Analysis of alternatives on Twitter: Bluesky, Mastodon and Threads
- The ultra-toxic attitude of Elon Musk, whoever is in the hands of whom he sees X/Twitter, is becoming increasingly evident. In this regard, we have read an interesting article, launched by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which explains on Twitter the technical details of the main alternatives: Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads. One of them, Mastodon, has two Euskaldunes instances, so if someone who reads Sustatu needs a recommendation, we will tell him to use it Mastodon.eus or Mastodon.Jalgi.eus. However, a little knowledge can come well to tell it.
The EFF is a United States foundation that is committed to free and open activity on the Internet. We leave you an article comparing these social networks for you to study in English, but here are some points.
The three alternatives:
- Mastodon is a development of free software with an official body (and an organization and its own company), but following the principles of the fedibertso, it has been developed in entirely independent instances. The two who are in Euskera are up to click. Promoted account Mastodon.eus.
- Threads is a company created by Meta/Facebook, and to subscribe or use it, it is done through an Instagram account (Instagram is also from Meta, of course, and Whatsapp also, by the way).
- Bluesky is, among others, a company created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
Along with the closed and somewhat isolated character of Twitter, two more open protocols lead the technology of these three:
- ActivityPub is the use of Threading and Mastodon, and is sponsored by the open consortium W3C, the Internet governance organization. It allows you to expand your activity in one place to others. Actually, Threading uses fewer protocol options in practice at this time: The content of mastodon can be seen within Threads, but the response interaction seems to be no, but it will open more, according to EFF. The interaction of the different instances of Mastodon is very great thanks to this protocol, you can take into account in a Mastodon in Basque and follow, respond, etc. in other instances.
- AT Protocol, it's open source, but it's associated with Bluesky and mostly centralized, although it has a promise of openness.
Character of the timeline. Remember that on Twitter there are two main forms, the algorithmic (the system or X decides what it gives you to read) or the chronological (the content of the accounts you follow, chronologically). This second mode saves the prospective utility of X/Twitter for the time being, according to Sustatu. Concerning other alternatives:
- The main view of the mastodon is chronological, of what you follow. If the concrete instance is not very large, as in the case of Euskaldunes, one can also see a very chronological practice.
- The timeline or stream of Threads is algorithmic: Exactly like on Instagram. Goal decides what to teach you.
- In Bluesky the chronological view predominates, but algorithmic adaptations can be set by app and depending on the configuration of a user.
Inappropriate content moderation or control:
- Each instance of Mastodon can set its own rules and, in general, it is easy to expel those who do not comply from the community. In the rules of Mastodon.eus, for example, there are guidelines to remember that activity in Basque is local. Racism, the apology of Nazism or transphobia are also banned in messages, so the account will be closed to anyone who does so. In the same way, although in principle the federation or association of Fedibertso is developed among all the instances that use Mastodon, there is also a federation of de-federation: for example, an ultraderechist instance called Gabe was in the United States. United States And he was cut off from other Federated Mastodons.
- In Threads, there's a kind of desire to reduce political activity, but you can basically expect Metaren's Instagram or Facebook policies.
- At the moment, the EFF says that in Bluesky there is a non-controversial "good environment", as in the early days of Twitter.
Correct messages. They can be done in three alternatives, but please note, as both ActivityPub and AT Protocol do not have for the time being full encryption of shipments, so:
- If you exchange direct messages from mastodon with another user, in principle they can be seen by the managers of the instance system. We are sure that the Basque authorities are not doing so at all.
- In the case of Threads, direct messages are made from the parallel Instagram infrastructure. Privacy depends on Meta's general policies.
- In Bluesky there are only possible direct messages in the app version, but they can be seen by the managers. They say there are encryption plans to apply them to their AT Protocol.
General interoperability. As the three systems are built in an open protocol, the EFF says that it may not be necessary to choose because cross-links between them can be possible. The following interconnection tools are mentioned, for example:
- Those who link Bridgy Fed and SkyBridge Bluesky with Mastordon.
- RSS Parrot: You can follow the sources that offer RSS feeds through a Mastodon account, turning your Mastodon account into a personal flow reader.
- Mastofeed: You can arrange a direct post from an RSS feed to your Mastodon account.
And back to the initial recommendation, use:
Wikipedia.org considers that Gish gallop (Gish's gallop) or the machine gun of fallacies "is a technique of controversy that attacks the opponent with as many arguments as possible, without taking into account the accuracy or solidity of those arguments" and would have as side... [+]
He got up and spent 20 minutes in the gym. Go back and read [some books] and write about what you've thought. I don’t think about how I feel, time is lost.”
Amadeo Llados is a fitness athlete and coach, as a personal trainer, but your training and tips go beyond the sport... [+]
Elena Francis is a fictional name, but it was a radio program from Francoist Spain: Elena Francis Clinic. Spanish women sent a letter to it to consult the driver of the program: How do you make a good Russian salad to dazzle your husband? And preserves it with fruit? How to cook... [+]
In spaces like the X, today, we will have to recognize that it is impossible to have a public debate and a cultural struggle. In this sense, a mistake is that political projects that intend to lead a leftist change leave platforms like X to make the leap to social networks that... [+]
