And y’know what? I now have 66,500 followers on Bluesky. (That says something terrible about the Bluesky community, by the way. Y’all should follow better people.) Bluesky doesn’t have the scale or reach of old-Twitter. But it serves all the purposes I used Twitter for quite well.
we LIKE being terrible, it's fun.
Old twitter was all bots.
You don't seem so bad. The only thing I see in my crystal ball is if you express *too* progressive views as an American and you get traction Trump & Co. will probably come and cancel/deplatform you or basically try to ruin your life. And then we'll have like one less progressive. 🤔
Personally I think we need an Inverse Hitler: like Hitler, but for progressives, here to give the final solution to chuds. Y'all know where I'm at.
You’re a must read for me, and I’m grateful I don’t have to miss out by not being on twitter. Left when Elon bought it and never going back.
If your posting does much better on X than it does here, then I can understand the pragmatic decision to stay. But (a) that says something profoundly unsettling about your posting, and (b) don’t kid yourself about what the site has become.
I think a ton depends on what you use these sites for. If you use them to engage with people in actual discourse, Bsky is leagues better than Twitter. If you use it for self-promotion, it's still probably better because the bot count is way lower, and there's no algo to stack against you.
Against my will, recognizing who Matthew Sitman is telling me he is.
here's the kicker... it's not doing better on the bad place. basically zero engagement. bsky.app/profile/holz...
Here’s the weakest part of Demsas’s argument. Twitter *in 2021* was arguably the most influential public square we had. Twitter *in 2025* is, by some estimates, 75% bots. There are still some communities holding fast there. I don’t fault them for it. But let’s not pretend it’s flourishing.
Towards the end of my time on twitter I got called racial slurs, reported them, and got emails from twitter saying no rules were broken. And I'm biracial/somewhat ambiguous! Maybe she doesn't mind it but that shit is infuriating and eventually psychologically damaging. Insane to stay there
The argument for staying on Twitter is that you can find CEOs and elected officials still hobnobbing there. If you are the type of person who enjoys interacting with Bill Ackman and Marc Andreessen, then that can be quite a rush. But only if you avoid saying things that get you blocked by them.
That is what she actually cares about..over everything else.. The sweet sweet tech money and influence
Proud to be a member of the “Blocked by pmarca” club on the old place. Then again, it’s not exactly an exclusive list.
He followed me for awhile! …and then he blocked me.
Well done! It was the “no apartments in Atherton” episode that got me on his list. #noregrets
lol... it's good for research purposes for these kinds of reasons... but when Elon started doing Nazi salutes this really became not an adequate reason to be there
That, again, is a CHOICE. You can engage in arguments with people you disagree with. But only the right arguments, and only in the right tones. X is Elon’s propaganda outlet. It is failing and flailing. It is, at this point, unusable for people like me.
I genuinely don't understand the liberals who think all "debate" is equal. As if arguing over whether McDonalds or Wendy's has better fries holds the same moral weight and relevance as arguing over whether or not the president should be allowed to accept bribes from foreign governments.
"I can debate with people on X over whether or not civilians are valid military targets!" Why is that even a debate? At least one side of that debate is deeply evil and should not be allowed to exist in a public space! And you're proud that you got into that argument! What the shit!
What sort of mental contortions would I need to undergo in order to be the type of liberal intellectual who still flourishes on actually-existing-X today? How would that subtly reshape the arguments that I decided were worth making, in order to stay on the good side of the media owners?
Not just reshape your arguments, but reshape your *thinking.* When you're surrounded by Twitter-style interaction, it *will* alter how you think. I think it's why people who still hang out there seem to have retrograde perspectives on a variety of issues, especially politics/culture.
😂✌🏼
I didn’t leave X because I was worried it was too impure. I left because it fell to shit, and I realized staying there would make me a less interesting thinker and person. That was two years ago. Things have demonstrably gone downhill over there. How is this argument even still a thing???
The question is when will the lazy as F mainstream online news outlets stop crafting articles around six tweets? The inertia of the existing content integration from X has made it feel more relevant than it should over the past year or two.
Surprised you didn't comment on the slug
I agree with basically all of what you said, but the non-English side of Twitter has not fallen to as much shit. You can really feel the increasing presence of bots but it isn’t anywhere as awful as the English side.
Well, this place is even more antisemitic than X, so it's a choice between two absolutely filthy restroom stalls. I know Jewish people who were driven away from this place and find X more accommodating. The Lefties here are bigoted as fuck and completely unwilling to see it.
"How is this argument even still a thing???" I’d guess because too many people’s sense of identity/financial stability/need for “institutional stability” is bound up in this argument being a thing.
I stayed on and off sometimes to help rt people who needs helps and one day Elon axed my account
Thank you for this, Dave. For what it’s worth, I would follow your posts to the ends of the earth.
I’m *still* not changing your grade.
there's always a new incoming class of sophmores
"How is this argument even still a thing???" 💯 I don't give a rat's ass about Twitter. I don't miss it. The End.
I don't even log in to passively lurk any more. I don't miss it one bit. Bluesky is already 100x better, and I almost never see nazi jerkoffs here!
As in at this point, you don't even get noticed even to be blocked by Bill Ackman and Marc Andreessen without a blue checkmark. So it means giving Musk money to promote your posts.
What “public square” ever had access to millions of people? It’s apples and oranges to compare Twitter to Ye Olde Towne Commons.
That’s not even….factually true?? Smith is on here. So is my entire congressional delegation. Tressie McMillan Cottom. Mark Cuban. Ok, maybe not so much with the celebrities, but there are plenty more politics, academics, business examples I could have chosen.
Without question? I don't know. All the dumbshit Trump voters in my area are on Facebook, and none of them are on Twitter. I'd argue Facebook is still bigger than Twitter. Twitter is just bigger among pseudo-intellectuals.
there's another weakness: Twitter is STILL a good tool for the entry level journalist or think tank kid to get noticed...for his fascist advocacy, by the fascists in power! so, yes, true, but it proves the opposite of his point
her
Everyone's on Twitter, it's the center of the discourse, and that's why I need to publicly announce off Twitter that I'm an iconoclast for staying on there.
But how does one even know that it “does better” on X?
Of course, if you look at her tweets, she’s not getting any engagement there either
The whole idea that somehow she and others would be a counterweight to Nazi arguments is…interesting. Also highly idealistic.
That's what I keep coming back to: How does one convince themselves that a progressive voice is going to get any traction or change any minds on a site whose architecture is built specifically to prevent that from ever happening?
There is also FWIW an important distinction between how your posting does ON the sight itself and the degree to which that engagement translates into click through to your site and eventual subscriptions. The evidence right now is that Bluesky punches well above its weight on click through!
I left because it's filled with assholes. You could watch all the smarter commenters go silent, one by one, while the assholes just kept on doing what they do. What's the point of reading all that assholery?
Well this isn’t true. Nobody else will hateread and liveskeet dumb books written by Nate Silver. You’re a public good at this point. 😂
The Nate Silver thread drove a TON of my readership growth. That says a lot about Bluesky and a lot about me. All accurate. Not necessarily salutary.
thank you. the Jerusalem piece made me doubt myself.
I've said this before, but the main things I used the old Twitter for were wildlife cams and discussing movies and books. Sure, I sometimes opined on politics, but it wasn't the main reason I was there. I left the day Musk took over. I missed my wildlife cams, but they've moved over here now.
You’re not the boss of me, Dave …