I think this is pretty accurate and is driven in large part by who built this place early adopters were terminally online sickos, who prefer to shitpost but are absolutely all political and then of course bluesky blew up after the election with exactly this kind of person
Yes, we are educated.
Got to say, most of my Bluesky is comics and sf...though the creators and authors do occasionally post on politics because...fuck me you can't ignore it
As user number 9000 or some shit, very early adopters were nice techies. The shitposters came later
I've tried to get people talking about pinball and famous tornadoes multiple times. Never get any takers.
Tri-state tornado thread where?
Apparently they think it might have been multiple twisters following a similar path, now, instead of one super long-lived one. But that's okay, we've got El Reno now, as our Vengeful God of Tornadoes.
Oh wow! I'd heard such speculation about it before but I have never seen anything concrete. Gonna have to read up on this! TY!
Most my pinball experience is PC based, sadly, and I've never even seen a tornado
I've only ever seen funnel clouds. I wasn't home when a tornado vacuumed up my neighbor's trailer. It was just gone.
Have you played the Batman '66 pinball game? It's my current fave. So fun!
Xenia, Ohio??
For pinball try following pirate Princess jess bsky.app/profile/pira... and go from there
Gonna be totally honest, if they’re looking for apolitical accounts run by “median voters” who “dont know who the speaker of the house is” then they’re not gonna like me…
I have to admit though, I remember many years back when I mentioned Mitch McConnell to my sister and she didn't know who he was, and I miss feeling like I didn't have to know.
I nerd out on famous tornadoes. One small one missed my old trailer by about 50 feet, but I've always been fascinated.
For a moment I blanked on who the Speaker of the House is and thought maybe this isn't the place for me, but then I remembered that he's just a very forgettable guy.
Whatshisface Mcwankstop.
This reflects both my experience as an early adopter & my observations about the majority of Bluesky Users.
the art of knowing when to shitpost and when to post about politics is something more should learn
por que no los dos
Yeah, but they're being really derogatory about this, like it's weird and bad that people are politically aware here. Right now, that's kind of important and not something to scold people over. I'd love to only talk about comics & art & crafts right now but we're kind of in deep shit.
I mean, my trans friends are being criminalized. I live in LA where they are kidnapping people off the streets. Our POTUS is sending the military to every blue city. Our head of healthcare is a eugenicist who hates kids like mine. And I should prioritize "centrism" and "normie" topics? HOW?
Agreed- detective's characterisation of the site seems apt, but in the follow up comments she laments centrists being shamed here. Could not possibly be me.
I'm disabled. Not being political is a luxury that I cannot afford.
No one in a democracy should think they can not be political. It’s in the definition.
I came here to retire from intellectualism and post extremely horny content and it just gets harder and harder and I think we should make bluesky invite only again
I see enough horny content, but I'm not as horny as I used to be.
Same demo as Twitter That Was. Older news readers built the place.
I think we also need to acknowledge the unspoken criticism that being political is a bad thing. No its not. Especially now, it is 100% necessary. Everything I do, from posting, to art, even my solo tabletop gaming stuff, is political. Because LIFE is political.
I keep getting kicked from "no politics" spaces because that position is indefensible. There is no amount of policing that can be done to prevent there from a politically-charged topic from being discussed, even in ignorance and allowing an ignorant political statement start as the first and last?
People only see politics in terms of issues and leaders is part of the problem. We need to see it as part of our daily lives. Trans rights isn't just a political issue. It's my existence. Just as economic policy is part of the existence of everyone in the working class.
You may be mistaken about who's here. The block features, filters, custom lists & feeds all WORK here. There are LOTS of sports & book people here. Large contingents of artists, fan groups, foodies, furries, & amateur porn people. Far outnumbered by & overlapping with political folks though.
While lots of my mutuals are talking by necessity about politics, I still am getting plenty of minipainting and cosplaying hobby posts in my timeline. Because the vendiagram of artists, hobbiest, and politically active minorities is a near-perfect circle. And Bluesky allows me to cultivate from that
This place was built early on by a strong userbase of trans people, so I'd watch how you use the term sicko in the future. Unless it was /pos? I'm not sure how it could be but if it is it is.
I would probably take it as "sickos ."
I am well aware, I was here and I’m friends with a lot of them I mean this kind of person (complimentary)
Ah.
Perhaps I need to turn the on guard level down a notch.
