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Bluesky teases paid subscription, Bluesky+, in new mockup (techcrunch.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

108 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/27733087

Social networking startup and X competitor Bluesky is working on subscriptions. The company first announced plans to develop a new revenue stream based on the subscription model when detailing its $15 million Series A back in October. Now, mockups teasing the upcoming Bluesky subscription, along with a list of possible features, have been published to Bluesky’s GitHub.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

The Twitter format is crap. It's bad for search (Mastodon users don't wanna be searchable). There is a huge recency bias: observed in echo waves of circlejerk memes (CEO stuff being the most recent one). It limits discussion depth compared to the reddit format. Here on lemmy people often read all comments, and I like it even if mine get downvoted :)

The subscription model rarely works. Netflix now shows ads, Twitter is still in the red. The donation/self-hosted model is even less successful. I have an unpopular opinion that ads are still the best way to pay for servers and staff. Reddit users hated ads, and that led to them turning into a data repo for Gemini.

I hope Fedi becomes more accepting of ads, but it's a tall order given that it's still mostly pinkos and nerds.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The subscription model rarely works

when the objective is profiteering and endless growth

I have an unpopular opinion that ads are still the best way to pay for servers and staff

I think that's acceptable if it's not based on datamining and profiling and personalization, but on context, and if ads are honest and not too attention grabbing. yeah advertise your product/service, with its benefits, and do not try to persuade people into paying for garbage

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

ARPU is a sadistic metric.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The subscription model rarely works

when the objective is profiteering and endless growth

I have an unpopular opinion that ads are still the best way to pay for servers and staff

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Is making a profit = profiteering? I agree with endless growth. I hate the big data model that assumes large numbers of users, huge churn, low success rate.

The ads I had in mind would be topic-based. If you're on a supplement sub, you see suggestions for a vendor. If you're on a web dev sub, you see VPS vendors. Nothing crass like Betterhelp or Masterworks.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How does that even work for those hosting their own? Do I just give myself Bluesky+? Because all those features I already have by virtue of hosting my own data.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Yep.

You can also host your own website without paying WordPress.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

they should fire aaron rodericks, ban singal, and listen to trans people first if they want our money

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

$8/72 per month/year seems too high for most people.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

[joke](https://i.imgflip.com/6khxpk.jpgl

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Had Twitter added a paid tier early on as it scaled up - when it was still largely the only short form blogging platform - we could potentially have avoided...so much shit we now live in. Twitter was never profitable, so it just kept adding ads until that wasn't sustainable. And then dipshit bought it and really turned it into the nazi place.

Twitter always had problems, but I think we can generally agree it wasn't a pretty good service for lots of things. Breaking news, sports, even science, etc. It had actual (not amazing, but existing) moderation. There's maybe a world out there where a Twitter that isn't owned by some idiot doesn't help influence an election that we now have to deal with for decades to come.

That's all wishful thinking, of course, and Twitter is not THE REASON the U.S. is trash. But there was a path where Twitter didn't turn into just Truth Social 2.0.

Adding a paid tier to Bluesky might sound like "enshitification," but if it simply keeps the company afloat then there's potentially less chance of it becoming Twitter 2.0, so to speak. Otherwise, there's probably a straight path to ads then creditors calling in debts then selling then elon just buys it, too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Paying for a product does not prevent enshitification.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

If by "enshitification" you mean things like invasive ads, invasions of privacy, etc, then the idea is absolutely that making money through a paid tier can stave off the company having to resort to those means.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Twitter was never profitable, so it just kept adding ads until that wasn’t sustainable.

Okay, so Bluesky started the same way, with no plan to monetize from the get-go, waiting to monetize later. So far, they've not been profitable yet, either. They keep taking money but until seemingly just now have not articulated a plan on how to pay any of it back. That's exactly like Twitter, honestly.

I think the bigger issue is who they took money from and the kind of investment returns they expect. Because if this model doesn't pan out enough for their greedy little hearts, they'll demand ads and worse, too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

The timelines are vastly different here. Twitter had like 15 years to figure it out.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

Because of capitalism's never-ending desire for more, I expect to see both subscriptions and ads.

Well done everyone, you jumped ship from one pile of shit over to something that isn't quite a pile of shit yet

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

... and this is why I'm glad I'm just on the fediverse

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Bluesky+ profile badge

Custom app icons

Profile customizations

Higher video upload limits

High quality video resolution

Inline post translations (coming soon)

Post analytics (coming soon)

Bookmark folders (coming soon)

These seem fair ideas? They're not paywalling critical functionality and you can't run a massive social network for free. It's not the same attitude as the wider Fediverse, and I understand why that rubs people the wrong way, but it's hardly outrageous.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This isn't the last stop on the enshitification express.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't enshittification mean that the provider reduces functionality? it seems to me that didn't happen

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

It's refreshing to see them not including "Ad-free" as a feature

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Gee whiz wow who could have possibly seen this coming.

