Adobe deletes Bluesky posts after backlash

Yeah, they posted this:

> Hey, we're Adobe! We're here to connect with the artists, designers, and storytellers who bring ideas to life. What's fueling your creativity right now?

> Drop a reply, tag a creator, or share your latest work—we'd love to see what inspires you!

That's such a bland, corporate message. It feels totally inauthentic. Do Adobe (a corporation) really "love to see what inspires you" or do they just want engagement for their new account?

I'm not surprised in the slightest that it triggered a pile-on.

They want engagement for their new account, it's what anyone who posts on social media wants.

Right, but you need to be a whole lot less obvious about it. Adobe's message here is a case study in what NOT to do.

Yes, but it's not what social media users want. How about posting tips, small micro courses, behind the scene stories about what motivated some choices in the app, anything useful or endearing? Not just harvesting likes and account names?

I’m talking about when anyone post on social media. It’s all about engagement. People don’t post on social media in the hopes that no one sees or replies to them. So I find it silly that people are upset at Adobe for having the most generic “hey we joined, show us what you’re working on” versus the useless engagement posts that are templates of “most people can’t figure out what the answer is” when the image is “two plus two equals ?”.

To your point of useful info, I’m sure Adobe would get there. They just joined the site and got bullied off. I doubt they’re going to care about the site now, but it’d be funny if they tried a second post and just trudged through it.

Social media has been a thing for 20+ years now. It's absolutely possible to achieve both: to "get engagement" and to post things that are genuinely interesting and useful and that people find valuable while you are doing it.

Adobe were really clumsy here, and that's why they got burned.

Yes, I have no problem believing that this is what Adobe wants and/or a certain category of posters. But, what's the motivation for answering? (Notably, this was about "what's fuelling your creativity, right now?" and not "show us what you're working on", about circumstantialities instead of substance.) Will Adobe notice? Probably not, they just want stats to go up. This is not a conversation. It's more like IRL going up to a person and saying, "Talk!", and immediately turning the back on them to engage the next one.

From my own experience, when moving to Bluesky, the absence of engagement posters felt like a breath of fresh air. Meanwhile, with the broader influx from X/Twitter, there are some posts which are more in this style (e.g., "what was your favorite xy" nostalgia posts, or slightly more adopted to the platform, "this was my favorite xy (image), what was yours?"), but I usually see these going unanswered. It's just not the style of the platform, which is probably more about letting people know and/or about actual conversations, or just doing your thing. So, this gambit is more likely to be received as "oh no" and "corporate communications, of course", maybe as "yet another lack of commitment." So don't expect congratulations on this, rather, it may even unlock the wrath of some… The post may have done much better without this call for engagement. Just say "hi", if this is what it's about. (Actually, this is kind of a custom, new accounts just saying hi.)

Most importantly, if you're doing public relations or marketing, it's still your job to meet your audiences, not theirs to adopt to you. And for the lack of understanding of these basics, this gambit may have come across as passive aggressive.

Meh. Adobe is a large corp. You'd want want them to masquerade as something they are not? Why would that be better?

I am so over pile-ons by people who see themselves as being SO important.

Also: it feels really weird to defend Adobe.

It’s so bland I don’t understand why it elicited any response at all.

> It’s all about engagement.

The problem with this sentence is that words mean things... I don't use social media, so take this with some salt, but I do write things I hope people will find useful. I could just as easily share them to a social media and still wouldn't be looking for 'engagement'. It would still be in that same hope someone finds it useful. While I wouldn't object that someone could define or describe reading it as engagement. I wouldn't. Engagement is what you chase if you're looking to sell ads, because engaged people interact with ads too.

Saying everyone wants engagement as if that's the means and the ends is oblivious to the fact that people, humans, don't organically give a fuck about engagement. Attention, and therefore belonging, or appreciation. Yes, absolutely. You could also describe that goal as seeking engagement, but again because words mean things, attention, or belonging are both better words for the desire the human has.

Influencers arguably want engagement, but I'd also describe them as companies in addition to being people. Truth be told, I'm only convinced they're the former.

