The brain drain comes as X has made it increasingly difficult for researchers to use its platform.
I mean, there’s a lot of motivation to not do anything with twitter but stay away from it
Of these [alternative platforms researchers have moved to], Mastodon, which has seen significant growth since Musk’s takeover of Twitter was announced, was the most widely used. About 47 percent of researchers said they had started using the open-source platform in the past year. LinkedIn and Instagram were the next most popular, drawing 35 and 27 percent of researchers, respectively. Interestingly, Meta’s Twitter competitor, Threads, took the number four spot even though the app launched only days before Nature conducted the poll.
It’s great to see wider adoption of the Fediverse. Mastodon is a great and stable Twitter alternative.
It’s also just… a lot nicer, in all aspects. Like, it’s generally refreshing to use.
Bluesky now has a large swath of scientists now. Many of the big names. They have their own federated area in that ecosystem. I think most have been going to all of the alternatives and finding what works best for them. I’ll wait to see where they settle to decide which really gained the most.
