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553 points bookofjoe | 69 comments | | HN request time: 0.434s | source | bottom
1. shaky-carrousel ◴[] No.43654619[source]
What a great idea, scaring companies probing bluesky. That surely won't backfire and will cement bluesky as a Xitter alternative.
replies(15): >>43654681 #>>43654704 #>>43654706 #>>43654713 #>>43654856 #>>43654876 #>>43654883 #>>43655006 #>>43655007 #>>43656703 #>>43658986 #>>43659171 #>>43659817 #>>43660073 #>>43660650 #
2. miohtama ◴[] No.43654681[source]
Bluesky audience is certain kind, more left leaning, finding corporations evil. Adobe's experiment shows that it is unlikely any big corp could go there any time until the audience is more diverse, less cancel culture.
replies(8): >>43654716 #>>43654754 #>>43654760 #>>43654780 #>>43654795 #>>43654891 #>>43654972 #>>43655176 #
3. add-sub-mul-div ◴[] No.43654706[source]
It's already a Twitter alternative that's superior by virtue of being in its pre-enshittification era.

It may never be a Twitter alternative in the sense of making anyone a billionaire, but I'm okay with that.

4. teraflop ◴[] No.43654704[source]
Maybe, just maybe, the platforms that we use to engage socially with other human beings don't also have to be organized around engaging commercially with brands.
replies(6): >>43655290 #>>43656208 #>>43656617 #>>43658750 #>>43659981 #>>43667310 #
5. JKCalhoun ◴[] No.43654713[source]
So you think Adobe would get a resoundingly warm welcome on X?

Pretty sure they trashed their own brand with their subscription model. They're finding that out now.

I jumped to Affinity apps years ago when Adobe required a subscription — never looked back.

6. pm90 ◴[] No.43654716[source]
The reaction seems specific to Adobe which has (probably) not been a good steward of its role as a tool for creatives. I don’t think other big corps would get that reaction.
replies(1): >>43655033 #
7. DrillShopper ◴[] No.43654754[source]
Not particularly. What they do seem to have is a more artist-heavy community, and that community has been fucked over by Adobe over the last decade or so.
replies(1): >>43654793 #
8. phillipcarter ◴[] No.43654760[source]
My dude have you not been on twitter ever?
9. samlinnfer ◴[] No.43654793{3}[source]
The most artist heavy platform is twitter.
replies(1): >>43654983 #
10. skybrian ◴[] No.43654795[source]
My guess is that most Bluesky users are doing their own thing and never noticed this until after it was over and appeared in the news. But it does seem like there is a large crowd of nasty people in Bluesky, and that seems like a bad sign.
11. ruined ◴[] No.43654856[source]
yes!
12. thih9 ◴[] No.43654883[source]
No, the moral is different: if you’re a company notoriously hostile to creatives, don’t ask in a post “What’s fueling your creativity right now?” - and if you do then don’t be surprised when you get honest answers.
13. drooopy ◴[] No.43654891[source]
I don't know if I would refer to Adobe as being evil, but they're definitely one of the shittiest software companies in existence. And I'm 100% convinced that they would receive the same type of welcome if they made a xshitter account today.
14. rsynnott ◴[] No.43654972[source]
Adobe is special. They have a pretty narrow specific audience who are kinda stuck with them, and who they’ve spent the last decade industriously pissing off.

Bluesky _is_ less tolerant than Twitter of “hello, we’re a brand, aren’t we wonderful/funny”, but I think this particular reaction is more about it being Adobe than anything else.

15. chowells ◴[] No.43654983{4}[source]
Not anymore. Twitter has worked very hard to drive artists away. And succeeded!
16. sitkack ◴[] No.43655006[source]
It isn't "an idea", it is a justified response.

Crocodile tears for the poor company that got drunk on enshittifying its own brand and now has to sleep in it. Adobe's takeover is like it freebased Private Equity and now complains that it has no friends. The TOS change to have AI train on all your art is really what broke people.

17. ◴[] No.43655007[source]
18. jsheard ◴[] No.43655033{3}[source]
Exactly, compare and contrast how bsky users engage with an Adobe peer that creatives are on good terms with.

https://bsky.app/profile/procreate.com/post/3llfkv3mqas2s

replies(1): >>43656930 #
19. 0xEF ◴[] No.43655176[source]
> more diverse, less cancel culture

I love when people use this to mean "more white and conservative."

