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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…I’m *not* saying that everyone on BlueSky is egotistical. I’m just saying that when someone is, it’s the kind of place that suits them, and, for the most part, Mastodon just doesn’t
@urlyman
This is interesting, and matches something I think about sometimes.I've never used BlueSky, but something I perceive as a source of conflict here on Mastodon is that it seems to work better when people seek symmetrical relationships. By this I mean a relationship where the amount of following/ followers is similar, and the posts by your followers are similarly valued as the posts you yourself write. Information transfer is expected to work both ways (from followers to you and from you to your followers).
Where I see most friction is when a single person tries to establish highly asymmetrical relations, with orders of magnitude more followers than what they follow, and perceives communication as a one-way thing where they broadcast and people passively receive (which is, I presume, what works well on Bluesky?).
(.. and yes, I can see how asymmetrical relations can feed an egotistical personality).
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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 @kathhayhoe “I was burned by this one place that changed the algorithm overnight, so my impact collapsed and I got thousands of hateful comments… So anyway, I found this new algorithmic place…”
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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 well I don’t always get a ton of engagement on here so I probably won’t get any there lol
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@patrick_h_lauke @urlyman It's funny because I see it flipped on Bluesky. Everyone is calling Mastodon a Libertarian or Centrists hub while calling themselves Leftist, Socialists, or Anarchists. I don't have much to add for/against either line of thinking, but figured I'd bring it up as it's interesting.
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…Also, if memory serves me right, I have never encountered a conventionally climate sceptic person on here.
There are lots of green growthers but I’ve never had an exchange with someone who doubts basic climate science.
I mention this because I’m surprised that Katharine got the degree of push back on Mastodon that she graphed just over a year ago, but then I’m a man so I don’t have to put up with the many reply guys there are here
@urlyman I’ve gotten some climate change deniers here, but compared to the large amount of people I have interacted with, it’s quite few.
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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 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.
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@urlyman That was my experience starting out on Twittler as well. Mastodon is much more to an Autistics viewpoint of the world. Interaction not worship.
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@urlyman @patrick_h_lauke This nicely describes my perception of it too. I always found it to be kind of a "weird vibe" over there. People trying to impress as opposed to people mostly just hanging out.
@dabeaz @urlyman @patrick_h_lauke
I use Mastodon in two different ways. I like to read techie stuff, so I like that a lot of the tech bloggers and magazines post links to their content. Sometimes I boost or comment on these, but I don't expect replies.
On the other hand, I enjoy posting about my own interests and boosting and commenting on other people's creative work or insights, and that's more social. I think I've only actually met one person who has an account here.
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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
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.
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@dabeaz @urlyman @patrick_h_lauke
I use Mastodon in two different ways. I like to read techie stuff, so I like that a lot of the tech bloggers and magazines post links to their content. Sometimes I boost or comment on these, but I don't expect replies.
On the other hand, I enjoy posting about my own interests and boosting and commenting on other people's creative work or insights, and that's more social. I think I've only actually met one person who has an account here.
"..use Mastodon in two different ways ...
...tech bloggers and magazines post links to their content. ... don't expect replies. [!]
...
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.
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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 You had half the active fediverse on this thread Mr Nobody, but not of course Her Highness whose post gave rise to it [yet] ;-/
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…Also, if memory serves me right, I have never encountered a conventionally climate sceptic person on here.
There are lots of green growthers but I’ve never had an exchange with someone who doubts basic climate science.
I mention this because I’m surprised that Katharine got the degree of push back on Mastodon that she graphed just over a year ago, but then I’m a man so I don’t have to put up with the many reply guys there are here
@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.
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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 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.
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Came here to quote exactly this. The original is equally relevant.
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Dont tell! they'd banish us - you know!
How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell your name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!@AdrianRiskin @urlyman Well,
'original' if you can reliably determine priority for her manuscript annotations, which you can't always. (sorry, I once for a job had to oversee digitizing the entire Franklin and Johnson variorum editions, so sometimes I get flashbacks). -
@AdrianRiskin @urlyman Well,
'original' if you can reliably determine priority for her manuscript annotations, which you can't always. (sorry, I once for a job had to oversee digitizing the entire Franklin and Johnson variorum editions, so sometimes I get flashbacks).@maccruiskeen @urlyman ah, my bad. I didn't realize that "advertise" was a textual variant. I thought you were cleverly tweaking the text to make s point contrasting BS with ad-free mastodon.
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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 Re: Engagement
Welcome Nobodies! -
@urlyman I was under the impression that Bluesky was also only chronological feeds?
I think one thing contributing the “connectivity” on Fedi is just that there are so few people here. Bluesky has somewhat hit mainstream awareness; once your platform hits millions of DAU, it’ll be hard to make yourself “stand out” in a sea of hundreds of thousands of daily posts, regardless of there being an algorithm or not.
@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.
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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
Welcome Nobodies! -
@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
