Everyone calls X a "dumpster fire" etc, but when I go on there I see see great tech conversations. Database people having fun and chatting about projects. Lots of hackers. A much larger network than bluesky.

This very much my experience as well with current Twitter/X. I think I can at least express myself without having to ponder if the service itself will ban me for saying that ”the king has no clothes on”.

I finally see on my timeline art and music I like. Not to mention the interesting technology-related discussions.

It’s not all sunshine but things are clearly better with a wider range of opinions being present on my timeline and more variety in content. I just wish I could better filter foreign (esp. USA & UK) political content out of my feed.

I couldn't agree more. It's like when you see headlines claiming "people" are outraged by a jeans advertisement. Are they really? Who? How many? Really I think it's just something to argue about for entertainment's sake.

Outside of bullying, which I do think is a real risk for kids, I don't feel like the time I spend on social media is unhealthy at all. Granted I'm mostly YouTube, zero percent IG or Facebook. I'm really grateful for what Google bought/built.

Excuse me now as I need to go watch a short that explains the difference between Australian and British accents. Very important, goodbye!

For me it's the complete opposite. I stayed because I thought it's a storm that will pass. I even had hope Elon gets bored with it and writes off the loss. Nothing of this has happened and probably ever will.

Most of the interesting people in my circles have left and the ones that stayed are so disconnected that there is no real community any more.

The end this on a higher note. Would you be willing to share some people to follow that make being on X worthwhile for you.

You can find good content on almost any platform. The problem is when the negatives become so overwhelming, in your face, and hard to ignore, that you feel like it's moving away from what you want it to be. It's not hard to find good tech conversations on Bluesky, they're just lower volume.

All the people I cared about left. Most of the replies of anyone with a larger profile were getting filled up by rubbish.

But I'm sure there are still some bubbles of decent content. It was definitely no longer worth being on there for me though.

I guess I've always been a bit ideological, also not being on Facebook after the numerous negative examples of how they treat customer data, and so I exclude myself from WhatsApp that is ubiquitous in my country sadly. There's one or two people I would have more contact to, but don't, because they don't think it's worth installing any one of the many messengers I've got installed; it's apparently on me to install the one thing that we all agree is suboptimal at best. Yeah, no thanks, I'm okay over here

Similarly for Twitter. It was an independent company run by people who had, as far as I heard, fine intentions. Like making money and being a good platform can go together, though iirc they weren't great at the former. Then Elon came along and tore down the ethics standards. Idk, I just don't need to be part of that when people have been developing perfectly good alternatives in the meantime. It took a few years but by now I'm not actually sure who's still on Twitter but not (at least also) on Mastodon that I'd like to talk to, but I'm sure there'll be some people if I look for them. I just don't know that it's worth it

I also don't like that it's now a closed website; not really part of the web, idk why they bother having URLs still if you can't view them without signing up first. Not really a great medium for posting/announcing things anymore either

Of course, if you're happy to stay put with your friends, I'm sure you'll be just fine as well without needing to experience too much of what goes on outside of that community. You could use WeChat or anything else for that purpose as well

The only thing I keep recommending to people is to always have at least 2 options: WhatsApp and another messenger. GitHub and some git mirror. Twitter and another microblogger. Then people can choose, communities can move gradually without disruption, you're harder to deplatform, service disruptions aren't as big a deal, and the platforms have to actually compete to be one's choice of where you go first to post and read things

My problem with Twitter is that it constantly forces unwanted content into my feed. Before I finally quit about a year ago, it was pushing straight-up, no-interpretation-needed, racist and anti-semetic posts into my feed.

If there were a store that secretly sold Nazi propoganda out the back if you gave the owner a special handshake, you'd innocently have no way of knowing and you'd keep shopping at that store. I don't think anyone could hold it over your head that you were shopping at a Nazi store if it were being ran with such discretion.

But if there were a store where the owner occasionally made a little wink-wink-nudge-nudge whoopsy-doodly where he "accidentally" left such stuff out at the checkout counter, just to see if you'd be interested... I'm sorry, there's no way I'd ever go back to that store, no matter how great it's other stuff was. It could be the only place that sold my favorite beer or whatever and it wouldn't matter. Some things are inexcusable.

It's both. There are still lots of people having interesting conversations on X, but the second anything gets even the smallest amount of reach your replies will be full of really crummy (and promoted) blue-check trolls interrupting and being angry. The site in general also makes my adrenaline spike in an unpleasant way if I use any of the public feeds for more than about thirty minutes, which seems to be the goal they're optimizing for. I'm happier just avoiding the place.

You aren’t wrong. The people that want BlueSky are the same people who can’t take the heat of actual critics.

X is so large that it can simultaneously be a giant dumpster fire, the most toxic social network ever to exist, and still have room for honest discussion and good communities.

Gives me some hope for Bluesky, etc. I don't think you need to be Twitter scale or have global network effects to work. Your community just has to choose a particular platform and show a preference for it. You get miniature network effects once your community adopts it.

So if your favorite community doesn't like a particular platform, I don't think they're stuck there, just because it's the one with global scale. They just have to organize an exit.

From what I can tell, your experience on X is like everywhere else, it will show you content that you engage with me.

If you follow tech people and engage with those, you get more of them.

I follow DHH, PG, etc and gaming stuff, I get great content.

I also pay premium to not get ads and get Grok for free which is a nice bonus.

Speaking as someone who used to visit specific pages on Twitter and use it to follow breaking news by hashtag, at some point a few years ago it became impossible to see new posts in the former case and a login wall was put in front of the latter case. Even when someone shares a direct link to a post nowadays only a small part of the thread is actually visible, which makes visiting the site pointless. So, yes, X is now a dumpster fire. When I go there I don't see great tech conversations, I either see a weird algorithmic top post from years ago, or nothing at all.

Mastodon and Bluesky are intrinsically more valuable, not necessarily because of the quality of the content itself, but because it's actually possible for people to read and search said content.

The dumpster fire aspect is mostly that it's a thunderdome of engagement bait at this point.

Just thousands of people posting whatever nonsense they can to get their $5 in adshare revenue.

The way they do this - topics, language - is less bothersome to me than the underlying economy of it.

That and there’s actual criticism on X, not just the safe space model that BlueSky creates.

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