All entries for Tuesday 19 November 2024

November 19, 2024

Nothing but Bluesky Ahead – Farewell Twitter/X

Writing about web page https://bsky.app/profile/exchangesjournal.bsky.social

Exchanges moves its primary microblogging output over to Bluesky, as Twitter/X diminishes

If you’re any kind of social media user, you can’t have avoided the debates around the downturn in Twitter/X as the preeminent social media discussion site. While I’ve been mulling Exchanges presence for some months now [1], with the recent US election fallout, it’s become an even more acute question about remaining on site which is increasingly swaying away from any pretence at ‘fairness’ or ‘balance’. It is a shame, as personally I joined Twitter way back in the late 00s and back in the early days it was a brilliant tool for finding likeminded people. I had more than a few beneficial, and surprise, collaborations emerging as a result of being on there. Not to mention creating many long running professional friendships too. Hence, when I took over running Exchanges in April 2018, one of the very first things I did, during my first week, was set up our Twitter account. At the time it was totally a no-brainer in terms of trying to reach out to potential contributors around the world.

Back in the 2010s Twitter was clearly a major channel of communication for academics and those in higher education alike. However, over the years, as the platform shifted to more of a mass market, the signal to noise ratio certainly changed, and not for the better. Personally, I suspect we passed ‘peak Twitter’ during the pandemic years, as we all reached out to one another for some human contact. With Twitter’s sale in late 2022, and the actions of its new owner, I started to have more than a few concerns about it as a channel and started asking myself if it was one we should continue to be associated. However, as a small journal, with limited marketing impact and visibility staying on the platform even then remained one of the major routes we had to reach potential contributors to the journal.

That said, over the past 18 months Musk’s ‘X’ has continued to remove many of the safeguards which are an essential part of any reliable communication channel. Consequently, I set up a Mastodon instance last year, although I will confess I found that a challenging platform to find new followers. Our account’s over there is still live but currently dormant in terms of new content. As soon as I was able though I set up a Bluesky account, as everything I heard about this platform pointed towards it being a viable alternative to Twitter/X, and being run more along the lines of that platform in its ‘better’ days. Since then, I’ve been running the two instances in tandem – posting to Twitter/X and Bluesky at the same time.

However, then the US election happened, with the run up to this making Twitter/X’s owner’s political leanings becoming…more overt. The resultant increased migration of notable bodies, organisations and peoples away from Twitter/X and onto Bluesky argues that the time to close down one account and focus on another is here.

Now, as I drafted this article last week we had 452 followers on Twitter/X (fallen to 447 today) and around 21 on Bluesky.[2] Getting those ~450 followers took us a good two years, and while I am loathed to leave them, something interesting has been happening in the four days since I started writing this piece. Without me posting anything our Bluesky followers has increased to 31. Still small-beer, but a reinforcement that our potential audience there is growing. Such a growth rate in followers seems to argue to me that we’re on the cusp of enough people with interest in the journal migrating across to Bluesky to make the transition I’ve been mulling not only agreeable but logical.

I set up the Twitter/X account to create and sustain conversations around the Exchanges journal, and scholarly publishing. And to my mind, Bluesky is where these conversations are going to be able to continue, without (as) a concerning political dimension. There’s also my slight concern that continuing to associate with Twitter/X lends credibility to its owner and the political bed into which he’s (literally) jumped. That, is just one more thing which makes me believe this is the right move to do!

So, from today we’re going to be scaling back our Twitter/X output to an effective minimum – probably mostly using it to encourage people to come find us on Bluesky. We’ll keep the domain alive, given were I to delete it, after a month or so, someone else could register our handle. I really don’t want to be dealing with ‘fake’ Exchanges, so that’s account will be retained.[3]

Hence, it’s farewell to Twitter/X, and hello to Bluesky in a big way now. I hope you’ll come join us there!

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Follow Exchanges on Bluesky at: @ExchangesJournal (https://bsky.app/profile/exchangesjournal.bsky.social)

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Endnotes

[1] I confess personally, I departed from it during 2023 once Musk’s agenda became pretty apparent. It’s not a decision I regret at all. It’s noticeable my personal account followers has been swelling in the last week too – and that’s a place I only talk about social rather than work things!

[2] I think we’re still niche enough to be ‘indy’ or ‘underground’, which while cool is a bit frustrating when I’d like us to be a heck of lot more visible. Maybe the mass-migration to Bluesky might end up seeing us increase in followers a lot faster?

[3] It is exactly what I did with my own account for the same reasons.