6 ms·

I understand why Bluesky doesn't let anyone create an account just yet, but why don't they make posts publicly visible without needing an account? I think this

by shafyy 3y ago

I understand why Bluesky doesn't let anyone create an account just yet, but why don't they make posts publicly visible without needing an account? I think this is important for many news and governmental organizations to take Bluesky more seriously.

gexla 3y ago
Right, this would give me 100% of the functionality that I use on Twitter anyway.
Hamuko 3y ago
My guess would be that it's not a high priority and they just haven't gotten around to it yet. I think it was just a week or two ago that they added the ability to change your registered email address.
lloydatkinson 3y ago
I have invite codes
looping8 3y ago
Well, they're still in beta, even notifications weren't working that well up until recently. Plus, being closed off from the non-users might be a marketing thing. A lot of people were hyping it up with invites being seen as very desirable.
- shafyy 3y ago
  I get the marketing thing, but if this is the only reason, they've missed the mark. That's cool to do for like a couple of months, not years.
- WA 3y ago
  Remember Clubhouse? Dead thing, because they didn't open up fast enough (no Android). The momentum is there right now while Twitter is dying. If Bluesky doesn't get this straight within the next few months, I think it'll end up as "just another Mastodon instance" in the minds of people.
  - vsnf 3y ago
    Will it even end up as anything at all? I don't think the userbase of Twitter is equipped to know what Bluesky is in any capacity. Except for the terminally online crowd (i.e., you, me, and everyone else on this website), the word isn't out, the hype isn't building, and no one is talking about it. It won't just be "another Mastodon instance", it may as well not even have existed in the first place. Locking read-only viewing to a login wall is something Instagram can get away with due to their network effects, but I don't see Bluesky benefiting from it for that much longer.
  - kjksf 3y ago
    > Twitter is dying Could you quantify that statement? All the stats I've seen show that Twitter usage is growing. Happy to be shown different stats, I just hope that you're not causally spreading "trust me bro" facts.
    - basisword 3y ago
      It might be helpful to share your stats also. I can't imagine either position can be verified very well unless you work at Twitter/X.
    - Joeri 3y ago
      https://mashable.com/article/twitter-x-daily-active-users-drop-under-elon-musk https://mashable.com/article/twitter-x-daily-active-users-dr... However, even X's revised number of 245 million daily active users would still see X lose millions or around 3.7 percent of daily active users from before Musk's acquisition. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/10/twitter-traffic-sinks-in-wake-of-changes-and-launch-of-rival-platform-threads-elon-musk https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/10/twitter-t... Matthew Prince posted a graph from Cloudflare’s ranking of the most popular websites in the world showing Twitter has been in decline since the start of 2023, not long after Elon Musk took over the platform. So according to their own (suspect) numbers they have a slight decline, according to outsiders they have a heavy decline. What numbers are you looking at?
  - shafyy 3y ago
    I'm pretty certain this is not the reason Clubhouse died out. That format was dead on arrival, and only lived that long because it was artificially kept alive by tech bros and VCs.
- JeremyNT 3y ago
  > Plus, being closed off from the non-users might be a marketing thing. A lot of people were hyping it up with invites being seen as very desirable. If they can build a small but healthy community first before opening it up, then maybe it will avoid some of the toxicity that other platforms have. People want to be in exclusive clubs, and maybe they will value their membership more this way, leading to more demand from those who are not yet invited.
mschuster91 3y ago
> I understand why Bluesky doesn't let anyone create an account just yet, but why don't they make posts publicly visible without needing an account? Keeps the PR impact from trolls lower until they have figured out scale of moderation required. As soon as the service is general-public available, it will get used by CSAM spreaders, Nazis and all other kinds of people you don't want to have on your platform for PR and legal reasons.
- shafyy 3y ago
  I'm not saying that everyone should be able to create an account, just that posts should be visible publicly.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    Yeah but that instantly raises the scope of any potential troll. It's a difference if something can only be seen by other Bluesky users or if it can be shown around everywhere.
    - shafyy 3y ago
      True, but would be a good step to take now before opening up completely. I mean, sooner or later they will need to do it, and they have been taking their sweet time. Maybe their engineers should get back to work instead of posting bullcrap on Bluesky, like that dude pfrazee
vGPU 3y ago
Bluesky has already missed the boat. Unless musk publicly sets fire to a kitten or something, the mass migration is over, and they missed it.
- graypegg 3y ago
  There is a pretty active community on Bluesky itself, I think they caught a much smaller, but maybe sustainable boat? I'm liking at least, but the invite-only bullshit is wearing thin. But would I be alright with it at it's current size/user make-up? Yeah totally. (but I'm also not paying for it...)
  - Kye 3y ago
    They took $8m in funding already. Slow, steady, and stable might not be enough now. Those investors will want to get their piece sooner or later. https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/bluesky-announces-its-8m-seed-round-first-paid-service-custom-domains/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/bluesky-announces-its-8m-s...
    - dvngnt_ 3y ago
      8 mill not that huge
      - Kye 3y ago
        Fundraising has a way of escalating until they've given away so much control that they have no choice but to grow. What do you think happens when the $8m runs out and they still haven't found a way to fund it? Twitter took decades to just barely figure it out on the back of a generational crisis that kept a lot of people inside wasting time on social media. The whole concept of federation is that most of the users are on other people's servers, so an ad-based solution isn't as obvious. They can't count on all those eyeballs being monetizable if they're serious about the AT protocol.
- ralphc 3y ago
  Ok I'll bite. If the mass migration is over, where did they migrate to? Was it one place or did they scatter to bluesky, mastodon, others?

by shafyy 3y ago

gexla 3y ago

Right, this would give me 100% of the functionality that I use on Twitter anyway.

