What does all this tell us about Bluesky?

It’s understandable that some people are looking for a site that doesn’t require sifting through a plethora of posts praising Hitler and touting race essentialism in order to find anything relevant.

But anyone who thinks they can create an ideal “digital public square” that’s free of drama and maximally free speech-oriented (even if only for people of their supposed political persuasion) is kidding themselves. Bluesky is just going to join the ranks of all these so called “marketplaces of ideas”, rife with drama, censorship, petty decisions by owners, and an algorithm that pushes the most enraging, low quality content to the fore in order to drive engagement. The enshittification of the internet is in full swing.

Twitter/X took away the ability to block obnoxious people. MAGA took advantage and went wild. BlueSky allows blocking. People can discuss in a more peaceful manner there.

@RocketGuy You can block on x.com.

Bluesky is awful in its own ways. Blocking is mutual censorship as it hides the thread with the blocked parties, which gives vast censorship power to larger accounts. It’s a weird and stupid system that makes blocking completely pointless unless you have a large follower account and want to just censor people.

It’s also very much liberal biased on not left-wing. As a left-wing person, I find Bluesky full of obnoxious centrists.

@Demosthenes I’m not arguing the internet is a bit of a cesspool. Is that more on all of us than on the site? Are we too triggered too often at hearing opinions we don’t like? If that is the case, is the drive to have those opinions going to cause even further troubles?

@RocketGuy Yes, people can discuss in a more peaceful manner, yet it seems there are so many flags being thrown that even those that can discuss in a peaceful manner are attacking each other. I don’t know of any conservatives that have any desire to go to that site. I’m sure there are some butt-heads that did, but really, that many?!? It seems unlikely.

@seawulf575 I think it is on all of us, but I think these sites and the way they’re designed, in particular how their algorithms work, exacerbate these tendencies and bring out the worst in people. It isn’t just that we can’t handle opinions we don’t like, it’s also that we’re driven to present our opinions in the most inflammatory way. The goal is to “own” or “destroy” people with differing opinions. These sites do not facilitate healthy discourse and exchange of ideas. (That’s not to say no one is doing that on X or Bluesky, I’m sure they are. But that won’t be the trend).

I’m not on Bluesky but I’ve read the users were happy until all the trolls from X got bored and came over because they were left with no one to troll at X. Right wing trolls are full of hate and the left wingers are tired of it. That’s why we are avoiding MSM. We’re tired of lies and trolling.

I lik Bluesky. It’s less obnoxious. I see more of what I want to see and less of what I don’t.
I still have a twitter account, but I only use it for sports.

@Demosthenes That’s kind of what I was getting at. I see a lot of opinions I disagree with here. I see things that I think are completely foolish. It get attacked quite often for my views. But isn’t it really on me if I get truly offended at those comments?

At least it has a better name than X. X reminds me of Charlie Manson because he carved an X in his forehead.