Twitter world sucks. For all its faults, at least it was a place where everyone hung out. But now half the liberal community has decamped to Bluesky and I don't see their tweets anymore.
What to do? I could join the crowd and switch to Bluesky, but that would mean losing access to a lot of accounts who haven't migrated. Also, Bluesky seems to be deflating fairly quickly following its boom after Donald Trump's election:
Alternatively, I can use both Twitter and Bluesky, but that's a pain in the ass. So far I've mostly stuck with Twitter, but maybe that's not tenable anymore. I guess I'll try keeping both open and see how that goes. I just hope there aren't any further forks in the user community.
What's your goal?
Live in a self-affirming bubble or understand how the rest of the world thinks?
Twitter works just fine if you take some time to curate a follow list of INTELLIGENT people and are fairly aggressive about muting the morons.
Nothing says “I’m intelligent” better than use of all-caps.
+1
( ´◡‿ゝ◡`)
So does Bluesky.
Liberals do not live in a bubble. Our major newspapers have plenty of conservative op-Ed’s from your best writers.
How about not supporting an anti-democratic fascist asshole? Jesus fucking Christ what the fuck is wrong with people who just can't quit Shitter?!?
Fuck every last one of you.
This sounds like a comment from someone who likes kissybots and mobs of hate speech.
I understand the dilemma, but once a medium becomes what Twitter has become, I don't think it's really a viable choice for decent people.
If you're drawing your trend line from November, I think you're missing an important part of the story. I wonder what X's trend line looks like?
In any event, I know which trend I want to be a part of.
The Nazis did build an amazing autobahn, so it’s not surprising that the online Nazis built an amazing social media network.
These nazis (lowercase, nut uppercase) didn't build it, they bought it.
Bluesky is a breath of fresh air. I kept my Twitter account for a while, but after Bluesky hit critical mass I deleted Muskville for good. The ability to create curated feeds is one of the best features of Bluesky; it lets you zero in on the content you want and filter out all the noise. And you're free to create a "self-affirming bubble" if you really want to, as "name99" seems to think we all do over there, or you can pursue a variety of viewpoints. Twitter is like the airport at Cabo, a cacophony of noise and people trying to sell you something; Bluesky is like the television in your living room, with a zillion channels and a nice remote in your hands. And yes, it's still young.
One thing I'm liking already is that a bunch of people I already like have their filters OFF. It's mostly lefties and it feels very chatty. Maybe that will change over time, but I kind of like reading what they really think.
I agree, Bluesky at the moment reminds me of early (or earlier) Twitter.
Chattier, funnier. Less serious and less massive dunking / piling on.
It's not uniformly liberal. It has way fewer bots. I love it!
Quitting Twitter would have been a harder decision if Bluesky was at an earlier stage of development but honestly at this point it's a really easy call.
Pro tip: to completely delete yourself from Twitter, first download all your data, then unfollow everyone and delete every past tweet, so that the network can't profit from your past contributions.
If you do that, then your handle can be stolen.
I just started using Bluesky yesterday, it will take a bit. One of the challenges will be that it's hard to give up feeds that you like from folks who haven't migrated.
But I'm done with Facebook and want to be able to keep in touch with a few people.
I'll take the echo chamber if the alternative is a bunch of goons.
I cannot understand how a sensible person still uses Xitter. It doesn't feel dirty?
I've never really used Twitter but I do like Bluesky. I'd follow you there if I could find your account.
Did you ever find it. I've searched for Kevin Drum and for jabberwocking and neither has worked for me.
I was a heavy user of Facebook for about a decade, but I gave it up a few years ago when they started suppressing external links and made the algorithmic newsfeed unavoidable. I thought about switching to Twitter, but then Musk bought the place and I said, "Nope."
And now I'm not sure where to go. Bluesky? Mastodon? Some new upstart? None of them seem to have reached critical mass, and I share Kevin's aversion to having more than one social media presence.
The enshittification of the internet is real . . . .
I won’t give up a Facebook because it’s such a great way to connect and share pictures with family and hundreds of friends that I otherwise would never have any co tact with.
The key to Facebook is to only log in once or twice a week. Your feed will then be dominated by real posts by real friends or those you have chosen to follow.
Log in multiple times a day and you’ll just be enshitted.
No. I log in to fb like once a month nowadays, and the newsfeed is always algorithmic shit.
Also, a great way to hook up with fascists just like you that you would never any contact with.
Have a great day if you want to.
Of course the guy who posts hate speech here would love a place where that's explicitly allowed.
Bugger off, bigottus. I'd say you have a mental illness that's undiagnosed, but the definition of mental illness is that you have a problem, and clearly your narcissism isn't a problem for you.
I had a Twitter account but only used it to "like" something I read. I joined Bluesky after the election and love it. I don't post but I read a lot. Many of my fav people are there, and I followed them. (That was easy.) I've just figured out how to hit the "search" button and there will be trending story topic. Found a bunch of good stuff about the LA fires one day. No way I'm going to support Musk or Meta!!! I've also found some good people to follow on YouTube.
Sure, Bluesky is well down from its post-election peak, but it is also up 40% from its pos-election trough.
That said, having not signed-up for Twitter, I'm unlikely to sign up for Bluesky.
I did. It's the first social media app (except a disqus account and whatever this weird interface is) I've ever utilized longer than a day or two. I'm still ambivalent. I still don't know exactly how to use it effectively. But as a news reader it's ok, some of the comedy is excellent.
