Over a year following its post-election surge, Bluesky’s mobile app is seeing a continued decline in active users, though its remaining community is still relatively engaged.
Hmmmm, yeah. That’s what I thought. Everyone here is the wrong audience to really comment on this.
The reason peoples opinion here doesn’t matter much is because like it or not, Lemmy is a hive mindset.
Don’t like linux? Booooooo
Don’t care about open source? Boooooo
Don’t engage in antisocial behavior? Boooooo
And thats the audience here. It’s impossible for you to comment on the mental state of the general broad population when this site seemingly collects an audience that goes out of their way to stay away from the broad general population. How could you possibly relate to someone like my brother in law, who uses Windows 11, without issue? I asked him how he can stsnd all the AI, and the spying. I was expecting an actual answer, and maybe some insight as to how to not make Windows 11 the dumpster fire that it is. Instead, he defends Windows 11 with blind faith ignorance. Insisting that there is no spying in Windows 11, and the AI is actually a good thing.
And I watched as an entire room nodded along in understanding. All agreeing with these points. I realized in that moment that there is zero conversation to be had with these people. I know for fact that Windows 11 spies on you. I know for fact that there is AI in Windows 11. It’s easy to see that if left at its current rate, that AI and data centers that support AI will inevitably lead to mass water shortages.
And I’m confident that these words would land harder here on Lemmy, where I think 99% of you understand the gravity and real nature of what I’m saying.
The problem is, 99% of Lemmy’s typical userbase accounts for 0.01% of the general population. This website is a bubble. Which is a shame, because I fully believe the model for Lemmys infrastructure is the cure for the problems that the general population complain about.
But it’ll never be tested at scale. Most people do not give a fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck about privacy, or open source, or decentralization. Facebook knows my phone number, and has photos of me. Against my consent. And my mom who’s in her 80s, who uses facebook to keep in touch with her sewing community, sees nothing wrong here.
Thats why the people here, who only support mastodon, will never understand why that stratagy won’t work for the masses. And honestly, even if it did, then it wouldn’t work for you.
Because twitter has something like 375 million users. When taylor swift wants to promote something, she does it on twitter. Because it’s where the people are. It’s also a right wing agenda platform, owned by a literal seig hailing nazi, but yet its still the default service regardless if you’re left or right. It’s just where the people are.
Here is what you have done. You saw an ocean. You took note of all the problems fish have in the ocean. You then designed a new concept where fish can swim in a tiny little manufactured pond. But if it gets too small, it can be scaled bigger. You removed the threats of being eaten. You’ve removed the fishing boats. You managed the algae. You planted seaweed so they have food. You installed everything a fish needs to have a happier healthier life from your perspective.
Except there’s no water in this pond. The fediverse concentrates so hard on the advanced features that would make for a great experience…and then forgets the basics that are needed to support life here. Social media only survives when it has an audience, just as fish only survive when they have water.
All the advanced stuff that goes unused in the fediverse means nothing without an audience. Basically if bluesky dies, the users go back to twitter.
You complain that mastodon is better. But bluesky only got popular because the general population didn’t want twitter with nazis. They wanted old twitter. Bluesky is old twitter without the nazis. Thats all they wanted. But it’s only got a tiny fraction of the audience twitter has. So again, taylor swift says her things on twitter. Not bluesky. Not enough people on bluesky to be considered the default. Just like the fediverse can’t keep fish surviving without water, the same is true on bluesky.
The order it goes is that celebrities need to say things to hold an audience. Before the internet, that platform was tv/radio. There were also a lot less celebrities. Because tv/radio just didn’t have a need to create more celebrities. But now, a celebrity can either get their message across to 375 million, or 14 million.
Celebrities go where there is an infrastructure that can handle their fame, and the audience goes where the celebrities go. Below that are us. We’re not the 14 million. Lemmy has 60k and shrinking. But for us the order goes “infrastructure THEN audience”. Which is never going to pull in a huge audience. It can support a large audience. Argueably better. But it’ll never be tested.
Honestly I personally, selfishly, hope Lemmy never gets anywhere near Facebook or Twitter huge.