We're all sickos down here (complimentary)
I feel this is accurate in how I've filtered my feed I barely unfollowed anyone, only purely political accounts with few exceptions I just mute words instead; even if the people are political, I love their non-political posts
I think it's say to say that pretty much all the early adopters were people who could see the way the wind was blowing and didn't much care for that, thank you very much sir. So yeah, those types almost obligate had to have their finger on the pulse of incoming political/cultural shifts.
Which, one might argue, is why it’s good
We smart
And people who hate Nazis.
I mean I follow whole swathes of artists and scientists, so there's politics, but also cool shit about mushrooms and pretty drawings.
Me too. :)
First adopters were those the most repulsed by Twitter. Guess who that was?
.... i think that's why I like this place. like, more than twitter, and way more than fb or myspace. *blinks* is bsky more like usenet than anything since usenet?
On a Sunday though? Who wakes up on Sunday morning to smash out a 20 post hot political take thread? Eat some pancakes and go for a walk.
people who are angry and I cannot fault anyone for being angry right now, it's a perfectly natural reaction to what's happening but it's an async medium: You can always read those threads after your pancakes. Or block or mute the poster.
Yeah I get that people are angry and I also have an unhealthy obsession with politics but I think it does people good to switch off sometimes, enjoy themselves and remember what we're fighting for. The point of the post is that it's hard to mute politics on Bluesky because it's now 90% politics.
sorry it can't be that vacation for everyone. war doesn't give vacations
True. If you fail to post on Bluesky every 5 mins the war will surely be lost.
If the internet is going to drag up shit people said 15+ years ago when they've visibly grown as a person, don't be a shithead about politics on Sunday. People post when they feel like it. I could say "Fuck off if you don't like it" but - why do you care? Read it tomorrow. It'll still be there.
This is why we need sports twitter to come over
I'll admit I do use bluesky as a de facto "this is where I politics post" site. Like I'm not non-political on other sites, but I have made it a point for my own sanity to carve out this online space specifically for that. I also recognize that caps my potential follower count
Not everyone wants to be "on" all the time
It's also an informed base that recognizes that politics isn't escapable and affects all parts of your life. Certificates for Birth, Weddings, and Death are all the results of some politics at some point.
The invite era users were largely variously marginalized people trying to carve out a chill space. (Not that I need to tell you, you were there.) But because a majority of users had to keep an eye on the temperature regarding their existence, they were forced to be at least nominally political.
Hence, the tone that continues and is reinforced by a culture of informing milquetoast centrists who ignorantly shoot their mouths off of our displeasure and our generous suggestions of what they can do to rectify the situation.
Also the invite era was kind of exclusive? So a small account (like me) had a hard time getting invited. Not sure how that fits the narrative but it had an impact on the types of people here early on
Fucking THANK YOU. Precisely this.
Have you tried the Science section?
My enduring take on comments like this is that if the people in your feed are annoying, that’s on you That goes double here, where you have the tools to curate your experience tightly enough that if all you wanted was comics and photos of birds in your feed you could have that
The political posters on here seem to largely fall into two camps. There's your "blue no matter who" policy wonks who post Trump memes, and then there's a very loud contingent of people who think if you're to the right of Stalin you're ontologically evil. I love both groups to bits, just to be clear
I prefer “politically aware” over “political,” though.
apart from the High Council of Transfemmes With Hot Takes, a big part of early Bluesky was science posters looking to escape the dead bird site. scientists can be apolitical, someday, when one of our major political factions is viciously anti-science and anti-intellectual.
*isn't when it's NOT anti-science and anti-intellectual
Came for the politics, stayed for the Alf hog
It's one of those situations where, would I like to not have to care about politics? Sure. Why do I end up posting about it anyway? Well.. *gestures vaguely at the world around her* yeah...
I love talking about nonpolitical topics here and I think most of us do - you can honestly sense the palpable relief in threads where we’re all talking about Star Wars or some shit but the kind of person who joins a social media site entirely because of nonpolitical community is largely absent
(Star Wars is also political.)
It's why this website/app won't become the next big social media website that a lot of people, myself included, want it to be. It's anti-poaster
And how intensely galling it is when somebody pops into a non political thread and starts going “ha ha can this adorable golden retriever puppy fix politics next!” or whatever.
Do not mock the Golden Retriever of Rectification!
Oh god. I just want to grab those people and shake the shit out of them.
"how dare you post about when Trump exists" is an entire genre and I hate every last post in it
It’s such a privileged take, because it implies that there was ever a time in human history where there wasn’t countless horrible things that needed solving. If someone thinks we can’t have joy till X is solved, they don’t understand that misery is constant & joy is the oasis we create to survive it
As someone raised Evangelical, it feels like being told "your reward will be in heaven".
