Social Media Discussion

[Rumpy]

Yeah, which tells me he's not really after free-speech at all, but rather be free of criticism while not allowing others their free-speech as well. It feels like a common tactic these days. I mean, when advocating free-speech, you better allow the other side their views as well, otherwise it's not really free-speech, is it? It's not really fair to be calling for free-speech then silence those who disagree with you. He's already shown he's disagreeable, and he's not really in a position to tell other companies what to do.

[LordMortis]

Creepy FB FAFO moment. I found a picture from a camping trip from 35+ years ago. I @ the four people I keep in touch with on FB. One of them tagged another that he still talks to on FB. That made the picture more or less public I guess. Then people ??? liked it. I check their profile and they aren't friends with my friends of the person tagged. Now I'm ascared to bring more old photos I find out.

[Isgrimnur]

[hepcat]

Creepy FB FAFO moment. I found a picture from a camping trip from 35+ years ago. I @ the four people I keep in touch with on FB. One of them tagged another that he still talks to on FB. That made the picture more or less public I guess. Then people ??? liked it. I check their profile and they aren't friends with my friends of the person tagged. Now I'm ascared to bring more old photos I find out.

Just imagine everyone without their clothes on and you'll be okay.

[Jeff V]

Just imagine everyone without their clothes on and you'll be okay.

In other words, imagine the public pictures of hepcat.

[hepcat]

Pub…oh, you added an L.

[Jeff V]

Pub…oh, you added an L.

[Holman]

For reasons best discussed in R&P, but also because it is absolutely overrun with bots and other fake accounts, lots of people are leaving Twitter ("X") and heading elsewhere. In the past few weeks, Bluesky has begun to emerge as the consensus replacement for X.

Of course the problem is sunk costs. If (like me) you spent a decade or more building up your following list at Twitter, it can be hard to imagine starting over from scratch.

This is here Bluesky "starter packs" save the day. These are user-created lists of people to follow in various specific subject areas. You can look a list over and choose to follow its listed members one by one, or you can just "follow all" with one click.

A growing list of almost 5,000 starter pack lists is here, searchable by keywords. It's really useful!

I almost guarantee that you'll rediscover great posters who left X six or eight months ago and who are now prolific on Bluesky.

[Zaxxon]

Nice, Holman. I was just coming here to post something similar. Just in the past couple of days I’ve had large holes in my Bluesky experience filled (for me, NHL coverage and Microsoft/sysadmin stuff).

The last big migration a couple of months ago was mostly Brazil; this one feels like the real deal. I’m planning to finally switch my primary usage from Twitter to Bluesky (I had been about 70% Twitter/30% Bluesky).

Now we really need a plugin here so Bluesky posts display inline.

[Skinypupy]

I nuked my Twitter/X account today. The insane level of gaslighting, sheer awfulness about literally everything, racism and misoginy have became too much to deal with. I joked with my brother that deleting my account felt like Bilbo dropping the One Ring at the beginning of Fellowship.

The challenge will be finding something else to fill the time I’ve been spending doomscrolling, and finding a way to keep myself informed without being overwhelmed.

[Zaxxon]

Bluesky recently implemented embedding and a lot of other sites are compatible—eg Wordpress, Slack. I wonder if Fishpants could whip something up?

https://docs.bsky.app/docs/advanced-guides/oembed

[Zaxxon]

I nuked my Twitter/X account today. The insane level of gaslighting, sheer awfulness about literally everything, racism and misoginy have became too much to deal with. I joked with my brother that deleting my account felt like Bilbo dropping the One Ring at the beginning of Fellowship.

The challenge will be finding something else to fill the time I’ve been spending doomscrolling, and finding a way to keep myself informed without being overwhelmed.

FWIW, Bluesky has thus far managed to avoid becoming a place for doomscrolling—you can certainly get that experience if you want it, but without The Algorithm constantly pushing you toward it as Twitter’s does, it’s been a much more agreeable place, in my experience. Come join us.

[Blackhawk]

I have not only killed my never-used X account, I've also scrubbed all personal background information, schools, workplaces, towns, and any mention of where I live now from my other social media profiles. The way things are around here, I don't put it past people to go looking for 'them', especially if I happen to comment on the wrong thing. As one of 'them', I'd rather stay anonymous.

[Alefroth]

A growing list of almost 5,000 starter pack lists is here, searchable by keywords. It's really useful!

I almost guarantee that you'll rediscover great posters who left X six or eight months ago and who are now prolific on Bluesky.

It's up to 10000 now and is a really useful feature. I think I've hit a daily follow limit though.

[Isgrimnur]

[Smoove_B]

They should probably make sure they can handle it first. It's been chugging since earlier this afternoon.

[Isgrimnur]

[YellowKing]

I finally killed my podcast's Twitter account, which hurt, because we had built up a sizeable following over the years. However, politically it was time.

I'm enjoying Bluesky a great deal. Even though it's going to take some time to build back up to our previous level, it's lovely knowing I'm not wallowing in the mud with the pigs anymore.

[Zarathud]

Pirate Software said all those who engage left for Blue sky and he gets twice the engagement with a quarter the followers. He thinks Twitter/X is mostly bots now.

He should know as the person who helped ban accounts on WOW.

[Jaymann]

I signed up as Jayman1971 (never had a twitter account). Anything you recommend I should check out?

[Alefroth]

Definitely use the starter pack directory and look for your interests.

[RunningMn9]

I have cleverly hidden myself on Bluesky. The starter packs were an outstanding way to immediately ramp up feed content so I felt like I was always getting new info.

