Omg slowly and painfully regathering a scientific network on bsky and it's so exciting though!!! Just found a thread from an academic that neatly and accurately helps provide EXACTLY what I needed for my current paper!!!! This is what I do not get on mastodon.
I care about where people are more than what the platforms are. Judge me if you must. It is my life's focus.
@grimalkina I would boost this, except that I assume that would only lead to you taking grief over it.
But, yeah, some people seem to be determined to ignore the fact social networks are valuable insofar as they connect us to people, so a lot of their value is defined by who is there. And this is even more important for people who use it professionally, as you describe.
There is a significant faction of Mastodon that dismisses the importance of growth (seeing this priority as a mindset inappropriately imported from the corporate world), but it's just a fact that network effects mean a small social network will always be of limited value to most people, so growth is important if one wants to offer something of value.
I would very much like to see an open future for social media, but the hostility to growth and discoverability I see on Mastodon makes me skeptical it can ever deliver that future. I hope Bluesky will still demonstrate meaningful federation and deliver that future. But in any case, expecting people are just going to abandon their friends and colleagues is just unrealistic.
I actually enjoy the vibe of the conversations I have on Mastodon more, but it is clear to me that Bluesky is much more vibrant at this point and a far more viable Twitter replacement for most people.
