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Elon Musk’s latest changes for X are driving more users away – not exactly a surprise, granted – and many of them are flocking to rival social media outlet Bluesky. So many made the switch, in fact, it led to Bluesky briefly going down due to the volume of incoming new users.

The central move initiated by X that made the headlines for driving migration away from Musk’s platform is a change to the way the ‘Block’ button works. This was actually announced back in September, but is officially being implemented now (well, it’ll be in place ‘soon’ we’re told).

It means that going forward, X users who you have blocked will still be able to view your (public) posts – though they won’t be able to engage with them in any way (from replies to liking and so forth).

This is problematic for obvious reasons, in terms of enabling stalkers and trolls who will still be able to view the posts of an account that has blocked them, when previously this wasn’t the case. In the past, blocking meant that the blocked user couldn’t see any posts (or anything at all, save for a message telling them that they’ve been blocked), but soon, this will change.

Bluesky posted to say it had in excess of 100,000 new users inside 12 hours following the announcement by X, after the rival network highlighted the fact that its block function stops those who are blocked from viewing any posts.

In an update, Bluesky noted that it has now gained half a million new users in the past day.

There’s another reason that some folks are rapidly exiting from X stage left (and right, and indeed center, clambering over the audience, it would seem), and that’s a change to X’s privacy policy.

As TechCrunch reports, the new policy includes an update that allows third-party collaborators to use content on X to train their AI models – unless the user opts out. This is a notable extension of the reach of AI training on X, which has so far only been used to train Musk’s own Grok AI (unless users opt out, again).

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[-] billbasher@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago

Opt out is such a shitty practice. Especially for AI generation

[-] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 11 points 5 hours ago

Bluesky is pretty great once you learn how to use it. I plan to slowly back off twitter.

[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 13 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Bluesky is vc backed by investors, it is a false promise that I am sure a lot of people working on the project believe, but it is a false promise all the same.

Bluesky is in the part of its lifecycle where investors tolerate no return on their investment in favor of drawing more people in. That is the relevant difference between Bluesky and other social media.

There are cool parts to Bluesky but it is absolutely a false promise of a future the fediverse already provides (however imperfectly). It is also full of "liberal" sheep who tell themselves they think differently but are so locked into the mindset of the way things are that they NEED their social network to be owned and operated for a profit by people orders of magnitude more wealthy than them.

Bluesky will end up essentially the same as all investor backed for-profit social networks, it will grow into a toxic, centralized (or in this case pseudo-centralized because of the moderation system), shithole where only popular accounts get any engagement with their posts. Mark my words.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

That type of social media just isn't really for me. But why would one want to choose Bluesky over Mastadon?

When I did try Twitter I somehow ended up following and be followed by a bunch of folks from Ghana... that was pretty neat. Although I did miss out because my Akan/Pidgin is basically non existent. Although I was introduced to the word "bomboclaat" which was interesting... lol

[-] stephen01king@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 hours ago

1 reason for me, the algorithm. I can never find a lot of new thing to discover or new people to follow on Mastodon when I first started, which makes me not use it very much even now.

[-] JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 22 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Social media like Twitter preys on people's fear of missing out.

Manufactured Problem - not being up to date on internet bullshit. Marketed solution - be on twitter. Supply and demand died a long time ago. Now it's all about manufactured problems, and conveniently marketed solutions.

This sort of psychological manipulation in marketing works. It's why it's so hard to get people to leave websites like Twitter, reddit, fb ect. They've made their brands synonymous with media trends.

It took long enough, but I'm genuinely happy to see folks wising up and realizing they don't "need" Twitter. It's like watching a bunch of people break up with a toxic ex all at the same time.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago

Not just Twitter. FOMO was what kept me on Reddit far longer than I should have been there.

[-] sweetpotato@lemmy.ml 23 points 8 hours ago

These mfs will use literally anything except for open source, decentralised social meda

[-] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 5 hours ago

The masses yearn for the corporate boot

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 32 points 11 hours ago

Just helpful to remember, as all this horseshit persists, Bluesky is Jack Dorsey. Dorsey is former head of Twitter and musk's good buddy.

It's all a losing proposition, whatever direction you move - except if you move... Away.

[-] Miphera@lemmy.world 15 points 9 hours ago
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago

Just like a real girlfriend, but better. Apart from you having absolutely no sex life and apart from the fact that it has absolutely no emotional attachment or attraction to you whatsoever. And it will also never do anything like buy you dinner or a birthday present. Enjoy throwing money at your robot that you can't even fuck like a fleshlight.

[-] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 16 points 10 hours ago

Is 500,000 actually a lot? Honest question, my sense of scale with these things is shaky.

[-] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 6 hours ago

For Twitter? No

For Bsky? Yes

[-] Prior_Industry@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

Do they drift back though. Bigger accounts seems to struggle to kick the Twitter high .

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 37 points 13 hours ago

Wait this whole article just baselessly assumes that 1 new bluesky account = 1 person leaving twitter. That is so obviously unrealistic. Sure some people were probably curious and wanted to check out something new but that doesn't mean they will immediately switch platforms.

You can’t just make fun of Those Guys for endlessly believing fake bullshit while unquestionably parroting this garbage.

[-] takeda@lemmy.world 16 points 13 hours ago

Twitter is for narcissists, and when they say Mastodon is not as good as twitter they really mean that there's not as many people watching them as on Twitter. So Bluesky gaining 500,000 new accounts could help in making it "better".

[-] vzq@lemmy.world 1 points 3 minutes ago

Mastodon is still pretty rough around the edges. Especially for the regular Twitter Instagram crowd.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 15 points 13 hours ago

The headline directly says half a million users left twatter. As far as I can tell that is literally a lie.

[-] Mwa@lemm.ee 5 points 10 hours ago

even tho twitter is ruined by him people will still use it

[-] mochisuki@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

Network effect is a hell of a drug

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[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 6 points 11 hours ago

I hate Twitter, but I'm getting to the point where I want it to get better because if bluesky gets many more members we're just gonna have Twitter again.

One thing I liked about the Muskification of Twitter was the scattering.

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 12 points 11 hours ago

Neoliberal guano website is better than Nazi guano website

[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 9 points 11 hours ago

Idiots users just recreating conditions that created their misery in the first place. Freedom doesn't happen from the grace of some cult leader and their slightly less immediately hostile app

[-] Tattorack@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

What sets it apart is that on Bluesky you can create your own algorithm. You can also share this algorithm, if you want, so others can subscribe to it. This means you see only what you want to see, and not what some corporate algorithm wants to see to maximise some kind of engagement.

Moreover, Bluesky is also its own federation. There aren't many who choose to do so, but you can connect to Bluesky using your own domain, which you have complet control over.

[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 hours ago

Ok, thanks ! Looks like I was wrong then, I see it is open source under MIT license Frankly I assumed it was another tech bro blitzscale project since it was from Rasputin himself There even is a 3rd party client so possibly it won't be a open source but problematic, like Signal

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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
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