Tonight, it’s the big night. In the closet the slippers and ours the eight-inch heels and the tight dress. The chief editor has just called, you absolutely have to test THE new social network in vogue at the moment, “Bluesky”, Twitter’s competitor (well, X, but sorry, we can’t get used to this new name). And guess who’s in charge? Twitter co-founder and former boss Jack Dorsey himself. And it could well be that the new social network – created in 2019 when Jack Dorsey was still in the business – will become the new hip club leaving Twitter aficionados behind.
But now Bluesky is worse than the last select club in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. You would either have to register on a long, very long waiting list (of a million candidates, according to Forbes), or know the trendy person who is already there to receive the grail: the invitation code. But the wait on the list being as long as the line of the Divan du monde on a Saturday evening, the impatience is felt. Who would really want to stay outside for hours to receive the affront of “sorry, but it will be possible”. However, miracles happen and an invitation code is magically sent to us. The bouncer pushes the door of Bluesky and a new world is offered to us.
Twitter, without Twitter
Finally new, everything is relative, because Bluesky seems to use the exact same codes as Twitter. Same decor, same program. You can interact, like posts, or share them. But the atmosphere is not necessarily the same. Exit here all the dorks, trolls and other cyberstalkers. For now, Bluesky wants to be a “safe place” where all inappropriate remarks would be banned from “skeete” (the new “tweets”). Another difference – like Mastodon – Bluesky wants to be “decentralised”: each guest can create their own server.
And then there are some more subtle changes that actually make a big difference. No more question here of talking about “trending topics”, everything works by “feeds”. From the broom therefore the Twitter algorithm which only selected the subjects according to the location and more or less unknown criteria, Blue Sky prefer “feeds” which correspond to the themes sought by the “skyos”. But wasn’t it precisely the tendencies of the subjects that created the debates? It is clear that the debates around the news still persist on the network of Elon Musk, while the servers of Bluesky remain generally empty in content. At random, let’s take the not very useful debate on the “abaya” which nevertheless marked the start of the school year, with the ban announced by Minister Gabriel Attal in schools. While the term has received nearly 32,000 mentions to date on Twitter and is among the trends, on Bluesky, the interest is less and is only concentrated around around thirty posts.
Hey, is anyone there?
Above all, it seems that – for the moment – Bluesky’s dance floor is quite empty. Some take a few steps, but the atmosphere is more like an interpersonal relationship between somewhat geeky journalists and digital experts. Why not after all and then the other guests should arrive soon. Even if a doubt persists: will the Twittos really leave their old adored establishment to be tempted by the novelty?
It is difficult to say for the moment if this void is a problem related to the construction of the social network or if we just have to be patient. Maybe we have to wait for the social network to form a bit and for Bluesky to go beyond this system of invitations to open its doors to everyone. After all, any social network starts the same way to maintain “fame” and Twitter has also been there in its infancy. But for the moment we are called on the track, the DJ of Bluesky gives a dedication to all the still undecided Twittos, “Partir un jour” from 2Be3. ” Leaving one day with no return. Erase our love. without looking back “.