Octopus Overlords

The good news is that the slow build up of insanity has given time for people to at least start to come up with alternatives.

To that end, if you're a known actor around these parts and you'd like to get a code for Blue Sky, send me a PM.

B-listers need not apply!

Max Peck wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 3:52 pm I wonder what the probability is that Musk came up with the idea on the spot and blurted it out, and that was the first that anyone at Xitter knew of it. This is Elon Musk we're talking about, so there's a non-zero chance that's how it went down.

"Charge people money!"

That's why he's a stable genius and the boss.

4 dimensional chess.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 5:29 pm To that end, if you're a known actor around these parts and you'd like to get a code for Blue Sky, send me a PM.

Seconded.

As I understand it, the context is that he was being taken to task for antisemitic content on his platform (some of which he posts himself, so one way to cut back on it would be for Musk to STFU), and was blaming it on bots. His genius idea for combatting bots was to charge all users a monthly fee. Because the organizations that operate bot networks don't have access to vast libraries of stolen or fake credit card numbers or anything like that.

If it was off the cuff and not something that Xitter has been planning to do, there's probably a good chance that it never actually happens. Or Xitter has a new business plan! It's Elon Musk, so it could go either way.

He usually brings up bots when he is going to try to do something stupid as an excuse. He knows there isn't a bot problem. Remember when he tried to use bots to back out of this disastrous deal? Anyway, the motive is obvious. He broke the business and is desperate for cash. He is just sounding it out. Anyone with half a brain knows it'll kill it off but again...desperate. I expect he'll back off the idea and announce something else like Xitter Black or something equally silly that won't work either.

Microtransactions? Pay-per-post? Avatar fees?

malchior wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 7:08 pm He is just sounding it out. Anyone with half a brain knows it'll kill it off but again...desperate. I expect he'll back off the idea and announce something else like Xitter Black or something equally silly that won't work either.

I’ll take that bet. I’m still on the ‘he’s literally trying to break it’ train.

I think this will do it! (he should have started there, really).

So, Xitter down the Shitter. Sounds about right.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 9:29 pm I’ll take that bet. I’m still on the ‘he’s literally trying to break it’ train.

I'm glad I'm not alone in that. He really seems to be intentionally destroying it without overtly seeming to do so. Why he's messing around with drips and drabs instead of just killing it I don't know. Presumably something to do with his creditors?

I just saw that 5% of Bluesky users arrived in the past 24 hours. Time to bail if you haven’t yet! (At least for posting. I’m still not seeing the bulk of the gaming or EV communities I follow on Xitter moving over to BS—really hoping we get a critical mass soonish.)

I closed my account a couple weeks ago. I am sure both of my followers were devastated.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:14 am I closed my account a couple weeks ago. I am sure both of my followers were devastated.

Whatever you do, don't close your youtube account!!

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:17 am

coopasonic wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:14 am I closed my account a couple weeks ago. I am sure both of my followers were devastated.

Whatever you do, don't close your youtube account!!

The one that has had 3 minutes of videos in the past 4 years? Don't even think it!

Is Blue Sky similar to Twitter in that your feed is in real time? That was the best part of Twitter for me, following along in real time to live events. It’s what threads is missing for me. I can’t go on there and see everyone’s reaction to the crazy thing that just happened in the football game, and that’s really 90% of what I used Twitter for.

msteelers wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:54 am Is Blue Sky similar to Twitter in that your feed is in real time?

No. Blue Sky is...weird. I still don't understand it, namely how to see more "stuff'. But even when you reply to others, it's not necessarily going into a "public" feed. You need to somehow get looped into "feeds", which requires that you actively select/join them first.

In short, Blue Sky looks like Twitter, but it doesn't have that magical element that Musk is doing everything he can to destroy.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:10 am

msteelers wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:54 am Is Blue Sky similar to Twitter in that your feed is in real time?

No. Blue Sky is...weird. I still don't understand it, namely how to see more "stuff'. But even when you reply to others, it's not necessarily going into a "public" feed. You need to somehow get looped into "feeds", which requires that you actively select/join them first.

In short, Blue Sky looks like Twitter, but it doesn't have that magical element that Musk is doing everything he can to destroy.

Unless I'm missing something, this is... not correct? Feeds are definitely a thing, but your home feed should be chronological (with replies/reports/quote posts) interspersed depending on your 'show' settings.

Edit - Specifcally, I'm talking about Home --> Following. That's chronological for me, and includes all my follows.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:16 am Unless I'm missing something, this is... not correct? Feeds are definitely a thing, but your home feed should be chronological (with replies/reports/quote posts) interspersed depending on your 'show' settings.

Edit - Specifcally, I'm talking about Home --> Following. That's chronological for me, and includes all my follows.

