The most important difference between Bluesky and X (or Threads, for that matter) is the limited use of algorithmic sorting. X uses a lot of machine learning to determine what content you ought to see — either because they think you’ll engage with it, or because advertisers are paying to promote it, or because it’s part of Elon’s shitty political agenda. Bluesky has a “Discover” feed, that shows you recent popular posts, but your main feed is just a reverse-chronological list of posts from people-you-follow. You can also subscribe to specialized feeds that other users set up, or set one up yourself.

So much for Big Account Syndrome. Bluesky at ~20 million has more actual engagement than X at ~200 million.

The ship of Theseus has been rebuilt. The company that Elon bought wasn’t so irreplaceable after all. Seventeen years of network effects should, in theory, have been an insurmountable advantage. But network effects and habitual user behavior have proven no match for the strongest repulsive forces in the known universe: