If you want microblogging social media just use mastodon (or one of it’s forks). Even if Bluesky is decent now, it’s owned by venture capital, so it’s only a matter of time before it enshittifies.
I do like Mastodon as a platform, but it seems nobody really bothers to actually use it for communication. Just drop-posting updates on things with zero replies.
Maybe since it doesn’t have all the addiction patterns or algos like other apps do? I’m really not sure.
I was considering going through the hassle of setting up a Mastodon server for me and my family and friends only but… something tells me I’d run into the same problem lol.
…People just seem too busy and tired and scattered on 15 different incompatible social apps and geographic locations to bother with each other anymore. :(
I only use it sporadically, but when I do, I often write replies and get replies. I think you need to mutually follow a lot of people before it starts working (like, a thousand or more). I’m not convinced the reply rate is significantly lower than BS or twitter…
Re: your last comment: for sure. To me that’s another bonus of fediverse, e.g. since mastodon is at least partially able to interact with Lemmy and other fediverse apps, and that will presumably improve over time, eventually you will be able to do at lot of cross-app interaction from one place.
Mastodon is not a viable alternative if you actually want to follow people. I tried to use it multiple times but almost nobody I care about is there. I’d love for Mastodon to be more popular but it just isn’t.
Sure. Right now, everyone has to make a trade-off between accepting a smaller network and engaging with corporate garbage designed to create rage and clicks. Personally I’m happy to sit on the smaller network and contribute a bit and wait for it to build naturally. That’s why I’m here on Lemmy too.
My entire point is that this isn’t how it works for me. I use these platforms to keep up with personalities and organisations I care about. Almost none of those are on Mastodon, so it’s just straight-up useless to me. If Bluesky suddenly disappeared and Mastodon stayed exactly the same I wouldn’t switch, I’d just use neither.
It’s true that many mainstream accounts are not on mastodon but much of that can be remedied by following Threads and Flipboard accounts. Plus, you avoid the ads.
True, I haven’t really given Mastodon a shot since it started to be able to federate with Threads and that can definitely help! But that move was also controversial on its own. I’m not sure whether my instance even federates with Threads but of course you can always move or make your own.
I wouldn’t really call the accounts I follow mainstream. It’s leftists, leftist YouTubers, queer and especially trans people. And those mostly found a home on Bluesky especially after Meta changed their policy and started to allow a lot of questionable things like saying queer people are mentally ill. Which also made me delete my Instagram account, so it’s not like I don’t have any principles. Although to be fair I was never particularly active there to begin with.
Do you really need me to tell you why I’m not using the nazi pedophile transphobia platform?
Plus, most people I used to follow there have moved over to Bluesky a long time ago. I would’ve preferred it if everyone moved to Mastodon instead but for now Bluesky is at least acceptable.
So I guess the worry (echoed in this thread as well) is that Bluesky could become the same type of platform, given the people and investors behind it. Only time will tell
Yes, and I totally share that concern. But for now, Bluesky is pretty good. And if it gets enshittified we’ll hopefully have an easier time convincing people to move to Mastodon.
If you want microblogging social media just use mastodon (or one of it’s forks). Even if Bluesky is decent now, it’s owned by venture capital, so it’s only a matter of time before it enshittifies.
I do like Mastodon as a platform, but it seems nobody really bothers to actually use it for communication. Just drop-posting updates on things with zero replies.
Maybe since it doesn’t have all the addiction patterns or algos like other apps do? I’m really not sure.
I was considering going through the hassle of setting up a Mastodon server for me and my family and friends only but… something tells me I’d run into the same problem lol.
…People just seem too busy and tired and scattered on 15 different incompatible social apps and geographic locations to bother with each other anymore. :(
I only use it sporadically, but when I do, I often write replies and get replies. I think you need to mutually follow a lot of people before it starts working (like, a thousand or more). I’m not convinced the reply rate is significantly lower than BS or twitter…
Re: your last comment: for sure. To me that’s another bonus of fediverse, e.g. since mastodon is at least partially able to interact with Lemmy and other fediverse apps, and that will presumably improve over time, eventually you will be able to do at lot of cross-app interaction from one place.
“This game becomes fun after 51st boss” energy.
I don’t know, I’ve been on mastodon for like 8 years now and have never had any problem connecting with other people.
Mastodon is not a viable alternative if you actually want to follow people. I tried to use it multiple times but almost nobody I care about is there. I’d love for Mastodon to be more popular but it just isn’t.
Sure. Right now, everyone has to make a trade-off between accepting a smaller network and engaging with corporate garbage designed to create rage and clicks. Personally I’m happy to sit on the smaller network and contribute a bit and wait for it to build naturally. That’s why I’m here on Lemmy too.
My entire point is that this isn’t how it works for me. I use these platforms to keep up with personalities and organisations I care about. Almost none of those are on Mastodon, so it’s just straight-up useless to me. If Bluesky suddenly disappeared and Mastodon stayed exactly the same I wouldn’t switch, I’d just use neither.
It’s true that many mainstream accounts are not on mastodon but much of that can be remedied by following Threads and Flipboard accounts. Plus, you avoid the ads.
True, I haven’t really given Mastodon a shot since it started to be able to federate with Threads and that can definitely help! But that move was also controversial on its own. I’m not sure whether my instance even federates with Threads but of course you can always move or make your own.
I wouldn’t really call the accounts I follow mainstream. It’s leftists, leftist YouTubers, queer and especially trans people. And those mostly found a home on Bluesky especially after Meta changed their policy and started to allow a lot of questionable things like saying queer people are mentally ill. Which also made me delete my Instagram account, so it’s not like I don’t have any principles. Although to be fair I was never particularly active there to begin with.
Mastodon has many queer and trans people. There are entire instances. But they might not be your particular people.
But then wouldn’t you just use X instead of Bluesky?
Do you really need me to tell you why I’m not using the nazi pedophile transphobia platform?
Plus, most people I used to follow there have moved over to Bluesky a long time ago. I would’ve preferred it if everyone moved to Mastodon instead but for now Bluesky is at least acceptable.
So I guess the worry (echoed in this thread as well) is that Bluesky could become the same type of platform, given the people and investors behind it. Only time will tell
Yes, and I totally share that concern. But for now, Bluesky is pretty good. And if it gets enshittified we’ll hopefully have an easier time convincing people to move to Mastodon.