Amid X X-odus, Nothing But Bluesky from Now On

As the disaffected disembark from X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, they are landing in throngs on Bluesky, the X competitor that has seen its daily traffic grow 500% since the election and that shot to the top of the App Store last week. As of this week, Bluesky had surpassed 20 million users, adding at least a million a day.

A fair share of those millions are arriving from law and legal tech, and many legal tekkies are gloating with glee over their feeling that Bluesky is a return to the good old days of the Twitter we once loved and spent way too much time on.

I finally made the move this week, and you can find me there at bsky.app/profile/bobambrogi.bsky.social. Here is a sampling of what others are saying who recently made the move.

It does have an early twitter feeling, finding random people, into random things to make my timeline more varied than what I’ve had the past 8+ years on twitter once it was established.

— Ryan McDonough (@ryanmcdonough.co.uk) November 20, 2024 at 6:55 AM

So, like, we get to start over and talk with our friends about legaltech stuff without going to the Bad Place?

Y’all, what?? Emotions are happening!

— Mike Whelan, Jr. (@mikewhelanjr.bsky.social) November 17, 2024 at 3:52 PM

Hey, y’all! 👋

It’s been a hot minute.

Have missed the community on Twitter so much and while I’ve really enjoyed all the time I captured by *not* being on Twitter, I miss you people even more.

I think most all the LawTwitter people are now here?

— Cat Moon aka @inspiredcat (@catmoon.bsky.social) November 19, 2024 at 10:13 AM

If you have not yet made the leap, this Wired piece on how to get started is helpful.

Once you are up and running, an easy way to find people who share your interests is through a starter pack — a list someone has compiled of recommended follows. There are several for law and legal tech, such as one called AI’s Impact on Lawyering, compiled by Daniel Schwarcz, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School.

You can also, as Joshua Lenon recommends, use the Sky Follower Bridge, which finds people on Bluesky whom you followed on X.

When I first began using BlueSky, I tried the Sky Follower Bridge, but found that the legal community had not migrated en mass. That changed last week.

I just re-ran it and found 1000+ accounts.

I recommend all early adopters try it now.

— Joshua Lenon (@joshualenon.bsky.social) November 19, 2024 at 5:03 PM

I tried it and it worked well, although there were a number of “false positives,” where it matched someone by name, but it was the wrong someone. Not a problem, because you can choose whether to accept its recommendations of people to follow.

I’ve also tried Threads, the X alternative from Meta, and it’s never quite clicked for me. Bluesky feels much more like the Twitter I once knew and loved, and already the community of legal tech and innovation people there feels more vibrant and connected.

As Willie Nelson might say, Bluesky is smilin’ at me.