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The community has voted for convenience over privacy, and twitter and bluesky have won over mastodon. You're right, but people don't actually care about privacy
by fritzo 7mo ago
The community has voted for convenience over privacy, and twitter and bluesky have won over mastodon. You're right, but people don't actually care about privacy
- ghaff 7mo agoAs someone who was once an avid twitter user, my sense is that Mastodon--after a somewhat hopeful start just never gained the network momentum. Bluesky came closest to Twitter's old reach but is still something of a shadow of the old Twitter (as Twitter/X is these days as well).
- lich_king 7mo agoBluesky is not just a shadow, it's on a pretty steady decline. Their DAU numbers are dropping every month. Which probably tells you something about the unspoken reason for this change.
- ghaff 7mo agoWithout researching actual numbers, it feels like that whole category of social media is pretty much uninteresting at this point. Not sure what really replaces it given that Facebook seems increasingly infested with AI slop and sponsored posts.
- verdverm 7mo agoMore IRL time with other people hopefully.
- rekmarks 7mo agoNo they’re not? https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
- lich_king 7mo agoYes they are? E.g., https://api.backlinko.com/app/uploads/2025/11/bluesky-website-monthly-visits-1280x973.webp https://api.backlinko.com/app/uploads/2025/11/bluesky-websit... This is also visible in your stats if you extend the time window. They had a peak in 2024 and are pretty much declining month to month ever since.
- haunter 7mo agoAre we seeing the same? All the stats are steadily going down https://i.imgur.com/QJakG56.png https://i.imgur.com/QJakG56.png
- PaulHoule 7mo agoI’d describe that last six months as ‘sideways’ —- what was that surge near the end of last year?
- verdverm 7mo agoMy understanding was the end of year time off / holidays, as compared to the dip around thanksgiving.
- ajsalminen 7mo agoI believe that surge was Elon announcing AI image editing on X and a bunch of Japanese artists and their followers trying out Bluesky.
- verdverm 7mo agoJaz's stats are sus, use this instead: https://bskycharts.edavis.dev/edavis.dev/index.html https://bskycharts.edavis.dev/edavis.dev/index.html
- rekmarks 7mo agoAh, I didn't realize the link I shared was Jaz's (it was shared in another comment), but they look similarly sideways over the past 6 months, with a noticeable bump in Dec / Jan.
- rakovsky89 7mo ago[dead]
- ghaff 7mo agoWe may have different interests and networks. Pretty much everyone I know has moved on. I don't even look at it any longer.
- lukev 7mo agoBluesky is very intentionally about public posting. It's a bit weird to say people "don't care about privacy" when speaking of a platform designed to amplify and distribute posts as widely and effectively as possible.
- PaulHoule 7mo agoThere is a lot of weirdness around Mastodon, particularly some people can’t seem to make up their minds if they want the stuff they post to be visible or not.
- jrm4 7mo agoExactly. And I'm willing to be that Bluesky folk might be somewhat similar because they haven't figured it out yet. Except that the design of Bluesky severely increases the possibility of your data getting out of your control. And I can hear the immediate responses of "oh if you didn't want it public, don't post it," but as should be frightfully obvious -- not everyone thinks like that.
- tensor 7mo agoMastodon doesn’t give you any real privacy. If I’m posting on something twitter like I want as much reach as possible. Sorry bud, we’re not actually all dumb naive people who haven’t seen the light.
- jrm4 7mo agoUnfair characterization. You can make informed prediction about these 2nd order effects without thinking they are dumb. I don't think people who send nudes with Snapchat behaving as if they will be definitely deleted are dumb either because, you know, the heart wants what it wants. That doesn't mean that there is no danger of people having "buyer's" regret later, or more importantly that there are issues beyond the individuals.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- archagon 7mo agoIf a social network stays comparatively small but still active, I see that as a huge win. Half the people I follow are happily on Mastodon. I don't see that changing anytime soon.
- alterom 7mo ago>You're right, but people don't actually care about privacy The entire point of a platform like Twitter / Bluesky is reach, not privacy. Posts and discussions there are meant to be public, and highly visible. It's not that people don't care. It's that this is not what the platform is for. What's important for a platform like that is not even anonymity, but functional pseudonymity. And that thing is on its way to the effectively outlawed with the push for "age verification". People do notice it and leave [1], but at some point, there might be no place to go to. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1rmlzhy/welp_goodbye_bluesky/ https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1rmlzhy/welp_goodb...
- jrm4 7mo agoI 100% agree, I always thought that even Private Messages were a bad idea. But no, we're way past "if you don't want it public don't post it." and then wiping our hands and being done. We need to think in a policy kind of way on this. And again, things are already dangerous -- but ATProto makes them more dangerous. It's something like a chain-of-custody thing. I think the world is collectively safer where the gathering of data like this is less reliable and less verifiable. ATProto's model makes the building of the proverbial evil Big Brother panopticon thing a LOT easier.
- ajsalminen 7mo agoI'd rather say Twitter and Threads are the current winners if we're talking about userbase. Bluesky is basically in the same league with Mastodon while those two are so far above that you can't even see them without a telescope.
- jrm4 7mo agoI mostly don't like this take because it presumes a precise definition of privacy that we all agree on. And it's not even remotely close to that, which is why I think the Bluesky model is perhaps insidious.
- fritzo 7mo agoGood point. For sake of argument, how about this stratification of privacy levels: twitter/x/bluesky - a big tech company owns your data mastodon - a grassroots community organization owns your data zulip - someone you've met personally owns the data your blog - you own the data (and yes these are a bit of a category error, but to achieve privacy maybe we should broaden the category and sacrifice reach)
- jrm4 7mo agoWell, the problem is, now the word "owns" isn't really helpful either? Because you have "possesses" (which can be anyone) vs. "controls?" Twitter - single point of big company external control Mastodon - One or multiple unverifiable fallible likely grassroots, points of external control Bluesky - Once out, merely the illusion of control, because your data is out there, verifiable?.