The company has stated that data will be protected, can be deleted upon request, and the supposedly once done like you were never there. Maybe give it a try...
The Discover section is where the action is until you follow a bunch of people and stuff gets more curated.
Yeah, I've made some lists that silo certain types of journalism or news. I'm still trying to figure how to at least observe the big waves, not necessarily to join them, but at least know where they are.
I don’t use any of it and I don’t think I’m missing anything. I guess if you need the entertainment that much, but really? Do you?
If you're a writer rather than just a reader, you absolutely need something like Facebook and something like Twitter. It's essential for marketing.
Long since deleted my account on Xitter. (Chinese pronunciation of X)
If the Nazi salutes haven't convinced you, nothing will.
the ADL / Greenblatt is already making excuses for Elmo
It's funny how all of the talk that it would be intolerably antisemitic to force Israel into a cease fire mysteriously disappeared the instant it was Trump doing the forcing.
I mean, your guy is out there literally throwing nazi salutes now. If that's not enough, I don't know what to tell you.
You are drinking at a nazi bar. I get that you think they have a great selection of beers on tap, but I feel like that's not really the point anymore?
If the movie Cabaret is any indication they also have a great live singing/dancing act, so maybe that is why these fucking idiots can't quit every social media platform supporting fascists.
I mean JF absolute C how the fuck is it so hard to just delete you accounts on these platforms?!?
You may be assuming the lessening of posts is due to Bluesky ennui instead of to Trump overwhelm among all us Bluesky libs. A spike as people fled Twit for bluer pastures. A dip as we are deflated by dread and fatigue. I happen to like Bluesky a lot, it’s great for your various little obsessions as well as politics and economics. But right now the US and the world are obsessed with and exhausted by the antics of a chaotic black hole of a man, and I post less and avoid all this mishegoss more. Is that even close to how you spell mishegoss?
Shouldn't Musk giving Nazi salutes be a factor?
Or you could take my approach and use neither.
Please use Bluesky. Then I won't have to post links to your blogs.
There is no reason to be on Xitter, Meta (Instagram, FB, Threads) or TikTok unless you want to support those platforms. The more people move to Bluesky the better it will be. It is an open protocol where you control the algorithm and keep access to you own data.
Eventually, almost all of social media will migrate over to one of two open protocols, AT or ActivityPub, or die.
If Birdsite federates with Bluesky or joins the Fediverse, you'll find yourself isolated, much like TruthSocial or Threads server, in that many of the popular servers in the Fediverse block them.
You could bide your time, but in doing so, you're lending your data to his AI training so that he can turn around and charge you for accessing his AI features. Meanwhile, you're also stringing along people who want to switch, but b/c many of the people they follow remain solely in Birdsite, they're hesitant to quit Birdsite.
You could always move to TikTok🤣
You could always fuck off.
The best thing about Trump is how much he pisses liberals off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDYNVH0U3cs
Most of us are convinced that back in the day you would have said the same thing about Hitler himself, and cheerfully voted for him.
Does seem to be the pattern.
I think you could get a Bluesky account, follow some people on Bluesky, let your readers know your Bluesky account so they can follow you there, and after a couple of months of actual experience decide then. Right now you're trying to choose between two alternatives, and for one you have not much experience. Get some more experience, then decide.
I tried that, and I found Bluesky worked better for me. And there are quite a few interesting accounts to follow.
Also, Bluesky seems to deflating fairly quickly following its boom after Donald Trump's election... Alternatively, I can use both Twitter and Bluesky, but that's a pain in the ass. So far I've mostly stuck with Twitter, but maybe that's not tenable anymore.
Oh ho ho, it's early days yet! You know this drama's only just beginning. If nothing else, as others here have said, how many Nazi salutes are you willing to live with?
I am on both but I rarely go to either. Reading news and opinion posted daily on Memeorandum and submitting comments to the sites that allow it takes up quite as much of my time as I'm willing to spend on the internet. I can't think of anything I miss by not following selected Bluesky/X accounts.
Back before the takeover of Twitter, I followed Elon just to see what he had to say, not because he was wise or smart or anything. After he took over his posts began appearing in my feed more and more. Because I was seeing more of his brain farts it became increasingly clear that he was a fool, and a dangerous one, at that. I started out by unfollowing him. His posts still polluted my timeline. Then I muted him. His posts were still there. Finally, I blocked him. He was gone! Then Trump's Department of Government Efficiency was announced and suddenly Elon's posts were showing up in my timeline again. I left. It was clear that there was nothing that I could do to keep my feed from becoming a sewer. Closed my account and moved to Bluesky, which is OK, but not nearly as mature as Twitter was at its best.
Fuck Elon, and I hope he ends up taking his long anticipated one-way trip to Mars. Earth will be better for his absence.
I can't believe we live in a world where "not growing as fast as a clearly unsustainable peak" is "deflating."
I have found Bluesky to be something of a ghost town. Twitter is a lot more lively, though you do have to mute the. “For You” feed, which is a MAGA swamp.
I think this article in Techdirt by Mike Masnick on how Bluesky forestalls enshittification is worth reading: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/21/the-technological-poison-pill-how-atprotocol-encourages-competition-resists-evil-billionaires-lock-in-enshittification/
Also, I would be delighted if you would replace the X button at the bottom of your posts with a Bluesky button, but just leaving the X and adding Bluesky would be okay (and it would be interesting to see which button is more often used).
Those figures don't include people who just read. They only count people who post or like something. The daily user count is more like 3.5 million, which I saw at several sources.