Social Media is a wonder, engaging thing. It's night and day the difference.
One feels as though they actually exist, are not being ignored.
Unlike teh algoriddms which erase you.
@carpetbomberz cheers Eric
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@daltux good question. Either way, I just want to be where people can be whole, complex interesting people who enjoy other whole people
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I use open vibe and connect to Bluesky, Nostr, and Mastodon in one app. They just added Tumblr.
It's a good solution@LoseFriendsandAlienatePeople sounds cool
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I go back and forth in most places, as a random unknown. I'm not a very social person but I don't have anyone to talk to offline. So I really do need social media, or I'll lose my mind.
BS is absolute chaos, I never understand how to use it.
But here, every time without fail I can jump into a conversation on my first day, and people reply or fav (as read receipts) my words. And I don't have to think most of them are bots, so it makes me feel seen.
@fruitcakesareyum I see you
And fruitcakes are my favourite kind of cake
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@urlyman I hop between Mastodon and Bluesky. Personally I find value in them both.
There are a lot more big accounts posting on Bluesky, but I enjoy the slower paced more community-based interactions of Mastodon. I also like that Mastodon allows for a lot more nuance with larger character limits even getting into more long form posts (such as the OP which is fairly long and would have been a lengthy thread on bsky) which makes for better discussions.
In my experience Bluesky is better for low-effort short posts and broadcasting from large accounts to a wider audience whereas Mastodon is better for nuanced discussions and has a more level playing field between large and small accounts.
@wesley glad you find value in both places. I wanted to, but just couldn’t.
And the 300 character thing was infuriating
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@urlyman I was in BlueSky for a while too…. but it’s too political, and also quite discriminative of single fathers. If you have NO political opinion there, you’re a nobody, who nobody trusts. You’re considered a “red flag” if you don’t support the left. Other platforms consider you a “red flag “ if you don’t support the right.
I love the Fediverse! It gives the finger to both.
@el_coyote I made hundreds of posts of different kinds. Probably the majority were weighted towards the political. Got next to nothing back either way
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@urlyman Really? That's interesting, as I'm trying out Mastodon and coming from Bluesky, I interact with people frequently there. Yet, I only have 20-something followers, none of whom know me IRL.
@mycos maybe I was unlucky. What I was saying was no different than my schtick here. The difference in conversational exchange was stark
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@urlyman My favorite part of Mastodon is that there are very few incentives for doing whatever it takes to build an audience. You kind of just put your circle together and that's it. Just like we wanted.
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@urlyman I often post the same thing there and here and get no one responding to me there
@blp that was my experience too
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@urlyman It looks to me like BS is the place to "build an audience", to perform as a big account, and to overhear conversations between "important" people. People doing single issue advocacy seem to get more of what they're personally looking for there. And they likely make more of an impact there than they would here.
I'm not looking for an audience, the big account path looks like a bad life to lead, and I'm not important. I do like chatting with people. This place is a good fit for me.
@colo_lee same
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@urlyman 100% agree! My experience is on Twitter not Bluesky, but I quickly learned that follower counts don't matter much on the fedi. The higher (good faith) engagement is far more satisfying than a number going up, and you don't need to be a big account to attract that.
It's also great to see how even many big accounts here have adjusted to the different vibe, and aren't snooty about talking to those with low follower counts. Prominent figures are willing to be more generous with their time.
@ApostateEnglishman I too have noticed that adjustment
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I spent quite a bit of time on BlueSky for several months and found that if you’re a nobody there is close to no engagement. If you’re a somebody, the platform laps it up.
But on Mastodon the conversation flows irrespective of who you are.
I know where I’d rather be https://fediscience.org/@kathhayhoe/116065653289142235
@urlyman can 100% confirm and yes me too
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@urlyman It looks to me like BS is the place to "build an audience", to perform as a big account, and to overhear conversations between "important" people. People doing single issue advocacy seem to get more of what they're personally looking for there. And they likely make more of an impact there than they would here.
I'm not looking for an audience, the big account path looks like a bad life to lead, and I'm not important. I do like chatting with people. This place is a good fit for me.
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@fruitcakesareyum I see you
And fruitcakes are my favourite kind of cake
Thanks!
