Switch Twitter link to BlueSky

[dstansby]

Two reasons for swapping:

• Twitter/X doesn't play well with the linkchecker (I'm hoping BlueSky does)
• BlueSky provides a better experience for non-logged in users compared to Twitter/X

[dstansby]

Changing to draft until I can work out how to get the bluesky icon working.

[matthew-brett]

Two reasons for swapping:

• Twitter/X doesn't play well with the linkchecker (I'm hoping BlueSky does)
• BlueSky provides a better experience for non-logged in users compared to Twitter/X

Although it's probably also worth considering:

• Bluesky is widely seen as having a strong Progressive bias, for which there is some evidence.
• It appears to be tiny in terms of active daily users compared to X - maybe 1.5M daily active users compared to X's maybe 245M daily active users (see links below).
• Bluesky activity appears to be in steady decline (links).

So perhaps, given these tradeoffs, it would be reasonable to either delete the X link, or add the Bluesky link to the X link for those who prefer Bluesky, for whatever reason.

I should say that I use neither personally, but just for background.

Links:

• Current Bluesky statistics
• One estimate of X statistics

[matthew-brett]

Further analysis by Nate Silver : https://www.natesilver.net/p/what-is-blueskyism

[WeatherGod]

What's missing from that analysis entirely is anything about the level of bot activity on any of the platforms. While Bluesky's data is open for anyone to analyze, Nate has to resort to Google searches as a proxy for Twitter activity. The rest of the article is at best over-generalizations based on his own personal experience. I think it is entirely appropriate to highlight the Bluesky account. In my experience, Bluesky skews more scientific than Twitter did, and so the matplotlib account there may find more fertile ground for engagement. It cost us nothing to keep around the Twitter link, but David has a really good point about it only being useful to those with active accounts.

…

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[story645]

and so the matplotlib account there may find more fertile ground for engagement

Engagement has kinda fallen off a cliff on both, and it's mostly the same people engaging us on both.

What we did on mpl-sphinx-theme is just get rid of the social media link & I have no problem with that here -or having both. Alternatively, I'd suggest the instagram here. Engagement there is basically non-existent but it's a visual medium and I can get better about checking the inbox.