Blue Sky, 2 Weeks

I thought I'd dip a pinky toe into the whole Blue Sky thing.

I passed on an early invite to Blue Sky, because I'd remembered the wretched cesspit Twitter was when I left, a couple years before it became another Musk orifice.  I really didn't want to invest more social media time into something that was going to become toxic waste.  So yeah, I probably missed a few months of things maturing and developing, not that I'd have had the chance to influence much of it. 

When Twitter was new, and the number of users was under a million, it seemed like a new challenge that was going to be to form coherent messages within the character limit.  Bluesky sure doesn't have that, which does kind of make it a little less interesting.  With all of those pieces missing, I was interested in seeing what it might be as a counter to the former Twitter.

I will tell you that, at this point, I've managed to block a hell of a lot more users than I'm following.  I am not sure if their software prioritizes fees or it's totally reliant on user likes.  What I am seeing is there are some truly rabid folks trying to turn Blue sky into the counter-Twitter site, which isn't why I went over there.  I wanted to find content that was going to help to distract me from the coming Trumpocalypse.  Yeah, I know, we'll survive, but when I see news articles that are proposing the nutjobs wish to try a constitutional convention, well, I know despair is a sin, but there aren't too many other options.

However, I guess I do need to wait and see.  Given their ability to eat their own young and disagree within themselves, I do need to remember that this collection of marginally functional human beings who have marginally managed to succeed before failing all over again (Vivek R, Elon Musk's partner in the Department Of Gross Egomania, made his millions on a failed medication), and they've managed to spark a whole internal fight over visas.  Strangely, the anti-Immigration President is going to permit immigrants from other countries to come work here - wasn't his  whole pitch about being anti-immigrant about jobs?  Or was it because they weren't working for him?  

I guess we'll have a government that's all in favor of bringing in foreign nationals for high paying jobs, forget about the cheap labor, we'll save that for our people.  Seems to be right up his brand.  

The one thing that I'm yet to comprehend over on Blusky, as they misspell it, is the "starter pack" idea.  People seem to be pushing this sort of thing regularly, and it appears to be hey, follow this group, they'll fix everything that you need.  I've avoided many of them, and a few of the accounts which I've chosen to block are because they're just so stridently aggressive in pressing their point that they can't stand what's about to take power.  There have been more than a few mentions of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which does specify that no one who has led an insurrection against the federal government may take the office of President.  Given that it's about to happen, it's a bit late but I'm surprised there aren't lawyers who have filed challenges to this.  We'll see.

Starter Packs - some seem to have themes.  The tool itself has some pre-defined sets of feeds that kind of ruin the whole spirit of exploration, showing you all of the feeds that are primarily cat pictures, fox pictures, or astronomy.  I did find one account that appears to have reposted the same cat picture several times, claiming the cat died "today".  I've lost quite a few pets over the years, I know it takes time to come to terms with that loss, especially when you feel particularly responsible.  Our first cat who passed, Gilligan, died due to kidney problems we weren't aware of, while our first dog, Daisy, died after I misunderstood the vet's instructions, and thought she only needed to finish a prescription, not stay on it the rest of her life.  I get that.  There's still, as you can probably tell, some lingering guilt there.  But that's on me.  Same picture, same cat, who died nine times in two weeks?  I just don't need that kind of stuff hanging over me.  

There were a few accounts which I misunderstood, thought they might be some sort of person whom I had admired, so no, I didn't end up following them.  And I've yet to post, so that's on me, as well.  Given, however, that I've done nothing more than set up a profile, yeah, I did end up blocking a dozen accounts that had followed me before I'd put anything out there.  I don't trust that sort of "follower" - I'd much rather people follow me for what I'm saying than because I'm silent but might be ... well, who the heck knows.  

So the experiment will continue.  As time permits, anyway.