It’s the absence of the algorithm. On Xitter, to the extent possible, I never used the algorithm. When shitbird Elon Musk decided to switch people back to the algorithm feed, I could always figure out that I needed to switch because the feed was incredibly aggravating–I literally experienced things like a higher heart rate. Why would anyone do that to themselves?

Even in my links roundups, finding articles is an ‘organic’ process: I’m not searching for key words or such, it’s just stuff I stumble across. So I’m really not an algorithm guy–and Bluesky isn’t an algorithm kind of place (boldface mine):

Bluesky is (largely) algorithm free – what you’re presented with when you sign in is the list of people you follow, and their posts in chronological order. As a default, the service doesn’t push posts on you; you can subscribe to lists that people create, for varying interests, but if you only follow a couple of people, then by default those couple of people will be all you see (this is why, I imagine, there was this period when one of the largest complaints about Bluesky was that all people saw on the service was me and Neil Gaiman — people followed us because they knew of us, and we both are, shall we say, enthusiastic posters). Bluesky is what you make of it, essentially…

Now, the flip side of this is you can’t just sit back and let Bluesky happen to you. You have to engage with it — actual engagement! Not the kind where an algorithm pokes you with a stick! — or you’re going to be bored. It’s not an endless TikTok firehose where all you have to do is put yourself in its path. It’s a spigot, and you control how much or how little you get. Everyone says they want that, but it turns out a lot of people kinda like the firehose instead.

One mildly depressing thing has been watching people show up to Bluesky, not follow very many people, and then complain about the site being dead. Go forth and engage (post, repost, quotepost, or comment)! Find interesting people* and follow them. But the absence of an algorithm also means you can’t just broadcast–your followers have to amplify Your Brilliant Thread/Post:

The other aspect of Bluesky being algorithm-free (and still being relatively small; its user base currently sits at 5.5 million) is that it’s not great for being famous or being an influencer, or being a troll. I think the Bluesky technical and cultural schema confuses the famous and/or influencer and/or shitty people who come onto the service to be famous, or to influence, or to be shitty for clicks. You can’t game an algorithm to go viral, and the sort of marketing that works on other social media works less well on Bluesky, and even if it did work that way, there aren’t hundreds of millions of people to broadcast at. You can try to do all these things on Bluesky, obviously. But Instagram and TikTok and Threads and the former Twitter are all still there, and much easier to game and influence and troll. People who come to Bluesky to do those things don’t seem to stay very long.

Anyway, it’s not perfect, but it beats the hell out of Xitter, for me anyway.

*One thing Bluesky does is, if you go to the search page and don’t enter anything, it will suggest accounts to follow based on your existing followers. It’s a good way to rapidly find follows.