I'm starting on Bluesky

So I’ve started posting on Bluesky. This is the first time I’ve ever used a real social media! I know, very luddite of me.

Anyway, I’ve been lurking there for a while, and it’s pretty good, there are interesting people, the philosophy of the engineering and management seems good, and the bots and trolls are, for now, under control.

My plan is to post roughly daily, with some bon mots, some updates, teachings, and so on. Follow if you want to know what I’m up to, or when I publish new articles, etc.

Or don’t, whatever.

I’ll see how it goes, if it’s fun I’ll keep it up.

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I would recommend Mastodon. More diverse users from all over the world and all walks of life. Older, more intelligent and more mature crowd. More likely to actually read things.

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Nice to see they offer a social platform with a common server because the distributed-server thing is too difficult for non-techies to manage. I just signed up there, too.

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Did you mean you signed up at Mastodon?

Yes, about an hour ago. And on bluesky yesterday.

I’m not ditching facebook for different personal reasons.

There is nothing difficult at all. It’s like saying email is complicated because you have to pick an email service provider.

The biggest difference with Mastodon is that there is no algorithm that feeds you things to keep you on the app. For that reason it can seem “empty” or borring because we are used to platforms that do everything possible to keep you from closing the app.

Despite what they say, Bluesky is not a true federated platform. It is only temporarily “not evil”. Of course as long as you don’t mind starting over again once it does become evil then it’s not a huge deal.

That said, you can subscribe to the daily sutta emails on both places:

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This is the biggest ‘selling point’ for me and I would have thought many Dhamma practitioners.

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I agree, it has just been poorly communicated about AND email is one of the best analogies to communicate about it.

You can sign up for an email address with Gmail, Hotmail, ProtonMail, or your ISP. Different “servers”. From any of them, to any of them you can get the same email.

I recommend Mastodon.Social as they are the biggest and have fewer problems.

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@sujato Compare the number of members you get on BlueSky vs Mastodon. Also the interaction. I think you will find Mastodon to be a more fertile environment.

BlueSky is basically Twitter without The South African.

It is more “friendly” because it is small and new. It is still corporate social media. There is a good chance it too will grow obnoxious and evil as it gets larger.

Mastodon is owned by no one. The software it runs on is open source. Each server is owned and controlled by someone else. If a server owner becomes obnoxious it is possible to move your account, content, and followers to another server. Sort of like continuing to use the social media you like, but ejecting a Zuck instead.

Bluesky is owned by people who will likely become the type of people you don’t support if they become successful. Mastodon is owned by nobody, is community controlled, and will likely give you more followers.

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Again, the analogy is very close to email. If you change from gmail to Proton Mail, you can export your contact list. However I don’t think it’s (usually?) possible to move all of your old emails. In the same way on Mastodon, it’s currently very easy to move your followers and followed to a new server. Moving all your old content is a bit trickier. If you have content that you want to stay available on the web for long term, then you need a blog and then link to it. This is true for Mastodon just as it is for any platform.

Apologies for all the off topic stuff. I’m hoping, Bhante, that you don’t mind since it keeps the thread active.

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That is a sharp point. Migrating Mastodon servers is very similar to changing email providers.

Not disagreeing with anything, I also have a Mastodon, but not posting there. The reason I chose Bluesky is because, after watching and waiting for a long time, pretty much all the people I used to follow on the Bad Place are now there.

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The “following” tab on Bluesky is a chronological feed of posts from people you follow. The “Discover” feed gives you a gently-algorithmic option for finding new people. Part of Bluesky culture is actively discouraging things from blowing up or having too many followers. It’s mostly Millenials/GenX who have had enough experience with social media to know exactly what they want, and who are dead set on keeping the nazis and bots out.

Not trying to persuade anyone of anything, just for information!

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I didn’t mean to be so evangelistic. I (through some grace) could never get into the “bad place”. I mainly come at all this social media as a way to spread the daily sutta work. I am not social, so the social aspect doesn’t do much for me. I am an active RSS feed user and the places I care about have feeds.

All the things that are good about BS now can change at the whims of the owners. I do hope it can be a good place. The network effect seems to be working on BS in a way that hasn’t happened yet on Mastodon. It may take another round or two of enshittification for it to catch on.

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Not that you were following celebrities, but the move is real.

Also, this is a really interesting article…

Wow, I am truly honored at some of the support I’m getting on Bluesky. Big of Him, given all the mean things I’ve said about Him in the past!

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Mash’Allah Bhante. :pray: :laughing:

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For those of you who are trying to pick a team :pensive: it seems that bluesky users can follow mastedon and vice-versa

EDIT:
It seems that the person wishing to be followed across the. fediverse needs to set this up. I have set this up which means that bluesky folks can follow me @delight_in_peace.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy on bluesky

@sujato, care to make a bridge for us using :elephant:?

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Did you ever sign up for mastodon?
Or has someone lifted your photo off the lokanta website and made an account pretending to be you?

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No, that’s me, I made an account years ago but never used it. Somehow I never got the vibe.

I’ve followed @ap.brid.gy , not sure if I have to do anything else.

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