Like 'old Twitter': The scientific community finds a new home on Bluesky (science.org)

[usonian]

After recent changes to Elon Musk’s X, a gradual migration turns into a stampede

https://www.science.org/content/article/old-twitter-scientific-community-finds-new-home-bluesky

For scientists the network is starting to look like home. Academic institutions, scientific journals and conferences, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization have established a presence there in recent days. The platform has become so popular that on Monday, Altmetric, a company that tracks where published research is mentioned online, urged publishers to implement a “share to Bluesky” button like those to share content to Facebook, X, or LinkedIn that many websites feature. Many researchers say the atmosphere on Bluesky so far is less polarized than on X, partly because there is more content moderation and the user base is, for now, much smaller and more homogenous. “There is this pent-up demand among scientists for what is essentially the old Twitter,” Young says.

“Old Twitter” refers to the platform’s earlier role as a hub where scientists could talk to one another, distribute and discuss preprints and published papers, post job openings and conference invitations, and communicate their research to the public. “I could go on there for 15 minutes and I would know what the trending papers in infectious diseases and virology were just by looking at the timeline,” says Emory University virologist Boghuma Titanji.

But that all changed with Musk’s takeover of Twitter. “It was obvious within 2 months of his purchase that the algorithm was already skewing against people who post factual, accurate information on climate,” says Katharine Hayhoe, a climate researcher at Texas Tech University. Many researchers say interesting interactions were increasingly obscured by misinformation and hate. “Over the last few years, the experience on Twitter has just become worse and worse,” says Ilan Schwartz, a researcher studying fungal diseases at Duke University.

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Bluesky has eased migration by offering hundreds of “starter packs,” curated lists of people to follow in different fields. For instance, it took Titanji 5 to 6 years to find the people she really wanted to follow on Twitter, she says. But on Bluesky, she has found three-quarters of them in about 1 week.

Lots more at the link.