Most people are fucking boring idiot assholes, full of actually boring and stupid ideas and opinions they only think are clever or notable because them and their social circle are broadly ignorant and hypnotized by marketing.
I prefer a smaller community where people at least tend toward not being idiots, and not being boring.
I don’t want to hear from a celebrity, as their celebrity self.
I don’t want advertising to be viable.
You are right; most people do not care about things that they should, if they actually believed half the things they say they do. Most people are enormously massive hypocrites about most things, whether theyre aware of that or not.
I am under no illusion that people, broadly, when freely handed the solution to a large chunk of their problems, will use it, if it means they suffer any kind of inconvenience whatsoever.
I am under no illusion that most people want what they claim they want; they just want to be popular, or be where the most other people are.
If Bluesky dies and the users go back to Twitter, they never believed in anything more than ‘I want to be part of the herd.’
What you identify as a lack of water, I see as a functioning primary filtration system that prevents microplastic infected water from coming in to the system.
Keep Lemmy Weird.
I also find it odd that you would likely describe all that as anti-social.
… having preferences for the kind of people you enjoy socializing with… is not anti social. You seem to be functionally saying that not starting a massive marketing drive, that in itself is anti social.
This to me is either completely insane, or you don’t understand what ‘anti-social’ means.
The corporate paradigm for social media… that is anti-social. ‘Demonstrates a chronic pattern of disregarding the rights and well-bring of others.’ They literally act as fine-tuned personalized, digital drugs to manipulate your thoughts and emotions, by exploiting your weaknesses.
If Bluesky dies and the users go back to Twitter, they never believed in anything more than ‘I want to be part of the herd.’
If ATproto (I migrated to Blacksky last year when Bsky made an unpopular ToS change) dies, I also have a Mastodon account I’ve been active on lately although my Mastodon account predates my ATproto account by a couple years, that I’ll happily move to full time, I killed my Twitter months ago because I wasn’t even active on there anymore anyways plus the baggage associated with that platform now, and I don’t plan on setting another one back up.
You make some good points, but you’re making the same mistake you’re accusing your audience of making: you don’t understand why people are on the platform they are on.
I can’t speak for everyone, so I’ll just speak for myself: I’m not on Lemmy and Mastodon because I want them to become the next Facebook–even if it were some kind of libre utopia free of commercial interests.
I’m here because these weirdos are my weirdos and they like the same weird things I like. It’s a small enough sandbox that I can still recognize people here and there. These people have similar interests to me, and they post long, insightful rants about stuff that my family and other friends would not care about. The network effect is working in my favor.
The fediverse community feels more like home to me than the big social platforms. This feels more like it’s my community. If Lemmy gets as big as Reddit, I’ll probably go somewhere else.
I don’t use Linux because I want it to dominate the world. I don’t care if others use Linux or not. I use Linux because my computer finally feels like it’s mine again. I do what I want with it and I don’t have to worry about AI running or spying happening on it without my knowledge. As a bonus, it runs smoother.
The tradeoff is there are a few rough edges, and I have to learn some new things. But I enjoy learning. Lots of people don’t enjoy having to learn new things to just veg out with IG or YouTube. I get that. So, then don’t. Veg out with Windows, if that’s your thing. We can all do our own thing at the same time.
Choice is a good thing. Small communites are good. Decentralized is good because then big bullies can’t come in and take your community away. Small size and fragmentation are features, not bugs.
If Taylor Swift wants to set up her own Mastodon instance, she can. If she wants to cross-post between that and X, she can. I won’t be seeking out her content and it will be trivial for me to stay in my bubble without Taylor algorithmically popping up inside of it like she is on IG, FB, and X.
Choice is a good thing. Small communites are good. Decentralized is good because then big bullies can’t come in and take your community away. Small size and fragmentation are features, not bugs.
Would be nice if the Fediverse had more of that.
There are three or four different “Technology” communities. But there might as well just be one, it’s the same bubble in each of them.
Really though, you speak some truth, but it seems like you make the case for breaking up monopolies. Of course the current political environment in the US wouldn’t allow that, but you’ve identified winner take all. I disagree about whether it’s inevitable or does it take continual coersive action to stomp out that competition?
