Engagement on X vs Mastodon vs BlueSky

Egon posted recently on the situation with scientists leaving X and moving to another microblogging platform. He pointed out some pros and cons of BlueSky vs Mastodon and how it may be possible to bridge between the two.

This post doesn't really speak to the points that Egon raises, but rather gives a n=1 measure of the current level of community engagement on different platforms. I posted a link to my previous blog post on the three platforms mentioned in the title, and here's what I found:

• X - Since Sept 2011 - I have 1190 followers - 270 views (34 link clicks), 4 comments, 11 additional likes (including one from the poteen brewery I often get confused with :-) )
• Mastodon - Since Dec 2022 - I have 147 followers - 2 comments, 1 additional like
• BlueSky - Since 15 Dec 2024, i.e. one day before the blog post - I have 28 followers - 2 comments, 11 additional likes/reposts (including one from "Low Quality Facts" - make of that what you will)
• My blog - Since April 2007 - I no longer have visibility of the number of followers, but there are 57 people who use the follow.it link to follow by email - 428 views, 3 comments

First of all, the numbers confirm that X is no longer where the community is; despite being only 5 days on BlueSky and a handful of followers, the engagement just about matches X. Mastodon is an interesting platform, and great to have as an alternative should BlueSky not pan out, but the numbers and engagement have not taken off; it feels quiet over there, in a way that BlueSky doesn't. In each case, to actually find out the news, the user had to click through to the blog, so the figure of 428 there should give the overall total across everything (including LinkedIn where I also posted).

From the little time I have spent on BlueSky, it has the feel of the old Twitter. The Android app needs a bit of work (scrolling is very jerky on the main feed) but I'm sure it will be sorted. I moved early to Mastodon as I would have liked it to take off, but that hasn't happened. I note that BlueSky has plans to monetise somehow and time will tell whether this turns it into something closer to the current X. In the meanwhile, I guess I'll see you over there.

@baoilleach.bsky.social/@baoilleach@mstdn.science/@baoilleach