---
title: "Should you join Bluesky?"
date: 2024-11-23
description: "Surging trends with Bluesky WTD Slack Reddit LinkedIn RSS Reading and Social Media Conclusion..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/blog/should-you-join-bluesky-or-other-social-platforms
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# Should you join Bluesky?

> Bluesky, a social media platform similar to Twitter, has been trending post-election due to disappointment with X. In this post, I reflect on social media platforms in general, especially online spaces for technical writers, and what benefits and tradeoffs they have. The TLDR is that Slack and Reddit offer compelling spaces for tech writers to interact in. I'm still not generally sold on social media. In my experience, the more I scroll social media, the fewer books I read.

## Surging trends with Bluesky

A recent [Hard Fork episode](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/podcasts/crypto-congress-hbd-chatgpt-what-social-media-platform-should-i-be-on.html) highlighted the growing social platform Bluesky and described the different vibes that various social platforms—Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, and X—have. This got me thinking about social media platforms for tech writers and prompted me to reflect on my gradual fade from Twitter/X.

When Twitter first launched, I participated frequently. But eventually, about two years ao, I grew tired of micro-post platforms like Twitter. During that time, I was reading a lot about attention fragmentation and became aware that reading short posts like these worsened my ability to consume long-form media, like books. In fact, I wrote a whole series about this here: [Journey Away from Smartphones](https://idratherbewriting.com/smartphones/index.html). If you read Twitter all day and then try to read a book, it’s nearly impossible because the platform rewires your brain to think in short snippets. Nicholas Carr was right on target in his book *The Shallows*, which I explained at length [here](https://idratherbewriting.com/smartphones/nicholas-carr-the-shallows-book-review.html). Believing that platforms like Twitter contributed to this rewiring, I mostly used Twitter and LinkedIn to share links to my blog posts. Of course, one-way conversations aren’t what these platforms are really about.

I was also aware of the increasing number of people canceled on social media for saying dumb or regrettable things. These platforms seemed to offer high risk with little reward. One false step, and you could potentially blow up your career. I’ve never strayed into an “anything goes” mode on social media anyway, so this wasn’t a major concern for me. No one cares about controversies within the field of technical writing. Do you think Diátaxis is simply repackaged DITA? Is XML unnecessarily verbose? Are quick reference guides better as PDFs or web formats? No one cares, except for small pockets of technical writers.

Perhaps the nail in the coffin for me on Twitter/X was the election season. As X became a megaphone for Elon Musk’s propaganda, full of Facebook-like clickbait, I stopped enjoying the platform.

Now [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/) seems to be trending and offers a fresh start. Imagine being able to clear the slate of followers and personalized algorithms on a social media platform and start over. It sounded like a breath of fresh air. I followed [Ellis Pratt’s tech comm starter pack](https://bsky.app/starter-pack/ellispratt.bsky.social/3l2prfsa2oa2k) on Bluesky, and over a weekend—despite not posting any Bluesky content—many people followed me back. Perhaps they hope I’ll start micro-posting all kinds of interesting content.

I might! Or might not. Maybe I’ll explore whether I dismissed the medium too early. But the topic of Bluesky and whether one should join it got me thinking about other spaces where tech writers interact online. Let’s take a tour through them here.

## WTD Slack

One of the most active spaces is the [Write the Docs Slack community](https://www.writethedocs.org/slack/). What’s nice about this community is the interactive, conversational threads that allow you to chat back and forth. If you’re trying to work through a problem, you can tap into the collective knowledge of many experienced tech writers. You aren’t limited to small, clever posts—you can have conversations that allow you to clarify and work through issues.

WTD Slack has one downside, which some consider an upside: conversations expire every 30 days. This means the same threads probably repeat every now and then, and there’s no way to search the archives to see if people have already discussed a topic. The upside is that no one can hold you accountable for something you said on Slack years ago.