It should have never been allowed for Facebook to take over WhatsApp and Instagram or Google taking over YouTube… It’s the opposite of what capitalism should be according to people who defend it: allowing such mega monopolies destroys the few benefits the free market has to offer. It stunts innovation and encourages enshittification and anti consumer vendor lock-in behaviour
Here’s the thing.
looks around
Hmmmm, yeah. That’s what I thought. Everyone here is the wrong audience to really comment on this.
The reason peoples opinion here doesn’t matter much is because like it or not, Lemmy is a hive mindset.
Don’t like linux? Booooooo
Don’t care about open source? Boooooo
Don’t engage in antisocial behavior? Boooooo
And thats the audience here. It’s impossible for you to comment on the mental state of the general broad population when this site seemingly collects an audience that goes out of their way to stay away from the broad general population. How could you possibly relate to someone like my brother in law, who uses Windows 11, without issue? I asked him how he can stsnd all the AI, and the spying. I was expecting an actual answer, and maybe some insight as to how to not make Windows 11 the dumpster fire that it is. Instead, he defends Windows 11 with blind faith ignorance. Insisting that there is no spying in Windows 11, and the AI is actually a good thing.
And I watched as an entire room nodded along in understanding. All agreeing with these points. I realized in that moment that there is zero conversation to be had with these people. I know for fact that Windows 11 spies on you. I know for fact that there is AI in Windows 11. It’s easy to see that if left at its current rate, that AI and data centers that support AI will inevitably lead to mass water shortages.
And I’m confident that these words would land harder here on Lemmy, where I think 99% of you understand the gravity and real nature of what I’m saying.
The problem is, 99% of Lemmy’s typical userbase accounts for 0.01% of the general population. This website is a bubble. Which is a shame, because I fully believe the model for Lemmys infrastructure is the cure for the problems that the general population complain about.
But it’ll never be tested at scale. Most people do not give a fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck about privacy, or open source, or decentralization. Facebook knows my phone number, and has photos of me. Against my consent. And my mom who’s in her 80s, who uses facebook to keep in touch with her sewing community, sees nothing wrong here.
Thats why the people here, who only support mastodon, will never understand why that stratagy won’t work for the masses. And honestly, even if it did, then it wouldn’t work for you.
Because twitter has something like 375 million users. When taylor swift wants to promote something, she does it on twitter. Because it’s where the people are. It’s also a right wing agenda platform, owned by a literal seig hailing nazi, but yet its still the default service regardless if you’re left or right. It’s just where the people are.
Here is what you have done. You saw an ocean. You took note of all the problems fish have in the ocean. You then designed a new concept where fish can swim in a tiny little manufactured pond. But if it gets too small, it can be scaled bigger. You removed the threats of being eaten. You’ve removed the fishing boats. You managed the algae. You planted seaweed so they have food. You installed everything a fish needs to have a happier healthier life from your perspective.
Except there’s no water in this pond. The fediverse concentrates so hard on the advanced features that would make for a great experience…and then forgets the basics that are needed to support life here. Social media only survives when it has an audience, just as fish only survive when they have water.
All the advanced stuff that goes unused in the fediverse means nothing without an audience. Basically if bluesky dies, the users go back to twitter.
You complain that mastodon is better. But bluesky only got popular because the general population didn’t want twitter with nazis. They wanted old twitter. Bluesky is old twitter without the nazis. Thats all they wanted. But it’s only got a tiny fraction of the audience twitter has. So again, taylor swift says her things on twitter. Not bluesky. Not enough people on bluesky to be considered the default. Just like the fediverse can’t keep fish surviving without water, the same is true on bluesky.
The order it goes is that celebrities need to say things to hold an audience. Before the internet, that platform was tv/radio. There were also a lot less celebrities. Because tv/radio just didn’t have a need to create more celebrities. But now, a celebrity can either get their message across to 375 million, or 14 million.
Celebrities go where there is an infrastructure that can handle their fame, and the audience goes where the celebrities go. Below that are us. We’re not the 14 million. Lemmy has 60k and shrinking. But for us the order goes “infrastructure THEN audience”. Which is never going to pull in a huge audience. It can support a large audience. Argueably better. But it’ll never be tested.
