Erin

@cellhead

she/her

(Help, idk how to use this site and I'm too scared to ask)

Erin @cellhead8/30/2023, 4:14 PM

Phorm The Vixdjinn @PhormTheGenie

Phorm The Vixdjinn @PhormTheGenie8/30/2023, 2:53 PM

Everyone's really going over to BlueSky, huh?

Well. Their limited invite process is a powerful weapon, I suppose. Not only does it I still FOMO by making people imagine they are missing the party, it weaponizes that FOMO by making code distribution go through friends.

"Hey, do you want a BlueSky invite?" Coming from a friend makes it sound like A) They want you to follow them to BlueSky, and B) If you don't, you'll lose contact with them.

BlueSky is bound to be a hotbed of all the worst of Twitter (and arguably already is), so I'll not be joining. But goddamn it makes me feel like an asshole when friends try to give me a code and I say "I prefer not".

#Don't join a platform that has opt-in bigotry #That means it has *bigotry*

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in reply to @PhormTheGenie's post:

Jaida R. L. Mack @jaidamack8/30/2023, 2:56 PM

Honestly, when someone asks if I'd like an invite, I take it as an invitation to share Discord - since people tend to be less resistant to that - and to pimp out alternatives where I 'already am.' I'm not interested in being forty places, but thanks for the consideration; there's not a word of a lie there and it's a little more tempting for most to then check out alternatives, I hope.

Phorm The Vixdjinn @PhormTheGenie8/31/2023, 2:36 AM

Sharing a Discord tag does seem like a really decent alternative. Though honestly, it does still feel weird that people are flocking to "The thing that just hurt us, but with a different name".

Jaida R. L. Mack @jaidamack8/31/2023, 2:53 AM

Stockholm's nice this time of year!

Werewolf Chef Selina @selnyam8/30/2023, 3:30 PM

The fact that before all the weird bigotry stuff on bluesky came out, i was on the waiting list for 4 months for an invitation was a big turn away.
I'm glad i found cohost instead!

Phorm The Vixdjinn @PhormTheGenie8/30/2023, 3:40 PM

Honestly I feel so much safer here than I ever could over there.

Werewolf Chef Selina @selnyam8/30/2023, 3:52 PM

Same, Plus I got to meet cool people like you

Phorm The Vixdjinn @PhormTheGenie8/30/2023, 4:23 PM

CoHost is so full of cool people like you!! That's what makes it super awesome.

Thank you for holding out this long, staff.@Kyresti8/30/2023, 3:55 PM

Honestly given the toxic cultures I've even just got hearsay of, I get a little sus when someone parades a presence there. Like, Twitter literally weaponizes pointless conflicts and angry mobs and turns them into a dopamine machine. It's BEEN doing that since well before Elon. Why should I trust someone who prefers that?

Phorm The Vixdjinn @PhormTheGenie8/30/2023, 4:23 PM

I agree completely - The problems at Twitter were deep and significant before the current fool accelerated them. BlueSky seems to be just as much of an outrage farm.

I give some credit to artists, though. Artists and creators of every stripe seem to feel that BlueSky is the only viable alternative to Twitter, and I can't blame them for that. It's how they make their living, after all.

The Wandering Worldshaker, Mt. Blue Skies @TheBlueSkiesAbove8/30/2023, 11:53 PM

Yeah, even when i gently refuse i still feel bad turning down an offer freely given.

I wouldn't doubt that that factored into some dark pattern somewhere.

but yeah, for the grief I give Cohost about discoverability still being awful on this platform, I'll take it over Bluesky's algorithmic moderation and post-delivery ten times outta ten.

Phorm The Vixdjinn @PhormTheGenie8/31/2023, 2:39 AM

It really does seem like it's part of a dark pattern, so to speak. Like, to begin with, it was probably to limit impact of infrastructure. But later on, it becomes "That place that your friends are, and you aren't" - I've already seen people getting Desperate for codes.

And then, on top of all that, having a friend directly ask you to join is a lot more persuasive than the company just opening their doors. You can ignore a platform really easily, but when a friend tries to give you a code, you're less likely to ignore it. And once they've got the infrastructure figured out, the codes become plentiful that people are constantly trying to give them out.