But people have been assuring me that it is a federated protocol, so I guess I'll just join another instance. I'm sure there is a list somewhere.... It's coming... Any day now...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

~~https://blueskyproject.io/bluesky-httpserver/installation.html~~

Correct link: https://bsky.social/about/blog/02-22-2024-open-social-web

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

this is not the bluesky you’re looking for

https://blueskyproject.io/

Bluesky enables experimental science at the lab-bench or facility scale.

Bluesky is a collection of Python libraries that are co-developed but independently useful and may be adopted a la carte.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Sped ran it here lol

Fedi is the future, most people just don't know it yet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

maybe, but I came from kbin. which I now consider dead and gone.

RIP

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ya know people have to pay money for the fediverse to even operate right?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Monetization is different model relying on donations of the dedicated shitpoaster;)

Nobody is hiding or gate keeping the platform

I don't see enshittification.

It works how the internet should work properly imho

Hopefully we can scale it.

People who are able to should be reminded to donate twice per year.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I am happy to pay for a service I’m using and getting value from if the price is fair, and if they can find a model where it’s sustainable with some % paid and some still free so that it’s available to everyone, and do that without ads or data scraping or treating users as a commodity I think that’s as close as we’ll get to tech utopia.

The “users are the product” tech model needs to die. We will need to start paying for our stuff. But I think that will create a better internet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Fully agree with this. I’d rather pay for the things I use and get a good product.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

I thought the Big Thing with BS was being open and federate-able?

(Yes, sarcasm)

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Well... my wallet is certainly hurting after the latest $0 price increase on my $0 Mastodon subscription.

(kidding, in fact, I actually donate monthly to my instance.)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

Quite. Servers aren't free and someone needs to pay the bills and increasingly distribute the moderation load. I'm happy with my Mastodon and following a few federated accounts on threads and bsky. But I'm not going to someone they are a bad person for choosing something that is familiar yet a little different while escaping x/itter.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Just playing devil's advocate here, but they have to make money somehow, right? It's either this or advertisements. And I fucking hate advertisements. I say the only way they could truly drop the ball is if they opt for both subscriptions and advertisements. The only other option is donations. And I honestly can't see that as a viable strategy for something like Bluesky.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Donation model would be completely viable if they actually allowed other people to run federated servers.

But it's been a VC Trojan horse from the start.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Isn't a subscription on a free platform just donating with extra steps? Either way it's optional but with one of the options you get perks. I'm not discounting the obviously shady things they are doing, I'm just pointing out that they're basically the same thing from the perspective of the consumer but you get bonus shit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

The "extra steps" are exactly what concerns me.

Look, I know that a lot of people find valuable community and information from platforms like Bluesky, Threads, etc. They are worlds better than the Nazi Bar that used to be Twitter. But the repeated lie that they are a part of the fediverse or that they benefit the fediverse or an open internet is cynical and misleading.

We live in a world where Mastodon exists, and is actually pretty good even though there is a learning curve to it. If we are volunteering efforts to promote a microblogging platform, I personally don't think that it should be one backed by billionaires and built for profit. They have a budget for that. the Fediverse only has us. We are the marketing department.

I think it would be really interesting to see a Peertube instance (for example) create a paid tier with better quality uploads and analytics. Those cost money to maintain. The difference is that it would exist in a federated ecosystem where everyone would be able to benefit from that content.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Donation model works for Wikipedia and they've got a fuckin warchest of god damned money.

As of 2023, it has employed over 700 staff and contractors, with net assets of $255 million and an endowment which has surpassed $100 million.

If fuckin Bomis Gooner Jimmy Wales can figure it out, so can we.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Just playing devil's advocate: Nobody forced them to take loans from Venture Capital firms. They could be developing just as slowly as Mastodon, but instead they took the influx of cash so they could "move fast and break things."

It's solidly their choice to have taken on so much investment money without a plan to pay it back yet. Leaning on growth and then figuring out how to actually monetize it down the road, which is literally not a different path than any previous social media. These are choices they made.

They could have easily found different sources of funding, worked with smaller staff, smaller funding, and slower progress.

They're literally following the path of every previous social media ecosystem. Get investor cash, enshittify to pay back, profit.

[–] [email protected] 141 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

People keep acting like hosting this shit and developing it is free. Its not. Donate to your instance and the development of the back end and all the opensource software you use. Bluesky has 20 million people using it it's no surorise they are looking for a profit model that won't scare the base off. I would rather it be subs instead of endless ads and algorithm tweaks.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Preach it, that money is far more well spent on supporting a community.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

People will always fall into the trap of corpo slop, again and again.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Shove your subscriptions up your gravy ring. Mastodon >>>>

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