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tl;dr – I've decided to delete all my Twitter posts, lock down my account, and leave the platform. And I'm going all-in on Bluesky, which (in the last month) has become 1,000x more fun than X.

I've been on Twitter since 2008.

Since then, I gained 40,000 followers, posted over 50,000(?!) times, and built countless relationships. Twitter was my favorite place on the internet. It felt like where everyone hung out (bootstrappers, creators, tech people, devs). It was our water cooler.

BTW – this newsleter is a long one, you can read it on my blog if you want!

Why Twitter sucks now

When Elon took over, I was worried his leadership would ruin it. To me, it feels like the verdict is in. The experience kept getting worse:

• ​Terrible ads​
• Violent/extreme content in the "For You" feed
• Posts with links being deprioritized
• Spam everywhere
• ​X is training their AI on all our posts​
• Dropping free API support
• ​Prohibiting third-party apps (Tweetbot, Twitterific)
• Charging for DMs, verification, etc...

For me, Twitter has degraded significantly since Elon took over.

That's why Bluesky's recent momentum has been such a breath of fresh air.

Bluesky is having its moment.

There's real momentum building on Bluesky: in the last month, numerous indie hackers, bootstrappers, and Laravel folks have switched.

When I tried it a year ago, it felt dead; today, it feels alive.

"But Justin, I don't have the energy for another social network..."

I get it! Over the past year, I've tried Mastodon and Threads. But neither gave me that "nostalgic Twitter feeling."

But Bluesky is different. It reminds me of how Twitter felt in 2010-2012, before algorithms rewarded engagement farming.

Why Bluesky is better

Here are a bunch of reasons I'm having more fun on Bluesky than I have on X in years:

1. It feels alive and fun again. Remember when social media was about hanging out and sharing cool stuff? That's what Bluesky feels like right now.
2. The interactions are better. Engagement on Twitter has gone downhill. On Bluesky, I regularly receive meaningful replies from many people.
3. No algorithm to please. You can post links without them being suppressed. You can be weird and real. There's no pressure to "perform for the algorithm."
4. Better experience and less cruft. No awful ads shoved in your face. No "what's trending" in your sidebar. Very little spam.
5. Developer friendly. What made early Twitter fun was devs building cool stuff on top of it. That's happening now on Bluesky. People are building all sorts of weird, wonderful stuff on top of it.

And because of all this good stuff, Bluesky is growing like crazy.

A lot of this is because of a feature called Starter Packs that allows you to find people in your community to follow. For example, here's one I made featuring "Founders and Makers:"

And here's another one for the Laravel dev community.

Right now, Bluesky is a great place to build an audience

Because of their explosive growth (they've been adding over a million users per day over the last 4-5 days), and these Starter Packs, active users on Bluesky are gaining a ton of followers right now.

Here's my follower graph over the past month:

I think people are hungry for something different. They're actively seeking genuine interactions.

This is why engagement is high right now. Instead of people mindlessly scrolling a rage-inducing "For You" feed, folks are actively looking for interesting people to follow.

Getting started on Bluesky

It's pretty easy to get started:

1. ​Sign up for an account​
2. Fill out your profile
3. Post a welcome message​
4. Follow some starter packs​

There's already a bunch of great resources for switching to Bluesky:

• ​Bluesky Migrate – a simple guide on how to migrate to Bluesky from X.
• ​Starterpacks.net and Bluesky Directory help you find Starter Packs to follow.
• ​Use your custom domain as your username​

Bluesky: it's different this time 🤞

Bluesky is built on an open protocol. Technically, this should mean that no single company can take control and ruin the experience.

The team at Bluesky is led by an incredible female CEO, Jay Graber. By every account, she seems principled, fair and committed to the open web.

Her team is small (about 20 people), but they're executing incredibly well. They've added features like custom feeds, advanced moderation tools, and more.

For me, Bluesky represents a chance to start fresh: to build a social media experience that's actually social again.

My advice? Don't be performative; hang out and post fun stuff. Feel free to be weird and real.

Cheers,
Justin Jackson
Follow me on Bluesky: @mijustin.bsky.social​

PS: if you've been wanting to start a podcast, Transistor is doing a Black Friday sale. 40% off 4 months of podcast hosting!

PPS: my friends Josh and Ben over at Honeybadger did a great episode on Bluesky. You should listen:

FOUNDERQUEST • S5:E19 Why does Bluesky love Alf so much? 42:38 MORE INFO

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