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Abandon ship?
Monday, Nov 18, 2024 - Posted by Rich Miller * The thing I most despise about the current version of X (Twitter) is that the site rewards outrage engagement farming. Look below any post by a public figure and you have to wade through a wide band of paid “blue check” subscribers tweeting increasingly vile things for the sole purpose of garnering attention and being compensated by the site’s ownership. The system is specifically designed to produce a super-ugly feedback loop, and it’s not gonna get any better. I don’t usually read the comments over there. So, that ugliness mostly doesn’t bother me, and I stay away from the site’s darker corners. But even if I did let that stuff get to me, I can’t leave yet because I use X mainly as a way to spot breaking news stories. Until state reporters and politicians also decide to leave, I’m stuck there and I’ll just make the best of it no matter what. * But there is a growing alternative. I’ve set up an account at BlueSky. During the past few days, a large number of reporters and some major news media outlets have created profiles at the site. Click here for a “starter pack” I created of state reporters, and click here for a broader Illinois news media list. A handful of state legislators, a few members of the governor’s top staff, a couple of state agencies, the Senate Democrats and a smattering of lobbyists and PR people have also set up BlueSky accounts. Click here for a list I created of those folks. Even Oswego Willy has a BlueSky account. * It feels like a tipping point might - *might* - be coming. If that happens and if we can easily follow events like the Michael Madigan trial and all the the spring legislative session news and upcoming elections, then I’ll move fully over to BlueSky. Heck, we might even be able to return to actual live coverage if I can convince my third party app to create the software. Anyway, click here to check it out. And let me know if you’ve joined the exodus.
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- TJ - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 8:45 am:
Yeah, I moved over to BlueSky the day after the election. Straw the broke the camel’s back for me.
The number of accounts there is growing, albeit more than a few are mirrors that just “retweet” what they posted on their main account on Twitter. I do feel like my mental sanity has recovered a bit merely by just not doomscrolling on that old site. I need to go back and scrub everything previously posted on the old account before shutting it down for good. I might have one picture of my son out there, but borderline everything else is just retweets of memes and breaking sports news.
- Out Here In The Middle - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 8:49 am:
I spent some time yesterday afternoon exploring Bluesky and following various accounts that I followed on Twitter. Everyone is not there but I think I’m good.
Thanks for the list of Illinois reporters - that was critical.
Also, this post on The Verge was very helpful for me: https://www.theverge.com/24295933/bluesky-social-network-custom-how-to
- Occasionally Moderated - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 8:54 am:
Have joined the exodus.
Also in need of follows. Thanks for the starter pack, I hit “follow all”.
I loved Twitter. I enjoy espionage and geopolitical stories, there was nowhere better to get the heads up that something is cooking before you see it in major media. I can’t take the ugly stuff though.
I hate new platforms. I have a couple of substack follows and I can’t figure out the app, have to use the web based content.
- Dance Band on the Titanic - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:03 am:
Starter packs have made the transition much easier. Thanks for the Illinois lists.
Only downside is Bluesky is still pretty devoid of the sports reporters I follow on Twitter.
- Leap Day William - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:04 am:
I jumped ship to Bluesky a long time ago (apparently I’m in the first 10% of adoptees), but kept the Twitter going right up until the election, but I can’t handle that environment. The nuclear block coupled with well-curated lists is far and away the best feature to maintain sanity.
For those looking to make the jump and want to delete your old Twitter content, the steps I found here did an amazing job of nuking all of my profiles:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitter/comments/16×8obf/tutorial_how_to_delete_all_your_tweets_for_free/
It’s a little technical and took a couple of days for the download of your old archive, but it’s all gone for good. I’m not deleting the old account, though. Leaving it up but barren of content so nobody can squat on it. Not that I’m a commodity that people would care about, but I’d rather not have a botfarm claim a name I used for years and turn it into a crypto/feet pic distributor.
- Dan Johnson - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:05 am:
I deactivated my account on X too. It was too much.
- Terry Salad - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:07 am:
I’ve joined the Exodus and plan to delete Twitter when the transition is complete. My “For You” feed on Twitter has become a cesspool of rightwing kooks.
- Nick Name - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:12 am:
Opened a Bluesky account on Friday. Life is so much better. Just followed you, Rich.
- Dirty Red - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:18 am:
See you there.
- Fisher - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:24 am:
Not leaving Twitter yet, but yes, it’s pretty terrible and I could easily leave it with a solid alternative. A real shame. Just signed up for Bluesky and will give it a try. CapitolFax first follow.
- SkepticalHippo - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:24 am:
X has hit all-time daily traffic volumes in the last few weeks.
If that’s an “exodus” I don’t understand the definition of the word.
You citing a handful of people as evidence of a possible sea change against verifiable data is quite interesting.
- dtownresident - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:24 am:
Where the twitter changes have really bothered me is this. About two/three weeks ago perhaps because the bots/trolls needed something other than the election they started showing up on sports reports / sports teams accounts just trashing any little thing like oops the Blues gave up a goal. The Illini scored a touchdown…fire the other coach. It is nasty and sometimes includes uncensored profanity. Some sports teams like the bears are hard enough to check on without the extra noise.
- dtownresident - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:25 am:
I have aslo started following what I can on Bluesky and the tone is better. Not a 2000 AOL chatroom quality.
- Homebody - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:25 am:
I don’t use twitter for much besides following some local reporters, a few sports writers, and a bunch of people who are specialists in my field. Luckily that means I’m not seeing most of the “worst” behavior that is going unchecked, so I haven’t felt the need to jump ship.
But I have noticed more and more of the people I *do* follow are leaving. That is what is making me make the switch.