> So I find it silly that people are upset at Adobe for having the most generic “hey we joined, show us what you’re working on” versus the useless engagement posts that are templates of “most people can’t figure out what the answer is” when the image is “two plus two equals ?”.

I don't find it silly at all. A company who's earned it's reputation for taking from people, shows up and asks for more. Predictably, people said no! If Adobe wanted attention, and belonging, and came bearing gifts, like photos, artist resources, what have you. I suspect the vitriol wouldn't have been so bad. (They've earned their reputation) But at least they would be able to represent the idea they are seeking belonging. Paying in with the hope of getting something back. Instead they couldn't read the room, and demanded attention and engagement.

I'm not surprised but disheartened that people have so little going on in their life they thing trying to boycott a bsky corporate account is a good use of their time.

I think it's rather the opposite - there's way too much going on in their life, specifically stuff that they have no control over, so they vent all that stress wherever they can.

So what did you do this friday?

The general mood on Bluesky is very opposed to AI, especially AI art. Since Adobe now has AI integrated into their products, people on Bluesky hate them.

I’m pretty sure the amount of time and energy it took you to write this post is more or less equal to the amount of time and energy energy it took somebody else to write a post making fun of the Adobe account

The left has spent the last decade proudly bullying everyone for wrongthink, including going after employment and family members. It should come as no surprise then that corporations wouldn’t participate above the bare minimum on a predominantly leftist forum.

It's likely both. In most large organizations I've worked with, there is a split between true believers and cynics. And often the true believers are so bought in they have trouble recognizing the cynics. There are likely earnest folks behind every bland social media post. Doesn't mean their product is worth anything either way.

There is an off-putting sort of attitude on BlueSky ("sneering mockery", I guess?). Same attitude was present on Twitter during the pre-Musk era and seems to have migrated over.

Much like you leaving this comment?

It gives "how do you do fellow kids" vibes

Disagree. I think when people are that busy they don't have time to find and attack a corporation on BlueSky.

You could say the same about most Internet activity: busy people don't have time to post on HN, or make stupid LinkedIn posts. Yet here we all are, reading and writing despite our busy startup lives.

Oh, my bad, I should've phrased it differently. I didn't mean that they're necessarily busy and have to handle a lot of matters, but rather that a lot of things are happening around them. It surely can be stressful even if one's not actively involved in something, but if they're merely witnessing something happening.

Bluesky has a real problem with outrage addiction; it's myopic to pin the blame on Adobe.

I don’t disagree, but what are they supposed to post otherwise?

Post something interesting!

A profile of an up and coming artist doing cool stuff with Adobe software.

A video interview with an interesting team lead at Adobe.

Or just stick to product announcements like various other brand accounts to.

Pretty much anything that doesn't come across as fake engagement bait would probably have been fine.

Takes two seconds to call somebody a wanker.

There's plenty of that on Mastodon, as well. I think it's the format itself that encourages this kind of "community".

From what I've seen Bluesky is kind of the Twitter for artists who dislike AI and don't want their art scraped by Twitter. That one of the most hated companies in the art space decided to appear there too was obviously not going to be received well.

Adobe's post was an attempt to masquerade as a relatable company.

I’ve seen the words “fake” and “inauthentic” used here but based on what you’re saying it more accurately boils down to “taking” vs “giving.”

This type of vapid nonsense simply isn’t very welcome on Bluesky. Or really, increasingly, _anywhere_ (except LinkedIn, the most absurd of all the social networks); I think its day has largely passed.

Also, Adobe is in a weird place where it has a bunch of users who basically have to use its stuff, but _absolutely hate it_ due to its conduct over the last decade or so. Like, being annoyed with Adobe predates generative AI.

I feel like you are misrepresenting things (intentionally or not). I've heard this narrative from really dishonest people, but I don't know you so can't judge. Maybe it's just a coincidence and you really think that.

I think they're not orthogonal. Meaningful "giving" will likely be "authentic" as well.

I think it's the format combined with some particular type of demographic (I'm not entirely sure what that demographic is).

X, for example, doesn't have much of that. It has its own flavor of toxicity, which is in many ways worse, but not that particular flavor of toxic.

I also see it on Reddit in certain subreddits but not in others.