Despite Bluesky's Rise, The Online Reading World Still Needs Twitter

11/19/2024 03:15 AM

Many Twitter/X users have been switching over to a new social media platform recently, Bluesky, so where does that leave the old site with regards to online Reading FC discussion?

It's too early to properly tell, but last week felt like the week when everything changed. Not in terms of Reading's fortunes on the pitch, or with the takeover. Nope, something even more important than any of that... Twitter.

OK, not actually that significant, but speaking as someone who spends an unhealthy amount of time on the platform as my way for keeping up to speed on all things Reading FC, it sure felt that way.

As much as I love Twitter, it's gotten increasingly toxic, tedious and just downright broken. While alternatives have been around for a while now - Mark Zuckerberg's Threads; Mastodon (whatever the hell that is - I still don't really know); and the concept of logging off, going outside and getting some fresh air - Twitter still reigned supreme. It was still The Place To Be for open online engagement and discussion, particularly with regards to football, and, of course, to Reading Football Club.

People have threatened to leave Twitter before, especially when Elon Musk bought the site and renamed it X* for some reason, and there's certainly been a steady exodus of users as the platform has deteriorated. The increased number of spam bots, tacky ads in your feed and extremist/bigoted accounts - not to mention allowing people to buy additional prominence for their posts if they pay to upgrade their account - has all steadily driven previously dedicated users away.

*I will be stubbornly calling it Twitter throughout this piece because a) it reminds me of when the platform was far more enjoyable, b) it's objectively a better name.

The loss of users had always been more of a trickle than a flood though. Until last week that is. If there was a specific inciting incident it was probably Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election and subsequent news that Musk would be getting a job in the new administration, which left a sour taste in mouth of many Twitter users - typically the more liberal/left-wing/progressive ones (use whichever terminology you like).

Side note: while we're explicitly not a political outlet (I much prefer TTE to be about Reading Football Club and other related aspects of football), the politics are relevant context here so I'll make an exception. I won't tell you who you should/shouldn't vote for because you get enough of that elsewhere.

All of a sudden, Twitter started haemorrhaging users. Not just to any platform, but to Bluesky in particular. There was a tangible, clear sense last week that Bluesky was The New Place To Be: more and more people have been taking the leap and then properly committing to Bluesky, making it more and more worthwhile for others to join them. Momentum is slow to develop, but when it builds, boy does it build.

There's now a small but steadily growing Reading community on Bluesky - currently big and vibrant enough to be worth engaging with. I set up my own account last week and did the same for TTE (you can find us here), while other fan outlets Royals Review and Elm Park Royals can be found on there, as can local reporter Andy Preston. I also noticed that an unknown person had, a while ago, set up an automated 'bridge' account that posts TTE articles onto Bluesky whenever they're published, for which I'm hugely grateful. Whoever you are, thanks!

The early signs on Blueky are good: I've enjoyed my experience on it so far and I'm cautiously optimistic that it'll organically grow into something a lot stronger. Really, the clout of a social media site is measured by how much effort you want to put into it (whether active engagement or passive lurking), and I'm fascinated to see how much time I and other Reading fans are investing into Bluesky in a few months' time.

Why does Bluesky specifically have the momentum? Well, really, because it's basically a nicer version of Twitter. While it currently doesn't have the user base and depth of content available on the old platform, the visuals and mechanics are essentially the same - to the extent that I sometimes do a double-take, half forgetting which platform I'm using for a couple of seconds.

So, if you dislike Twitter but equally aren't fond of unnecessary change and developing new social media habits, Bluesky is here to accommodate. This is why another claimant to be Twitter's heir - the Meta-backed Threads - failed to properly take off: while it's like Twitter in some ways, it simultaneously feels too much like Instagram. That mishmash was an unnecessary change; Zuckerberg dropped the ball on that one big time.

So where does that leave Twitter? Are its days as the pre-eminent arena for online football discussion doomed?

At the moment, no. The simple truth of the matter is that, in the social media landscape, popularity is king. Bluesky may have markedly picked up in terms of its user base, and it could well continue to do that in the coming months and years, but it has an awfully long way to go before it properly go toe to toe with Twitter. And until it rival Twitter's user base, the old platform will remain The Place To Be, albeit not The Only Place To Be.

And for all Twitter's flaws, that's not really a bad thing. This isn't to overlook people's genuine concerns and frustrations, but equally, we shouldn't forget that the fundamentals behind Twitter's value as an online footballing community are still there. Despite all the ways in which it's deteriorated under Musk's ownership, Twitter is still capable of producing content and interactions of immense value.

Twitter remains the easiest and most accessible online platform for reaching as many Reading fans as possible. You can use it however you like: for debating other Loyal Royals, as a news feed, for live match updates, for forming and maintaining friendships with fellow supporters, or however you see fit. No other potential rival comes close to Twitter's dynamic mix of broad and personal engagement with others.

With my editor's hat on, Twitter is vital to what we do at TTE. While I probably put more time and energy into the website itself overall, Twitter comes next: it's a huge part of how we get our content out, engage with Reading supporters and interact with fan outlets from other clubs.

And of course, Twitter is the perfect platform from which to cover games live. Tweeting a match update to everyone who's following the game but unable to attend - whether a specific development or a general thought on how the game is unfolding - takes just a matter of seconds. And I'd be lying if I said it wasn't immensely fun to tweet "GOOOAALLLLLL" every time Reading score.

For the time being, Bluesky can mimic those strengths but it can't truly match them - not until its user base grows anyway. Bluesky's recent success certainly proves Twitter is vulnerable - that its status as the leading open-discussion social media platform shouldn't be taken for granted - but nothing more than that.

I truly hope Bluesky takes off and that, in a few months' or years' time, I look back on this piece with a sense that I underplayed its potential. In the meantime though, Bluesky and Twitter will battle over largely the same space, with many users to some extent using both platforms simultaneously. That's what I intend to do - both personally and with TTE - and I'm sure plenty of other Reading fans will have a similar approach.

The co-existence of the reigning champ and the young pretender is no bad thing at all though: competition could well bring out the best in both. Twitter could fall entirely and lead to an influx of users at Bluesky; Bluesky could fail to take off but force Twitter to raise its standards.

We do still need Twitter, but hoping for a better social media landscape doesn't have to be Bluesky thinking.