The engagement rate feels much higher, and isn’t just argumentative a-holes. The beauty of no algorithm. Also a big fan of letting me create my own feeds so I can isolate bills content and not have to hunt around.

[Baroquen]

I've finally made the break from Twitter too. I had really only used it as a content feed, and since I only followed a list I created, I wasn't as beholden to Musk's feed algorithm and never saw ads much. But I just couldn't hang around there any more.

Between Threads and Bluesky, I have most of my interests covered. And those starter packs really were helpful. I had stumbled across a couple of them, but the link above should really help too. So thanks for that.

[Jaymann]

One of the first posts I saw was Randall Munroe, so I instantly followed that.

[Kraken]

It's turning into a stampede. Wife's employer just agreed to pull the plug on twitter -- not that they ever had any real presence there, and they aren't moving to Bluesky, but the "X" links on their pages are going away. LinkedIn has always been more their speed anyway (business journalism).

I'm @kraken57. I've only ever logged on twice and don't plan to do so regularly, but sometimes plans change.

[Alefroth]

@straylite here.

[Blackhawk]

@blackhawk3339.bsky.social - although I am unlikely to use it much. I only used my now-nuked Twitter account to contact companies who gave no other option.

[Alefroth]

The beauty of no algorithm. Also a big fan of letting me create my own feeds so I can isolate bills content and not have to hunt around.

BS does have multiple algorithms. The default is the Discover tab, but you can easily switch it or even craft your own algorithm.

[Holman]

LinkedIn has always been more their speed anyway (business journalism).

LinkedIn is only "social media" the way an office holiday party is a "social gathering."

It's Facebook, but with your boss.

[Zaxxon]

The beauty of no algorithm. Also a big fan of letting me create my own feeds so I can isolate bills content and not have to hunt around.

BS does have multiple algorithms. The default is the Discover tab, but you can easily switch it or even craft your own algorithm.

No forced algorithm.

Tangent: this morning I discovered that Facebook is now placing explicit ads in the *notifications*. What a shithole that place has also become.

[Kraken]

LinkedIn has always been more their speed anyway (business journalism).

LinkedIn is only "social media" the way an office holiday party is a "social gathering."

It's Facebook, but with your boss.

Yep, it's about connecting, not socializing.

[LordMortis]

The X-odus from my FB friends, I think, is complete. At least no one links there any more and no one is posting their bluesky account names. My only X-posure to that media is from here. I think the damage from Xhitter has been done, though. The money Leon stands to lose is nothing compared to what he's gained.



But damned if they don't link a lot of TikTok, though.

[Zaxxon]

I think I’m about ready to pull the plug over at the tweetybird site. Bluesky is running full steam ahead and I’ve barely hit X in the past week.

https://skyzoo.blue/stats/Zaxxon.bsky.social

Join me.

[Kraken]

I'm still not sure if Bluesky will draw me in. I never used Twitter so I don't need anything to replace it. I use Facebook mostly to share photos and videos and jokes and status updates with friends and family and don't see the equivalent at Bluesky. I can see how Bluesky's news feed could surpass Facebook's if I put a little effort into curating it, so maybe I'll eventually start lurking there.

[Holman]

I'm still not sure if Bluesky will draw me in. I never used Twitter so I don't need anything to replace it. I use Facebook mostly to share photos and videos and jokes and status updates with friends and family and don't see the equivalent at Bluesky. I can see how Bluesky's news feed could surpass Facebook's if I put a little effort into curating it, so maybe I'll eventually start lurking there.

Bluesky is becoming what Twitter once was: the go-to place for journalists and pundits to post and discuss breaking news with each other in real time. That's valuable to have.

You just have to follow enough journalists and pundits, but there are plenty of starter packs for that.

[Skinypupy]

I haven’t plugged into BlueSky yet. It’s actually been rather nice staying out of the constant news loop for a while. Has definitely helped my mental state, and I’m feeling far less frustrated and anxious about everything when I’m not doomscrolling for hours on end and hearing about a new bit of awfulness every 5 minutes.

I know I need to balance the desire to unplug with the need to stay informed though, so I’ll probably end up over there at some point.

[Zaxxon]

I’ve definitely taken the opportunity to be more mindful of the quantity of political/news folks I’m following so as not to get right back into a constant state of doomscrolling. Having different feeds for different moods/purposes has also helped a lot.

It’s like they designed a place where the user is actually in control or something. Neat concept.

[LordMortis]

It’s actually been rather nice staying out of the constant news loop for a while. Has definitely helped my mental state, and I’m feeling far less frustrated and anxious about everything when I’m not doomscrolling for hours on end and hearing about a new bit of awfulness every 5 minutes.

+1

[Roman]

Talk about timing!

Just this morning I deactivated my Twitter account and don't have plans to re-activate after the 30d cooling off period.

Why? %110 all of my own doing - my feed is consumed by anti Trudeau (I am Canadian) and US politics and from time to time naked women and gang fights
The anti immigrant / anti israeli and Hamas stuff is really quite tiring and I'll be honest here I was starting to 'believe' the things that I was reading and found myself looking at people differently.

I am finding myself to be less tolerant and addicted to the app/content and simply don't want to continue down that path.
A few years back I deleted by FB profile too as I was really only on there to look at BBQ and smoker recipes - all the friends that I want to engage with I already do over text/person/phone calls.

From this point on I'll just use the Google app on my phone to review news and articles of interest etc.

[Blackhawk]

I still have my Facebook accounts, but I did a major pruning, uninstalled the app, and deleted all of my links to it. I can (and do) still visit by manually typing it in, but it's now a hassle, which means that I'm less inclined to actually bother with it.