Visualizing 13M Bluesky users

Visualization & Data Access

• The map uses Bluesky’s open firehose to plot ~7.7M users after filtering obvious bots/low-activity accounts; commenters love the visual clarity (clusters, bot rings) and GPU-rendered “graininess.”
• Some ask how user embeddings were derived and note that graph layouts lack a well-established “grammar” for precise interpretation beyond clusters/topology.
• Others are surprised the author felt comfortable publishing a graph of identifiable users; concerns raised about GDPR and processing personally identifiable information even if data is public and openly streamable.

Bluesky Growth & User Experience

• Multiple users report Bluesky recently went from “ghost town” to highly active, with follower counts jumping and event throughput roughly doubling.
• Experiences vary: some see strong engagement and diverse communities; others see dead feeds or discover timelines dominated by journalists, furries, nudity, or anti-Twitter content.
• Perceived demographics: mix of software people, artists, “normies,” and various subcultures; some say it’s less tech-dominated than expected.

Comparisons with Other Platforms

• Versus X/Twitter: X is described by many as toxic, spam- and bot-ridden, politically right-leaning, and degraded in utility; a minority say their X feed is still balanced and that previous “censorship” of right-leaning content was the real issue.
• Versus Mastodon: Mastodon praised for being open/federated but criticized for poor onboarding, siloed instances, and off-putting global timelines; Bluesky seen as closer to “Twitter 2015” with simpler UX.
• Versus Threads: Threads is viewed as normie-heavy, Instagram-adjacent, growth-hacky, and politically throttled; Bluesky feels more conversational and news/politics/science-focused.

Moderation, Hate Speech, and Bots

• Long subthread distinguishes hate speech (attacking protected groups) from generic negativity toward platforms or politicians; some argue Bluesky’s anti-X posts are unpleasant but not hate speech.
• Several describe extreme hate and porn spam shown to fresh X accounts; others counter that X simply stopped suppressing certain views.
• Bluesky’s tools—labeling services, custom feeds, blocklists, and “show more/less like this”—are seen as promising for filtering trolls, bots, and unwanted subcultures, though spammers are expected to arrive.

Openness, Hackability, and Ecosystem

• Bluesky’s open APIs and firehose are widely praised: people share tools (Jetstream, websocat) and visualizations, starter-pack directories, and analytics dashboards.
• There’s nostalgia for the early hackable Twitter era (user-invented RTs, @, hashtags) and frustration that closed APIs killed an ecosystem of third-party tools.
• Some worry open APIs will worsen bots; others note Twitter’s bot problem worsened after API lockdown.

Identity, Federation, and Cross-Network Bridging

• Using a personal or corporate domain as a Bluesky handle is praised for self-verification and “censorship-evident” identity; contrasted with Mastodon’s instance-based identity and more involved verification.
• Mastodon is described as the “most versatile” for federation, able to follow some Bluesky and Threads accounts via Bridgy Fed, though bridging now requires opt-in and can be confusing.

Privacy, Legal, and Monetization Concerns

• Debate over legality of scraping: some cite precedent that public pages are fair game but note risk of C&Ds and complications once content is behind login walls.
• Concern that VC-funded Bluesky will eventually need aggressive monetization (“enshitification”); countered by references to its public-benefit structure and hints at subscription-based revenue rather than ads, though impact remains unclear.

Politics and Fragmentation of Social Media

• Many see Bluesky as heavily left-leaning and X as increasingly right-leaning; some predict mutually reinforcing echo chambers.
• Others lament that nearly all large networks have become ideologically polarized since ~2016, with Hacker News seen as a partial exception due to moderation and topic focus.
• Some hope that decentralization (Bluesky, Mastodon, IndieWeb) and account portability can mitigate platform capture by specific political or corporate interests, but whether respectful cross-ideological discourse is feasible remains unclear.