Announcing HBES on Bluesky – @HumBehEvoSoc.bsky.social

As a celebration of Darwin’s birthday, HBES is proud to announce our presence on a new social media platform – HBES now has an account on Bluesky! We will start posting news and updates under our Bluesky account name (@HumBehEvoSoc.bsky.social). This is the same as our Twitter (X) handle (@HumBehEvoSoc), except formatted for Bluesky. The account is new, so it’s still a little empty, but this will change as a we post more and more news and updates.

Bluesky is quickly becoming one of the major social media platforms. As many of you know, many people find that Twitter (X) has become increasingly unpleasant to use in recent years. This is not just political: many people have commented that it’s a less user-friendly experience than it used to be, with more ads, more spam, more bots, worse algorithms, irrelevant feeds, unwanted interjections from its owner, among other complaints. As the HBES Communications Officer, this declining experience has made me yearn for an alternative to Twitter for years. After all, HBES should be about the science, and few of us want to wade through reams of irrelevant stuff to get our information. But which platform? Bluesky seems to be coming out on top, and many HBES members have already switched. As such, I’m very happy to create the new HBES Bluesky account and start posting there.

Due to this experience, I will gradually search less and less for HBES-relevant information on Twitter and do so more on HBES Bluesky. For now, I will post all important HBES announcements on both platforms and on our Facebook account. However, I will check the Twitter feed less often because it is increasingly filled with irrelevant junk despite my efforts – I can only sort through so many ads and Twitter-sponsored intrusions to see what to re-post. Please remember that the HBES Communications Officer is a volunteer position! I will monitor engagement on both platforms, but if the worsening experience with Twitter (X) continues, then I will use it less and less unless the “engagement to irrelevance ratio” remains high. Ultimately, it comes down to where we get enough engagement to make it worth the hassle. The next HBES Communications Officer – whoever that is – will determine their own social media policy. Thank you for your understanding.

Looking forward to interacting with everyone on Bluesky!

Sincerely,

Pat Barclay (HBES Communications Officer)