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When Elon Musk bought Twitter and a large number of users fled to other social networks. For a while, it looked like Mastodon was going to be the de facto replacement. But at this point, I think Bluesky has emerged as "winner." (I put "winner" in quotes because both can peacefully coexist, but I think Bluesky is the clear mainstream replacement.) Today, I wanted to talk about how Bluesky's focus on community and UX is fueling it's success, while Mastodon's obsession with technological purity is hindering it. Let's dig in! The techTo put this all in context, it's probably important to understand at a high-level what makes both of these different from Twitter. Both Bluesky and Mastodon are built on top of protocols instead of a closed-source algorithm. The idea with each is that multiple different social networks could be built with the same protocol under-the-hood (a bit like email clients or two-way RSS), allowing them to talk to each other. Mastodon uses the ActivityPub protocol. Bluesky uses the AT protocol. There are tools to "bridge" the two services, but because they use different protocols, you can't easily interact between the two services just yet. Facebook's Threads also use ActivityPub, which means users from Threads and Mastodon can talk to each other directly. Currently, Bluesky is the only service using the AT protocol. Federation and hostingMastodon was built at it's core to be a "federated" service. Their vision is that different, smaller communities would each run their own Mastodon servers that would all talk to each other. There are some big, hosted instances people can join, and a bunch of smaller fringe servers. Each one has its own rules, moderation policies, and so on. Very open source. Very hackable. Bluesky is also working towards federation, but for the most part, they host the service that everyone uses, and the experience is consistent for all users. This difference is the biggest thing that's affected the growth of both services, in my opinion. The User ExperienceStep 1 of joining Mastodon is "picking your server." Early on, Mastodon made a big deal about picking the right server. Evangelists of the platform were quick to say that your local instance influenced the whole flavor of your experience. So how do you pick the right server for you? Roll some dice, I guess? Right away, the first step is a big road block for a lot of folks. I'm very tech savvy, and I found the whole "getting setup" experience really clunky. There's also a ton of weird "why does it work this way!?!" kind of annoyances. Replies from folks on different instances from you don't always show up, so you'll see people having conversation with what seems like themselves. You need to click a "view this as a different instance" link to actually see the full context. I've been repeatedly told…
And I do! But now you've introduced another opaque and undiscoverable barrier to entry for new users. The stock layout puts the nav on the right and post box on the left. There's no native way to quote-post. If you're on a bigger instance, the Live Feed is a firehose that goes by so fast you literally cannot read things before they disappear off screen. Again, third-party apps fix this, but… should they have to? Contrast that with Bluesky. You sign up, sign in, and it looks and works (mostly) just like the UI you were used to on Twitter. Safety ToolsMastodon's main approach to safety is instances.
That's a good option to have, I guess. It's also a fucking pain in the ass to do, and puts even more pressure on you to choose the right instance from the start. Mastodon has content warnings, which is quite nice. You can flag content with a label, then actively hide the main content until someone clicks to toggle on visibility. The tech is cool, but the culture around it sucks (more on that in a bit). You can also block and mute people, and that works mostly how it used to on Twitter. Bluesky's safety approach is a lot more focused on protecting vulnerable folks from abuse. You can block and mute, but blocking on Bluesky is "nuclear." The person can't see you, can't interact with you, their comments disappear from your posts, and any quote-posts they've made stop linking to you. That last one is super amazing, because it instantly shuts down dog-piling from fans of popular accounts. Bluesky also has Block Lists: user managed lists of shitty people that you can block in a single click. If anyone gets added or removed later, your block settings are automatically updated to match. This is amazing for pre-empetively blocking racists, nazis, fascists, MAGA turds, anti-science weirdos, and left-wing trauma grifters. CommunityAs a cishet white male, I've had no problem finding a comfortable community on Mastodon. But Bluesky is so much better in this regard. The Mastodon community has a bit reply guy "actually, it's pronounced Ibetha" kind of vibe to it. A few fans of the platform have enthusiastically told me stuff like, "we're rebuilding the internet." Mastodon folks spent a lot of time early on trying to tell people the "right way" to use the platform. They'd yell at folks for posting a photo of a sandwich with a "food trigger" content warning (I'm not making that up). Hell, I know folks who content warning posts about "music I listened to this weekend." Whhhyyyy!?!? It's not all bad. I've had lots of great conversations there. But a lot of folks in less privileged demographics than me have had a very different experience. In particular, nearly every single Black person I know has told me they don't feel welcome there, and that they've dealt with overt racism. You know where Black Twitter (the literal cultural heart of the network) ended up? Bluesky. Between the safety tools and discoverability, the culture on Bluesky is a lot more… fun? Chill? It's just better. Bluesky makes it a lot easier to find cool shit. They have a whole feed called BlackSky, if like me you miss the culture of Black Twitter. And Bluesky also has Starter Packs, user-created lists of people, usually centered around topics (like Cool Frontend Devs). You can follow everyone on the list in a single click. As the network has grown in popularity, I'm starting to see some reply guys there, and people trying to do the quote-post dogpile thing. But thanks to a culture that frowns on it and generous safety tools, it stops immediately. LeadershipBluesky is funded by VC money. People who prefer Mastodon point this out a lot. It's a valid concern. VC money usually means "monetize people" as an end-game. Mastodon is a "benevolent dictatorship." One dude runs the whole project, and apparently has a history of ignoring or rejecting contributions to improve it without comment. I don't personally think that's any better. Different problems than VC money, but problems still. I suspect eventually Bluesky will succumb to capitalism. Hopefully, not for many years, at which point, I'll just move somewhere else. I think Mastodon will never truly die, but OSS without a monetization plan generally follows a few common paths, too. None of them are great! Wrapping UpMastodon is cool. It's got some great ideas. But they're poorly implemented. The whole thing is too laborious. It reminds me of Linux. I don't want to have to think about my OS or my social network. I just want to use it. I'm not interested in "reinventing the internet" or whatever. I just want to find cool people and talk to them about stuff I find interesting. Bluesky makes that so much easier. I use both. I enjoy both. But if I'm prioritizing my time or picking one, Bluesky wins by a long mile. Cheers, Want to share this with others or read it later? View it in a browser. |
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