Date: November 24 2023
Summary: Initial impressions on a few months of Bluesky usage
Keywords: #social #media #bluesky #twitter #microblogging #blog #archive
Not Available
It's been a few months now and I have some thoughts about Bluesky. Thought it might be fun to share and see what other folks think!
With the recent tailspin that Twitter (X) is experiencing, I decided it's time to explore other options for microblogging. I checked out Mastodon and just found the platform confusing and rather odd. I understand that everyone can run their own Mastodon instance – which is great! – but struggled to find academic circles like I had on Twitter and also felt a bit unwelcome. Also, I really was looking for just a drop-in replacement for Twitter and Bluesky seemed the best option.
Bluesky ticked off the most important criteria I had for finding a Twitter alternative: that it felt like Twitter. The UI feels very clean, I love the idea of feeds, and posting is easy. Importantly, my home page feels very much like how my Twitter feels. Plus, one of my old favorite tools from Twitter was Tweetdeck and it lives on in the tool, deck.blue.
I've been really pleasantly surprised by the academic Bluesky community! Although it is much smaller than Twitter's community and I don't get as much "likes" perhaps as my posts on Twitter, I feel that my interactions on Bluesky are much more meaningful.
One recent example was where I made a post asking about developing a better academic writing habit in my life. On Twitter, although it was seen by a couple hundred people, I got only a few interactions from that. The same sort of question on Bluesky resulted in several interactions that actually resulted in helping me develop a better habit on this front.
Additionally, I feel like Bluesky is a lot less "noisy". As Bluesky doesn't have a central algorithm that is spiking posts for whatever reason, you really only see what you want to see. It makes the entire enterprise feel much more genuine – authentic even.
As feeds are perhaps not as discoverable as finding certain hashtags in Twitter, here is a list of feeds I follow on Bluesky:
Oddly, I find following feeds is sufficient for me for the majority of cases. I am sure this won't be the same forever as more folks join Bluesky.
Although Bluesky still is not as populous yet like Twitter, there are a few accounts I follow directly
Dr. Chris Rackauckas – ordinary differential equations, open source/science, Julia programming, and numerical computing
Dr. Brenhin Keller – geoscience, climate science, open source/science, Julia programming, and excellent meme game
Dr. Karandeep Singh – health informatics, research software engineering, Julia and R programming
I am deeply disappointed in what has happened to Twitter – I feel like a migration to another platform is unavoidable at this point. Bluesky is definitely not Twitter but it might actually be something better. In short, I am really enjoying my interactions on Bluesky, building a small community over there, and learning more from others.
I should say, if you like chatting about mathematics, open science and open source programming, and academia, let's connect on Bluesky! Looking to make more friends and enrich my experience on the platform. My profile is: thecedarprince.bsky.social. Talk more soon!
Zelko, Jacob. Early Impressions of Bluesky. https://jacobzelko.com/11242023193535-impressions-bluesky. November 24 2023.