Have You Joined the Bluesky Party?
Have you noticed it’s a bit quiet on Twitter/X lately?
Bluesky is a newer social media app created by one of Twitter’s original founders, Jack Dorsey. While he is no longer at the helm, it has recently become a notable social media site in the sex work world, replacing Twitter/X as the social network of choice for many escorts. And, it’s not just sex workers. After the 2024 election, millions of people flocked to BlueSky, especially after Elon Musk, the current owner of Twitter, got nominated to the new DOGE (Department of Governmental Efficiency) agency.
In my opinion, Bluesky is trying to be a better version of X. Instead of shadowbans or straight-up removals for sexual content they let users set their preferences for what type of sexual content they’re ok with seeing. They also have an automatic labeling system, so even if sex workers don’t label their content as sexual, it might get labeled that way anyway. In that case, it would only be shown to people who say they’re OK with seeing that type of content. It seems like a decent middle ground of moderation.
The platform also seems to prioritize users. It is decentralized which means users can choose how their data is stored and can organize how they’d like to see content. There is no algorithm. If you create or follow an existing feed, you will just see what is posted to that feed in the order it was posted. I’ve noticed how much less “addictive” Bluesky is than Twitter/X without an algorithm! Social media algorithms are really designed to grab your attention in a way that can lead to hours of doom scrolling.
Bluesky also seems committed to reducing hate speech, bot accounts, and spam accounts. Thus far, they seem to be pretty responsive to user support requests.
One thing I love about Bluesky is the “starter pack” feature. Users can create topical lists of people. If you’re interested in that topic, just follow everyone on the list! I have four starter packs:
- One for hairy in-person sex workers
- One for hairy online sex workers
- One for petite in-person sex workers under 5′ 2″
- One for nerdy in-person sex workers
If you haven’t set up your account yet, sign up, follow me, and join the party!
