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Ferran š
@ferran
1/6 I was reading this new paper on how 300K academics migrated from X to Bluesky, and I wanted to share some reflections because it shows quite clearly how social networks actually grow. What Iām about to say isnāt new. Iāve often been critical of Farcasterās current growth strategy, and thatās because itās not grounded in how networks or virality really work. Instead, it feels that FC is based on well-funded wishful thinking: abstract ideas wrapped in the language of innovation, blending Read/Write/Own concepts with old-school Silicon Valley consumer app logicā¦ without fully committing to either. At the end of the day it leans heavily on FOMO and incentives to drive (low-quality) growth. (Farcaster Pro subscriptions stalling as soon as users -or bots- hit the 10k NFT reward cap is a perfect example of this.) And yes, experimentation is great. Some of the best ideas emerge from it. But we also have a long-established understanding of how humans (as social and emotional animals) behave.
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Garrett
@garrett
Blue skyās main growth axis was politics/anti-Elon And personally i think having that as a uniting theme for initial growth isnāt particularly healthy for a truly diverse social network Will be difficult for bluesky to grow out of that to become more diverse as it grows https://farcaster.xyz/dwr.eth/0xed5e8e83
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Ferran š
@ferran
I have to partly disagree, that is not my experience there (Iām mainly consumer on Bluesky but user since the beginning and I saw an evolution). I believe this was true a year ago. As of today Bluesky feels much more diverse, full of humans and with many discussions that are not just people insulting each other, but the deep debates and exchange of knowledge I always want to find on Internet. On the other hand, every time I open X I only find neonazism, conspirancy theories and >90% bots on the replies when using āFor youā and repeated content on Following (and most of my best follows not using X anymore) Ofc, Bluesky tends to be more progressist/liberal/left in general. But I feel that the theory that says Bluesky is just an āanti-Elonā and āwokeā reaction is a bit weak tbh. On the other hand I also know personally (and follow) many right-wing and center aligned people that use Bluesky. Especially people in geopolitics, international security and local politics. And they feel at home.
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Garrett
@garrett
Agree with a lot of your thread overall, particularly the focus on connectors, mavens and salesmen Iāve been vocal about how farcaster growth focuses donāt always make sense especially the onboarding process which is still not great and hasnāt gotten the prioritization i think it should Bluesky did have a crazy growth spurt around the US election which was the main catalyst for its growth but retention for them has been tricky even though theyāre basically an order of magnitude larger than farcaster Iām biased but I have faith in farcaster as a network and I think the farcaster team should spend more time/money on grassroots growth initiatives within particular niches and communities both inside and outside of crypto along with a better onboarding and discovery for new users https://x.com/paulg/status/1930194301129994394?s=46&t=LNZpH03544B952EdXOUs2w
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