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  3. Scientists move to Bluesky, transitioning away from X and Meta platforms

Scientists move to Bluesky, transitioning away from X and Meta platforms

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  • D [email protected]

    I mean, I hate BlueSky too, but I think the reason it's more popular than Mastodon is that it's more centralized and in practical terms that means it's easier to adopt and engage with.

    The biggest headache I have with Mastodon (and Lemmy, to a lesser extent) is defederation. I understand it's the most practical thing to do sometimes, but it's waaay overdone. Like, there needs to be a culture of only defederating as a last resort due to pratical concerns (e.g. bots I guess). Unfortunately the current culture is one where many instance admins treat defederation as a personal blocklist. I wish more admins would leave it to individual users to decide who to allow or not.

    zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
    zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
    [email protected]
    wrote on last edited by
    #231

    When you sign up with Bluesky, it gives you the choice to sign up with the big main server or with an auxiliary server. Just like Lemmy does.

    The problem is that when Lemmy got hit with a big influx of users, the main server couldn't handle the load, so they quit accepting new users. This confused and upset a lot of people, because now they had to go shopping for another instance to apply to, and many of the bigger ones weren't accepting new users, either, because of the same problem. This was a crucial moment for the adoption of the platform, and the infrastructure just wasn't there to handle it.

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    • I [email protected]

      I haven't used Mastodon, but if it's anything like Lemmy, most people won't want to bother learning what an instance is or what federation means.

      FOSS enthusiasts regularly overestimate how much hassle regular people are willing to put up with to do something, and how much they care about corporations.

      zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
      zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote on last edited by
      #232

      most people won't want to bother learning what an instance is or what federation means.

      What have you seen that convinced you of this? Has this been studied?

      I 1 Reply Last reply
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      • C [email protected]

        I never had a Xitter account so take what I say with a grain of salt, as I only interacted with the platform as a spectator.

        For me it was funny to watch as I slowly saw people dive into madness over the most irrelevant things.

        It didn’t matter if it was left or right people still lost all senses over unimportant things like Hunter Biden’s laptop or this week’s conspiracy theory.

        I opened Mastodon and as I scroll through I see the following order:

        1. republican bad post
        2. republican bad post
        3. republican bad post
        4. something linux related (usually hector martin)
        5. republican bad post

        And I get it, republican is bad, but after reading 3-4 republic bad posts my mental state needs a break or something different which is what Xitter was able to do. Some new music being announced/discussed, maybe a video game, maybe a joke.

        BS suffers from the same issue, no variation in the content is what makes me not want to partake.

        I personally think that the problem is rooted in defederation, it’s being used willy-nilly like it doesn’t have effect on the people using the platform. But not becoming an echo chamber is essential to a platform’s long term health. If I know that a platform has the same message for me when I open the app I’ll just start using it less, which is what happened with Lemmy sadly, I open my feed and it’s full of dystopian and republican posts, I just don’t bother anymore.

        Incoherent rant over.

        zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
        zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
        [email protected]
        wrote on last edited by
        #233

        I think you need to curate your feeds better. My experience doesn't match yours.

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        • zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ [email protected]

          most people won't want to bother learning what an instance is or what federation means.

          What have you seen that convinced you of this? Has this been studied?

          I This user is from outside of this forum
          I This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote on last edited by
          #234

          Here you go.

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          • D [email protected]

            They planned ahead to make it popular, twitter developed it while losing money, my conspiracy theory is their goal was always to transition to bluesky since its model is more sustainable for long term control

            zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
            zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote on last edited by
            #235

            That isn't a conspiracy theory. That was, in fact, the original plan. Jack Dorsey explicitly stated this from the outset. However, due to reasons (Wikipedia doesn't go into specifics), the project lead decided to make Bluesky independent from Twitter. When Musk bought Twitter, he severed all ties.

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            • L [email protected]

              The thing is, bluesky is just old twitter, it will become X eventually...Bluesky sucks, but jessus, mastodon sucks in terms of usability. Its only for technical people and experience on mastodon is fatal compared to bluesky, sad that mastodon won't take over, as it could...at least bluesky is not bad YET.

              zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
              zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
              [email protected]
              wrote on last edited by
              #236

              Bluesky is more popular because it has VC money behind it.

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              • G [email protected]

                Friendica aims at that. I'm not sure about the results as I haven't tried it.

                zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
                zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
                [email protected]
                wrote on last edited by
                #237

                Diaspora, too, but I'm not sure how active that project is nowadays.

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                • anachronology@lemmy.worldA [email protected]

                  At least Bluesky is a public benefit corporation, so they at least have to consider the public good in their decision-making and not just profit. May not be much, but it's a start.

                  zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
                  zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
                  [email protected]
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #238

                  How is that regulated?