I have not and do not intend to survey this corpus of posts, but my sense has always been that the type of person who writes that sort of thing is not actually trying to help with X at all, either
I personally think this is one of a myriad of Buddhist hells. Buddhists have lots of hells.
These people are the most joyless people on a site with a reputation for that, who help it to earn it, and they give that Oompa Loompa way too much power over them personally. What they *should* do is refuse to give the Oompa Loompa that power, not demand everyone be as miserable as they are.
My response to those people is "He wants you to make everything about him. You're just doing his work." Not gotten any sass for it yet.
trying to share a love of worms, millipedes, slugs, chickens, fungus, etc. with a website this passionate about replying "that eats GARBAGE? reminds me of a certain 🍊 💩!! in the whitehouse! 🤣 😂" feels a bit sisyphean sometimes but I persist. because, look:
That is a very fine slug!
Heh, somehow the recent katydid...er...snack sack discussion didn't get hijacked.
Is that a banana slug?
One day I will get to see the majestic banana slug. Here we have an abundance of leopard slugs that don’t grow quite as long.
But leopard slug sex is truly extraordinary to witness!
Not when it's happening at 3am in the middle of your kitchen floor when you only wanted a glass of water Jesus Christ. One of the many reasons I'm glad we don't live in that house anymore
Best out of context post of the day!
I'm only slightly disappointed our giant forest slugs don't do the full cirque du soleil slime twirl like the leopards do, but apparently they engage in apophallation much more frequently. which is a fun vocabulary word everyone should look up if they don't know it already
Saw this truly special individual the other day who decided they weren’t feeling the “long” that day and went for “extra chonk”
What a lovely shade of yellow! I sometimes wonder what factors into a slug deciding between chonk and stretchy
They're so neat!
We visited Norway last year and I spotted slugs there that were stubby, thick, and dark brown like the chewed ends of cigars.
I had a friend who loved seeing the morning slug trails because she said it looked they were writing messages in a mysterious alien language :)
tell them I love them
will do! maybe i’ll leave some greens by the drain pipe where they like to hang out
I started vermiculture in a garden tower this year, and worms are amazing little machines that convert rotting organic matter into nutrients for plants !
ooooohhh nice slug
Slugs are awesome! They're hermaphrodites who (in some species) engage in "Penis fencing" while making love.
It makes the decision to block REALLY easy...
Yes, we’re all political, but I wish there wasn’t such vocal faction who get weird and indignant when we post about something not political Sir: we know orange man bad, but we’re talking about mayonnaise again—show some respect
Okay, I'll start the fight What's your favorite flavor/brand of mayonnaise?
Mint
How dare you The correct answer is CLEARLY Sriracha
Sriracha goes on everything. Except for those things that call for Valentina sauce, extra hot.
There isn't one. All mayonnaise is yucky.
Dukes of course
honestly? block more people. find a blue wave account following 60k and block all of them. then find a second and block all of theirs and you’ll see that one only pulls down like 5k because there’s so much overlap. there’s no reason to subject yourself to that if you don’t enjoy it.
I have no idea how to block 60k people. I just block the ones that find me
So I guess the reason I subject myself to it is incompetence
lol the original blockenheimer is dead because the guy didn’t want to deal with it, but someone mirrored the code. it uses app passwords generated by bluesky and which can be immediately deleted. it brings peace. block.alxtratrstrl.xyz
📌
Thank youuuu —your incompetent friend
oh stop. i blocked super liberally to begin with, but i only got to this point because i was in some big starter packs last november and was not at all enjoying the vibe i was getting back. america’s fraught enough. i’m not also looking to have a terrible time online.
this is why i'm glad i have never been in a starter pack and was deactivated when twitter came over. i put up with enough bullshit already.
starter packs are a CURSE. And the "November people" went *so* hard on them 😩
I think it is a blessing for you that you weren’t because you’d have been in a lot of them, gotten 40K followers, and logged off forever
Self preservation at your visibility level is important! I feel like things get difficult past 10k, I’ve been pretty lucky all in all. I agree, its stressful out there! I come here for a reprieve and to connect with the people I enjoy
i love this list bsky.app/profile/did:...
📌
Oh, that's handy!
One blockenheimer pretty much blocks them all! It's the easiest thing!
Keep in mind though bsky.app/profile/numb...
