EDITORIAL – I wish I could get off Twitter/X entirely. Regardless of your political beliefs or what you think of Elon Musk, changes made in the last year or so have made it a worse experience for independent soccer media.
The algorithm has nerfed links from outside their in-house article setup. Blue checks have become pay-to-play. Timelines have become filled with click bait, meme accounts, and ads. Embedding tweets in articles is broken, making it harder to share information without just directing readers to X. How convenient for X’s ad revenue.
None of my soccer accounts follow political accounts or discuss politics. Yet I’ve seen way more politics/election content in the last year. If you’re an MLS person, you have to go find it sometimes. It’s not the default. It’s a worse, more inconvenient, angrier experience all around.
But when I open up Bluesky, I see my Rapids, MLS, U.S. Soccer peeps talking about soccer.
Excited for Burgundy Sky (not controversial, just happy for a new #Rapids / #Rapids96 hangout)
The alternatives to X have their flaws. Threads requires an Instagram account; switching back and forth between the two is annoying (to say nothing of Meta’s involvement in the recent TikTok ban). Mastodon is clunky. Bluesky, the best and fastest growing, is better on the app than the desktop. It’s become a bit of a left wing eco chamber. For a millennial content creator who prefers a keyboard, it could be better.
From my circles, many fans have jumped to an X alternative or are equally active on X and their chosen alternative. Rapids Twitter isn’t a big group. They’ve mostly moved over to form Burgundy Sky. Plenty of writers and podcasters are effectively double-posting across accounts on multiple platforms. It’s tedious but there’s a big reason we can’t quit X:
MLS and its clubs are still there. As far as I can find, the league does not have an official Bluesky account. @coloradorapids.bsky.social is a nature account that posts pictures of rivers. The MLS clubs with accounts post occasionally. I have not found anyone posting the same stuff across their X and Bluesky accounts.
X is one of the busiest platforms for clubs to post. Goal videos are usually posted there before anywhere else. It’s the first place they announce official news, though Tom Bogert is active on both platforms. Globally, the sport is still on X. Fabrizio Romano hasn’t posting on his Bluesky in four months. Most of the big five league clubs, outlets that cover them, etc. aren’t active on it.
Here’s the link to the post above. It won’t embed right.
Soccer fans in America want to take their X community and push it somewhere else. But if clubs don’t come with, we still have to go back to X to get lineup graphics, videos, news, etc.
*Starts coding Bluesky equivalent of TweetDeck to make millions*
At Rapids Media Day earlier this month, I spoke to multiple club officials. None of them had heard anything about the club getting on BlueSky or leaving X. Based on their roles, if these individuals hadn’t heard anything, it’s not in the works. It’s been almost two years since Elon bought Twitter. It’s been two months since the election. The longer MLS teams stay on X and don’t do more on Bluesky, the more intentional that decision appears.
There could be a few reasons for this. The simplest is by moving/adding another social media platform, you’re starting from zero. Sporting KC is one of the more active MLS clubs with a BlueSky account. They have 2.6K followers on there compared to 391K on X. Having 150 times as many followers matters even in a broken hellscape of right wing meme lords. Would you rather have more visibility overall and annoy your loyal supporters or be on a smaller platform where those loyal supporters are your entire audience?
Here's the full breakdown by league + platform. Bsky/Twitter split for @nwslstat.bsky.social is about 80/20, for @mlsstat.bsky.social it's about 70/30 (only impacts first post in thread)I don't think anyone cared, but I was curious how bsky was stacking up 2 weeks in, and yeah, it's good here
It’s also more work. There’s plenty of club digital teams spread thin or prioritizing established platforms where their marginal utility is growing. We’re also a month out from the start of the season and Apple TV content obligations ramping up. The convenient time to have done this was a month ago.
The last possibility is the people in charge don’t care about the political optics. They must know their audience skews left. I don’t think most MLS digital teams are right wing. The owners are mostly billionaires, so they might lean Republican purely for tax purposes. This wouldn’t be the first tone deaf decision MLS suits made that spits in the face of its audience.
But if X stays on its current trajectory, MLS staying on there longer and not getting on alternatives will be seen as them being complicit with how Musk runs X and the values that operation is based on. Those values are antithetical to those of their most passionate fans. Alienate your supporters at your own risk.
If you ask me, it’s the first reason. They’re staying on X because it’s where they have the most visibility. Getting seen by lots of casuals (and some bots) matters more than making things more convenient for your 500 sickos. And they’ll stay as long as they still get clicks.
