More people are looking for a Twitter alternative, but also aren’t keen on the alternatives. While Mastodon and Threads have their good points, they definitely aren’t Twitter. Bluesky might be the most Twitter-like alternative yet. Spun off from Twitter, it even seems they have the blue shade that Twitter used. But it also has some features that Twitter, Mastodon and Threads lack that could prove useful.

You sign up for Bluesky at bsky.app or via the application on Android or iPhone. If you pick a username, your default name will be @username.bsky.social. The extra bit is necessary because Bluesky aims to be a decentralised network. Decentralisation is good for unlikely situations such as an emotionally-stunted billionaire wanting to buy the network. And, once you sign up… there’s not a lot to see because Bluesky does not have a default algorithm. Oddly, this is a good thing.

Why do some sites have an algorithm?

What people see on Twitter, Facebook and Threads is determined by the algorithm. Each site has its own algorithm, but they share similar goals. Keeping readers onsite so you can serve them more adverts. The need to show adverts affects what appears between those adverts.

Let’s imagine you’re at a conference. You have a poster you’d like people to visit so you take a photo and say, “Hey come see me at poster stand AB-12”. This is likely to do well in the algorithm, because there’s a photo and once people have looked at your message they’ll scroll past on to the next message.

Now imagine you have an exciting new paper. You post, “Hey, check out my paper at the Journal of Interesting Botany” and post a link. That is likely to do badly, no matter how exciting your paper. In fact, the more exciting your paper, the worse the message could do. The reason is once people have read your message, they click on the link to go to the journal site. Once they’re at the journal site, the social media site cannot serve up any more adverts. So some sites reduce the visibility of links, massively.

A site with no default algorithm, like Bluesky or Mastodon, shows you messages from people you follow. An accidental experiment has shown us how big a difference an algorithm can make.

How does an algorithm affect what you see on a network?

At Botany One we frequently post links. We also use our own link shortener to keep track of what is clicked, so the most popular links can go into The Week in Botany, our weekly newsletter. A side-effect is we can see what networks people are on when they click. We found that if we post a link, then people are over seven times more likely to be able to see that post on Bluesky or Mastodon than on Twitter. To my surprise, even Threads outperforms Twitter by over five times.

Another difference the algorithm makes is that it rewards some behaviours. Being performatively angry on any network will get you some attention. However, a site with an algorithm will notice the engagement, and that people are stopping on-site, and so boost your angry message. Effectively you’re encouraged to be grumpy, or contrary.

The epitome of this kind of boosting are the messages on Facebook where you see someone post “No English word ends with an ‘e’, prove me wrong!” Below are thousands of comments pointing out the obvious error, and each of those comments is helping boost the reach of the original author.

You can still get people getting angry on sites like Bluesky or Mastodon, but they won’t get boosted merely for getting engagement.

So how do you find the interesting stuff on Bluesky?

There are a few ways. The old-fashioned way is to find someone you like and then click to see who they’re following and who follows them. Following these people could help you find an interesting crowd.

A second way is to use a Bluesky starter park. For example, if you click on this link, you’ll be offered fifty accounts to follow and also some feeds. Following all these will give you something to browse, and you can always stop following people at a later date.

The third way to find people is through feeds, and feeds are interesting. They’re effectively algorithms that have been curated by Bluesky users. For Botany I’d recommend Plant Science Research by Marc Somssich or Plant Biology by Rad O’Brien. If cats are more your thing, there’s a feed for that too. You can follow many feeds, so you’re not limited to one way of looking through all the posts.

What do you do if you don’t have the energy for another network?

If you feel you need to be on Twitter, stay on Twitter. There are two popular (but not universal) beliefs among users of the Bluesky, Mastodon and Threads. One is that people using the other two networks are on the Wrong Network. Another popular belief is that anyone on Twitter has some moral failing.

I don’t think either is true.

Some people don’t believe they can leave Twitter, because that’s where their support network is. The more dependent you are on that support network, the less energy you are likely to have to build a new network on the post-Twitter networks.

One way you can reduce the mental payload of posting to more than one network is to use an intermediary. I use Buffer, because timing and scheduling is important to me. You might well find Fedica more friendly. Both services have free tiers, and you can use either to post to Twitter and somewhere else at the same time. Having the Bluesky (or Mastodon, or Threads) app on your phone would let you know if you have an interaction to respond to.

Alternatively you can use the networks differently. Talk on Twitter, but lurk elsewhere to read what interests you. The reason you might want to start looking at other networks, particularly if you use social media a lot is simple. It’s a good idea to know where the lifeboats are before the ship sinks.