Feeds are definitely a thing, but it doesn't seem to work like Twitter did. Your own feed is chronological, yes. But if I am following you and I reply to one of your posts "Awesome ham sandwich!", my reply apparently doesn't go out to into the "feed" for people that are following you. You see it and I see it. But unless it hits the "popular" feed, that's it (from what I understand). Sure, that cuts down on the noise, but it also removes a ton of potential interactions.

The trick is trying to get into more of the feeds - which isn't explained up front or made easy (imho). And then joining feeds and using special emojis to make sure *everyone* in that feed sees the post you make. Again, it's weird.

Here is a thing I found that explains it better than I can, but it's only available to you if you have an account.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:20 am

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:16 am Unless I'm missing something, this is... not correct? Feeds are definitely a thing, but your home feed should be chronological (with replies/reports/quote posts) interspersed depending on your 'show' settings.

Edit - Specifcally, I'm talking about Home --> Following. That's chronological for me, and includes all my follows.

Feeds are definitely a thing, but it doesn't seem to work like Twitter did. Your own feed is chronological, yes. But if I am following you and I reply to one of your posts "Awesome ham sandwich!", my reply apparently doesn't go out to into the "feed" for people that are following you. You see it and I see it. But unless it hits the "popular" feed, that's it (from what I understand). Sure, that cuts down on the noise, but it also removes a ton of potential interactions.

Your replies will be shown to people who follow the person to whom you replied, but may be filtered out for people who have 'Show Replies' disabled or set to require a certain # of likes in order to display. I can absolutely confirm this because I follow some chatty folks (Mike Masnick, John Scalzi for two particularly egregious examples) who reply a lot. Their replies to others are all over my Home feed.

The trick is trying to get into more of the feeds - which isn't explained up front or made easy (imho). And then joining feeds and using special emojis to make sure *everyone* in that feed sees the post you make. Again, it's weird.

Here is a thing I found that explains it better than I can, but it's only available to you if you have an account.

Yeah, if your goal is to show up in specific feeds, I can see how this would be very different. I mainly use the home section, as most of the time I want to control what I'm seeing rather than following a topical feed that will include randos. I do like feeds for topical browsing, though!

I think what's different for me is that Blue Sky feels more curated - like you only see what you've actively selected to see.

For Twitter, it was feeding me related content - that magical algorithm that Musk broke. So based on what I follow and what I show interest in, it was providing me additional themed content - which I appreciated because it often had me finding new accounts, which increased my interactions and interests. Would I have ever discovered an account that is run by a regional sewage authority and then had my own viral Tweet related to sewage without this system? Probably not.

Blue Sky doesn't seem to have that same magical algorithm in place. I'm not seeing anything adjacent to what I self-selected - it's not guessing what I'm into based on my interactions and follows. It doesn't feel as alive as Twitter once did.

Regardless, over half of the people/accounts I followed on Twitter have stopped posting and have migrated elsewhere. I know I keep saying it, but Twitter is without question worse and I don't understand how he's still actively doing more to destroy it.

Agreed on all counts. Also, I'd recommend giving the 'Home+' feed a try. It's intended to replicate Old Twitter. Whether it succeeds or not is going to be subjective, but it's been solid enough for me to keep in my feeds for the time being.

Even with all it's broken-ass functionality, Twitter still randomly throws stuff like this at me - because it knows what I like. It's amazing.
I'll look into the feed stuff some more because my Blue Sky account is rather...dead.

Interesting. So is the biggest knock on Blue Sky right now the lack of users? I’d be interested in giving it a shot if anyone has invited left.

msteelers wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 12:51 pm Interesting. So is the biggest knock on Blue Sky right now the lack of users? I’d be interested in giving it a shot if anyone has invited left.

Yeah, somewhere around a million users. So it's big enough to be interesting, but nowhere near critical mass just yet. I'll PM you a code.

I created a threads account. it was, err, difficult. seems that its hard linked to your instagram account, which I never had one, so I was getting lots of errors through the process. I found it frustrating. I was also quite annoyed that i had to download the app to create an acocunt and sort it out, instead of just being able to do it on PC.


But anyways, its sorted now. I didn't have any twitte account before, or instagram, or any of the others. I had facebook (rarely used) and OO. I have a discord account, but only for those rare instances when I can't use steam for co-op.

sorry for the ramble, its been a rough week. my threads is @secret_migraine_man if you have your own, post it and I'll check it out. I would like something to follow that isn't an influencer.

msteelers wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 12:51 pm Interesting. So is the biggest knock on Blue Sky right now the lack of users? I’d be interested in giving it a shot if anyone has invited left.

