drake-rex 2025-06-24 21:00:21

Really sad that to hear that, but I understand, there are some plases that just don't click with one

Yatsufusa 2025-06-25 06:20:11

I'd say the core of the issue is that BlueSky is the place where all the people from Twitter migrate to in order to escape the big Muskrat as well as Twitter's toxic community - 'recreating' its toxic community in the process.

Whatever becomes "the next BlueSky" will immediately struggle with the exact same issues, unless it's _very_ moderated - which would either cost a fortune or be done by AI, which is useless.

To escape that you'd have to move to an "unpopular" site, such as Mastodon. ( https://mastodon.social/about )

jthrash 2025-06-25 22:55:14

@Yatsufusa Yeah, honestly at this point if I DID return to Twitter-like social media, I'd deliberately pick one that is small and less-than-mainstream by design, like Mastodon, over ones like BlueSky and Threads. I left Twitter in 2021 long before Elon Musk even got the idea of buying, turning it into X(??) and making it favor overly-sensitive "anti-woke" people instead of the other extreme, and let me honest, enough time has passed that people seem to have forgotten that a non-Musk-owned Twitter was a hive of scum and villainy, too. I don't know why anyone would pine for "old Twitter" when in many ways, it was just as bad as X and popular alternatives like BlueSky are now.

I think the general pleasantness of "unpopular" websites like Mastodon and NG here compared to the free-for-all of any website cursed with fame is just a sore reminder of how much harder it is to control a huge population full of disparate opinions and worldviews vs. simply controlling a small group of like-minded people. Having an "algorithm" control the flow of information is not required for a website for a Newgrounds, but on YouTube it's a necessary evil that is still better than the alternative of REALLY letting everyone and their mother make up nonsense on camera, for instance.

...Though I'm still not a fan of Mastodon, either. All these Twitter-likes are plagued with people spreading histrionic misinformation. I should not have to immediately rely on my "good news sources" (such as the Doomsday Debunked Substack or Good News Network) every single I visit a Twitter-like site, just because some histrionic post about something I deeply care about, like climate change, slips in between my art-inspiration feed and my GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) lets that one rogue political post ruin the rest of my day. I don't need these Twitter-like sites, really...

Yatsufusa 2025-06-26 03:42:39

@jthrash I'd even go so far as to say that _nobody_ needs Twitter-like sites. When I first heard of it, my reaction can be summarized as "Well that sounds like a piss-poor idea. Why would people use 'that' to get their celebrity news? They can just go to their websites and get the RSS bookmarks - something that has been around for ages."

Akin to facebook, Twitter is 'and always was' just pre-existing technology implemented worse - but under the control of somebody who uses it to spread propaganda, collect "marketable information", and is generally a giant twat about it.
People are doing it to themselves.

The only thing I find Twitter useful for is that it sponges up the idiots a bit. As long as they are there (or on BlueSky), they aren't on the services and communities 'I' care about. ;3

There is something I'd like to share with you about "X": I learned about the name change though an animation on NG and I thought "Oh my, what an utterly lame joke. Why would anyone even do that? That doesn't even make remote sense. '...What a minute...' Given who we are talking about, maybe I should..." One short online search later, that animator had earned a 5 star rating from me.

As for Mastodon: I liked the base idea. But the connection to the "Fediverse" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse ) is just a recipe for failure: Sensitive data getting shared with too many third parties... XMPP/Jabber failed for similar reasons.
Don't get me wrong: In terms of "I would actually use something like this if I had to (for example to get in touch with a reclusive artist or journalist)", Mastodon is still the best choice around, but that's more because of the lack of serious competition.