Bluesky Gains One Million New Users In A Day, And Many Think It Might Actually Have 'The Juice' This Time
Bluesky, which internet users may remember as the potential "Twitter-killer" when it launched in 2023, might finally be gathering the momentum necessary to achieve that lofty ambition, as the site received over 1 million new users in the past two days.
The internet has gone through myriad experiments with "alternatives to Twitter" ever since Elon Musk changed the site to X and implemented a series of controversial changes that have angered much of the userbase, such as juicing his own posts so that everyone has to see his controversial thoughts.
He and X staff may have finally broken the proverbial "camel's back" with a contentious change regarding the site's Block function. First rumored in late September, X's new "block" will still allow blocked users to see the posts of someone they are blocked by, but they cannot interact with said posts.
At the time, many voiced disappointment at the proposal, as the regular block function allowed them to prevent harassers and stalkers from seeing their content.
On Wednesday, the rumored change to the block function was formally announced on X, and this appears to have kicked off something of a mass exodus to Bluesky.
Bluesky culture might be ready for an influx of new users this time. People who joined Bluesky in the early days may remember it as an exceptionally bizarre place as developers worked out the kinks, the site's meme culture was chaotic, and the userbase was very eager to show off their private parts.
All of that seems to have stabilized to a reasonable degree, and there's a palpable energy that Bluesky might actually become the legitimate Twitter alternative it promised to be last year.
Of course, social media users have heard that story before, and only time will tell if things will actually pan out for Bluesky this time.
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cfjulian
Plot twist, all the new users are just bots.
OK, not really a plot twist. A child could have seen it coming.
xoxin
From what I've seen, twitter also recently implemented a change where you can't opt out of them using your art for AI anymore. So there's that too. A much bigger reason to join bluesky than some silly block function tbh
GamerDLM
The AI update is the main thing that's driving big name creators to Blusky because any media they post as of November is going to be used to train AI.
The block update has more of a potential business impact because if Google/Apple decide the update violates their App Store policies Twitter gets pulled. Which according to Twitter's data at one point 80% of their monthly users went through the app version.
Calypso25
What the actual f'''?
I hadn't heard of that yet!
Thank you for the info!
Twitter is getting worse by the day
heygarrett
Can’t wait to see all of the same problems repeated on another platform owned by a for-profit organization