Another notable aspect of WTD Slack is the discouragement of self-promotional posts. You can share blog posts, but not those pitching a product or service you benefit from monetarily (see the [self-promotion policy](https://www.writethedocs.org/slack/#self-promotion-surveys-and-sales)). I’m actually curious about tools and services within our industry, though. Perhaps they could create a channel called #promote-your-own, allowing people to post whatever links they want without moderation.

Overall, WTD Slack is where I direct people who [reach out to me](https://idratherbewriting.com/contact/). The interactive chat works so much better to get to the heart of issues, and I like that identities are transparent. It’s one of the gems of tech writer communities.

## Reddit

Another interesting online space is Reddit, specifically the [techwriting subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/technicalwriting/). Unique to Reddit, the threads are anonymous (unless you reveal your identity). This means people can be more candid. I’ve opted to mostly remain anonymous as well. I’m wary of being too blunt in a way that puts people off, though I don’t frequently engage there. I mostly glance at the threads from time to time.

For the most part, Reddit users who post are often new technical writers looking for advice, though responses indicate that veteran tech writers with deep experience also participate. Some threads focus on salaries, with users trying to gauge how their salary compares with other salaries. These threads make me feel sorry for hard-working, skilled tech writers who are clearly underpaid. I’m also amazed at how much salaries vary by industry and region.

Despite many novice topics, some Reddit conversations feel refreshingly honest. I remember one thread about tech writing podcasts. Someone asked if tech writing podcasts exist, and another replied that if they did, they’d be the most boring podcasts in the world. That kind of raw honesty is common on Reddit. Having both listened to and produced many tech writing podcasts, I have to admit there’s some truth in that observation.

## LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another social space where tech writers gather. I wish the content people posted on LinkedIn were more interesting. Perhaps the direct connection to one’s employment discourages transparency and risk. Most people share new roles, promotions, or job-related milestones.

LinkedIn has the benefit of identifying users by their profession, so I’ve built a sizable network (5,000+) of tech-writing professionals. I mostly share links to my blog posts, but I’ve noticed people tend to interact with my shared links on LinkedIn rather than commenting directly on my site. I find this puzzling, since my site offers comment functionality, but go along with it.

LinkedIn also has good reach, and you can explore someone’s profile to better understand their perspective. It also supports one-to-one private conversations, which is nice when you don’t want to have a public discussion. However, never assume that a private conversation initiated through their direct messaging will stay private.

## RSS

I still use Feedly to read RSS feeds occasionally, but it feels like visiting an abandoned graveyard. You can probably count all active tech comm bloggers on two hands.

At one point, I tried using [tab groups in Chrome](https://www.google.com/chrome/tips/) instead of RSS, but ads made visiting sites problematic. I eventually incorporated an ad blocker but still forgot about my tab groups.

Despite attempts to maintain an RSS-reading habit, RSS readers aren’t enjoyable firehoses to scroll. The information feels too random and one-sided. It’s difficult to discern the important from the mundane news.

## Reading and Social Media

A recent *Today Explained* podcast released an episode called [The Kids Aren’t Reading All Right](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kids-arent-reading-all-right/id1346207297?i=1000677671614). The gist was that kids today can barely finish a book. College professors now assign one book per semester instead of five. Students are taught to read for tests, focusing on extracted chapters, sections, or passages.

This reminded me of an experience with my youngest daughter, who has ADHD. She had an assignment involving several academic essays, each 4–8 pages long. Feeling overwhelmed, she asked for help. I skimmed through the essays, calling her attention to the relevant sections related to the questions. Watching me read uninterrupted for 20 minutes, she said, in amazement, “*How* are you doing that?” Doing what, I thought? Reading?

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have helped her this way. But the incident underscores a broader problem: we have a declining ability to read long-form material. Is social media partly to blame? I think so.

## Conclusion

So, should you join Bluesky or another social media platform? It’s great to see new platforms emerge like this. But honestly, I think the world is tired of the social media format—we just haven’t found anything better to replace it. We want online spaces to interact, but most Twitter-like platforms lead to endless scrolling, often with junk-food-like content. WTD Slack and Reddit provide compelling forums to interact with other tech writers. If I do start micro-posting again on social media, I’ll likely just share my blog posts.