Just Discovered BlueSky old Twitter is back

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Thanks. I'd heard of BlueSky, but my aversion to social media in general had stopped me looking at it too hard. Following your 'app' link I see that (so far) it's still a corner of sparkling sanity compared to that other place.

And then, by happy coincidence there's a post there today (on your linked thread) from one of my favourite rationalist comedian/science buffs, Dara O'Briain, which - to me - is a ringing endorsement of the medium.

I'll keep an eye on BlueSky.
Colin P. (CSPea)
 
I'm not using BlueSky, and really not about to as it's just another potential social media where you have to install the app.

I'm using Twitter and it's basically a ton better now that Elon has bought it. It even has an "edit" button now. :)

Andrew
 
I'm not using BlueSky, and really not about to as it's just another potential social media where you have to install the app.

I'm using Twitter and it's basically a ton better now that Elon has bought it. It even has an "edit" button now. :)

Andrew
The edit buttons is one thing BlueSky doesn't have yet.
 
There are plenty of social networks and apps to choose from. Meta has Threads. Leo Laporte has been liking https://micro.blog/ (which is not free, but $5/mo.) Leo also uses Mastodon, which is a federated service, which means there are many hosts to choose from, many (if not all) free.

In any case, please enjoy discussing them here as you see fit, but no turf warring please... everyone can choose what works for them... or choose to avoid it all completely, as they see fit.
 
My biggest complaint about social media websites (& news sites especially) is that if you click on a link that someone sends you, and you do not have an account at the site, or you aren't logged in and don't have your account info handy, they are insufferably annoying in their attempts to get you to sell them your demographic information as the price of admission.

And if you're running NoScript then you need to enable scripting at the site. And as soon as you enable scripting at the site they push a half dozen other scripts on you, which, after enabled, push another dozen or more.

And they're all running doubleclick.net and googlesyndication.com and googletagmanager.com and gstatic.com, so that Google can keep their dossier on you.

Even this site (forums.grc.com) is running ajax.googleapis.com. I don't have much choice but to trust it. And the main site (grc.com) is running google.com and googletagmanager.com.

I give you all my word... I don't care who you are or where you are at. I wish the world wide web felt the same way about me.
 
I have no plans to use Bluesky. I'm read-only on Twitter. FB gets a yearly login.

I do really like Mastodon. Very high signal if you know where/how to find signal. Hint: hashtags and RSS feeds.
 
My biggest complaint about social media websites (& news sites especially) is that if you click on a link that someone sends you, and you do not have an account at the site, or you aren't logged in and don't have your account info handy, they are insufferably annoying in their attempts to get you to sell them your demographic information as the price of admission.

And if you're running NoScript then you need to enable scripting at the site. And as soon as you enable scripting at the site they push a half dozen other scripts on you, which, after enabled, push another dozen or more.

And they're all running doubleclick.net and googlesyndication.com and googletagmanager.com and gstatic.com, so that Google can keep their dossier on you.

Even this site (forums.grc.com) is running ajax.googleapis.com. I don't have much choice but to trust it. And the main site (grc.com) is running google.com and googletagmanager.com.

I give you all my word... I don't care who you are or where you are at. I wish the world wide web felt the same way about me.
I stopped using NoScript a few years back, as all the domains that it blocks just got out of hand.
 
As Adam stated, the number of sites that don't work without scripts make NoScript not worth using anymore. Over time, you'll end up with a whitelist bigger than some of the big blacklists that ad-blockers would use.

While I do have an account with BlueSky, I just don't visit the site. Social media is just something I never got into.
 
As Adam stated, the number of sites that don't work without scripts make NoScript not worth using anymore. Over time, you'll end up with a whitelist bigger than some of the big blacklists that ad-blockers would use.

While I do have an account with BlueSky, I just don't visit the site. Social media is just something I never got into.
Pi-hole on the other hand is great at blocking domains and element that make some websites unusable, including social media tracking.
 