Unfortunately it appears to have gone away
Thanks. I failed to find that when I was looking the other day.
it's super effective tbh
I'm so glad college football season has begun.
or when they stumble in and start replying to things from the default feeds, we all block them 😩
one of the earliest tips Bluesky gave to newbies is "reply! reply! talk!" and I'm not sure that wasn't ironic either which makes me sad
I mean TALKING is good! Replying is good! but just picking a stranger and arguing with them context free or replying to them like they're not another person is NOT. LOL
OMG this. Like if I’m gonna hop in, especially if I want people in the thread to like me, I’m not gonna come in with a chip on my shoulder. The default mode should not be “pick fights”.
I've always been afraid sometimes that some of my replies are viewed as that and it's why I don't tend to reply -too- often
I feel this too a lot, which is why I try to pretty much never reply to anyone either disagreeing with them (unless I know them VERY well) or giving them advice they haven't asked for. It helps with the anxiety!
And conversely a thousand people replying “THIS!!!” or “💯” or the same tired picture meme isn’t contributing anything, it’s just noise. Just hit like, it’s fine!
also long pet threads
I would add - prior to the helltimes, it wasn't politics all the time. The reason its politics all the time is because well fucking fascism is here.
In the early days we talked about a lot of stupid shit and it was fantastic.
I think a large part of this is because the moderation tools result in a bunch of self-reinforcing silos. There are absolutely communities on here who are less frothy about politics, but they’re not visible from the edges of my sandbox.
🎯
Not all of us got invite codes… some of us v much would’ve rather have been on Bsky much earlier than we were able to join lol
reverse chronological is great but it really requires you to go seek out other content proactively
The nuclear block also prevents cross-pollination to some extent. I’ve just accepted that there’s swaths of this app entirely foreign to me.
And the nuclear block is so nuclear that there’s no organic way for reengagement to happen down the road
I feel like there are a lot of artists on here who are not here for politics... there are a lot of segments of this site that any one of us might not really see
I have several topics that had good online community on Twitter that are non-existent here (even some people I know from there don’t discuss them here). It’s one of the losses here that makes me use it less that I used to use Twitter. Maybe it’s for the best.
correct the kind of person who fled twitter in that era is unfortunately the kind of person who has to be at least a little political out of necessity I dearly wish the world was in a place where that was not true
It’s sad that “I do not want to associate with Nazis or use a product that supports Nazis” is a “political” sentiment. I mainly wanted to read and talk about sports, but the other app made that impossible. It seems backwards to me to blame BlueSky for the other app’s sins.
Just like the two sexual orientations, straight and political White and political. Etc.
For clarity- this isn't my phrasing, this was brought up on here recently by someone else (search fu has failed me), and I had seen similar before. I was attempting to reference it, NOT claim credit for it, just a sort of sardonic statement. But forgot not everyone has read what I have, so.
That was Nome, linking the post below. bsky.app/profile/nome...
THanks. I just had realized 'oh crap that looks like you're taking credit for something that isn't yours' and instant ick feeling.
It’s not an original thought. I’ve been seeing people say this for a decade.
And I think the reason we periodically have "Bluesky is dying, posts are down!" panics is that the type of who fled to bluesky is also the type of hyper engaged person that needs to disengage every so often to stay sane -- at least in this current sad, bonkers timeline.
Keeping up with all this crap is exhausting. Sometimes I need to pretend none of it is happening for awhile.
are we no longer saying "the personal is political" anymore? i used to love that one.
I would love to not talk about politics, but my trans sibs in the US and the UK are literally under threat, while the opposition party in the Australian state I live in are angling for election and want to bring that shit here.
I would love to live in a world where lgbtq people weren't a talking point but the republican party wanted me to be political
I wish I was in a world where being every component of myself wasn't political, but the Republicans have always hated atheists, hated trans women, hated unions, and hated indigenous populations (I'm of mixed descent). My entire existence is "make something Republicans hate, and I am"
yeah, extremely so.
Really great art and photography here. Haven’t enjoyed photography online this much since the early days of Instagram before the influencers took over.
There are multiple tabs for other subjects, too.
Yep, even I was a fairly early although intermittent adopter. I am as you described it, a shitposter who by default of my own existence on multiple fronts is very political.
I've just been political off and on for a long time, like, since about 1990. I mostly stopped making bad art, became chronically ill, went broke, got divorced, lost any sense of purpose I ever had, and now I'm just trying to improve things in some tiny way before I die. Mostly I'm just tired.
I've had a false impression all my life that the median voter type is rare. I can't recall ever talking politics with a median voter -but what median voter would ever want talk about politics?
