Replacement Level Posters
In baseball, there is the concept of the “replacement level player”. Let’s say you’re a general manager of a team and you want to know just how much value you’re getting out of a player’s contract versus his production on the field. You need a benchmark to compare to—the most basic average player, someone you would only need to spend league minimum to obtain (essentially a free player, since no matter who you hire you need to pay at least league minimum). A player who is essentially free for the taking is not going to be great, naturally. But they’re at least gonna know how to put on a glove and what to do with it after. If a guy on the roster goes down and you need a warm body in that position for today’s game, you go out and get a replacement guy.
Baseball Reference, for statistical purposes, defines a replacement level team as having a .294 winning percentage (a win-loss record of 48-114). So, it’s fine to have a couple of replacements on hand, but you wouldn’t want to build an entire roster out of them.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because this concept of the replacement is appropriate, I think, to describe the kind of user that is making Bluesky more and more unusable by the day.
I’m talking about the “replacement level poster”.
The replacement level poster has never written anything that made someone laugh. Maybe at most, someone did that thing where they pushed a little bit of air out their nose. The replacement level poster wouldn’t know what a joke even looks like. They seem to have just gotten online yesterday by how much they don’t know what’s going on. They respond to posts as if they believe it’s all addressed to them specifically—they might see a post on the algorithmically driven Discover feed and reply “why is this on my wall”. The replacement level poster doesn’t even know what posting is. And for some reason, they are all over Bluesky. Anyone with more than, like, 50 followers has surely noticed that the moment a post leaves its intended audience, the replacements find it and swamp you with the kind of replies that scream “please get of your house, there’s clearly a gas leak”. Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about:
the reviews are in!
— America's Lounge Singer (@krang.bsky.social) January 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
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These may seem cherry-picked but every post that gets big enough will get this kind of confused feedback. I had a thread describing what I found to be what made Star Trek great and what people get wrong about why the franchise resonates. I got a replacement level poster replying to me about how his son doesn’t like the show but he’s been watching since the 70s. Not really how you talk to people online, my guy, but thanks I guess!
I don’t understand how these people are so bad at posting but still compelled to do it every day. Their accounts are mostly links to cable news articles and deep-fried memes about how posting said memes counts as a resistance movement. Many of them encourage other replacement posters to follow back everyone who follows them, and then get really mad at anyone who doesn’t share the same sense of obligation with regard to follower-to-following ratios. I get followed by at least 2 a day and when I block them, they’ll often put me on a list called something like “MAGA Rapists Who Were Mean To Me”. I know this sounds silly but I am barely exaggerating. These people don’t understand that people can block you for being annoying, not for ideological reasons.
The replacement level posters have really fucked up the vibe of the site, and the vibe wasn’t amazing to begin with (it’s just Twitter 2, after all). And being Twitter 2, there’s very little in the way of notification filtering and privacy controls to combat this spam. I can’t even take myself off of these insulting lists I keep getting put on. How in the hell is someone I am blocking allowed to put me on a public list? Why can’t I prevent people who don’t follow me from replying?
I wouldn’t pay money to see a team of entirely replacement level players, so why am I spending time on a website with so many replacement level posters? (I did pay to see the Oakland Athletic’s twice last year, but um… my point still stands).
Nicky Flowers - 01/14/25 - You're not a bad person if you're a replacement level poster, I just shouldn't have to see your posts. That's all! - (send any comments/questions to hello at nickyflowers dot com)