Science folks, one thing about bluesky is there's way less 2 way interaction between people, especially on science posts, than there was on old Twitter.
I'm not sure why that is, but it's something I'm keen to encourage. I'd love to hear your thoughts π§ͺ
Well, as a layman I usually don't have much to say when it comes to posts about scientific advancement.
I follow scientists on here because I like seeing what is being researched, discovered, and developed, but I can't really join in on any conversation. Just observe and maybe learn something.
that's me as well, i'm not a scientist and not here to contribute to or discuss science content, i have nothing to add. but i read, absorb, click links to more detailed content that won't fit here. so i don't interact with science posts in very visible ways, but do appreciate their existence.
It definitely depends on the topic for sure.
I follow Chise for viral discovery info but it's very out of my domain so I rarely have anything to say on it. π
I can only speak from personal experience, but for me itβs that Iβm just plain burned out. COVID wrecked my joy. I had to refocus my entire life around helping my children survive the trauma of the isolation and disruption to their lives, and I still havenβt made it out of that tunnel.
100%.
It doesn't help that when one disaster fades to the background, another one takes its place. First viral, now political.
It's all so exhausting trying to temper stress when all you're exposed to is panicking.
Thereβs a lot more than there is on X now though. Iβm hopeful we can improve here. This thread includes what I hope to do about it!
bsky.app/profile/kath...
My impression is itβs lack of critical mass around disciplines.
Thereβs lots of interaction between New Zealanders, FWIW, but then we made a big push to get people over. Still a few at the old place, some at Mastodon. (Reminds me I have to sort out signing back into M out to reconnect thereβ¦)
Interesting... as someone who never reached a high follower count there, I'm actually finding much more interaction here! Which makes me suspect it's an algorithm thing: bigger/more active accounts were boosted there, whereas here everything's getting the same relatively lower (for me higher) views.
Overall I find with blue sky there is less interaction overall, but the quality of interaction is much much higher than twitter. I prefer the higher signal-to-noise ratio
Yes, unfortunately I have noticed that many scientists who joined bluesky early on were disappointed in the level of interaction and left again. Some returned to Twitter, others did not. It is difficult for a new platform to immediately compete, and it takes effort to start again.
Yes, I also am still slowly completely breaking my Twitter habit. But reading the type of comments there now on posts of people I follow have convinced me it is now a bad place to be.
Xitter's algorithmic feed *did* expose more people to new content more regularly than the no-algorithm based BSky, BUT one way to circumvent that is to follow people outside of your specialisation area and "comfort zone." Follow new, exciting, interesting folks! Share and comment freely. :3
That's exactly the thing. You need to come across new people to follow by having people you already follow interacting with their content. Compared to an algorithm that pushes posts into your time-line that might interest you, that's a really slow process.
I saw the original post in my discover feed.
There is an option on every post there to see more like this or see less like this. Train it. Youβll like this discover feed more.
I think the discover feed is currently much better, and you can interact with posts to show more/less of it...
also if you look through member list for vetted feeds, it might help you follow more -- and then a mix of quite poster/latest from mutuals feed to make sure you catch their posts.
I think some combination of fewer people on bsky, lots of people being deeply burned out on social media, and maybe bsky (or at least the people I follow here) skewing older than the voices I followed during Twitter's heyday?
Oh gosh I thought it was just me and that nobody liked me any more. It is a little ironic as this site shows what people are replying to so theoretically it should be easier to start conversations, but that doesn't seem to happen in practice. Maybe lacking a critical mass of peeps? I don't know.
I suspect it's the critical mass thing. Some communities seem to be really active here, but my own field never made it over in large enough numbers, so there's little content and the people who did join just leave again.
Ironically, this seems to be one of the few lively discussions on here.
Yay, I'm amusing!
Also, I hope you're able to find some dark skies around Stockholm! I eventually gave away my telescope after realizing it never gets dark in summer, and it's always too cold in winter to be outside at night....
You may be right, it does seem to be a certain steady, sciencey, peaceful type over here. Fewer shouty types. My taste, but perhaps it makes the party too quiet.
I'd really like to see more science conversations and (and posts about science papers) on bsky. I wonder whether it's because we don't see the 'likes' of the people we follow, so we only find science posts if we see them in our own timeline. I miss sampling what other people are engaging with!
Iβm skeetorializing a paper every day in July with #papersofnote! Mostly circadian/sleep neuro but sometimes whatever moves me. Today itβs gonna be social psych!
