Bluesky’s decision to open its social network to everyone (read: Bluesky is now accessible without an invitation) has triggered a flood of new people wanting to join this social network.
According to statistics posted by a Bluesky account and spotted by TechCrunch, the number of new users skyrocketed to 856,000 on February 7, the day after the platform removed its invite-only signup process.
This figure represents a considerable increase from the 200,000 new users recorded the previous day and the 62,000 to 64,000 users seen each previous day.
The total number of users has more than doubled in three months
This increase brought the total number of Bluesky users to more than 4 million, up from 3 million at the start of the week and 2 million according to the Bluesky team last November. Yes, the total number of users has more than doubled in the span of three months, with most of this increase occurring in the last two days.
The number of new users also increased as technical problems arose. On Wednesday, a member of the Bluesky team acknowledged that power outages had affected the platform’s performance. Although the influx of people likely contributed to the problem, Bluesky developer Paul Frazee attributed the problem to technobabble that appeared to come from a Starfleet engineer (read more about technobabble here ).
“When there is a large increase in database usage, the system goes into a multipolar tachyon flow that overloads the power couplings, which is something we all just experienced,” Paul Frazee said.
You don’t have to share your data with big companies, like Meta or X
Launched about a year ago and initially aimed at iPhone users, Bluesky is one of several social networks designed to give people an alternative to X. Over the past year, Meta’s Threads has been the one of the platforms that tried to establish itself. Bluesky’s user count is still quite low compared to Threads (over 130 million) and X (556 million).
But unlike Meta and X, Bluesky is a decentralized network in which users control their own data.
They can use their own domains and create their own custom feeds. This also means you don’t have to share your data with big companies, like Meta or X.
Bluesky assures that moderation on its social network will be effective
Previously available in closed beta, by invitation only, Bluesky has piqued the interest of a few people. But because the invitations were few (some sold on eBay for $300 each), the number of users remained relatively stable. However, the beta period gave Bluesky the time it needed to improve the platform. And it’s not over.
“Over the past year, we’ve given ourselves time to ensure that things like the underlying infrastructure and moderation capabilities are in place. Today, we’re almost ready,” he said. Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told Business Insider.
“Later this month, we will open up Federation and third-party labeling, which will allow people to operate moderation services.”
To go further on Bluesky
Source: “ZDNet.com”