Bluesky users lean toward hating corporate greed. Adobe is greedy as fuck. Simple as. They and companies like them can stay off.

replies(2): >>43655211 #>>43658273 #
20. ChocolateGod ◴[] No.43655211{3}[source]
Are you claiming cancel culture isn't real?
replies(4): >>43655795 #>>43656008 #>>43657524 #>>43672001 #
21. ◴[] No.43655290[source]
22. nashashmi ◴[] No.43655502[source]
Corporations are people too.
23. gdulli ◴[] No.43655795{4}[source]
"Cancel culture" is just a term we started using to cope with seeing people we're sympathetic to being judged for their words or actions.
replies(4): >>43656074 #>>43660705 #>>43661063 #>>43661167 #
24. simonw ◴[] No.43656008{4}[source]
Define "cancel culture".
replies(1): >>43659880 #
25. ChocolateGod ◴[] No.43656074{5}[source]
Yes, good idea trawling up things people said when they were dumb and young, which they don't even think or agree with today, and trying to cancel their career over it.

Not to benefit society, but to make one feel good about themselves about the victory they achieved in ruining someones life.

replies(1): >>43657579 #
26. ryandrake ◴[] No.43656208[source]
Thank you. I would not accept a corporate brand sending me text messages. I don't want to "engage" with brands. The less of this garbage on the Internet, the better.
27. llm_nerd ◴[] No.43656617[source]
Then don't follow or engage with their content? You understand that's your option, right?

I actually enjoy Bsky as a replacement for Twitter mostly to keep on top of news (tech and otherwise, the tech often coming from the source), along with a small selection of high profile figures. So I follow those sources and venues.

It is absolutely pathetic that a small mob attacked Adobe -- primarily a super aggressive anti-AI contingent that runs around like a sad torch mob on bsky -- and I hope Adobe return to the platform. It would be nice for people like me, who chose to follow these brands, to see the news from Adobe, OpenAI, Microsoft, etc, and my choice shouldn't be limited by those people.

replies(2): >>43659440 #>>43660475 #
28. ndsipa_pomu ◴[] No.43656703[source]
I'd say this is less to do specifically with BlueSky and more to do with posting tone-deaf marketing spiel.
29. slowmovintarget ◴[] No.43656930{4}[source]
That post seems an awful lot like pandering to the crowd there.

More adroit PR, perhaps.

replies(1): >>43658290 #
30. danudey ◴[] No.43657579{6}[source]
"Hey, this dude posted something wildly, rabidly racist in public on main a while ago. Maybe we should reconsider what kind of person we think they are instead of just taking their word that they're 'not like that anymore' and aren't just better at hiding their real opinions that they know are unacceptable to voice in modern society."

The people trotting out the phrase "cancel culture" as a boogeyman also tend to run around being apologists for racism, sexism, assault, or criminal behavior. Regardless of if you're actually upset about legitimate instances of people overreacting, the fact that the term "cancel culture" is used to complain about pedophiles or sexual predators actually suffering consequences makes it difficult to take any complaints seriously.

replies(3): >>43658144 #>>43659456 #>>43665841 #
31. ChocolateGod ◴[] No.43658144{7}[source]
Or maybe just ask them if they still think that? If they say no, suggest they take it down.

Everyone wins and the world is a slightly nicer place.

Rather than hounding people's employers etc. The world is already divided to extremes, best not to make it worse.

32. pessimizer ◴[] No.43658273{3}[source]
Bluesky is far whiter than Twitter. So diverse here would mean "less white."
33. cosmic_cheese ◴[] No.43658290{5}[source]
That’s part of it, but it helps a lot that Procreate’s both extremely affordable and a single purchase. That’s a great combo when your target audience are artists, a crowd that is generally pretty cash-strapped. Creative Cloud’s cost is actually pretty steep over time.

It also helps that when Procreate adds features, it’s always stuff that’s desired by a large chunk of their users and is broadly useful. Contrast this to e.g. Photoshop, where for many of us eliminating 98% of the new features added since CS2 would make no material difference in day to day usage.

Adobe would be well served by building “heirloom” versions of their tools that are single-purchase, affordable, and have a fixed CS1/CS2-ish feature set with all development thereafter being put into optimization, stability, etc. That’d be plenty for even many commercial artists, let alone “prosumers” and more casual users.

34. Workaccount2 ◴[] No.43658750[source]
The platforms should be paid then.

Its a fools errand to go on a "free" platform and complain about corporate presence. If you are not paying, then those corporate bodies are.

replies(1): >>43660135 #
35. mayneack ◴[] No.43658986[source]
I personally am more likely to use a social media site without brands.
36. fracus ◴[] No.43659171[source]
Maybe the Bluesky selects the community they want and that is why people are enjoying it.
37. scheeseman486 ◴[] No.43659440{3}[source]
If they can't take the heat from their customers, that's their problem.

