BlueSky and the Influx of New Users

For some people the mass X-odus from Twitter to Bluesky is fantastic because it means that the community is growing and that by growing it means that more likeminded people will arrive. The flipside of this is that with a million new users per week, and growing, that’s a huge influx. That influx is bad news because for every decent person there are changes that the amount of trolling will increase.

I read somewhere that Bluesky has 20 people at the moment. 20 people to moderate 20 million users is not enough. It requires a team, or good algorithms, but good algorithms sometimes get false positives.

A Different Age

We are in a new social media and social network age. In 2024 we no longer need to convince people about the merits of social media. We have to convince them about the merits of being on one social network rather than another. I am on Facebook because of its legacy, that uni and work friends and colleagues are there but the community is not that friendly.

Threads is good, but there is a risk that in a month or two it will be filled with ads. Ads often really change the look and feel of social websites. I would like to stick around on Threads but by January the feel will be different.

Bluesky is growing fast because people migrate from one app to another as a herd, rather than as individuals, because when they move as a herd they arrive in a space where they are not alone. We have grown to expect a community, so we move with the community. If the community hasn’t arrived, we wait somewhere else.

And Finally

With a million people arriving per week Bluesky will be in flux so it might be worth taking a break, as it levels up, and return when healthy communities are back in balance.