Last week I quite Twitter. My account is still there, reserved just in case. But I no longer post there. I don’t support the new management. I downloaded all of my content and stored it away for posterity. I don’t expect the site to last much longer.
When the management of a social network, or a tech company goes off the deep end, the prudent thing to do is get out and no longer support them. This is why I left Facebook years ago and it’s why I have left Twitter. It’s also why I left Apple and Microsoft. Funny, in all cases, I have managed to find open source, and free substitutes and my life got simpler and less stressed in the process. I no longer pay for software unless I chose to back a developer and I no longer pay for social media unless I chose to back a server.
I tried Mastodon a long time ago, but I completely forgot my username and server. So I had to start over right as the first great migration from Twitter started. I’m a pretty tech savvy person, but even I had to Google some things and RTFM to get started. Then I had to rely on the kindness of the natives to find my way. Still doing that, to be honest. But the reward for my effort is that I’m less stressed and I feel like one person can’t derail the platform anymore. A good thing. Don’t come into a new platform expecting things to be like they were elsewhere. Be kind, and take the initiative to learn for yourself. There are lots of tutorials and articles at all the popular web sites out there on how to get started on Mastodon. Do your homework. Oh, and make a bio and an introduction post. I won’t follow you if I can’t tell what you’re like from an empty bio.
What about all my friends and followers? They either left for Mastodon or elsewhere. There are many who are staying and that’s pretty sad. I’ve never had more than a thousand followers on any platform. Primarily because I don’t sell myself and my wares. I’m just here to meet folks and tell you about things that interest me. It’s been proven that large followers don’t translate to large sales of books or artwork. But behind the scenes looks at my hobbies are what seem to interest most of my followers. That and dog pictures.
Just hooked up Mastodon to this blog, so if you follow me, you get my blog post links.