Jack Dorsey's Bluesky App Is Now On Android (techcrunch.com) 28
Bluesky, the Twitter alternative backed by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, has now rolled out to Android users. TechCrunch reports: The app, which promises a future of decentralized social networking and choose-your-own algorithms, initially launched to iOS users in late February and remains in a closed beta. The exclusivity is driving demand for the newer social network to some extent, but so is having Dorsey's name attached. Bluesky aims to give users algorithmic choice, letting them eventually choose from a marketplace of algorithms that let them control what they see on their own feed, instead of having it controlled by some central authority.
At launch, however, Bluesky remains a pared-down version of Twitter without many of the features that make the social network what it is today, including basic tools for tracking likes or bookmarks, editing tweets, quote-tweeting, DM's, using hashtags and more. It's also building in decentralization with its own protocol -- the AT Protocol -- instead of contributing to the existing work around ActivityPub, the protocol powering the open source Twitter alternative Mastodon and a range of other decentralized apps in the wider "Fediverse" -- the name for these interconnected servers running open software used for web publishing. That puts Bluesky on the outside of where a lot of the current activity is taking place around decentralized social networking. You can download Bluesky on the Google Play Store here.
At launch, however, Bluesky remains a pared-down version of Twitter without many of the features that make the social network what it is today, including basic tools for tracking likes or bookmarks, editing tweets, quote-tweeting, DM's, using hashtags and more. It's also building in decentralization with its own protocol -- the AT Protocol -- instead of contributing to the existing work around ActivityPub, the protocol powering the open source Twitter alternative Mastodon and a range of other decentralized apps in the wider "Fediverse" -- the name for these interconnected servers running open software used for web publishing. That puts Bluesky on the outside of where a lot of the current activity is taking place around decentralized social networking. You can download Bluesky on the Google Play Store here.
Those who forget the past (Score:3)
Those who forget the past, something, something, use more social media!!
It's also building in decentralization with its own protocol
You already know which xkcd this one is. [xkcd.com]
Re: Those who forget the past (Score:2)
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The smart money skips both Bluesky and Discord
Absolutely. One would think people would be catching on to these things, but nope here we are like the different wrapper that is BlueSky makes it different.
Dorsey was the one who let the FBI/CIA/NSA in (Score:2, Insightful)
with Twitter and gave them unlimited access to all our personal communications.
And Jack is now all about decentralized privacy oriented message apps?
Jack couldn't care less about you and sells you out the moment it benefits him.
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Don't worry, the provided client and api send a copy of everything you do directly to the fbi for you.
It's decentralized spying and mass data theft so it's cool, bro.
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and gave them unlimited access to all our personal communications.
Twitter... personal communications... I think you're doing it wrong.
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Jack couldn't care less about you and sells you out the moment it benefits him.
You mean ignorant users couldn't care less.
When it comes to these particular products, users create and ultimately get, what they ask for. Some guy named "Jack" works in the marketing department.
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Devil's advocate: it's open source so he can't be blackmailed this time.
He still either lied to Congress or was totally incompetent as a CEO, at least.
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Jack's on crack (Score:2)
Chickens and eggs (Score:3)
The only thing a successful Twitter competitor truly needs is to convince everyone to use it instead of Twitter. If that was such an easy task to accomplish, Musk wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
IMHO, Twitter is a suck-fest. My feed is full of garbage from people I'm not even following, and it's headache-inducing to try to follow discussion threads. It also is really difficult to actually have any sort of a real conversation or debate on Twitter, because that damn character limit disincentives responding with anything besides personal attacks. It typically takes too many words to explain why someone is wrong, but "You're a basement-dwelling incel!" always fits in a Tweet.
It really wouldn't take much to build a better Twitter than Twitter. The problem is getting everyone to move over to it.
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The only thing a successful Twitter competitor truly needs is to convince everyone to use it instead of Twitter. If that was such an easy task to accomplish, Musk wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
Generally yes, but the difference now is that Musk is killing Twitter.
The main problem is that Musk is very publicly and deliberately treating Twitter like his personal website. There's multiple instances of someone Tweeting at Musk, or him expressing some kind of public whim, and that very quickly becoming implemented across the website.
This means that Twitter's brand has been subsumed by Musk's.
And Musk is actively trolling progressives and making his brand more and more toxic. And no one wants their soci
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Mastodon's UI is so close to Twitter's that anyone who uses one could use the other. It has stuff like hash tags, likes, reply, retweets, trending etc. Biggest issue with Mastodon is when you first sign up or use the app, it doesn't exactly go out of its way to make the process simple or instructive - I installed the app and it basically said pick a server which were lumped into weird categories. It neglected to say wtf any of this meant or why I would choose one server over another. Maybe the signup proces
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That's about it for quirky stuff that has to be explained to new users. But for some reason a lot of idiots (and yes, let's be honest, they're idiots) are throwing a fit at the idea that they might have to "pick a server". I hate to speculate what the hell has happened to a society where that's difficult, I assume none of these people have email either. "But... but... (wipes brow) there's Yahoo, GMail, Outlook, ProtonMail... HOW DO I DECIDE? How?!!"
