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'Croissant' App for Cross-Posting on Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon Coming to Mac and iPad
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Maybe fewer posts are outright deleted, but that doesn't mean the algorithm in neutral.
Paid subscribers get higher priority in replies.
Some people get paid for their posts, which will likely cause them to prioritize engagement over accuracy.
Musk complained about shadow banning at one point, but then said "Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized," which is basically the same thing.
Sure. I never said it's perfect. The fact remains that it is FAR less censored and manipulated than other social networks or news outlets for that matter. If there is another site that is more popular and less "curated", I am happy to try it out.
As someone who’s a huge baseball fan, almost every big MLB insider has joined Bluesky and is regularly posting there. That’s welcome news.
There aren’t really big brands on there yet. But that’s coming surely. Almost 20 million users now and about 10 new users every second. At a certain point, it’ll be dumb for brands not to advertise there. As much as I don’t like ads, I know they’re necessary to keep it free. But as long as it’s subtly done, I don’t want to feel like I’m being spammed.
There aren’t really big brands on there yet. But that’s coming surely. Almost 20 million users now and about 10 new users every second. At a certain point, it’ll be dumb for brands not to advertise there. As much as I don’t like ads, I know they’re necessary to keep it free. But as long as it’s subtly done, I don’t want to feel like I’m being spammed.
This is a great reference. I joined when BlueSky first launched and didn’t have much. This thread caused me to revisit and see the significant improvements. However, the linked article demonstrates that BS is way more feature filled and interesting than it appears. Thanks for posting this! 🙏🏽
Yes. I left Google years ago for Duck Duck Go — they were evil well before Musk corrupted Twitter. However, Musk has managed to make Google look like saintly, well-adjusted adults in comparison. To be 100% transparent, I do use YouTube for tech content via Safari Private Browsing to minimize algorithmic suggestions, but I am constantly looking for an alternative.
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Look at the top App Store charts. A million new users per day now.
No, it's growing pretty fast and the best alternative to X. In many ways significantly better with some of the tools they've been rolling out.
There are also some interesting things being built on the nostr protocol, but it is currently primarily full of bitcoin fanatics.
It's crazy. Just stay on twitter. The world uses twitter. On these other platforms they are small eco chambers with little going on.
And also, how crazy is this apps price? $60!!! For an iPhone app. They must be mad....
And also, how crazy is this apps price? $60!!! For an iPhone app. They must be mad....
The road to algorithmic evil is paved with free (ad-supported, and ad-optimized algorithmic feed) social media apps.
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Damn, a lot of people upset that X is being abandoned in this thread. Almost like you personally are being abandoned. Wonder why that is.
It does not. Twitter has 600m users at most, and half of that as active daily users. It's losing users every year and is the smallest of the "big" social networks.
Exactly they are hemorrhaging users and are trying to keep up a sinking ship. Twitter was never the most popular social network it just happened to be the loudest because of the way it is designed and the fact that it got overly politicized compared to Facebook and others.
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Oh boy, that wasn‘t a good argument because Google has slowly been getting worse and worse over the last two decades for the same reasons. Nowadays if you just throw your keywords into google, it will give you crap. You have to search specific sites and terms in order to not make the algorithm just give you ads and trash sites.
But at least Google is after $$$, not hatred.
Avoiding Google is a lot harder than avoiding Twitter though.
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Does skipping Google for Duck or whatever really matter? Just about every single site has a deal with Google (and Meta)++ thus I don`t believe any setting or choice of browser/app will keep you out of it.
DDG insulates their users from Google by anonymizing user searches, not using cookies or tracking IP addresses. And while it does use search partners for web searches, no personal information is shared with them. This keeps users from being profiled based in search history which short-circuits the tracking, information harvesting and algorithmic force feeding practiced by the advertising and data-brokering search platforms. While the loss of my one account doesn’t matter to Google, MS or fb, it matters to me that I’m not feeding the beast. Everyone makes their own choices. I choose not to participate in an ecosystem I consider insidious, coercive and evil (according to Ayn Rand’s definition of evil: tldr - anything that gets in the way of you thinking for yourself).
Well said. Though I did find avoiding Twitter easier a few weeks after deleting my account. And I’m excited by what I’ve discovered about BlueSky because of this thread and the excellent article posted earlier in this thread by @Gnik N.
I have been using Duck and others for some years for the same reasons - don`t feed them. Doubt it makes a big difference in Google`s ability to keep track of you.
I can’t say for sure if DDG alone has made a difference in being tracked, but I think using DDG + no social media presence (I don’t count MR as social media because it is not coercive media like fb/twitter/et.al.) + default web browsing using Safari Private Browsing with Private Relay certainly feels different.
When I was on Twitter, 98% of the accounts I followed were not primarily about politics (though, of course, it would come up). Not everyone on social media is there for political debates. Many people I followed have moved on to other platforms.
I stopped using Twitter partially because I was getting some gross ads.
They got an array of products including Google Analytics which is extremely widespread thus whenever you visit a site, information is collected by that site with the use of Google server site products. I am lead to believe that there are opportunities for sites to block reporting, but I am not at all convinced such restrictions being efficient. (I don`t work with this kind of tech, others would have specific knowledge of details, but there is good reason to assume most of these sites relays info a.o. to fully benefit from the applications).
The products aren`t at all limited to sites with ads for own products or retail++, I am aware of several sites used for sensitive information relying on Google for tracking, including public services such as health, tax reporting and what not. A digression, but I have also seen universities (research) collecting extremely sensitive health info through Google docs (forms), and what not. (I tested it to figure out their policies - and their ignorant failure to comply).
I don`t know how many access points wifi interacts with when you use your laptop, where I reside there is at least 50. They only need one glitch in your panzer to tie you to your traffic.
If you reboot your iPhone, it always switches on all bells and whistles - wifi, 5g, Bluetooth and what not, regardless of whether you keep it on or off as default, and people have no idea if ISP`s, Cellular providers or what not have contracts handing over id and traffic/location info to the likes of Google. Same goes with TV`s, an EV or what not.
You need a pretty solid digital competence if you want to stay anonymous online/connected, and I would argue you`ll have to keep the hardware separate for all activities related to your actual identity. That includes the purchase of the computer/device. I have a fairly good idea of what it takes to stay anonymous online, but I`m far off the competence it requires 🤣
To stay 100% anonymous online is so awkward it renders normal online activities more or less completely useless.
One can always do ones best to reduce the digital footprint, but my advise to anyone digitally active, is to assume there is no such thing as digital anonymity.
Twitter/X isnt even close to the largest social media network. They never have been. The media elites just over hype its influence. Snap Chat, YouTube, and TikTok are far bigger.