Purity Platforms Don’t Scale

Updated: 2025.09.14 1M ago 3 sources
Social networks that prioritize ideological 'cleanliness' repel out‑groups, starving the network of new connections and reach. Bluesky’s post‑election surge quickly reversed as a gatekeeping culture ('Blueskyism') left users 'preaching to the converted' and daily activity collapsed. Founder effects plus hostility to outsiders block escape velocity. — It implies political persuasion and cultural influence require engaging in mixed venues rather than building sanitized echo platforms.

Sources

Against Bluesky (and Blueskyism)
Dan Williams 2025.09.14 76% relevant
The article criticizes Bluesky’s culture ('Blueskyism') as a self‑indulgent, ideologically gated community that simulates persuasion, echoing the existing thesis that purity‑first platforms repel out‑groups and collapse into preaching to the converted.
The Bluesky-ization of the American left
Noah Smith 2025.09.13 80% relevant
By describing Bluesky as the new progressive home with less cross‑tribal reach, the article echoes the claim that 'clean' echo platforms can’t project power into the mainstream, reducing the capacity to enforce norms through large, public pile‑ons.
What is Blueskyism?
Nate Silver 2025.09.05 100% relevant
Silver’s Bluesky metrics (≈1.5M daily posters and 3.1M daily followers at peak dropping to ≈660k and <400k) and his definition of 'Blueskyism' as an exclusionary vibe.
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