- Give Me A Break - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:34 am:
Joined Blue Sky months ago but recently became more active. Still on the bird but primarily for Illini sports information.
- Benniefly2 - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:39 am:
I made my twitter account private, deleted the app, and walked away from it in the fall of 2023. I don’t miss it in the slightest. The way the block function works on BlueSky makes the place infinitely more pleasant to use than X.
- stateandlake - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:40 am:
I have not checked out BlueSky yet. I am going to give it a try. But I have been active on Threads for some time. Very happy with the quality and variety of folks who post there. Still on X for breaking news.
- Benjamin - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:41 am:
@SkepticalHippo: that’s probably been goosed by election-related news. I haven’t found a definitive source, but reports from earlier this year suggest a slow decline in number of users and time spent on the platform.
- dtownresident - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:42 am:
For sports like Illini,B;lues, Bears the bots/trolls that have attacked politics previously seem to have added a lot of noise below updates on sports from fire the coach when a team is down 1-0 or 7-0 depending on sport to just a whole bunch of made up stuff. Makes the twitter stuff not as readable.
- Moe Berg - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:42 am:
===X has hit all-time daily traffic volumes in the last few weeks.===
Yup. A network absolutely overrun with bots from the right wing and foreign influence operations saw big volume around the election.
Thanks for pointing out exactly why people are leaving.
As for me, I’m transitioning over. Any account I followed on Twitter that is also on Bluesky, I’m unfollowing on Twitter. As for the rest, I’m giving them a month to establish a Bluesky presence and if they’d rather throw in with the techno-authoritarians and blatant racism of the owner, than I don’t care to continue following them anyway.
It’s become a moral choice.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:45 am:
I joined Twitter more than 10 years ago. I have never posted or followed anyone. I joined because I thought I’d be using it more, but thankfully never needed to. I don’t feel like I missed out on much, so that’s good. Bonus, I don’t have any “awkward” Tweets to delete or scrub.
I can’t miss what I never used. X is a cesspool and I am glad there is an alternative. Hope it puts X out of business someday.
- Save Ferris - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:48 am:
Had a BlueSky account for a year, but the past week was when I really started using it. Now that the news feeds are there, and there’s a version of the old TweetDeck (deck.blue), there’s very little reason to go to Twitter anymore.
And no ads is a HUGE plus.
- Navin Johnson - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 9:55 am:
Had a Twitter account for many years, but in early 2024 I bailed, too much garbage and don’t like the owner. Got on Threads for a bit and liked it initially due to the interface. But the perverse avoidance of news and politics on that site turned me off and, again, don’t like the owner. Had gotten onto Bluesky earlier in the year and after souring on Threads started using it a few months ago. So far I really like it, better controls to keep trolls to a minimum, interface is easy to use, and since the election many accounts have appeared that I used to follow on Twitter and/or Threads. Hopefully some tech bro doesn’t somehow engineer a takeover and make it useless for my interests or turn it into another playground for right wing trolls.
- @misterjayem.bsky.social - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:02 am:
I abandoned the bird and relocated to BlueSky way back.
I wanted to avoid being subject to their new terms of service so I deactivated my account last week.
When Twitter was good, it was really good and when it was fun, it was really fun — but it is no longer good nor fun.
– MrJM
https://bsky.app/profile/misterjayem.bsky.social
- Norseman - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:09 am:
I’m fed up with being manipulated by algorithms geared to manipulate me for money and politics. I kept finding new posts from folks I followed in the “For You” category, but not in “Following” category until much later. I feel like I’m see a blue sky rather than a dark cloud.
- former southerner - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:09 am:
I moved to Bluesky. Staying on X is like choosing to buy a home located next to a garbage dump and surrounded by a moat made from an open sewer.
- Frumpy White Guy - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:18 am:
Yes
- LPDad - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:21 am:
The moderation is like here: opaque and inconsistent.
- @misterjayem.bsky.social - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:29 am:
“If that’s an ‘exodus’ I don’t understand the definition of the word.”
Last week, Bluesky crossed the 15 million-user mark, and on 1 million people joined the platform on Thursday alone.
If that’s not the definition of an “exodus,” you need a new dictionary.
– MrJM
https://bsky.app/profile/misterjayem.bsky.social
- JoanP - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:30 am:
I can’t leave Twitter a/k/a X because I was never on it.
- SOIL M - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:36 am:
I still haven’t got on Twitter yet. Doubt I will ever catch up. And I am fine with that.
- West Sider - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 10:49 am:
I left Xiter more than a year ago, limping along on Threads, but have been underwhelmed- especially by local participation. Opened a Bluesky account a week ago.
- Glengarry - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 11:01 am:
I was banned permanently from the dark place a couple of years ago. Bluesky is so much better.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 11:09 am:
===X has hit all-time daily traffic volumes in the last few weeks. ===
There are so many awful bots on that site the numbers don’t matter.
Also, all I care about is Illinois politics. The rest of X and its denizens can continue taking flying leaps at rolling donuts.
Also, Musk has been needlessly hostile to third-party apps, rendering his site almost useless for my purposes on this website.
If all that somehow hurts your feelings, well, too bad. You don’t need us. We’re leaving.
- levivotedforjudy - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 11:12 am:
You are at least the 20th person I know who has created a Blue Sky account in the last week. I’ll probably do a personal one and a work one tomorrow.
- SkepticalHippo - Monday, Nov 18, 24 @ 11:17 am:
MisterJayem
Do you think 15 million users is a lot? X had 900 million online yesterday. I’ll make you a bet. $1,000 Bluesky has less than 300 million users this time next year.
And Rich, for all the stick you gave Ken when he left the state,
It’s mighty pot calling the kettle black accusing me of hurt feelings because I questioned your argument.