Post

There is a debate on French Bsky because a left-wing media outlet has announced it is returning to X due to insufficient engagement on Bsky—even though they are barely active on the platform. A quick reminder: unless you are some sort of celebrity, generating engagement takes work. Sorry.

Especially on a social network without an opaque algorithm—you can't really count on "hit tweets" here. You have to create interesting posts, reply to people, interact with other accounts, and avoid looking like a bot. (The "Nazi bar" issue and the reign of bots on X are separate topics.)

It really sucks, especially if you were already a media outlet or mid-sized account before joining Bsky. 20% of my X followers followed me here, and anyone with a reasonably large account had an advantage here right from the start. Crossposting is nice, but you need to be present.

And being present also means there's a chance that someone who wasn't previously aware of you might start following. I'm pretty sure I didn't know you existed before joining bsky, for example.