One of the interesting things about Twitter’s downfall is how it’s reignited the social media arms race. Where once Twitter (now ludicrously named “X”) stood as the invincible titan of microblogging, it now seems quite frail and ready for irrelevancy. There have been challengers before, of course. Does anyone remember App.net? I sure do. I even tried it. It just wasn’t a draw for people entrenched in Twitter.
There are multiple services vying for the microblogging crown at the moment. I’ve discussed Mastodon extensively in past posts, and I think I’ve made my position fairly clear: I really like it. It’s feature-rich and decentralized. I pay six bucks a month to a third-party hosting service for my own instance. The autonomy is positively intoxicating.
But then there are the newcomers. Threads is essentially a bolt-on to Instagram, and like Instagram, it’s managed by Meta (formerly Facebook). The fact that Meta is involved at all bodes poorly for the service. In fact, it’s already losing users at a brisk pace. It also has a troubled relationship with the press and free speech. Meta’s censorship rivals even that of Facebook, but I suppose that makes sense, because Meta is now shoving Threads posts into Facebook. This can very safely be termed an “engagement crutch.” Threads can’t draw a crowd on its own, so Meta’s stacking the deck and praying for spontaneous, inexplicable success. Good luck with that.
That brings us to the third competitor: Bluesky. Bluesky was founded by Jack Dorsey, who started Twitter in the first place. Keep in mind this man ultimately signed Twitter’s death warrant by buying into Elon Musk’s bullshit. This BBC article summarized the situation well with a quote:
Back in April when Mr Musk first began his purchase of Twitter, Mr Dorsey said the 51-year-old was the “singular solution I trust” and that the South African’s takeover was “the right path…I believe it with all my heart”.
BBC News, Nov. 5th, 2022
It took less than a year for Dorsey to retract that glowing endorsement. So let’s start this analysis of his new brainchild with an important caveat: Jack has terrible judgment. But let’s also be fair and accurate on an important point, namely that he’s not terribly involved with the project currently. Now that those important considerations have been logged, let’s explore what Bluesky is today.
Bluesky isn’t a fully-released product yet. It’s still in beta, and you can’t create an account unless you receive an invitation code. These codes are issued to existing users regularly, and it’s meant to help prevent the servers from being overloaded with newcomers. It also has the side benefit of being clever social engineering, because scarcity lends itself well to elitism. If you’re not on the guest list, you can’t get into the club — no matter how much you sweet-talk the bouncer at the door.
There’s a web interface, an iOS client, and an Android client available for Bluesky. No matter which one you use, the system looks like… well, Twitter. But unlike Twitter, usernames are actually domain names. Yes, those kinds of domains. The kind you register and pay for annually. Now if you don’t feel like shelling out for one, no sweat! You can be @(name).bsky.social. Those names are free. But if you have a domain, your username can be anything you like under that umbrella. You could be @bob.thetechguy.com, @duckfighter.ihateducksman.org, or even just a base domain like @vanillaicecream.net. Those are all made-up examples, but you get the picture.
The idea behind using domain names as usernames is to ensure portability in the future, because Bluesky intends to federate with other servers eventually. The service runs on a proprietary protocol: ATProtocol. ATProtocol is not compatible with ActivityPub, which is the system Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse employ. That means if you want to federate with a Bluesky server, you’ll need to be running Bluesky as well. No other services use ATProtocol currently. But if someone decided to create one, it could hypothetically federate with Bluesky servers.
I would put the odds of that happening at a million to one. Why bother with a company’s nascent proprietary protocol when you can use a more widely-adopted one like ActivityPub? It’s also way easier to post to an ActivityPub server using webhooks than it is to Bluesky. ATProtocol requires a two-step connection process. The first step is standard authentication without the benefit of tokens, i.e. a simple username and password.
Fortunately, Bluesky does support application passwords. Unfortunately, tokens would be far better, because the actual data to post comes in on a subsequent HTTP connection. That means services like IFTTT, Zapier, etc. have serious integration impediments.
