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Bluesky is dead in the water. There was a point where people were talking about it and wanted in. No one (in my social sphere) is talking about it anymore. I ev

Bluesky is dead in the water. There was a point where people were talking about it and wanted in. No one (in my social sphere) is talking about it anymore. I even mentioned it at work (FAANG) the other day and most people haven’t even heard of it. I’d love for it to be a thing. But history dictates they missed the opportunity.

paulgb 3y ago
I’ve worked at two FAANGs and while I respect my former colleagues, I wouldn’t consider them harbingers of what’s cool.
dleeftink 3y ago
If you/we/other folk want it to be a thing, shouldn't we at least try to not frame it as a 'dead in the water' piece of tech? Seeing how HN has a way of planting seeds in the minds of potential early adoptors, framing it as DOA may be the self-fulfilling prophecy we want to avoid if we want changes to unfold within our heavily centralised social media sphere.
- jsnell 3y ago
  Most people on HN don't have any vested interest in the success or failure of BlueSky. That's a good thing. It means we can actually give our honest opinions rather than equivocate in order to prop up a dead project in a kind of virtual recreation of Weekend at Bernie's. Honestly, even without Threads I would not bet on BlueSky to be the winner in this space or even to be viable. The team got really lucky having the right product at the right time, and failed completely to capitalize on it. Or actually worse, they seemed to not even try to capitalize on it. Even trying and failing would have been bette.r
azakai 3y ago
My experience is exactly the opposite. Most of my social sphere has already moved to Bluesky. Also most of the top posters I used to follow on Twitter have either migrated or post on both. As a result I've been spending more time on Bluesky than Twitter recently. It's the future. But you are right that while it remains invite-only it is limited. The real test will happen when they open the floodgates.
tiffanyg 3y ago
I don't think it's quite that 'settled' (although, comically, I made my own [much worse] overstatement in a comment this morning). But, the landscape is certainly a LOT less friendly, at this point. Threads has obviously sucked the oxygen completely out of the room, so to speak, for the moment. Bluesky is likely consigned to a much more niche position, and may have difficulty surviving. While I think your conclusion is a bit strong at the moment, within 1 - 3 months, it'll probably be far clearer. In particular, depending on how Threads is actually functioning ... if "Meta" plays it smart (and they do seem to be doing a surprisingly clever job, so far) in catering (enough) to users for that initial buy-in ... (the classic "first hit is free" of drug dealers everywhere [though, I don't consider these platforms to be straight-up just person-wrecking drugs, that use-case does hold across plenty of the population, I'd argue])...
- threeseed 3y ago
  I think it's pretty clear now. Threads is the fastest growing social network and app in history and by now has ~100m users. Network effects will take care of the rest.
  - agentgumshoe 3y ago
    Amazing what having a billion+ users already with a logon/ID can do for uptake! I'm wondering whether it'll be Apple or Meta that becomes Zetatech...
    - charcircuit 3y ago
      If you made a new social app that doesn't require an account you would not just get 100 million people to install it. Being able to sign in to an existing account isn't what caused the uptake.
      - agentgumshoe 3y ago
        You ignored the bit where I said 'billion+ existing users'. Not exactly 100mil new random users with that install base.
jsbisviewtiful 3y ago
I’ve been in the beta for a while and so far I don’t find it useful or entertaining. It’s also really quiet, with only one account I follow consistently updating. This week I started considering deleting my account…

paulgb 3y ago

I’ve worked at two FAANGs and while I respect my former colleagues, I wouldn’t consider them harbingers of what’s cool.

dleeftink 3y ago

If you/we/other folk want it to be a thing, shouldn't we at least try to not frame it as a 'dead in the water' piece of tech? Seeing how HN has a way of planting seeds in the minds of potential early adoptors, framing it as DOA may be the self-fulfilling prophecy we want to avoid if we want changes to unfold within our heavily centralised social media sphere.

jsnell 3y ago
Most people on HN don't have any vested interest in the success or failure of BlueSky. That's a good thing. It means we can actually give our honest opinions rather than equivocate in order to prop up a dead project in a kind of virtual recreation of Weekend at Bernie's. Honestly, even without Threads I would not bet on BlueSky to be the winner in this space or even to be viable. The team got really lucky having the right product at the right time, and failed completely to capitalize on it. Or actually worse, they seemed to not even try to capitalize on it. Even trying and failing would have been bette.r

azakai 3y ago

My experience is exactly the opposite. Most of my social sphere has already moved to Bluesky. Also most of the top posters I used to follow on Twitter have either migrated or post on both. As a result I've been spending more time on Bluesky than Twitter recently. It's the future. But you are right that while it remains invite-only it is limited. The real test will happen when they open the floodgates.

tiffanyg 3y ago

I don't think it's quite that 'settled' (although, comically, I made my own [much worse] overstatement in a comment this morning). But, the landscape is certainly a LOT less friendly, at this point. Threads has obviously sucked the oxygen completely out of the room, so to speak, for the moment. Bluesky is likely consigned to a much more niche position, and may have difficulty surviving. While I think your conclusion is a bit strong at the moment, within 1 - 3 months, it'll probably be far clearer. In particular, depending on how Threads is actually functioning ... if "Meta" plays it smart (and they do seem to be doing a surprisingly clever job, so far) in catering (enough) to users for that initial buy-in ... (the classic "first hit is free" of drug dealers everywhere [though, I don't consider these platforms to be straight-up just person-wrecking drugs, that use-case does hold across plenty of the population, I'd argue])...

threeseed 3y ago
I think it's pretty clear now. Threads is the fastest growing social network and app in history and by now has ~100m users. Network effects will take care of the rest.
- agentgumshoe 3y ago
  Amazing what having a billion+ users already with a logon/ID can do for uptake! I'm wondering whether it'll be Apple or Meta that becomes Zetatech...
  - charcircuit 3y ago
    If you made a new social app that doesn't require an account you would not just get 100 million people to install it. Being able to sign in to an existing account isn't what caused the uptake.
    - agentgumshoe 3y ago
      You ignored the bit where I said 'billion+ existing users'. Not exactly 100mil new random users with that install base.

jsbisviewtiful 3y ago

I’ve been in the beta for a while and so far I don’t find it useful or entertaining. It’s also really quiet, with only one account I follow consistently updating. This week I started considering deleting my account…