Reporter readers who follow our updated, daily reporting online and via social media may want to join us on a new platform: Bluesky Social, an app that has become a preferred alternative for millions of people who grew accustomed to consuming and sharing information via Twitter, now known as X.

Bluesky — which bills itself as “social media as it should be”— has drawn in a surge of new users in the week since the Nov. 5 presidential election. According to the app’s creators, they’ve welcomed an estimated 1 million new users during that time. On our end, The Reporter was inspired to give Bluesky a second look after our friend and news colleague Adam Gaffin over at the excellent Boston news site Universal Hub switched over to the Bluesky platform last week.

Like UniversalHub, The Reporter still maintains a Twitter/X identity and an archive of our feed since we joined that platform in 2009. But we intend to gradually limit our use of that app and shift the bulk of our postings to Bluesky, particularly as more and more Bostonians make the switch as well. And — at the rate that we are seeing new followers by the hour— it won’t be long.

We encourage our neighbors who are so inclined to use social media apps to download Bluesky and test it out. There are a few factors motivating our decision:

For one, we have grown increasingly concerned about the toxicity, misinformation, and manipulation that has become prevalent on the X/Twitter on Elon Musk’s watch. Musk went full throttle for Trump in the final months of this presidential cycle and made no secret of his aspirations to have a leadership role in the next Trump administration. Musk, like any media mogul, has the right to pick favorites and make his support clear. But his abuse of the X/Twitter algorithms to force-feed users with an onslaught of propaganda was, and is, unseemly, heavy-handed, and just downright annoying.

And it’s not just the firehose of Trump idolatry that has soured us on the Musk branded platform. There’s far too much in the way of unsolicited advertisements, trolls, and bots in the latest iteration of Twitter. It has become a cesspool.

Bluesky — at least for the moment— offers a reboot of sorts for those who value real-time information sharing and a genuine online community that seeks to foster respectful debate and networking.

In the four days since we’ve joined the platform —@dotnews.bsky.social— we’ve seen hundreds of new followers, most of them people from Boston and surrounding communities who are searching for an alternative. Some are self-described “refugees” from X. Others, like us, are testing the waters.

We’ve noticed, too, that Bluesky has far more tools to moderate conversations, to connect with like-minded folks, and — at least for now— it doesn’t have paid solicitations, graphic videos, etc.

Nothing lasts forever. X/Twitter is proof positive of that. But we also don’t have to wallow in the wasteland of a toxic platform that is so clearly geared toward propping up authoritarian regimes and legitimizing their worst impulses.

Fellow Bostonians: Try out Bluesky. We think you’ll find it a refreshing option to access legitimate news and opinion, stay current, and maybe even share a laugh.

We hope to see you there.

-Bill Forry
@billforry.bsky.social