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                  • sunshine@lemmy.caS [email protected]
                    This post did not contain any content.
                    T This user is from outside of this forum
                    T This user is from outside of this forum
                    [email protected]
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #239

                    Sort of like how they moved out of Florida and Texas. Repubs want a brain drain for some reason.

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                    • I [email protected]

                      I haven't used Mastodon, but if it's anything like Lemmy, most people won't want to bother learning what an instance is or what federation means.

                      FOSS enthusiasts regularly overestimate how much hassle regular people are willing to put up with to do something, and how much they care about corporations.

                      D This user is from outside of this forum
                      D This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #240

                      To me the biggest issue with federated platforms is defederation: deliberately breaking interoperability.

                      Like, imagine if email servers (the original federated network) blocked whole domains as aggressively Mastodon or even Lemmy servers do? It never would have worked.

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                      • C [email protected]

                        I never had a Xitter account so take what I say with a grain of salt, as I only interacted with the platform as a spectator.

                        For me it was funny to watch as I slowly saw people dive into madness over the most irrelevant things.

                        It didn’t matter if it was left or right people still lost all senses over unimportant things like Hunter Biden’s laptop or this week’s conspiracy theory.

                        I opened Mastodon and as I scroll through I see the following order:

                        1. republican bad post
                        2. republican bad post
                        3. republican bad post
                        4. something linux related (usually hector martin)
                        5. republican bad post

                        And I get it, republican is bad, but after reading 3-4 republic bad posts my mental state needs a break or something different which is what Xitter was able to do. Some new music being announced/discussed, maybe a video game, maybe a joke.

                        BS suffers from the same issue, no variation in the content is what makes me not want to partake.

                        I personally think that the problem is rooted in defederation, it’s being used willy-nilly like it doesn’t have effect on the people using the platform. But not becoming an echo chamber is essential to a platform’s long term health. If I know that a platform has the same message for me when I open the app I’ll just start using it less, which is what happened with Lemmy sadly, I open my feed and it’s full of dystopian and republican posts, I just don’t bother anymore.

                        Incoherent rant over.

                        D This user is from outside of this forum
                        D This user is from outside of this forum
                        [email protected]
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #241

                        Your rant is 100% sensible and/or valid and/or based or whatever one says these days.

                        If a user wants their own echo chamber, let them cultivate it themselves. The hosts should not decide for them, and the choice to defederate should be based on practical/material/legal concerns only.

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                        • zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ [email protected]

                          What does this mean? "Good" how?

                          azalty@jlai.luA This user is from outside of this forum
                          azalty@jlai.luA This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #242

                          Well, in the sense that it shows you the posts you want to see, like X or many other websites that are based on recommendations

                          zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • azalty@jlai.luA [email protected]

                            Well, in the sense that it shows you the posts you want to see, like X or many other websites that are based on recommendations

                            zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
                            zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksZ This user is from outside of this forum
                            [email protected]
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #243

                            They show you the posts that are most likely to drive engagement and keep you on the site, e.g. outrage bait. Whether or not that is good is, of course, a matter of opinion, but I think it is bad. Doomscrolling is much like gambling. Most of the time you spend doing it, you feel either angry or sad, but you're addicted to that occasional hit of dopamine you get.

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                            • U [email protected]

                              Any public facing IT system stood up in the higher ed system I am familiar with, requires IT support to be engaged. A part of that process is sending the request through a software review board, department's IT, centralized IT, and then assigned to a project manager.

                              Otherwise, it would be considered a rogue service, and turned off at the edge, and core routers.

                              N This user is from outside of this forum
                              N This user is from outside of this forum
                              [email protected]
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #244

                              Right, but why would a scientist set up a mastodon server within their work place? If I were to do it (and I did set up a diaspora instance back in the day), it would be off my own bat, not on work machines.

                              If I wanted my workplace to do it, that would be a different story, and I'd argue for it to be done by the IT team..

                              U 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • N [email protected]

                                Right, but why would a scientist set up a mastodon server within their work place? If I were to do it (and I did set up a diaspora instance back in the day), it would be off my own bat, not on work machines.

                                If I wanted my workplace to do it, that would be a different story, and I'd argue for it to be done by the IT team..

                                U This user is from outside of this forum
                                U This user is from outside of this forum
                                [email protected]
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #245

                                Why would a geologist spin up a Mastodon server, period? Or any other kind of social media server?

                                N 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • U [email protected]

                                  Why would a geologist spin up a Mastodon server, period? Or any other kind of social media server?

                                  N This user is from outside of this forum
                                  N This user is from outside of this forum
                                  [email protected]
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #246

                                  Because scientists are normal people, and probably a higher proportion of them than normal are tech nerds.

                                  People don't have only one interest. The board members of fediscience.org are biosystems scientists and forensic linguists.

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