Scientists say X has lost its professional edge and Bluesky is taking its place

Perceived migration from X to Bluesky

• Several academics report that their “academic Twitter” circles have moved to Bluesky (and in some fields to Mastodon), with newer researchers starting there and skipping X entirely.
• X is described as increasingly toxic, overrun by engagement-bait and misinformation, making it less appealing for professional or scientific discussion.
• Some commenters, however, say Bluesky feels “dead” or dominated by politics and infighting, and doubt there is a true mass migration versus a self-selected subset of scientists.

Bluesky vs Fediverse / decentralization

• Multiple comments criticize trading “one corporate overlord for another” and argue Mastodon/ActivityPub or Nostr are more genuinely decentralized.
• Others counter that average users don’t care about federation; they want simple onboarding and one obvious instance, which Mastodon historically failed to provide.
• There is debate over whether everyone using mastodon.social undermines decentralization, versus the value of simply not being forced into one instance.

Moderation, blocking, and echo chambers

• Some users praise Bluesky for fewer visible feuds and harassment, especially around science.
• Others argue this is due to aggressive blocking and shared blocklists, which hide dissenting replies from everyone and foster echo chambers, including around political conspiracy theories.
• Bluesky’s adult-content handling and “discover” feeds are criticized as either overexposing unwanted content or requiring too much manual curation.

Scientists, politics, and activism

• A long subthread disputes whether scientists “should just be scientists” or whether activism is integral, especially when science itself (vaccines, climate, COVID) is politicized.
• Some say scientists misuse their authority when opining on politics; others respond that denying or suppressing scientific facts is itself political, forcing scientists into activism.
• There’s concern that mixing overt political stances with scientific communication can damage public trust, but also that telling scientists to avoid “activism” is a form of political silencing.

Platform viability and metrics

• Commenters examine third-party Bluesky stats showing a spike around late 2024 followed by significant declines and then a plateau; some see this as normal post-spike retention, others as a warning sign for future funding.
• Bluesky representatives mention multiple years of runway and emphasize the public benefit / protocol mission, but skeptics question how a flat or shrinking social graph can support new investment.

Broader views on social + science

• Several argue that, for most scientists, social networks are marginal to real work (papers, conferences, collaborations) and mainly attract the most self-promotional.
• Others note documented impacts of Twitter on citations and call for similar studies on Bluesky, rather than relying on anecdotes or ideology.