To be clear, I wrote this without expressing my own political views and based on my experience with the platforms. For the right wing MLSers and Pro Rel crowd, feel free to post in the comments. Unlike Elon, BW doesn’t ban or mute comments for disagreeing with us.
Photo Credit: Mark Shaiken
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2 thoughts on “MLS Isn’t Pivoting to Bluesky, other Twitter/X Alternatives. It has to be Intentional.”
Full disclosure: I’m a Gen-X’er that left all social media some 10+ years ago and have not looked back and, hence, cannot comment on the esoteric values or usability of any particular social media platform. While I understand fully that media personalities and journalists of all kinds must remain on social media for their respective duties and roles, I cannot recommend quitting social media highly enough.
Note that I’m aware that editorial == opinion piece. That said, I would advise not to claim that they “wrote this without expressing my own political views”. Granted, the author did not say who they voted for outright. But there is a vast array of insight in said views all throughout the article.
Let me offer some receipts:
Number of times the phrase “left wing” occurs in above article: ZERO
Number of times the phrase “right wing” occurs in the above article: THREE
Apparently, the choice is either “skews left” or “right wing” … what if someone just skews right? Is that even possible? Is there such a thing as “left wing”?:
“They must know their audience skews left. I don’t think most MLS digital teams are right wing.”
“The owners are mostly billionaire white men, so they might be MAGA purely for the tax cuts.”
Wow! In this single statement, we see 3-4 overgeneralizations that pervade many that skew left. We have classism personified, with mention of billionaires that was likely not intended for flattery. We also somehow care about the owners’ race and gender, as if it somehow controls their decision making. And we end it with the insinuation of greed, as if that’s the only reason why someone could possibly be “MAGA” (i.e. they are not paying their “fair share”). I’m visualizing AOC in her “Tax the Rich” dress here.
Also:
“But if X stays on its current trajectory, MLS staying on there longer and not getting on alternatives will be seen as them being complicit with X’s values.”
Honestly, what are X’s values? What kind of values do you mean? If, by values, you mean click bait, memes, ads, embedding issues, bots, and the like, then I cannot comment. But those aren’t really values, are they? Those are merely platform-specific issues that impact all users alike. Likely, the comment was made regarding the particular values of the owner: Elon Musk. Given the association of Musk over the past 6 months, this cannot be anything but a dig at Musk’s political views, even if a veiled one.
And finally, the author failed to mention one particular social media platform that tends to favor those “right wingers”, except embedded in a Blue Sky post rather than in the article itself.
I have no beef with you, Matt. I could care less about your political views, nor should you care about mine (I’m not right wing and don’t skew left). It’s just that you falsely claim to not “make it about politics” when it’s abundantly clear throughout your editorial that it is. I’m finding it hard to believe that you actually tried not to insert your political views into this article. There are way too many instances where you did, some veiled … others not so much. I don’t really care whether you write an editorial that is political in nature. It does, however, bug me a bit that you wrote an editorial political in nature and then claimed that you didn’t.
Hi RapidGunner. Thanks for the click and the comment. You brought up some good points. I’ve made some minor edits to the article. Let me address some of those comments further:
Re use of the terms left wing and right wing: I didn’t think the semantics of how I referred to the two sides of the political aisle were that important. Left wing, right wing, liberal, conservative, six of one, half dozen of the other. I don’t get bogged down in the terminology. In any case to make it more clear, the term “left wing” has been added to the piece. I would argue the original version of the piece referred to the concepts of the two parties fairly evenly. Did that version under-represent the right side of the aisle by only mentioning MAGA once and not using the term “far-right” at all. In any case for those who care about jargon, the language has been updated.
Re the sentence about MLS owners: Fair. That was identity politics. I’ve adjusted that language. I think it’s fair that we have enough evidence that most billionaires regardless of race or gender lean right generally because it benefits them financially. Given your user name and bringing up the classism and greed, I’d be curious to know your thoughts on how KSE has treated the Rapids. I don’t know many Pids fans who don’t think Stan’s a modern day Scrooge.
Re X’s values: Fair. I could have been more clear there. I would say it’s a dig on how Musk has run X and the values his operational changes are based on. Many of those values and changes are based on his ego and being the main character of X, rather than his political leanings.
Re other platforms: I didn’t bring up other right friendly social media platforms because I didn’t think they were relevant. People aren’t using Truth Social, GETTR, Rumble as their primary source for sports discourse. From public info, Bluesky has more users than most of those platforms. If anything, Musk’s running of X made right leaning users come back/stay and become more active. Find me a Rapids fan who wears a MAGA hat in public who left X because it wasn’t right leaning enough and found a bunch of Truth Social accounts who primarily discuss MLS.
