2 ms·

> How do I verify the data? Trust me bro? The lede is literally "Bluesky gained more than 700,000 new users in the last week and now has more than 14.5 million

> How do I verify the data? Trust me bro? The lede is literally "Bluesky gained more than 700,000 new users in the last week and now has more than 14.5 million users total, Bluesky COO Rose Wang confirmed to The Verge." Companies intentionally lying about their data is a good way for them to get sued.

dandellion 2y ago
I remember reading that reddit created fake users to make the site appear more popular than it was. AFAIK they never got sued. I doubt they're the only platform doing that.
- minimaxir 2y ago
  Reddit did astroturf, but they didn't report numbers based on it IIRC. A different time two decades ago, of course.
yeahwhatever10 2y ago
How exactly would they get sued for this?
- KPGv2 2y ago
  Publicly lying about your business's value is defrauding investors.
- throwaway290 2y ago
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/business/elon-musk-sec-lawsuit-tesla.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/business/elon-musk-sec-la...
andreygrehov 2y ago
I read the article. When and how did Rose Wang reported the numbers? Over the phone? E-mail? Shows us the graph. The trends. At least something. I'm personally no longer buying the "increase in hate speech on X".
- minimaxir 2y ago
  Probably some internal dashboard using Tableau. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
  - andreygrehov 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - georgemcbay 2y ago
      I'm trying to make sense of someone being as irrationally skeptical of the reporting as you are who also somehow believes that a screenshot of all things proves anything and I just can't do it.
      - andreygrehov 2y ago
        BlueSky is a for-profit "Public Benefit Corporation". Let's be honest, it's in their interest to look as popular as possible to attract investors, partnerships, and users. Inflated numbers, if they existed, would be nearly impossible to detect from the outside. So why should I blindly accept these figures just because they’re reported? A screenshot doesn’t magically prove transparency, either. Companies can cherry-pick data or only show specific slices that make them look good. Real transparency would mean regular and verified reports accessible to the public, not just one-off announcements about user growth that we can’t independently verify. When I said, "Publish the screenshot. Not that hard," I wasn't implying a screenshot would be the ultimate proof, but more that if they claim these numbers are legit, they should be willing to share more than just a headline. If they're not, it's fair to question why.
        mrtesthah 2y ago
        >Real transparency would mean regular and verified reports accessible to the public... And I'm assuming you hold all the other social media sites to this same high standard?
    - 2y ago
postalrat 2y ago
With the right script they could add another 700 million users.

dandellion 2y ago

I remember reading that reddit created fake users to make the site appear more popular than it was. AFAIK they never got sued. I doubt they're the only platform doing that.

minimaxir 2y ago
Reddit did astroturf, but they didn't report numbers based on it IIRC. A different time two decades ago, of course.

yeahwhatever10 2y ago

How exactly would they get sued for this?

KPGv2 2y ago
Publicly lying about your business's value is defrauding investors.
throwaway290 2y ago
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/business/elon-musk-sec-lawsuit-tesla.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/business/elon-musk-sec-la...

andreygrehov 2y ago

I read the article. When and how did Rose Wang reported the numbers? Over the phone? E-mail? Shows us the graph. The trends. At least something. I'm personally no longer buying the "increase in hate speech on X".

minimaxir 2y ago
Probably some internal dashboard using Tableau. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
- andreygrehov 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - georgemcbay 2y ago
    I'm trying to make sense of someone being as irrationally skeptical of the reporting as you are who also somehow believes that a screenshot of all things proves anything and I just can't do it.
    - andreygrehov 2y ago
      BlueSky is a for-profit "Public Benefit Corporation". Let's be honest, it's in their interest to look as popular as possible to attract investors, partnerships, and users. Inflated numbers, if they existed, would be nearly impossible to detect from the outside. So why should I blindly accept these figures just because they’re reported? A screenshot doesn’t magically prove transparency, either. Companies can cherry-pick data or only show specific slices that make them look good. Real transparency would mean regular and verified reports accessible to the public, not just one-off announcements about user growth that we can’t independently verify. When I said, "Publish the screenshot. Not that hard," I wasn't implying a screenshot would be the ultimate proof, but more that if they claim these numbers are legit, they should be willing to share more than just a headline. If they're not, it's fair to question why.
      - mrtesthah 2y ago
        >Real transparency would mean regular and verified reports accessible to the public... And I'm assuming you hold all the other social media sites to this same high standard?
  - 2y ago

postalrat 2y ago

With the right script they could add another 700 million users.