Also that it's subject to the same enshittification shitter/threads/other are/will be.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 8:51 am I just saw that 5% of Bluesky users arrived in the past 24 hours. Time to bail if you haven’t yet! (At least for posting. I’m still not seeing the bulk of the gaming or EV communities I follow on Xitter moving over to BS—really hoping we get a critical mass soonish.)

Biggest thing I'm missing on BlueSky is Sports posts. For now I'm relying on following Mastodon bots that retweet sports accounts from Twitter but I'd love for those to migrate to BlueSky.

I also have a number of BlueSky invites if anyone wants one.

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 1:55 pm

msteelers wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 12:51 pm Interesting. So is the biggest knock on Blue Sky right now the lack of users? I’d be interested in giving it a shot if anyone has invited left.

Also that it's subject to the same enshittification shitter/threads/other are/will be.

Yep, essentially every for-profit app. Capitalism! The good news is it's got a decade-plus of runway before that gets troublesome. Maybe.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 6:45 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 5:29 pm To that end, if you're a known actor around these parts and you'd like to get a code for Blue Sky, send me a PM.

Seconded.

I just noticed you followed me. How did you even know who I was? I thought I read that invite trees were private. Will an inviter always get a notice of an accepted invite?

That said, I also have a couple of invites if anyone needs one.

Alefroth wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 2:18 pm

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 6:45 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 5:29 pm To that end, if you're a known actor around these parts and you'd like to get a code for Blue Sky, send me a PM.

Seconded.

I just noticed you followed me. How did you even know who I was? I thought I read that invite trees were private. Will an inviter always get a notice of an accepted invite?

That said, I also have a couple of invites if anyone needs one.

Invite trees are private from the public, but the inviter is notified when the invitee joins using their code.

Gotcha.

Exodor wrote:

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 8:51 am I just saw that 5% of Bluesky users arrived in the past 24 hours. Time to bail if you haven’t yet! (At least for posting. I’m still not seeing the bulk of the gaming or EV communities I follow on Xitter moving over to BS—really hoping we get a critical mass soonish.)

Biggest thing I'm missing on BlueSky is Sports posts. For now I'm relying on following Mastodon bots that retweet sports accounts from Twitter but I'd love for those to migrate to BlueSky.

I also have a number of BlueSky invites if anyone wants one.

I noticed that, which stinks because 90% of my Twitter use was for sports.

But I signed up today (thanks Zaxxon!) and the first thing I thought of was “this looks EXACTLY like Twitter.”

If they can fix the real time thing then Musk is even more hosed.

Up next, misinformation reporting removed:

As The Guardian highlighted in its report, digital advocacy group Reset Australia first noticed the removal of the option in the "Report" tool found on posts across the platform. The organization penned an open letter detailing how the removal affects Australians amid an upcoming referendum vote.

...

Mashable can confirm that the "misleading information" option formerly used to report misinformation about elections is no longer available in the reporting tool on X. Users can still report content for hate, violence, abuse, spam, and deceptively impersonating another user. However, there is no longer an option to report misinformation.

Is there an option to add other? If there's a place to type in something, then I'd put misinformation.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 2:52 pm Up next, misinformation reporting removed:

Why would they need it? There is no misinformation.

Only alternative information.

“Yeah, they’re gone”: Musk confirms cuts to X’s election integrity team

"'Election Integrity' Team... was undermining election integrity," Musk writes.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 2:52 pm Up next, misinformation reporting removed:

As The Guardian highlighted in its report, digital advocacy group Reset Australia first noticed the removal of the option in the "Report" tool found on posts across the platform. The organization penned an open letter detailing how the removal affects Australians amid an upcoming referendum vote.

...

Mashable can confirm that the "misleading information" option formerly used to report misinformation about elections is no longer available in the reporting tool on X. Users can still report content for hate, violence, abuse, spam, and deceptively impersonating another user. However, there is no longer an option to report misinformation.

Good God, move on people, your beloved Twitter is already dead. Just...stop already, and use that energy bitching about Xitter to find or help promote its replacement. It's becoming tiresome.

Penning an open letter complaining about a policy change from Twitter to Shitter is absolutely the most sure-fire way to ensure Musk doesn't do that thing you want.

This can't be true:

The ability to tweet will now cost you if you’re new to the X platform.

Elon Musk’s social-media app and site, formerly known as Twitter, will begin charging new users $1 annually for access to its most useful functions, Fortune reported Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the matter.

Those features include the ability to tweet, reply, quote, repost, like, bookmark, and create list, according to Fortune.

X also on Tuesday posted “terms and conditions” for what it called the Not-a-Bot Program, which sounded similar to the bullet points of the news outlined in the Fortune report but differed in or fell short of some of the specifics. According to X, the Not-a-Bot Program “is a recurring subscription service from X that provides your account with write-level functionality on the X platform, such as the ability to post content, like posts, reply, repost, quote, and bookmark other accounts’ posts.”