Saying Goodbye to Twitter

It feels like the right time to move on from Twitter.

For a long time, Twitter was my favourite social network. It felt like the beating heart of the internet. Whenever something happens, you can go to Twitter to find expert opinions alongside memes. It wasn't a social network about friends or looking your best. It was deranged in an authentic way. Someone with no followers could have a conversation with a world leader and it was just another day.

But let me be direct. Elon Musk has ruined that. There's still a lot of great content on Twitter but it's increasingly buried in shit. The algorithm now promotes content you have no interest in. You can't escape Elon's tweets. Click on any tweet and there's a 50% chance the replies are filled with bots and porn.

And the platform has not meaningfully improved since his acquisition. Did anyone want Grok?

Not to mention the fact that Elon has adjusted the moderation rules on the platform to favour content and opinions that further his political agenda. Twitter has always made controversial moderation opinions but now it's run by someone who has been directly involved in a campaign and will now be part of the US government.

Twitter is too important to global discourse to be run by a government official.

It was the platform where revolutions spread. Now only President Musk's approved revolutions will be acceptable.

It's time to move on.

Alternatives

Threads

It's already grown to 200 million+ users by being heavily promoted in Instagram. But it's owned by Meta, and do we really want to let them control another major social network?

Mastodon

Mastodon has been around for a long time but it popped into the spotlight in the last few years. Its functionality covers a lot of what Twitter does but it can be a bit overwhelming for new users to understand its decentralised structure.

At a more technical level, I've come to believe that ActivityPub, the decentralised protocol used by Mastodon, isn't designed for mass adoption. Choosing which server to join initially is an important choice here because your identity isn't easily portable. This comment on Hacker News explains it better than I can.

Bluesky

I've tried all three and Bluesky feels like the closest to Twitter. It's decentralised and open-source but doesn't feel intimidating to get started. And it allows you to control your algorithm in a way Twitter never did. The apps feel really polished and well designed unlike Mastodon. And there's no major corporation behind it like Meta.

The AT protocol also allows for easily moving your identity to another host, and you can even use a custom domain as your handle rather than relying on the server you join. But you don't have to think about any of this if you don't want to.

What's missing?

So easy, switch to Bluesky right? But I do think Bluesky today is still missing a lot of what makes Twitter valuable. While journalists and some influencers have made the switch it's still missing the bullshit.

The bullshit is what I call all the ridiculous memes and threads you can find on Twitter. All the little accounts that played characters or just commented on what's going on in the world. That's what made Twitter truly feel alive. Whatever was happening in the world you can find commentary on it there.

Bluesky still feels a bit sterile in comparison. But I think we can change that.

Let's Make Fetch Happen!

Individually there's only so much you can do to push your preferred platform. But I think it's worth it to at least try. Bluesky has grown whenever there's been some negative story around Twitter or Facebook but to really become mainstream it needs to maintain that growth in between these spikes. There are a few other things I think we can all do to beyond just posting ourselves.

• Double Posting
  For your personal accounts and any other accounts you manage, posting on both simulataneously is a good first step. Tools like Buffer already have Bluesky support to make this easy.
• Adding Bluesky profiles to bios
  There are several tools that help you find your existing following on Bluesky but they rely on accounts either having the same username or including a link to their Bluesky profile in their Twitter bio. Doing either makes it easy for you and your followers to migrate.
• Making tools built on Bluesky and AT protocol
  If you're a developer it's a great time to build new tools on top of Bluesky and its AT protocol. Tools like scheduling, new feeds, and starter packs all help to make the transition easier.

Will any of this work? No clue, but I hope this time we all get pissed enough to finally move to a platform we have some control over and not just cartoonishly evil billionaires.