Honestly I personally, selfishly, hope Lemmy never gets anywhere near Facebook or Twitter huge.
Most people are fucking boring idiot assholes, full of actually boring and stupid ideas and opinions they only think are clever or notable because them and their social circle are broadly ignorant and hypnotized by marketing.
I prefer a smaller community where people at least tend toward not being idiots, and not being boring.
I don’t want to hear from a celebrity, as their celebrity self.
I don’t want advertising to be viable.
You are right; most people do not care about things that they should, if they actually believed half the things they say they do. Most people are enormously massive hypocrites about most things, whether theyre aware of that or not.
I am under no illusion that people, broadly, when freely handed the solution to a large chunk of their problems, will use it, if it means they suffer any kind of inconvenience whatsoever.
I am under no illusion that most people want what they claim they want; they just want to be popular, or be where the most other people are.
If Bluesky dies and the users go back to Twitter, they never believed in anything more than ‘I want to be part of the herd.’
What you identify as a lack of water, I see as a functioning primary filtration system that prevents microplastic infected water from coming in to the system.
Keep Lemmy Weird.
I also find it odd that you would likely describe all that as anti-social.
… having preferences for the kind of people you enjoy socializing with… is not anti social. You seem to be functionally saying that not starting a massive marketing drive, that in itself is anti social.
This to me is either completely insane, or you don’t understand what ‘anti-social’ means.
The corporate paradigm for social media… that is anti-social. ‘Demonstrates a chronic pattern of disregarding the rights and well-bring of others.’ They literally act as fine-tuned personalized, digital drugs to manipulate your thoughts and emotions, by exploiting your weaknesses.
You make some good points, but you’re making the same mistake you’re accusing your audience of making: you don’t understand why people are on the platform they are on.
I can’t speak for everyone, so I’ll just speak for myself: I’m not on Lemmy and Mastodon because I want them to become the next Facebook–even if it were some kind of libre utopia free of commercial interests.
I’m here because these weirdos are my weirdos and they like the same weird things I like. It’s a small enough sandbox that I can still recognize people here and there. These people have similar interests to me, and they post long, insightful rants about stuff that my family and other friends would not care about. The network effect is working in my favor.
The fediverse community feels more like home to me than the big social platforms. This feels more like it’s my community. If Lemmy gets as big as Reddit, I’ll probably go somewhere else.
I don’t use Linux because I want it to dominate the world. I don’t care if others use Linux or not. I use Linux because my computer finally feels like it’s mine again. I do what I want with it and I don’t have to worry about AI running or spying happening on it without my knowledge. As a bonus, it runs smoother.
The tradeoff is there are a few rough edges, and I have to learn some new things. But I enjoy learning. Lots of people don’t enjoy having to learn new things to just veg out with IG or YouTube. I get that. So, then don’t. Veg out with Windows, if that’s your thing. We can all do our own thing at the same time.
Choice is a good thing. Small communites are good. Decentralized is good because then big bullies can’t come in and take your community away. Small size and fragmentation are features, not bugs.
If Taylor Swift wants to set up her own Mastodon instance, she can. If she wants to cross-post between that and X, she can. I won’t be seeking out her content and it will be trivial for me to stay in my bubble without Taylor algorithmically popping up inside of it like she is on IG, FB, and X.
Would be nice if the Fediverse had more of that.
There are three or four different “Technology” communities. But there might as well just be one, it’s the same bubble in each of them.
Every last god damn word of this. Well said.
Hell yeah, new copypasta just dropped!
Really though, you speak some truth, but it seems like you make the case for breaking up monopolies. Of course the current political environment in the US wouldn’t allow that, but you’ve identified winner take all. I disagree about whether it’s inevitable or does it take continual coersive action to stomp out that competition?
It should have never been allowed for Facebook to take over WhatsApp and Instagram or Google taking over YouTube… It’s the opposite of what capitalism should be according to people who defend it: allowing such mega monopolies destroys the few benefits the free market has to offer. It stunts innovation and encourages enshittification and anti consumer vendor lock-in behaviour