And you can always subscribe to Adobe's email list.

replies(2): >>43659653 #>>43660140 #
38. criddell ◴[] No.43659456{7}[source]
What changed my thinking on cancel culture was being asked if I believe in the possibility of redemption and giving people a second chance or am I more of a lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key kind of guy?
39. llm_nerd ◴[] No.43659653{4}[source]
This is such an amazingly toxic, selfish attitude that you have. Is this how you really live your life?

It wasn't "their customers" that brigaded. It is the clowns who have decided that Bluesky is their own. They are the ones that will keep it from hitting mainstream, and hopefully the service crushes their obnoxious activism.

replies(2): >>43660795 #>>43661343 #
40. Retr0id ◴[] No.43659817[source]
The presence of obnoxious brand accounts is very far down my list of desires from a social network.
41. j_w ◴[] No.43659880{5}[source]
When the people I like get in trouble socially for doing things that they maybe shouldn't. /s
42. pndy ◴[] No.43659981[source]
Wish we could separate all that corporate entities on the internet in their own walled social network world. Where they could have all these weird marketing convos like, mcdonald being angry because pepsi "unhahaed" nestle post /s
43. wnevets ◴[] No.43660073[source]
> What a great idea, scaring companies probing bluesky.

you make that sound like a bad thing

44. RugnirViking ◴[] No.43660135{3}[source]
this is just not true?

I have (and I imagine most people over 25 have) used plenty of forums, wikis, and other social medias that are free as in beer, hosted by some guy with a computer in his garage, with technology from decades ago

The better ones of them asked you to pay if you wanted to be able to post video/large images. In most of those spaces, corporate was nowhere to be seen. Sometimes they used banner ads, but often, nothing at all but a single person's internet bill was the entire cost of the site. Such places still exist, and are good.

The internet is getting worse by the day. It's been getting worse for so long, that people are starting to wax lyrical about how it can't possibly work any other way, this is just the natural state of things.

Of course, if you absolutely must mindlessly go to the dopamine trough and get your fix of algorithmic profit engagement, then yes, you will end up in places that relentlessly seek profit via one form of another. But if you filter even a little bit for quality, you'll end up somewhere else.

replies(3): >>43660300 #>>43660683 #>>43660684 #
45. Alupis ◴[] No.43660140{4}[source]
I think we can safely assume 99% of the outraged posters have never once owned a legal copy of, nor subscribed to Adobe products.

Outrage is a performance these days.

replies(2): >>43660696 #>>43660854 #
46. rglullis ◴[] No.43660300{4}[source]
> Such places still exist, and are good.

Oh, yes, that artisanal internet. So nice, too bad it serves only a minuscule fraction of the people of the internet.

Everyone else just goes to Reddit and Discord.

replies(1): >>43660486 #
47. cmrdporcupine ◴[] No.43660475{3}[source]
If you don't own the platform, you don't get to control the reception.

Post on an open forum, get open forum results.

They could host a web page. That's a thing still. What's that? They want an audience? A megaphone into someone else's auditorium?

There's a cost to that.

48. grayhatter ◴[] No.43660486{5}[source]
Some might call that a feature.
replies(1): >>43663036 #
49. rchaud ◴[] No.43660650[source]
The public yearns for formulaic engagement slop /s
50. acyou ◴[] No.43660683{4}[source]
We took our souls and carelessly poured them out into the machine, and later the robots came and sucked it all out, along with everything that made us special, unique, human.

Was it worth it? Was it really free? Or would we have done it knowing we would all eventually pay a terrible price?

51. rchaud ◴[] No.43660684{4}[source]
Those places aren't worth their while, and blessed be they for that!

All a business cares about is maximum reach, so they will ignore the small sites in favour of the biggest aggregator for the lowest cost.

If somebody on a smaller site behaved in the disingenuous and spammy way brands do on social, they'd be banned. Bluesky is not doing that, so this should be an opportunity to genuinely engage with the audience instead of copy/pasting the cynical tactics they apply everywhere else.

52. rchaud ◴[] No.43660696{5}[source]
Contrarian takes without empirical evidence remain a rare occurrence however.
53. bigstrat2003 ◴[] No.43660705{5}[source]
That's not true at all. You should read The Canceling of the American Mind (though get it from the library, because it's not really good enough to own imo). The authors very clearly lay out the evidence that there has in fact been an increase in the sort of online lynch mobs we call "cancel culture". It comes from both the left and the right, and the increase has been noticeable if you look at the data.

People have always tried to use social pressure to strike at people they didn't like. But there really has been a marked increase in occurrences in the last ten or so years.

replies(2): >>43663156 #>>43687483 #
54. scheeseman486 ◴[] No.43660795{5}[source]
Who cares if someone is toxic towards Adobe? It's a corporate brand, people should be allowed to voice what the feel about a fucking brand.

