@ikuturso @keith @homegrown

I bridge my account to #Bluesky because more people are there and #Mastodon is losing active users.

I'm not worried about being able to connect with others, but perhaps those here living in this bubble might want to consider what defederating on a network that is losing active users does to the health of the network and future of it for anyone wanting to come here.

@transicorn While I'd certainly like to see more users I can understand not everyone cares that much and has other priorities. The thing is that the fediverse has been around and likely will continue to be for a long time at this point. Not everyone cares to chase the numbers that much and whether they grow or not isn't so much a question of life and death here unlike for something like Bluesky.

@keith @homegrown

@ikuturso @keith @homegrown You cared enough to argue in a response claiming #Bluesky is dying or stagnant and Mastodon isn't having problems simply because they haven't made a pact with venture capitalists.

So if the response now is it doesn't matter to people on #Mastodon if it's losing users i don't understand why you'd even bother to respond.

@transicorn yeah I said I would personally like to see growth and I do care about the facts so wanted to correct the impression you seemed to have that Bluesky is somehow not having this issue.

@keith @homegrown

@ikuturso @keith @homegrown #Bluesky unlike #Mastodon / #ActivityPub is in its infancy and #Blacksky and other #ATProto based #PDS servers are now coming online.

That means they are only beginning to #decentralize, while #ActivityPub is actively losing users #ATProto is working towards growing because of this.

That should obviously tell you something about where this is all going for the two networks.

@ikuturso @keith @homegrown #Bluesky unlike #Mastodon / #ActivityPub is in its infancy and #Blacksky and other #ATProto based #PDS servers are now coming online.

That means they are only beginning to #decentralize, while #ActivityPub is actively losing users #ATProto is working towards growing because of this.

That should obviously tell you something about where this is all going for the two networks.

@ikuturso @keith @homegrown Because of this i believe, going back to the OP here we're responding on... #Mastodon instance defederating i think hurts this network over all.

I would also argue that growth overall for both Bluesky and Mastodon could increase should more people #bridge accounts between the two.

@transicorn Sorry but I already mentioned one huge difference that means Bluesky has very limited time available and I don't see decentralization as something that is just obviously going to happen. Unfortunately the incentive structure and the way Bluesky went about it continue to actively work against it decentralizing to any appreciable degree.

@ikuturso I agree with you about #Bluesky going about #decentralization wrong in many ways, but there are people spinning up #PDS instances w/ #ATProto and that's not had time to flourish yet aside from Bluesky the centralized instance.

I don't believe ATProto has a limited time available and again, we're talking about protocols and growth...

Saying ATProto is in danger because of Bluesky is like saying ActivityPub is in danger because of Mastodon Social for example. They are only parts of it

@transicorn I see that comment often but protocols aren't maintained on their own. Plenty of protocols have died because there was nobody tending to them.

@ikuturso True, but i am not of the opinion that #ATProto is going to be abandoned.

It might not be obvious here on #Mastodon but there's a lot of people excited about what they can build with it. Some are already working towards that.

@transicorn I would be much less confident on that considering how centralized it is, how much the appeal hinges on the single current use case and how little traction I've seen any of the other attempts at creating more get, how expensive it can be to maintain etc.

@ikuturso The appeal doesn't hinge on Bluesky the instance, far from it especially after recent events involving the CEO Jay Graber pissing many off.

#Blacksky is running several #PDS instances, there are others including one for #Transgender people spinning up by others...

People are becoming more aware of options there and choosing them, as that increases with additional servers the #Bluesky as an instance will certainly mean less to #ATProto beyond work developing the protocol.

@transicorn I'm aware of those which is part of what I was referring to with the "little traction". Over 99% of all users are on just Bluesky and I doubt many of them even know of anything else. Bluesky PBC is not really trying to make it more decentralized, they just use the supposed future possibility as an excuse. I suspect that is because they need it to stay fairly centralized to do business.

@ikuturso Those just literally are starting to accept new users widely, you could say in its infancy ActivityPub looked the same.

It's apples and oranges comparing the two in terms of what's going to happen next.

One thing i can assure you is, many of those 6 million active users there would rather use #Bluesky than #Twitter and they have zero interest in coming to #Mastodon.

I just spent 2 years on Bluesky while also still being here on another instance and saw convos daily on both.

@ikuturso Those just literally are starting to accept new users widely, you could say in its infancy ActivityPub looked the same.

It's apples and oranges comparing the two in terms of what's going to happen next.

One thing i can assure you is, many of those 6 million active users there would rather use #Bluesky than #Twitter and they have zero interest in coming to #Mastodon.

I just spent 2 years on Bluesky while also still being here on another instance and saw convos daily on both.

@transicorn I don't think ActivityPub ever looked anything remotely like it because ActivityPub was about federation from day one. Mastodon was built for, encouraged and easily enabled federation from the moment it began its ActivityPub journey.

@ikuturso I would agree with #Bluesky PBC wanting to be the only game in town in many ways, it is good for their business model.

But the user base are frustrated ex-twitter users who aren't going back there, many have tried #Mastodon and don't like it or think negatively of it even ignorantly to want to try it.

So they likely will stick it out on Bluesky the instance until #decentralization is more widespread imo.

@transicorn yeah, there's certainly some disproportionately loud part of the userbase that are against going to Mastodon.

With the recent troubles with the CEO etc. you could see there were also many people who had no strong opinion on Mastodon though while those other people were trying to smear it.

@ikuturso I think it's obvious for many reasons the average #SocialMedia user in 2025 wants what #Bluesky offers, not what #Mastodon offers.

Personally i prefer Mastodon and bridging my account to Bluesky as well.

Time will tell if things change but there are many reasons why folks prefer Bluesky, including many who were here for years who've abandoned their accounts entirely or nearly entirely for it.