Victor BuendíaJan 15

Hi, scientists from the Fediverse! It seems that Nature is asking people about Twitter migration and if they are happier on #bluesky .

On Nature writers' minds, Bluesky is the only place to migrate to. There's not a single mention of the Fediverse in there! However, there is a small free text box where you can write your thoughts, in the step before "send" button. So I did fill the poll anyway, writing why I decided not to go to Bluesky but to Mastodon instead.

I thought that maybe if we get enough people to actually fill the survey and mention that they migrated to Mastodon, we can make a stronger case for open, free networks. It's an extremely short survey, so let's try! https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00037-y

#academicchatter #OpenScience

Has Bluesky replaced X for scientists? Take Nature’s poll

The research community has flocked to the social-media platform Bluesky. Tell us about your experience.

Show threadNick has moved to MathstodonJan 15
@vbuendiar My impression (based on discussions with people who talk about their research on both platforms), is that Bluesky has a considerably more vibrant research community than the Fediverse at this point. Indeed, many of the researchers I follow who migrated to Mastodon in 2022 seem to have stopped posting here. And generally Bluesky has a larger and more rapidly growing user base. So I suppose I'm saying that it seems highly unlikely that Nature would move here, despite the advantages in principle.
Show threadVictor BuendíaJan 15

@internic yes, Bluesky got way more users and I guess it's more vibrant. The app looks better and it has some features that people really like and are not yet here. But it's a bit sad that scientists decide to lock themselves again in a proprietary platform that (I believe) in long-term will suffer the same problems current Twitter has.

Anyway, even if there's less people on Mastodon, I don't think the fraction is so negligible as to ignore it. And there's for sure also people in Threads or TikTok or whatever. There's no way to indicate "I migrated somewhere else". They assume that if you changed, it was to Bluesky. If I presented that research methodology to Nature I would be rejected on the spot 😅😅😅

Show threadAugust C. BourréJan 15
@vbuendiar @internic I'm on both Mastodon & Bluesky, and the thing I've learned is that affordances matter more—a lot more—than the ideological foundations of a network, even to scientists.
Show threadVojtech TlaskalJan 16

@fishsauce @vbuendiar @internic

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

via @pluralistic

Show threadDaniel Marks
@tlaskal @fishsauce @vbuendiar @internic @pluralistic You know you're in bad shape when you long for the time of W.
Jan 16 at 11:32pmWeb
Show threadKavusJan 17
@profdc9
By "W" do you mean the predecessor to the X Window System?
@tlaskal @fishsauce @vbuendiar @internic @pluralistic
Show threadlprovenJan 17
@Kavus @profdc9 @tlaskal @fishsauce @vbuendiar @internic @pluralistic I think he meant George W Bush.
Show threadKavusJan 17
@lproven
Ahhh that makes sense.
@profdc9 @tlaskal @fishsauce @vbuendiar @internic @pluralistic
Show threadDaniel MarksJan 17
@Kavus @lproven @tlaskal @fishsauce @vbuendiar @internic @pluralistic George W. Bush invading Iraq on false pretenses (the presence of WMD, of which there was none, and to "liberate" Iraq) seemed bad, but then Trump came along and tried to overthrow the government and stood by while a million Americans died from COVID telling them to drink bleach. And now he's reelected.
Show threadMidgePhotoJan 18
@profdc9 @Kavus @lproven @tlaskal @fishsauce @vbuendiar @internic @pluralistic
Odd place, America.
Show threadDaniel MarksJan 18
@midgephoto @Kavus @lproven @tlaskal @fishsauce @vbuendiar @internic @pluralistic Nature, or really Springer Nature, is not American, it is German and headquartered in Berlin. As they say, a Euro is a Euro and they're getting what they can.
Show threadMidgePhotoJan 18
@profdc9
I probably meant Trump. And GWB.
American presidents who were not Berliners.
Elected.
Odd place, America.