Rather than go over it again, here’s my speculative answer to why BS has grown so much quicker than Mastadon - which isn’t quite the question in the OP, but will cover much if the same ground (That whole thread is worth a read IMO.)

TL:DR - It’s different because it isn’t shit. Yet.

And it might not become shit. I think it’s a shame that people are so instantly cynical about the possibility that things might turn out alright , especially if the people using it go into it having learned some lessons from Twitter, and with a determination not to repeat the mistakes. At the moment BlueSky is fun and friendly, and I’m going to enjoy it that way for as long as it remains the case. If it goes to crap, then I’ll move on.

Fair enough - different strokes for different folks, I guess. And my positive view on RoS is certainly not one shared by many people! :-)

Hard to say, it just felt right to me, the tone was back to something similar to TFA and away from the horrendous attempts at ironic humour that TLJ had (the “Can You Hear Me Now” bit, the lightsaber toss, the “It’s salt” bit, the fucking Porgs, the milking scene…)

As dumb an idea though it was, I still kind of like the grandiose madness of bringing Palatine back as the big bad. And I thought the scenes where Rey confronts him, with the audience of Sith watching, were great, the kind of high stakes, overblown melodrama that Star Wars always did so well.

I liked the use of Rey and Ben’s psychic link (which admittedly was one of the few things in TLJ that I liked), especially the lightsaber handover.

I thought the resolution of Ben and Han Solo’s story was handled beautifully, a really moving moment IMO.

And the part where Lando shows up with half the galaxy genuinely made me want to cheer in the cinema.

All I can say is that I came out of my first viewing feeling great, feeling, “Yeah, that was a Star Wars movie!”

So when everyone hated it, I was genuinely surprised tbh!

Oh, definitely, I absolutely loved Dark!

1899 on Netflix - Season 1 was great and ended on a really intriguing moment. And then they cancelled it. Sigh.

I loved TFA, but also really enjoyed Rise of Skywalker (yes, I’m the one). Though TLJ was appalling though.

Go over to Liz’s, hole up, have a cup of tea, and wait for all this to blow over.

That sounds really cool. Seems like something that Spotify or Tidal could have as a feature, since all the music will already be licensed.

Well possibly - I do follow people Mastadon though, and it still feels quiet to me. I probably need to spend more time finding people to follow.

Hah, neither it is, my bad! I just assumed and didn’t bother to check. Will fix that.

Having used both, here my view on why BlueSky is outstripping Mastadon:

• It is instantly familiar in operation to anyone who has used Twitter. It looks and feels almost the same to use in a way that Mastadon doesn’t (arguable whether that’s a good thing or not, but it makes for a comfortable transition).
• There’s no messing around with instances to negotiate - you go to bsky.app BlueSky.com and it just works. Hard to overstate how important that is in retaining people who take a look at a new platform.
• There are a lot of people on it, it doesn’t feel empty like I have often found Mastadon.
• There are a lot of relatively influential people on it, media people, authors and actors and comedians, who have largely shifted as a single mass (probably due to the three above reasons) - so for non-famous people there’s a sense of being in touch with what’s happening.
• It’s riding a wave of positivity about itself, which Mastadon never had - this touches on your point about media coverage of it, but whether that’s really due to money being paid to news orgs or just due to journalists seeing what they are doing as being important for others to know about is open to question.

I think the various high profile organisational defections to BS have been a big part of it too. I only looked at BS for the first time when I saw the story about the Guardian newspaper quitting Twitter.

I took a look, created an account and was posting and following people within seconds, it was just really, really smooth. Again, that was not the case (for me) with Mastadon, where it took a while to figure some of it out, and it all just felt a bit fiddly and complicated.

Much like Lemmy in fact, after leaving Reddit - but again there was enough of a swell of new people shifting as a mass that it felt like it was worth the hassle.

If there’s no return option then I probably wouldn’t use it. Maybe just to get to the shops or something and then walk back.

Ha, fair enough - if it works for you, then ok :-)

Dav Macgyver’s Photo Editor is pretty solid for that sort of thing. Not FOSS as far as I know, but very good. Used it for about 10 years now.

Or maybe it won’t happen at all.

I’ve been using it a couple of weeks and loving it. It’s just the way Twitter used to be - fun, quality content, from the people you choose to follow.

No algorithm trying to feed you recommendations. No paid-for blue ticks. No hate-filled bile being ignored or endorsed by those in charge. If someone’s trolling you block/report them and they’re gone, just like that.

At the moment it’s more or less everything Twitter should be. It may or may not last, but for the moment it’s great.

May also have been a subtle way to help protect in case the castle was stormed. I’ve certainly heard of castles where the steps were sometimes irregular heights - those who lived there would be used to it, but invaders would not and would find it harder to move effectively. A differently spiralling stair might have the same effect.

Paul Hardcastle senses an opportunity…

Remember when Google Photos was basically perfect? And then they started messing around with it? I 'member :-(

I’m in the same boat as OP, and while I think you’re probably right, I do also think that were I in better shape with fewer responsibilities now, I’d still prefer the experience of being at a gig/club night without phones.

Only a personal preference of course, not saying people are wrong if they prefer how things are now.