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Full disclosure: I’m a Gen-X’er that left all social media some 10+ years ago and have not looked back and, hence, cannot comment on the esoteric values or usability of any particular social media platform. While I understand fully that media personalities and journalists of all kinds must remain on social media for their respective duties and roles, I cannot recommend quitting social media highly enough.
Note that I’m aware that editorial == opinion piece. That said, I would advise not to claim that they “wrote this without expressing my own political views”. Granted, the author did not say who they voted for outright. But there is a vast array of insight in said views all throughout the article.
Let me offer some receipts:
Number of times the phrase “left wing” occurs in above article: ZERO
Number of times the phrase “right wing” occurs in the above article: THREE
Apparently, the choice is either “skews left” or “right wing” … what if someone just skews right? Is that even possible? Is there such a thing as “left wing”?:
“They must know their audience skews left. I don’t think most MLS digital teams are right wing.”
“The owners are mostly billionaire white men, so they might be MAGA purely for the tax cuts.”
Wow! In this single statement, we see 3-4 overgeneralizations that pervade many that skew left. We have classism personified, with mention of billionaires that was likely not intended for flattery. We also somehow care about the owners’ race and gender, as if it somehow controls their decision making. And we end it with the insinuation of greed, as if that’s the only reason why someone could possibly be “MAGA” (i.e. they are not paying their “fair share”). I’m visualizing AOC in her “Tax the Rich” dress here.
Also:
“But if X stays on its current trajectory, MLS staying on there longer and not getting on alternatives will be seen as them being complicit with X’s values.”
Honestly, what are X’s values? What kind of values do you mean? If, by values, you mean click bait, memes, ads, embedding issues, bots, and the like, then I cannot comment. But those aren’t really values, are they? Those are merely platform-specific issues that impact all users alike. Likely, the comment was made regarding the particular values of the owner: Elon Musk. Given the association of Musk over the past 6 months, this cannot be anything but a dig at Musk’s political views, even if a veiled one.
And finally, the author failed to mention one particular social media platform that tends to favor those “right wingers”, except embedded in a Blue Sky post rather than in the article itself.
I have no beef with you, Matt. I could care less about your political views, nor should you care about mine (I’m not right wing and don’t skew left). It’s just that you falsely claim to not “make it about politics” when it’s abundantly clear throughout your editorial that it is. I’m finding it hard to believe that you actually tried not to insert your political views into this article. There are way too many instances where you did, some veiled … others not so much. I don’t really care whether you write an editorial that is political in nature. It does, however, bug me a bit that you wrote an editorial political in nature and then claimed that you didn’t.
Hi RapidGunner. Thanks for the click and the comment. You brought up some good points. I’ve made some minor edits to the article. Let me address some of those comments further:
Re use of the terms left wing and right wing: I didn’t think the semantics of how I referred to the two sides of the political aisle were that important. Left wing, right wing, liberal, conservative, six of one, half dozen of the other. I don’t get bogged down in the terminology. In any case to make it more clear, the term “left wing” has been added to the piece. I would argue the original version of the piece referred to the concepts of the two parties fairly evenly. Did that version under-represent the right side of the aisle by only mentioning MAGA once and not using the term “far-right” at all. In any case for those who care about jargon, the language has been updated.
Re the sentence about MLS owners: Fair. That was identity politics. I’ve adjusted that language. I think it’s fair that we have enough evidence that most billionaires regardless of race or gender lean right generally because it benefits them financially. Given your user name and bringing up the classism and greed, I’d be curious to know your thoughts on how KSE has treated the Rapids. I don’t know many Pids fans who don’t think Stan’s a modern day Scrooge.
Re X’s values: Fair. I could have been more clear there. I would say it’s a dig on how Musk has run X and the values his operational changes are based on. Many of those values and changes are based on his ego and being the main character of X, rather than his political leanings.
Re other platforms: I didn’t bring up other right friendly social media platforms because I didn’t think they were relevant. People aren’t using Truth Social, GETTR, Rumble as their primary source for sports discourse. From public info, Bluesky has more users than most of those platforms. If anything, Musk’s running of X made right leaning users come back/stay and become more active. Find me a Rapids fan who wears a MAGA hat in public who left X because it wasn’t right leaning enough and found a bunch of Truth Social accounts who primarily discuss MLS.
Appreciate you. No beef received or given.