"What is Bluesky when it's not the underdog?"

Bluesky is experiencing a remarkable increase in its popularity, a trend that has persisted for nearly three months. During the summer, the social media app received a large number of new registrations in Brazil, especially after X, formerly known as Twitter, faced a temporary ban in the country. In the United States, dissatisfaction with the changes to X and its owner Elon Musk's close relationship with elected President Donald Trump have further accelerated Bluesky's growth.

According to data from SimilarWeb, traffic on X and account deactivations peaked the day after the presidential elections. Meanwhile, Bluesky has reported that it has begun adding a million new users every day. Recently, the platform announced that it has reached a total of 18 million users, becoming the most downloaded free app on Apple's App Store. This growth, however, has brought some issues, including moments of slowness, service outages, and challenges in content moderation and security.

In an interview, CEO Jay Graber acknowledged that there are always "some difficulties with growth," although she expressed pride in her team's ability to scale quickly with its 20 people. However, veteran Bluesky users feel uneasy about the rapid growth and what it means for the community. Despite triumphant posts about App Store rankings and the arrival of celebrities, there is also self-critical discourse about what it means to be a "Bluesky elder" and reminders about how to deal with problematic users.

Personally, I have noticed a change in my relationship with Bluesky. Over the past year, I have spent more time on the platform than on any other social network, although my follower count stagnated at around 200—a fact that I initially found liberating, though not enough to increase my posting frequency. This week, my followers began to increase, which made me worry that someone might notice an inappropriate comment.

I feel a sense of protection towards Bluesky, recognizing that it is common for early enthusiasts to complain when something novel is adopted by the general public. While I am not willing to proclaim that "Bluesky is weird" or that "Bluesky is finished," I worry that what has been fun, odd, and affirming in the Bluesky community may fade with the arrival of new users. The platform has been seen as a smaller, left-leaning alternative to X, but what defines it when it is no longer the "small alternative"?

With so many familiar names from what was Twitter arriving, I wonder if we will simply be recreating Twitter from 2014. While this wouldn’t be the worst outcome, I wonder if in 2024 we can aspire to something better. Bluesky executives have expressed a desire to differentiate themselves. Some of these differences, such as an emphasis on decentralization, may be invisible to average users, but many priorities seem embedded in the product and business model, such as aggressive blocking features, the reverse chronological feed, and the promise not to use user posts to train artificial intelligence.

Graber is aware of the risk of a cultural clash, describing this phenomenon as a problem of "eternal September," where veteran users feel uncomfortable with the arrival of new members who inevitably change the dynamics. The company is looking to mitigate this by adding features that allow for a customized user experience and improving automated content moderation tools. Perhaps the coming months and years will show that these decisions and features can help protect and foster healthy online communities, learning from the experiences of other social networks that have faced toxicity issues.

If this is not the case, what I have learned from my experience on Twitter is that one must always be ready to switch to the next app.