{"id":803,"date":"2023-12-06T23:29:43","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T23:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/?p=803"},"modified":"2023-12-06T23:49:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T23:49:23","slug":"network-sampling-blueskytes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/?p=803","title":{"rendered":"Network Sampling Blueskytes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\nI’m curious about Bluesky, and have accidentally found I can access part of its API. In particular, given a user’s handle, I can download their skytes, their posts. I got tipped off here: https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@badlogic@mastodon.gamedev.place\/111246801418649849<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nEarlier this week, I decided to use this to see who’s who in Bluesky. Starting with 10 “seed” accounts, I downloaded their 100 most recent skytes (blurts?) and scanned them for references to other Blueskytes. From this enhanced list of users, I continued the process until I had 10,000 usernames (slow, overnight). Not good network sampling, either, but simple and brute force. On the way I keep track of how many references there are to each user, so I end up with data on how often different accounts are @-ed or mentioned. Here is the top 50:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Rank<\/th>\nHandle<\/th>\nMentions<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1<\/td>\nneilhimself.neilgaiman.com<\/td>\n476<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
2<\/td>\nbsky.app<\/td>\n427<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
3<\/td>\npfrazee.com<\/td>\n421<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
4<\/td>\ndarthbluesky.bsky.social<\/td>\n242<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
5<\/td>\njay.bsky.team<\/td>\n233<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
6<\/td>\nnytimes.com<\/td>\n206<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
7<\/td>\nalttext.bsky.social<\/td>\n178<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
8<\/td>\nwashingtonpost.com<\/td>\n168<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
9<\/td>\nprofmusgrave.bsky.social<\/td>\n158<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
10<\/td>\nscalzi.com<\/td>\n150<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
11<\/td>\ndeck.blue<\/td>\n126<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
12<\/td>\ndanirabaiotti.bsky.social<\/td>\n119<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
13<\/td>\nsupport.bsky.team<\/td>\n108<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
14<\/td>\njun.de<\/td>\n106<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
15<\/td>\nfaineg.bsky.social<\/td>\n102<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
16<\/td>\ngraysky.app<\/td>\n100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
17<\/td>\nwhy.bsky.team<\/td>\n97<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
18<\/td>\nchuckwendig.bsky.social<\/td>\n90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
19<\/td>\njbouie.bsky.social<\/td>\n89<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
20<\/td>\naoc.bsky.social<\/td>\n87<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
21<\/td>\nscoremywordle.bsky.social<\/td>\n87<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
22<\/td>\nfurryli.st<\/td>\n87<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
23<\/td>\njaketapper.bsky.social<\/td>\n86<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
24<\/td>\nemily.bsky.team<\/td>\n80<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
25<\/td>\nberduck.deepfates.com<\/td>\n79<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
26<\/td>\ntkingfisher.bsky.social<\/td>\n76<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
27<\/td>\nestrogenempress.gay<\/td>\n76<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
28<\/td>\ncarlomasala1.bsky.social<\/td>\n75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
29<\/td>\ngailsimone.bsky.social<\/td>\n74<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
30<\/td>\nmmasnick.bsky.social<\/td>\n74<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
31<\/td>\nfotovorschlag.bsky.social<\/td>\n72<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
32<\/td>\nkenwhite.bsky.social<\/td>\n71<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
33<\/td>\nrauchway.bsky.social<\/td>\n68<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
34<\/td>\nthoughtbubbleuk.bsky.social<\/td>\n65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
35<\/td>\njamesgunn.bsky.social<\/td>\n64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
36<\/td>\ntaz.de<\/td>\n64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
37<\/td>\npremeemohamed.com<\/td>\n62<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
38<\/td>\njack.bsky.social<\/td>\n60<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
39<\/td>\ntagesspiegel.de<\/td>\n60<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
40<\/td>\naliafonzy.bsky.social<\/td>\n59<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
41<\/td>\njaz.bsky.social<\/td>\n58<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
42<\/td>\nroterpander.bsky.social<\/td>\n54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
43<\/td>\nzeit.de<\/td>\n54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
44<\/td>\nfinancialtimes.com<\/td>\n54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
45<\/td>\nattackerman.bsky.social<\/td>\n54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
46<\/td>\nzeitonline.bsky.social<\/td>\n53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
47<\/td>\nmoinbot.bsky.social<\/td>\n53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
48<\/td>\nbriankeene.bsky.social<\/td>\n52<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
49<\/td>\nrealkachelmann.bsky.social<\/td>\n52<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n
50<\/td>\njanboehm.bsky.social<\/td>\n51<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

\nI think Neil Gaiman is a nice guy, and a great writer, but why is he the biggest thing in Bluesky? He seems very engaged there, though. I recognise a lot of the other accounts as people I used to see in the former place. I have to say, it seems a bit dull!\n<\/p>\n\n

\nThis isn’t good sampling, but checking 10k accounts in a population of 2 million should be starting to get good coverage. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was missing out whole language-defined zones, though (some DE stuff there, but very little east Asian).\n<\/p>\n\n

\nKuba Suder @mackuba<\/span><\/a> saw me tooting about it on Mastodon, and has access to a 30-day Bluesky firehose. He ran a similar query, but without the network sampling issues. His results are different:\n<\/p>\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/mastodon.social\/@mackuba@martianbase.net\/111530599484964224<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n

\nA lot more very highly-mentioned bots, and some users @-ed much more than in my data. However, a lot of the key figures are in similar positions. Well, if we exclude the bots, there is at least a correlation! \n<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\"Scatterplot\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m curious about Bluesky, and have accidentally found I can access part of its API. In particular, given a user’s handle, I can download their skytes, their posts. I got tipped off here: https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@badlogic@mastodon.gamedev.place\/111246801418649849<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":816,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.sociology.ul.ie\/bhalpin\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}