One day, those services may natively support ATProtocol. For now, Mastodon reigns supreme in this regard as its webhooks only require a single connection with token-based authentication. Uploading Mastodon media is a pain and occurs on a separate HTTP connection, so things aren’t perfect. But to date, I have connected Untappd, WordPress, and YouTube (for PlayStation videos) successfully to my Mastodon account using IFTTT. I’ve been unable to connect anything with Bluesky.
There are a number of features Bluesky lacks as well. Would you like to filter posts by keyword? Nope, not happening. Would you like to upload a video? That’s not supported at this time. Maybe you’d like to hashtag a post? Surprise! That’s not supported, either! It often feels like the list of missing features is longer than the list of available features. The one unique thing Bluesky boasts is a head scratcher — custom algorithms called “feeds.”
People often talk about “the algorithm,” but let’s clarify precisely what that means. On Twitter, “the algorithm” is code designed to maximize your “engagement” or “screen time.” This is so that advertisers can pass more garbage in front of your eye meat. The reason “the algorithm” is typically mentioned in a negative context is because of how it’s abused. Nothing keeps people scrolling like outrage, and so algorithmic content on social media has helped make everyone in the world angrier with everyone else. It’s not a coincidence that as social media has gained social traction, political and social divides have radically widened.
So why in the name of sanity would anybody want one of these algorithms? Don’t they just screw with your perceptions. Yes, they do. But now Bluesky is empowering you (assuming you received an invitation) to screw with your perceptions on your terms! You could make a feed that favors political outrage stories over fun stuff. Then you could really scramble your egg! Or maybe you just like porn. Make a feed that favors porn!
Most people aren’t going to trouble themselves with fancy algorithm edits, I think. It’s far easier to just drop people from your “follow” list or create a second account for saucy stuff. Humans generally dislike complexity and prefer simple, straightforward solutions. The less brain power it requires, the more likely it is to succeed. So I suspect John Q. Public will have one account just for porn, and a second account to rant about politics. It’s a lot easier than tweaking settings to create feeds, and it compartmentalizes sensitive information better.
The one decisive advantage Bluesky has over everyone else is… everyone else. Bluesky has become very popular due to its simplicity (see previous paragraph re: humans) and restricted membership (see previous metaphor re: nightclubs). That means many of the people you already know are there, chatting and sharing cat memes like the old times. This brings me to what I would call The Social Media Conundrum™.
Which constitutes the better social media environment — a large and active user base, or a smaller and more technical user base? For a great many people, Mastodon is scary. They fear setting up housekeeping on an instance run by a tyrant or a creep, then losing access to their posts. They fear the population inhabiting that space will look down on them. They fear that their values are not reflected in the Fediverse’s instances, be they political, religious, or sexual beliefs.
I know what I want. I have my own Mastodon instance, and I think of it a bit like a garden. Sure, the soil is stony at times, but the flowers are beautiful. I connect with people based on shared hobbies and passions each and every day. I see thoughtful posts from intelligent contributors. A real effort is being made to fashion just and sustainable spaces for people to exist socially, rather than be treated as consumer inmates.
Sure, there are friends and family that I would love to see on Mastodon. And many of those people are indeed on Bluesky. I leave the door open for them — just a crack — by having a Bluesky account at all. But my attention is squarely and primarily fixed on the Fediverse. Which is why the few posts I’ve made on Bluesky all point back to Mastodon.
Someday, I’ll be able to sync my Mastodon posts to Bluesky automatically for friends. But it’s never going to be the other way around. Bluesky is most definitely the runner-up in my mind. As of October 2023, Bluesky had 1.5 million regular users, and Mastodon had 1.8 million regular users. I think it only feels like more people are on Bluesky, because the few I know are people I miss.
But I’m good at waiting, and I’m always happy to show a friend the way here.