Farcaster

Bluesky has an inspiring vision that makes people of all backgrounds want to join. 

What is Farcaster’s?

bluesky is gaining mindshare because they found PMF with users who want to be surrounded by people who (mostly) agree with them. it’s political affiliation, not vision.

figuring out my next thing | marketing, content, growth | prev. Juicebox, Nouns, RAW DAO | casting about coffee, hi-fi, and other rabbit holes

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that’s why people are joining from twitter, which they now see as right wing coded due to Elon

same thing with users defecting from meta “because of AI” which has become right wing coded

how else do you explain that Bluesky’s user base is overwhelmingly left wing, a group that has never previously expressed much interest in decentralized anything, whether social apps or otherwise?

I’m very skeptical they’d be growing as fast as they are if the sales pitch was “bluesky is twitter but more politically left content moderation”

Governance Public Utilities for @zksync at @thezknation

yeah, definitely think there’s some nuance to it. I don’t think we can entirely flatten it to left/right culture war politics, but I also think we need to be honest with ourselves: nobody joining bluesky knows that it’s decentralized or that it’s built on an open protocol. they understand it in negation to current platforms.

1) if it’s the twitter algo prioritizing ragebait, then why would someone leave IG/Threads? particularly the latter is all about ragebait posts that provoke strong reactions.

2) I don’t really agree, I explicitly see people posting that they’re leaving IG/FB because “meta added AI to its apps” and “I hate Elon” (or Zuck). never seen anyone say anything about the vibe.

3) that’s an interesting angle, but academics are 90-99% leftists minus engineering faculty so that sort of reinforces my point. also not really sure academics are the ones who set the trends w/r/t social networks, but open to being proven wrong there.

Although my initial reaction is the same, I don’t think this is actually “it” — a few things I see happening:

1. Twitter algo was no longer adopting to user preferences for connections and conversation. It optimized for engagement, which wasn’t the reason a portion of people were there.
2. Bluesky is left-wing coded, but more so, it’s “cozy convo with friends / peers” coded afaik.
3. Bluesky successfully became the de facto place where academics went to while fleeing rage bait.

Mostly seems like they got out of the cold start problem through network effects with non-crypto community. FC bet on crypto, they bet on “not rage bait by default, left friendly”

🥑🍋 Farmer / LAMP stack dev / Husband / 🌈 Dad / Web1 dude loving a web3 world / Collector of things digital & physical / 
CdeP ‘94 

yeah I hear that and it’s valid, but I’m not sure there is much diversity of opinion on bluesky when certain topics are defacto not welcome. the fact that crypto and AI are on block lists alongside literal nazis is not really encouraging.

I don’t think that’s totally fair re: affiliation.  There are some of us who seek a healthy mix of opinions and who are really turned off by what Twitter has devolved into.  Elmo pushes middle school fight videos onto my feed on top of the racist, homophobic & transphobia that are rampant.  A lot of us were just ready for anything different.

NFT enjoyooor, crypto student, $DEGEN🎩, intergalactic blockchain explorer. I'm not a moon boi, I'm a space man✨ 👨‍🚀✨ /memestoanend

yes, the algo feeds you what you like

my point is more that users joining BS from IG, Twitter, FB, etc. perceive it as an anti-Elon/anti-Zuck platform and see it as left-coded. imo that is what is currently driving growth.

X algo does the same thing. Feeds me more of whatever I interact with. Human nature/ wiring.

i like coffee, crypto, animals, plants, drones, 3D printing, midjourney, and stickers

to be clear, I don’t think this outcome of finding PMF with left-leaning users who hate Elon is intentional on their part

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Bluesky's success is based on fostering like-minded communities, not true innovation

People who flock to the "fediverse" from my experience are often rabid anarchists who hate money in all forms. BlueSky can't win long-term by catering to this audience. Making money as a social media platform is hard enough without delusional ankle-biters.