❯ Tech blogger John Gruber says X is once again the liveliest social platform for tech and AI discussion

A longtime user changes his mindJohn Gruber, who writes the tech blog Daring Fireball, wrote on October 11 that X has regained its footing and is now the social platform where he sees the most interesting content. He says he sees more interesting posts on X than on Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon combined. Gruber had stayed away from X for several years.

What he sees as differentGruber says he left mainly because the platform’s algorithm kept inserting Elon Musk’s own posts into his timeline, and that this no longer happens; his timeline now shows mostly accounts he chose to follow. His examples include Apple’s new CEO John Ternus starting to post on X, and new apps being shown and discussed only there. He has one regret: many people now publish long essays directly on X, where there is no RSS feed.

His view of the other platformsTo Gruber, Threads is comparable to X in size but its content feels more like engagement bait. Bluesky and Mastodon are too small for most people, and on AI topics discussions get derailed by people who consider all AI use unethical. He corrected one detail: Merriam-Webster also has a Bluesky account, but so far in October it has made 45 posts and reposts on X against 10 on Bluesky. This is a personal observation and includes no platform-wide user data.

▮ SIGNALAI launches, leaks and arguments still happen mostly on X, and for anyone trying to keep up with the industry, the cost of switching platforms is higher than it looked a few years ago.