Bluesky Reaches 10M Accounts

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

User numbers and activity

  • Mastodon user-count bot reports ~15.4M accounts, but post volume (“thousand toots per hour”) hasn’t scaled similarly, suggesting retention or engagement issues.
  • Bluesky has 10M accounts. Shared third‑party stats show ~3.2M 7‑day actives and ~1.6M daily actives.
  • Some users ask how many accounts are bots; no figures are given.

Bluesky vs Mastodon / Fediverse

  • One view: Bluesky is an algorithmic “shouting match,” while Mastodon is a looser federation of communities with more bounded visibility.
  • Others counter that both platforms support chronological feeds; Bluesky’s algorithmic feeds are optional and user‑selectable.
  • ActivityPub (Mastodon) and ATProto (Bluesky) are both described as underlying federated protocols.
  • Engagement experiences differ: some report Mastodon giving them more interaction than other platforms; others see Bluesky as still “ghost town” compared to X/Twitter.

Decentralization, hosting, and centralization risks

  • Commenters note “Mastodon as a service” offerings (masto.host, others) that simplify setup, but some worry this recentralizes the network.
  • There’s recognition that even self‑hosting tends to cluster on a few big ISPs, and that large hosted providers can become critical points of failure.

Moderation and operational challenges

  • Several emphasize moderation, not software, as the hardest part: dealing with illegal and disturbing multimedia content, harassment, and cross‑instance replies.
  • For organization‑run instances (e.g., news orgs, governments), one suggestion is to tightly control who can have accounts to reduce moderation load.

Openness, protocols, and funding models

  • One side criticizes Bluesky as a VC‑funded, effectively walled garden that was slow to federate and allegedly restricts algorithms and clients.
  • Others rebut that:
    • Feed generators, moderation/labeling services, data storage, and event streams are all federated and self‑hostable.
    • Multiple independent clients and feeds exist; core apps are open source; contributions are accepted.
  • Nostr is cited as a contrasting, donation‑funded, fully open, volunteer‑run ecosystem with many relays.

Migration dynamics and “serious” accounts

  • Brazil’s Twitter/X block drove large numbers to Bluesky; some also went to Mastodon, but at a far smaller scale.
  • Prominent Brazilian politicians, major TV news, and brand accounts are said to be on Bluesky and driving growth.
  • Some journalists, news feeds, and niche communities (e.g., vtubers) are reportedly beginning to treat Bluesky as a serious alternative, contingent on features like video and moderation.

Broader reflections on social media

  • Some argue we should welcome fragmentation away from a single Twitter‑like monopoly.
  • Others question the value of Twitter‑style platforms at all, given links to stress and unhappiness, and express preference for topic‑based forums or smaller, more human interactions.
  • There is nostalgia for the “old internet” and concern that modern platforms turn users into products; a few call for a principled stand in favor of open, non‑VC‑driven networks.

Unclear / unanswered

  • How Bluesky plans to cover ongoing costs and monetize remains unaddressed in the thread.