5 ms·

I tried it and lasted only 4 days. The platform feels very reactionary, with many users seemingly intent on creating a left-leaning alternative to Truth Social

I tried it and lasted only 4 days. The platform feels very reactionary, with many users seemingly intent on creating a left-leaning alternative to Truth Social or X. I was searching for an apolitical, more progressive, and intellectual space, but this didn’t meet those expectations. A significant number of users appear to spend their time copying and pasting tweets to comment on them without engaging directly on X, which I find odd. For context, I’m not a Truth Social user, and I haven’t used X for several years. I prefer to keep my political views private, confined to the voting booth. My goal was simply to find a platform for sharing and discussing ideas.

skepticATX 2y ago
I think it’ll keep improving as more folks move over. This is just a temporary artifact of X refugees being the first to migrate.
- EternalFury 2y ago
  I’ll check it again in a year. Their “algorithm” is another polarization device, however. If you click or like anything, your feed fills with extremely similar things. Usually, that makes recovery from a closed mindset impossible.
  - dewey 2y ago
    That's why it's cool that you can bring your own algorithm, for example there's this preset which will give you a feed of your "quiet followers", people who rarely post: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vpkhqolt662uhesyj6nxm7ys/feed/infreq https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vpkhqolt662uhesyj6nxm7ys/fe...
- kazinator 2y ago
  When has a single social thing in human history improved with more folks moving over (beyond a small, early threshold)?
samsari 2y ago
> My goal was simply to find a platform for sharing and discussing ideas Which makes it all the stranger that you're complaining about others doing the same.
- EternalFury 2y ago
  I get what you’re saying. Political banter is a form of that. But it’s an echo chamber and I am tired of that. I would rather be alone in the woods than having to put up with another echo chamber. It’s not for me; it may be for you and apparently it’s worth a try for at least 20 million individuals.
  - GoodJokes 2y ago
    [dead]
ryandvm 2y ago
> I was searching for an apolitical, more progressive, and intellectual space This is a concept I struggle with. HN tries to be culture and politically agnostic, but culture and politics drive everything. I think it's intellectually lazy to suggest that this shouldn't be a place for smart people to discuss important issues because the reality is that those places are woefully uncommon. Begging for forums and content to be apolitical is just willfully wearing blinders. It may be great for mental health, but it's probably not great for society. It's on the same philosophical slope of "I don't want to be political, I just want to make great bombs for whoever."
- EternalFury 2y ago
  I am probably jaded. The way I see it, activisms and politics are occupations of the wealthy. I want to be wrong, but when I observe the political landscape, I find this to be true. I have no interest in being an activist or a politician. I disapprove of many ideologies and policies, and I vote accordingly, but trying to make minds beyond my own has only reduced my quality of life.
- skissane 2y ago
  > Begging for forums and content to be apolitical is just willfully wearing blinders. It may be great for mental health, but it's probably not great for society. Politics is still largely a national affair. One will often observe online discussions of some topic which isn’t in itself nation-specific get derailed into tangents about US national politics - and for non-Americans, that can be an annoying and alienating distraction. So an online space with cultural norms (or moderation) against political tangents can be more globally inclusive as a result. Even transnational politics tends to be somewhat region-specific: Brexit was a much bigger deal for people in France than for people in Japan, for cross-strait or inter-Korea relations it is the other way around Of course, intellectually curious people will often be interested in reading intelligent takes on the politics of the other side of the planet, even if it has minimal relevance to their own life. But a lot of online political discussion isn’t like that, it is just tribal point scoring and repetitive predictable talking points that have been said a thousand times before
- cafebabbe 2y ago
b0sk 2y ago
The "algorithm" aspect of the platform has improved for me. Here's what I did -- I artificially liked a non-trivial number of posts of topics I liked (say CS theory, systems programming, NFL, Soccer etc). Now the "Discover" feed is good (not great but this is a start). A few days back when I was starting out, the Discover feed was mostly random.
rsynnott 2y ago
> apolitical, more progressive, and intellectual space What does 'apolitical' mean, though? At some level, everything is political. Like, unless you want to restrict it to entirely cat photos, I'm not sure how this would work.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- etrautmann 2y ago
  There's an enormous gulf between the two extremes, where the vast majority of human conversation lies. It's not entirely implausible to have a social media platform that captures less of the culture war or partisan fighting in the US and elsewhere.
  - orionsbelt 2y ago
    Yup. For example, Hacker News, or pre-Elon Twitter. I'm a fan of Elon and Twitter, but post-Elon, my Twitter feed is far more filled with culture war nonsense, political flamebait, etc.
- mike_hearn 2y ago
  Threads is trying exactly that strategy, so it's clearly something that can be attempted.
- archagon 2y ago
  Also, “progressive” and “apolitical” seem inherently contradictory.
- RestlessMind 2y ago
  Here are some examples of apolitical links (from HN): "Tiny Glade 'built' its way to >600k sold in a month", "Open Riak – open, modern Riak fork", "Fair coins tend to land on the side they started", "Tiling with Three Polygons Is Undecidable". Here are some examples of political links (from HN / Reddit): "Trump picks Dr. Oz to run Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services", "If the US tries mass deportations, what happens if all other countries refuse to take them?", "Marjorie Taylor Greene Suggests Releasing All Ethics Reports, Not Just Gaetz's: "If We're Going to Dance, Let's All Dance In The Sunlight'", "Russia says Ukraine attacked it using U.S. long-range missiles, signals it's ready for nuclear response", "Donald Trump’s pick for energy secretary says ‘there is no climate crisis’" While this trope is always parroted, not everything has to be political tbh. Normal people I know will classify the first group as "apolitical" while the second group as "political" discussions.
cafebabbe 2y ago
I don't see what's preventing you to discuss "ideas" on Bluesky, or Twitter. I don't discuss politics either, but i had good interactions on both of these platforms.

skepticATX 2y ago

I think it’ll keep improving as more folks move over. This is just a temporary artifact of X refugees being the first to migrate.