Hamuko 3y ago

My guess would be that it's not a high priority and they just haven't gotten around to it yet. I think it was just a week or two ago that they added the ability to change your registered email address.

lloydatkinson 3y ago

I have invite codes

looping8 3y ago

Well, they're still in beta, even notifications weren't working that well up until recently. Plus, being closed off from the non-users might be a marketing thing. A lot of people were hyping it up with invites being seen as very desirable.

shafyy 3y ago
I get the marketing thing, but if this is the only reason, they've missed the mark. That's cool to do for like a couple of months, not years.
WA 3y ago
Remember Clubhouse? Dead thing, because they didn't open up fast enough (no Android). The momentum is there right now while Twitter is dying. If Bluesky doesn't get this straight within the next few months, I think it'll end up as "just another Mastodon instance" in the minds of people.
- vsnf 3y ago
  Will it even end up as anything at all? I don't think the userbase of Twitter is equipped to know what Bluesky is in any capacity. Except for the terminally online crowd (i.e., you, me, and everyone else on this website), the word isn't out, the hype isn't building, and no one is talking about it. It won't just be "another Mastodon instance", it may as well not even have existed in the first place. Locking read-only viewing to a login wall is something Instagram can get away with due to their network effects, but I don't see Bluesky benefiting from it for that much longer.
- kjksf 3y ago
  > Twitter is dying Could you quantify that statement? All the stats I've seen show that Twitter usage is growing. Happy to be shown different stats, I just hope that you're not causally spreading "trust me bro" facts.
  - basisword 3y ago
    It might be helpful to share your stats also. I can't imagine either position can be verified very well unless you work at Twitter/X.
  - Joeri 3y ago
    https://mashable.com/article/twitter-x-daily-active-users-drop-under-elon-musk https://mashable.com/article/twitter-x-daily-active-users-dr... However, even X's revised number of 245 million daily active users would still see X lose millions or around 3.7 percent of daily active users from before Musk's acquisition. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/10/twitter-traffic-sinks-in-wake-of-changes-and-launch-of-rival-platform-threads-elon-musk https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/10/twitter-t... Matthew Prince posted a graph from Cloudflare’s ranking of the most popular websites in the world showing Twitter has been in decline since the start of 2023, not long after Elon Musk took over the platform. So according to their own (suspect) numbers they have a slight decline, according to outsiders they have a heavy decline. What numbers are you looking at?
- shafyy 3y ago
  I'm pretty certain this is not the reason Clubhouse died out. That format was dead on arrival, and only lived that long because it was artificially kept alive by tech bros and VCs.
JeremyNT 3y ago
> Plus, being closed off from the non-users might be a marketing thing. A lot of people were hyping it up with invites being seen as very desirable. If they can build a small but healthy community first before opening it up, then maybe it will avoid some of the toxicity that other platforms have. People want to be in exclusive clubs, and maybe they will value their membership more this way, leading to more demand from those who are not yet invited.

mschuster91 3y ago

> I understand why Bluesky doesn't let anyone create an account just yet, but why don't they make posts publicly visible without needing an account? Keeps the PR impact from trolls lower until they have figured out scale of moderation required. As soon as the service is general-public available, it will get used by CSAM spreaders, Nazis and all other kinds of people you don't want to have on your platform for PR and legal reasons.

shafyy 3y ago
I'm not saying that everyone should be able to create an account, just that posts should be visible publicly.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  Yeah but that instantly raises the scope of any potential troll. It's a difference if something can only be seen by other Bluesky users or if it can be shown around everywhere.
  - shafyy 3y ago
    True, but would be a good step to take now before opening up completely. I mean, sooner or later they will need to do it, and they have been taking their sweet time. Maybe their engineers should get back to work instead of posting bullcrap on Bluesky, like that dude pfrazee

vGPU 3y ago

Bluesky has already missed the boat. Unless musk publicly sets fire to a kitten or something, the mass migration is over, and they missed it.

graypegg 3y ago
There is a pretty active community on Bluesky itself, I think they caught a much smaller, but maybe sustainable boat? I'm liking at least, but the invite-only bullshit is wearing thin. But would I be alright with it at it's current size/user make-up? Yeah totally. (but I'm also not paying for it...)
- Kye 3y ago
  They took $8m in funding already. Slow, steady, and stable might not be enough now. Those investors will want to get their piece sooner or later. https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/bluesky-announces-its-8m-seed-round-first-paid-service-custom-domains/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/bluesky-announces-its-8m-s...
  - dvngnt_ 3y ago
    8 mill not that huge
    - Kye 3y ago
      Fundraising has a way of escalating until they've given away so much control that they have no choice but to grow. What do you think happens when the $8m runs out and they still haven't found a way to fund it? Twitter took decades to just barely figure it out on the back of a generational crisis that kept a lot of people inside wasting time on social media. The whole concept of federation is that most of the users are on other people's servers, so an ad-based solution isn't as obvious. They can't count on all those eyeballs being monetizable if they're serious about the AT protocol.
ralphc 3y ago
Ok I'll bite. If the mass migration is over, where did they migrate to? Was it one place or did they scatter to bluesky, mastodon, others?