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>It’s also true, however, that the platform is in serious decline, and that’s partly due to the product becoming more and more shitty over time. A vocal minori

by 71bw 2y ago

>It’s also true, however, that the platform is in serious decline, and that’s partly due to the product becoming more and more shitty over time. A vocal minority of leftists moving to Bluesky isn't a decline.

tene80i 2y ago
I was actually referring to the financial institutions who backed the takeover writing off ~75% of the value of their investment in the platform during Musk’s leadership, which predates the recent Bluesky enthusiasm. But since you mention it: yes, a vocal minority of leftists moving to a new platform is indeed a decline! Get your politics out of it and think about what it means for a business. Part of twitter’s value was that it was where news broke, people made statements, etc. It was cited on the news. There was no other platform like that (except perhaps Instagram, usually with pop culture figures). There is indeed a small group of people who, if you lose them, cause enormous damage to a platform like Twitter, because for many people using it they are using it because of the other people using it. Network effects cut both ways.
- 71bw 2y ago
  >I was actually referring to the financial institutions who backed the takeover writing off ~75% of the value of their investment in the platform during Musk’s leadership, which predates the recent Bluesky enthusiasm. Makes sense. Valid argument. >yes, a vocal minority of leftists moving to a new platform is indeed a decline! Get your politics out of it and think about what it means for a business. Nothing. They will all come back. >Part of twitter’s value was that it was where news broke, people made statements, etc. It was cited on the news. It still is. Nothing has changed. >There was no other platform like that (except perhaps Instagram, usually with pop culture figures). There still isn't. Bsky is no competition in that regard. There's nothing of value for 'normal' people there. >There is indeed a small group of people who, if you lose them, cause enormous damage to a platform like Twitter, because for many people using it they are using it because of the other people using it. And yet they are not the people leaving. How many of these supposed giant exoduses were we supposed to have by now? First the death of artists on Twitter after the Japanese left to misskey? Out of whom many are back on Twitter regardless? All the Mastodon refugees, who also in great numbers have returned and only the fanatics have stayed? Twitter is not dying anytime soon and you (and others like you) are once again crying wolf over a situation we've been in multiple times.
  - tene80i 2y ago
    My point isn’t that Twitter is dead, remember. It’s that it is in decline. Bluesky isn’t a twitter replacement today, sure, but it’s a risk, even if the risk is only that the end result is fragmentation. I’m not sure why you say it’s impossible for anything ever to seriously damage X. That’s fanaticism. And as for people crying wolf, remember: at the end of the fable, there were indeed wolves. The boy was lying, yes, but the lesson is not that there was never any danger - it’s that people stop listening.
  - chimprich 2y ago
    > There still isn't. Bsky is no competition in that regard. There's nothing of value for 'normal' people there. I'm finding Bluesky a perfect Twitter replacement so far. Twitter was becoming a cesspool; an increasingly rancid algorithm that promoted one particular person's politics, and a lack of moderation that meant many conversations just degenerated into abuse. > How many of these supposed giant exoduses were we supposed to have by now? All platforms eventually get superseded. Twitter only thrived over competitors because of the network effect. Other platforms were technically superior / had better QoL, but either had flaws or didn't achieve critical mass. Bluesky is different. It's as easy to use for the average person, gives more control to the user, is far more civil, and is now big enough already be a replacement. Almost all the people I was following on Twitter are now posting on there. I followed a lot of scientists, and many have moved entirely. That fewer people are on Bluesky is a feature, not a bug; the signal to noise is more distilled.
fabian2k 2y ago
It's not just leftists. My Twitter feed had a large number of military experts in it since the start of the war against Ukraine. Almost all of them are posting on Bluesky now, and they're certainly not a leftwing group. I think another interesting aspect is that Musk confirmed that tweets with links to external sources are penalized on Twitter. That would particularly hit the kind of people that make these platforms interesting to me because they also post longer content somewhere else.

by 71bw 2y ago

tene80i 2y ago

I was actually referring to the financial institutions who backed the takeover writing off ~75% of the value of their investment in the platform during Musk’s leadership, which predates the recent Bluesky enthusiasm. But since you mention it: yes, a vocal minority of leftists moving to a new platform is indeed a decline! Get your politics out of it and think about what it means for a business. Part of twitter’s value was that it was where news broke, people made statements, etc. It was cited on the news. There was no other platform like that (except perhaps Instagram, usually with pop culture figures). There is indeed a small group of people who, if you lose them, cause enormous damage to a platform like Twitter, because for many people using it they are using it because of the other people using it. Network effects cut both ways.

71bw 2y ago
>I was actually referring to the financial institutions who backed the takeover writing off ~75% of the value of their investment in the platform during Musk’s leadership, which predates the recent Bluesky enthusiasm. Makes sense. Valid argument. >yes, a vocal minority of leftists moving to a new platform is indeed a decline! Get your politics out of it and think about what it means for a business. Nothing. They will all come back. >Part of twitter’s value was that it was where news broke, people made statements, etc. It was cited on the news. It still is. Nothing has changed. >There was no other platform like that (except perhaps Instagram, usually with pop culture figures). There still isn't. Bsky is no competition in that regard. There's nothing of value for 'normal' people there. >There is indeed a small group of people who, if you lose them, cause enormous damage to a platform like Twitter, because for many people using it they are using it because of the other people using it. And yet they are not the people leaving. How many of these supposed giant exoduses were we supposed to have by now? First the death of artists on Twitter after the Japanese left to misskey? Out of whom many are back on Twitter regardless? All the Mastodon refugees, who also in great numbers have returned and only the fanatics have stayed? Twitter is not dying anytime soon and you (and others like you) are once again crying wolf over a situation we've been in multiple times.
- tene80i 2y ago
  My point isn’t that Twitter is dead, remember. It’s that it is in decline. Bluesky isn’t a twitter replacement today, sure, but it’s a risk, even if the risk is only that the end result is fragmentation. I’m not sure why you say it’s impossible for anything ever to seriously damage X. That’s fanaticism. And as for people crying wolf, remember: at the end of the fable, there were indeed wolves. The boy was lying, yes, but the lesson is not that there was never any danger - it’s that people stop listening.
- chimprich 2y ago
  > There still isn't. Bsky is no competition in that regard. There's nothing of value for 'normal' people there. I'm finding Bluesky a perfect Twitter replacement so far. Twitter was becoming a cesspool; an increasingly rancid algorithm that promoted one particular person's politics, and a lack of moderation that meant many conversations just degenerated into abuse. > How many of these supposed giant exoduses were we supposed to have by now? All platforms eventually get superseded. Twitter only thrived over competitors because of the network effect. Other platforms were technically superior / had better QoL, but either had flaws or didn't achieve critical mass. Bluesky is different. It's as easy to use for the average person, gives more control to the user, is far more civil, and is now big enough already be a replacement. Almost all the people I was following on Twitter are now posting on there. I followed a lot of scientists, and many have moved entirely. That fewer people are on Bluesky is a feature, not a bug; the signal to noise is more distilled.

fabian2k 2y ago

It's not just leftists. My Twitter feed had a large number of military experts in it since the start of the war against Ukraine. Almost all of them are posting on Bluesky now, and they're certainly not a leftwing group. I think another interesting aspect is that Musk confirmed that tweets with links to external sources are penalized on Twitter. That would particularly hit the kind of people that make these platforms interesting to me because they also post longer content somewhere else.