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I joined recently and haven’t seen any of that. In fact it just feels like old Twitter where people are having fun instead of being pompous trolls

unclad5968 2y ago
I don't have an account and all I see on the front page is posts about how bluesky is better than Twitter and how trump is Satan. There was one digital art piece of the moon over a lake.
runjake 2y ago
Mine is like the old Twitter and is rife with political meltdowns and “own the libs” memes. I also basically only follow indie hackers and some “thought leader” types like Naval Ravikant. Every time I launch the X app on mobile, it automatically switches me to the algorithmic “For You” feed, so it’s hard to miss. This is apparently not configurable in the app. When I’m on desktop, the Control Panel for Twitter does a good job of getting rid of most of that. I tolerate X, I wouldn’t say I like it but I like reading and connecting with certain people and their only platform is X. I think that’s what keeps X going: network effect.
- herdcall 2y ago
  You should be able to stay on Following, they made that change a while back. I.e., once you choose Following, you will keep going there till you change it.
  - runjake 2y ago
    That's not how it works on my iPhone or iPad, unfortunately -- and I just replaced and clean installed my iPad this week. It even happens when I quickly switch from and back to the X app. Maybe my user account isn't in that feature pool yet?
satvikpendem 2y ago
I just logged in again, I have 0 following and 0 followers and this is what I see [0], straight up political content, even on the Following tab, for some reason. I simply don't care to see political content right when I log in, and this phenomenon shows me that it has the exact same problems as Twitter, people posting ragebait to get engagement, just on the opposite of the spectrum. [0] https://imgur.com/a/XHmidRt https://imgur.com/a/XHmidRt
- teamonkey 2y ago
  And why do you think that is?
  - satvikpendem 2y ago
    Probably because that's what people engage with the most and is thus shown to users who just start off on the platform, as I mentioned. Note that while Bluesky is open source, its feed algorithm actually is not open source, so it can be just as bad as Twitter.
    - teamonkey 2y ago
      If you don’t follow enough people or feeds to fill your Following feed it can add some of the most popular posts of the moment, just to make sure there’s something there, which right now will be about a major political event that just happened. I’m not sure what else you would expect? If you don’t like how the algorithm works you can write your own (that’s what feeds are - custom algorithms).
      - hagbard_c 2y ago
        If these are the most popular posts on the platform it is a clear indication of BS having the same lopsided political bias as Twitter had before it became X and with that it is just a refuge for those who prefer a platform with a similarly narrow window of allowed discourse also known as an echo chamber. If that is what you like BS may be appealing but for those who like to voice dissent - even if only to rile up the regulars - it is probably less than welcoming. I don't like the format used by X, BS, Mastodon and all the others so I do not use any of them but I do passively partake of what is posted on them. In practice this comes down to probably 95% X, 5% Mastodon/Pleroma and that's it. I have yet to find a BS post of interest and won't use Threads because I don't do Metafacebookthings.

unclad5968 2y ago

I don't have an account and all I see on the front page is posts about how bluesky is better than Twitter and how trump is Satan. There was one digital art piece of the moon over a lake.

runjake 2y ago

Mine is like the old Twitter and is rife with political meltdowns and “own the libs” memes. I also basically only follow indie hackers and some “thought leader” types like Naval Ravikant. Every time I launch the X app on mobile, it automatically switches me to the algorithmic “For You” feed, so it’s hard to miss. This is apparently not configurable in the app. When I’m on desktop, the Control Panel for Twitter does a good job of getting rid of most of that. I tolerate X, I wouldn’t say I like it but I like reading and connecting with certain people and their only platform is X. I think that’s what keeps X going: network effect.

herdcall 2y ago
You should be able to stay on Following, they made that change a while back. I.e., once you choose Following, you will keep going there till you change it.
- runjake 2y ago
  That's not how it works on my iPhone or iPad, unfortunately -- and I just replaced and clean installed my iPad this week. It even happens when I quickly switch from and back to the X app. Maybe my user account isn't in that feature pool yet?

satvikpendem 2y ago

I just logged in again, I have 0 following and 0 followers and this is what I see [0], straight up political content, even on the Following tab, for some reason. I simply don't care to see political content right when I log in, and this phenomenon shows me that it has the exact same problems as Twitter, people posting ragebait to get engagement, just on the opposite of the spectrum. [0] https://imgur.com/a/XHmidRt https://imgur.com/a/XHmidRt

teamonkey 2y ago
And why do you think that is?
- satvikpendem 2y ago
  Probably because that's what people engage with the most and is thus shown to users who just start off on the platform, as I mentioned. Note that while Bluesky is open source, its feed algorithm actually is not open source, so it can be just as bad as Twitter.
  - teamonkey 2y ago
    If you don’t follow enough people or feeds to fill your Following feed it can add some of the most popular posts of the moment, just to make sure there’s something there, which right now will be about a major political event that just happened. I’m not sure what else you would expect? If you don’t like how the algorithm works you can write your own (that’s what feeds are - custom algorithms).
    - hagbard_c 2y ago
      If these are the most popular posts on the platform it is a clear indication of BS having the same lopsided political bias as Twitter had before it became X and with that it is just a refuge for those who prefer a platform with a similarly narrow window of allowed discourse also known as an echo chamber. If that is what you like BS may be appealing but for those who like to voice dissent - even if only to rile up the regulars - it is probably less than welcoming. I don't like the format used by X, BS, Mastodon and all the others so I do not use any of them but I do passively partake of what is posted on them. In practice this comes down to probably 95% X, 5% Mastodon/Pleroma and that's it. I have yet to find a BS post of interest and won't use Threads because I don't do Metafacebookthings.