EternalFury 2y ago
I’ll check it again in a year. Their “algorithm” is another polarization device, however. If you click or like anything, your feed fills with extremely similar things. Usually, that makes recovery from a closed mindset impossible.
- dewey 2y ago
  That's why it's cool that you can bring your own algorithm, for example there's this preset which will give you a feed of your "quiet followers", people who rarely post: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vpkhqolt662uhesyj6nxm7ys/feed/infreq https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vpkhqolt662uhesyj6nxm7ys/fe...
kazinator 2y ago
When has a single social thing in human history improved with more folks moving over (beyond a small, early threshold)?

samsari 2y ago

> My goal was simply to find a platform for sharing and discussing ideas Which makes it all the stranger that you're complaining about others doing the same.

EternalFury 2y ago
I get what you’re saying. Political banter is a form of that. But it’s an echo chamber and I am tired of that. I would rather be alone in the woods than having to put up with another echo chamber. It’s not for me; it may be for you and apparently it’s worth a try for at least 20 million individuals.
- GoodJokes 2y ago
  [dead]

ryandvm 2y ago

> I was searching for an apolitical, more progressive, and intellectual space This is a concept I struggle with. HN tries to be culture and politically agnostic, but culture and politics drive everything. I think it's intellectually lazy to suggest that this shouldn't be a place for smart people to discuss important issues because the reality is that those places are woefully uncommon. Begging for forums and content to be apolitical is just willfully wearing blinders. It may be great for mental health, but it's probably not great for society. It's on the same philosophical slope of "I don't want to be political, I just want to make great bombs for whoever."

EternalFury 2y ago
I am probably jaded. The way I see it, activisms and politics are occupations of the wealthy. I want to be wrong, but when I observe the political landscape, I find this to be true. I have no interest in being an activist or a politician. I disapprove of many ideologies and policies, and I vote accordingly, but trying to make minds beyond my own has only reduced my quality of life.
skissane 2y ago
> Begging for forums and content to be apolitical is just willfully wearing blinders. It may be great for mental health, but it's probably not great for society. Politics is still largely a national affair. One will often observe online discussions of some topic which isn’t in itself nation-specific get derailed into tangents about US national politics - and for non-Americans, that can be an annoying and alienating distraction. So an online space with cultural norms (or moderation) against political tangents can be more globally inclusive as a result. Even transnational politics tends to be somewhat region-specific: Brexit was a much bigger deal for people in France than for people in Japan, for cross-strait or inter-Korea relations it is the other way around Of course, intellectually curious people will often be interested in reading intelligent takes on the politics of the other side of the planet, even if it has minimal relevance to their own life. But a lot of online political discussion isn’t like that, it is just tribal point scoring and repetitive predictable talking points that have been said a thousand times before
cafebabbe 2y ago

b0sk 2y ago

The "algorithm" aspect of the platform has improved for me. Here's what I did -- I artificially liked a non-trivial number of posts of topics I liked (say CS theory, systems programming, NFL, Soccer etc). Now the "Discover" feed is good (not great but this is a start). A few days back when I was starting out, the Discover feed was mostly random.

rsynnott 2y ago

> apolitical, more progressive, and intellectual space What does 'apolitical' mean, though? At some level, everything is political. Like, unless you want to restrict it to entirely cat photos, I'm not sure how this would work.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
etrautmann 2y ago
There's an enormous gulf between the two extremes, where the vast majority of human conversation lies. It's not entirely implausible to have a social media platform that captures less of the culture war or partisan fighting in the US and elsewhere.
- orionsbelt 2y ago
  Yup. For example, Hacker News, or pre-Elon Twitter. I'm a fan of Elon and Twitter, but post-Elon, my Twitter feed is far more filled with culture war nonsense, political flamebait, etc.
mike_hearn 2y ago
Threads is trying exactly that strategy, so it's clearly something that can be attempted.
archagon 2y ago
Also, “progressive” and “apolitical” seem inherently contradictory.
RestlessMind 2y ago
Here are some examples of apolitical links (from HN): "Tiny Glade 'built' its way to >600k sold in a month", "Open Riak – open, modern Riak fork", "Fair coins tend to land on the side they started", "Tiling with Three Polygons Is Undecidable". Here are some examples of political links (from HN / Reddit): "Trump picks Dr. Oz to run Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services", "If the US tries mass deportations, what happens if all other countries refuse to take them?", "Marjorie Taylor Greene Suggests Releasing All Ethics Reports, Not Just Gaetz's: "If We're Going to Dance, Let's All Dance In The Sunlight'", "Russia says Ukraine attacked it using U.S. long-range missiles, signals it's ready for nuclear response", "Donald Trump’s pick for energy secretary says ‘there is no climate crisis’" While this trope is always parroted, not everything has to be political tbh. Normal people I know will classify the first group as "apolitical" while the second group as "political" discussions.

cafebabbe 2y ago

I don't see what's preventing you to discuss "ideas" on Bluesky, or Twitter. I don't discuss politics either, but i had good interactions on both of these platforms.