What I've noticed about Facebook is that it absolutely crimps down on how many people get to even see your post, and it can still take many days. And if it so much as thinks incorrectly that it's about an event, it's even worse. It's as if Facebook is in its last phase of enshittification and they're just wringing all the money out of it that they can.

I can't remember the calculations I did at one stage, but the percentage of followers that will see your Twitter post is much higher. Stuff just does so much better on Twitter than it would on Facebook or YouTube.

Andrew
 
What I've noticed about Facebook is that it absolutely crimps down on how many people get to even see your post, and it can still take many days. And if it so much as thinks incorrectly that it's about an event, it's even worse. It's as if Facebook is in its last phase of enshittification and they're just wringing all the money out of it that they can.

I can't remember the calculations I did at one stage, but the percentage of followers that will see your Twitter post is much higher. Stuff just does so much better on Twitter than it would on Facebook or YouTube.

Andrew
I haven't had a Facebook account since 2022, so I don't know what it's like nowadays.
 
I created an anonymous Facebook account 15 odd years ago. I logged in about once per month to keep tabs on my daughter. But over time, with several family members "tagging" me in photos, Facebook started to figure out who I was by association. Then one day when I tried to login I got a message that told me that Facebook "needs" to authenticate who I am. It had nothing to do with digital authentication. They were denying me anonymity. It gave me codes to send to some of my family members and told me to have them confirm who I am.

I haven't given them a second look since. Though sometimes a business I want information about will have a link to their Facebook page, as their sole online presence, and when I go there the amount of annoying enshittificators that block the useful area of the screen are insufferable.

Twitter is a little better in that you can see the post to which you are linked without nags overlaying the info, but you get to see none of the replies unless you have an account.
 
I stopped using NoScript a few years back, as all the domains that it blocks just got out of hand.
That's actually the part that I like. :) Block them all!

If there's a site I really want to use I temp unblock all. Which of course sometimes "finds" many more scripts, which still may make the site unusable. In that case I reevaluate if I NEED that site. If the answer is yes then I hit the button that stops all script blocking in that tab.
 
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I created an anonymous Facebook account 15 odd years ago. I logged in about once per month to keep tabs on my daughter. But over time, with several family members "tagging" me in photos, Facebook started to figure out who I was by association. Then one day when I tried to login I got a message that told me that Facebook "needs" to authenticate who I am. It had nothing to do with digital authentication. They were denying me anonymity. It gave me codes to send to some of my family members and told me to have them confirm who I am.

I haven't given them a second look since. Though sometimes a business I want information about will have a link to their Facebook page, as their sole online presence, and when I go there the amount of annoying enshittificators that block the useful area of the screen are insufferable.

Twitter is a little better in that you can see the post to which you are linked without nags overlaying the info, but you get to see none of the replies unless you have an account.
@Fuzzball that is crazy Facebook asking your family to provide proof who you are.

That will be part of all the data harvesting and selling, of data that Facebook and other platforms do is insane.

All to make money it's shameless if you ask me.
 
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LinkedIn is the master of this sort of thing, and it's impossible to fix if they get it wrong. Can't be bothered, and they can keep their erroneous data.
 
LinkedIn is the master of this sort of thing, and it's impossible to fix if they get it wrong. Can't be bothered, and they can keep their erroneous data.
I have never understand LinkedIn, who wants to have there entire work history online when an old fashioned CV / résumé will do.
 
Hi All,

I have just discovered BlueSky, the new social media app that is just like Twitter of old.

Is anyone else using it? who is a member of this forum?

BlueSky link https://bsky.app/

My own profile https://bsky.app/profile/adam-f01.bsky.social

Thanks 😊

Adam

Same. I am happy that the tech community is moving there. I wrote up a tips and tricks for using Blue sky if anyone is interested. (Disclosure: this is my blog)


My blue sky is @martinrojas.dev
 
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