I'm not a Twitter or Mastodon user, but the server thing does seem like a bigger deal. For the same reason people don't like Twitter anymore people don't really want to make a social statement by their choice of social media server. That's why pretty much everyone uses GMail now, because it's the default neutral choice.
The other issue with the Mastodon server is it seems to be a consequential choice. The admin needs to be trustworthy, your server could get blocked by another server (or vice versa), you migh
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I don't understand what you're trying to say here or why you think "everyone uses GMail" or why you think that this being the case now (it isn't) means nobody has ever had to pick between multiple email services. When did "everyone uses GMail" happen, and before you answer, I'm not asking to find out, because it's bullshit, my actual question is do you seriously think that before "everyone uses GMail" nobody had email? It was just "too hard" and "too confusing" because GMail, Yahoo, Outlook/Hotmail, ProtonMail/etc?
Everyone used Hotmail, then GMail came out and now the vast majority of people who get a new email address get GMail.
It's not about being too hard, but there was a clear default choice and that's what everybody used.
Because if you don't, how is it hard to pick a Mastodon server? I mean, there's a website out there to help you pick a Mastodon server. There wasn't one to help you pick a webmail provider.
It's not a big deal. Pick a server, pick the one your friend is on if you have one, if not go to joinmastodon.org and pick a large one at random.
Ok, I see [joinmastodon.org] mastodon.social, mstdn.social, and mastodon.world. Again, no super obvious default.
And with email there's no choice other than username when you get a GMail address. But mastodon has a consequential second choice. I suspect they lose a large fraction of their users just from adding tha
Just choose the same server as these celebrities (Score:2)
Choosing a server is easy. You can pick the same server as Mark Ruffalo, @MarkRuffalo@mastodon.social
Or you can choose the server with Jeri Ryan, @JeriLRyan@mastodon.world
Or you can choose Morgan Fairchild, @morgfair@newsie.social
Or maybe Bradley Cooper, @bradleycooper@stranger.social
Or George Takei, @georgetakei@universeodon.com
In case it wasn't obvious, the servers they use are the part after the @ sign that comes after their name, so they are using mastodon.social, mastodon.world, newsie.social, strange
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Or George Takei, @georgetakei@universeodon.com
In case it wasn't obvious, the servers they use are the part after the @ sign that comes after their name, so they are using mastodon.social, mastodon.world, newsie.social, stranger.social, or universeodon.com
I mean, I don't think Jeri Ryan or Mark Ruffalo are particularly more computer-savvy than us Slashdotters, and they managed to find a server.
It's not about being computer-savvy, it's about users' very low tolerance for complexity (the very reason Twitter succeeded in the first place).
The fact is that Mostodon had it's big moment and it quickly fizzled. Maybe it is the enduring network effect of Twitter, in which case Bluesky is in trouble, or it's that extra bit of complexity that Mastodon has.
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Hmm. I
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Hmm. I guess I should address your point.
s/computer-savvy/tolerant of extra complexity/g
I mean, I don't think Jeri Ryan or Mark Ruffalo are particularly more tolerant of extra complexity than us Slashdotters, and they managed to find a server.
There we go.
This isn't about the competence or savvy of the user. This is basic UI design, the more complexity you add the fewer user sign ups you'll get, not because users are confused, but because the effort of the task is no longer worth the reward of the outcome.
Heck, look at 1-click shopping [clear.co]:
Consider the fact that shopping carts are abandoned 70% of the time, and that 18% of online shoppers in the U.S. abandon a cart solely because the checkout process was too long or overly complicated
[...]
According to a study co
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Twitter is a cesspit. I would say though that you can improve the experience by installing the "Control Panel for Twitter" extension in Firefox (and Chrome?). It basically strips out all the algorithmic bullshit so you just see a feed of the people you follow. No "For you" or "what's trending", ads or any of that crap.
i am done with social media (Score:2)
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CL hasn't been fun since they killed personals.
There was some hilarious shit in there.
Same "influencers", different platform (Score:2)
You gotta beg for an invite from the same annoying "influencers" that you're trying to get away from.
Why the new protocol? (Score:2)
This one's gonna suck too (Score:2)
People like to moan about how Twitter starting "becoming bad" after Musk took over, but Twitter was a flaming hellscape under Jack too. (Shoutout to the tankies and the people who ride or die by their 280-character quips) Best-case scenario, this falls into obscurity in about a month or so. Worst-case scenario, this becomes the same hate mob that pre-Musk Twitter was.