Adobe could have sincerely communicated while blocking any abusive stuff or if they couldn't be arsed, turned off comments. They have PR people to handle this stuff, or at least they did until it was probably left up to some underpain intern who doesn't give a shit.

replies(1): >>43666639 #
55. scheeseman486 ◴[] No.43660854{5}[source]
Just about everyone I know who works in graphic design doesn't have a high opinion of Adobe. Though in a sense you're right, many don't own a legal copy of Adobe products.

But that's because they've chosen something else for their personal use and only make Adobe part of their workflow when required to by their workplace.

replies(1): >>43660912 #
56. Alupis ◴[] No.43660912{6}[source]
Every single graphics professional I've worked with (many) have owned their own copy of Creative Suite (or subscribed). It's akin to their "IDE", and they really get to know it inside-and-out. It would be difficult to become skilled in the various Creative Suite products if one didn't spend a lot of time (their own and employers) in it.

The point I was raising here specifically was the people who are feigning outrage to Adobe's benign Bluesky post are unlikely to be Adobe customers, and unlikely even creative professionals at all.

Outrage and hate is a sport to these people.

replies(1): >>43662633 #
57. kaibee ◴[] No.43661343{5}[source]
> It wasn't "their customers" that brigaded.

This is a silly idea. Who else would care enough or know about it?

58. scheeseman486 ◴[] No.43662633{7}[source]
Or they do use their products and they don't like them or the company's policies. Why is this so hard for you to believe? Given a lack of hard evidence either way other than our own anecdotes, you're essentially falling into conspiracy theorizing, accusing people of being liars based on precisely fuck-all. Even going so far as to suggest it's organized, a "sport".

It's delusional.

59. rglullis ◴[] No.43663036{6}[source]
Some people also love the caste system.
replies(1): >>43664993 #
60. ChocolateGod ◴[] No.43663156{6}[source]
Even Obama, considered by some to be an icon of the left, has called out cancel culture.

We're starting to see the legal effects of people being fired for holding legal views.

61. grayhatter ◴[] No.43664993{7}[source]
comparing small communities or forums as primarily similar to the caste system is certainly a take...

The world is not better when everyone is exactly the same, it's better when everyone has a place they feel welcome. For some people they enjoy reddit or discord, others don't. There's nothing wrong with someone preferring something made out of passion, rather than something made to make more money.

replies(1): >>43665277 #
62. rglullis ◴[] No.43665277{8}[source]
>it's better when everyone has a (place?) they feel welcome

Yes, the problem is that the overwhelming majority of people using sites like Reddit or Discord are not choosing it. They are there because it has become their only alternative.

And it has become their only alternative because all these hobbyist forums can only exist when they are serving some tiny, exclusive priviledge few. If they grow too much, they either will crumble or will find themselves becoming a "professional" service with people on payroll and revenue targets.

replies(1): >>43665640 #
63. grayhatter ◴[] No.43665640{9}[source]
> can only exist when they are serving some tiny, exclusive priviledge few

I'm not sure I agree with this, but it does fit the pattern. Auto forums are an example of this working. But I wouldn't call that a privileged few, would you?

64. __turbobrew__ ◴[] No.43665841{7}[source]
> someone says something dumb 5 years ago

Fire them, debank them, humiliate them, destroy their life.

> someone commits petty crime for the 13th time.

Meh

I just don’t post anything publicly anymore because the EV is clearly negative now. Luckily the people I meet in the real world are not the thought police.

65. llm_nerd ◴[] No.43666639{6}[source]
Toxicity and brigading is the problem. Moral toxicity and brigading, where people think they are doing some good, is even worse.

I'm not crying crocodile tears for Adobe. They shouldn't have deleted their post, and ultimately they just shrugged and decided that bsky didn't matter yet and just abandoned it for now.

Which serves no one, but it's what you get when a small number of twats who think they're the bully squad ruin a platform.

replies(1): >>43667656 #
66. cma ◴[] No.43667310[source]
Bluesky itself is a commercial brand
67. scheeseman486 ◴[] No.43667656{7}[source]
Yeah. Against people.

Corporations and brands aren't people.

68. AlexeyBelov ◴[] No.43672001{4}[source]
There is a pretty long list of deranged shitheads who still haven't faced any consequences for their actions (I mean physical actions, not "mean words on the internet"). Celebrities and pseudo-celebrities, stuff like that. I will be the first one to say cancel culture is real when they do face consequences, but currently it's like water off duck's back. What's more interesting: they are not even billionnaires.
69. anonfordays ◴[] No.43687483{6}[source]
Fantastic book, highly suggest HN readers pick that one up.

"Red scare" is just a term we started using to cope with seeing people we're sympathetic to being judged for their words or actions.