I left Twitter when it was indeed still called that. Despite all the wonderful serendipitous encounters and access to real-time news it offered, I could no longer deny that it was first of all a commercial endeavor with a centralized nontransparent rules that could change without warning.
It was probably on Twitter that I first heard about the fediverse, which seemed closer to my own values and democratic as well as academic ideals. I was willing to try out something new and made an anonymous account on the main Mastodon server from which I followed a few people. Initially, I didn't feel like I could find a community there and I didn't log in often for about a year.
Meanwhile, I had seen a Belgian journalist's account banned for no apparent reason, while lynch mobs and other terrible behavior by users seemed impossible to stop, even if you reported it. By then, I had been blocking diligently all accounts that showed me adds every weekend (which kept them at bay for another week), while I used a specific link to keep accessing the chronological timeline and had a plugin installed in my browser to remove metric info (number of likes etc). Still, I noticed patterns of addiction in my own behavior.
To counter this, I decided to put more effort into finding accounts of interesting people on Mastodon and posting and interacting for real this time. For instance, I chanced upon someone who suggested to post prompts for short poetry and started writing poetry there. I also followed more academics and decided to move my anonymous account to an academic server, where I have since posted under my real name. I let my Twitter account expire just before the current owner took over. My timeline on Mastodon was still slow, but it felt healthy rather than toxic. And it has become much more vivid over time and all interactions have been with real people.
At first, I still read a few accounts over on Twitter (via nitter.net). Lately, I only read yours that way. Although I couldn't boost your posts because Twitter isn't interoperable with other social media, I genuinely liked nearly all of them. I was saddened when I read that your account had been suspended and glad when it returned, though I understood it couldn't last.
All this to say that I am somewhat sad that you chose for Bluesky. In my eyes, it's just another commercial platform without interoperability with the open web. It can't be read without an account at all. Decisions on who will be banned or not will be centralized.
As I wrote in my essay 'Towards convivial science', "participating in decentralized networks, where acceptable behaviour needs to be negotiated on a continuous basis, is excellent practice for participating in democracy at large." Some universities have started to open their own servers, which aligns with the motivation behind Diamond Open Access and offers an excellent way for academics to be active on social media, under moderation rules that are transparently communicated via a code of conduct. In my opinion, all your arguments also point to exploring alternatives on the fediverse and really starting to interact there. I still hope you will consider it.
Hi Sylvia! This has been a long time!! I'll try it again but I tried it for some months and it didn't work at that point (a decentralized network, interestingly Bluesky eventually also wants to do this from what I've read of their blog etc). I don't know if it's the right move, probably not. I can't help but feel that there is a genuine loss but as you point out, already before, the commercial incentives were bad. This is why Twitter kept on allowing accounts that violated their own terms (Kanye West, Trump) to continue posting there, because it drove traffic to the site. I hope Bluesky opens up because if it continues to be a gated community, that's a problem. Maybe they are worried about what happened to Google+ which opened up quickly, got a huge surge, then cratered. If they continue to be gated, well that's a big problem and the downsides of that outweigh I think the potential benefits of bots etc invading the platform. We'll see!
There are communities and people on twitter I don't see elsewhere, so that's my one caveat. Sex workers in particular don't really have many other options; bluesky is still too small to really support most people or work as marketing, and of course it's also closed, so people can't get in.
It looks like twitter is making adult content invisible now, so maybe that's over as well.
One advantage of former twitter was that it was so big. You had Black Twitter, the community of (mainly, but not exclusively) disabled people raising awareness about covid and its continued ill effects and pushing back against the idea that people who are immunocompromised are simply a casualty to be accepted for the sake of normalcy (something that the CDC and others have stated explicitly). So that's a genuine loss, I'm not saying Bluesky (which is still invite-only and my worry about long-term viability, is it billionaire-proof etc remain) is better. I know the owners of Substack also promote far-right content and are very light touch on moderation. We've lost a lot with Musk buying Twitter, but I feel it's now a dead lost cause to remain, and remaining mainly or only to be the change/to push back is not a sufficient reason to stay. We'll see how the rest pans out.
I enjoy the writing and deep thought of Substack. Once I began interacting fully on this site, I abandoned nearly all social media, although I have returned to LinkedIn for my own business purposes. I never really gained much traction or relationships on Twitter, although I will read some of the breaking news, but for deep thought and introspection, Substack is where I choose to invest my time.
Thank you Helen. I enjoyed your tweets and am glad that I have picked you up on this side of the divide
I still feel sorry about the fragmentation of Twitter. Love it or loathe it it was a common public square around which we all converged. Now we have to find connections around a myriad of communities, including rump X, the unusable mastodon, the tedious Threads. I wish that Bluesky could be that forum but because I am a public official who can’t post in policy matters I don’t have the profile that entitles me to a Bluesky code
As a hobby photographer I’m reminded of the fragmentation of Flickr, from a site that was a common denominator for photographers to one of many sites, some of which drained my previous contacts
I’m trying here now. Id be very happy to pay £20pcm distributed between contributors per hit, but paying my favourite contributors £5pcm to get behind their paywall on subscriber stuff is too expensive.
1 -- an appreciation tip jar from which they take a small cut (this keeps the platform viable, ad free etc), a bit like Kofi but in house. I'd encourage that and tip as well
2--an option for creators to have Substack donate the net proceeds of their earnings to a charity of their choice, such as Give Directly.
I find it a huge loss, Gareth. I'm so annoyed that Twitter was vandalized into the fashy X. It was indeed a public square of sorts and that someone can just buy it and put it into flames is a huge problem (I talk about it here--I blame John Locke, not my fav early modern philosopher to put it mildly! -- https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/philosopherszone/owning-the-public-square/14107858)
I agree we should leave Twitter. Substack has its own Nazi problem but it is preferable for the user in that one cannot be harassed. Bluesky is not free of trolls but I have so far seen almost no racist/homophobic/transphobic/misogynist trolls. It can only last if they are very stringent about moderation. But it’s nice.
I wish there were a real solution. I miss the experience of exchanging ideas with strangers in a friendly atmosphere. Though it’s probably been 10 years since social media was anything like this, it was wonderful. I learned so much.
What an excellent issue you raise, about the utility of staying on X to serve one’s own ends. Great essay, lots of food for thought. I’m grappling with this myself right now, so, very timely. Thanks!
Thanks! I think considering this was what finally convinced me that posting on X is no longer worth it. Sometimes furthering one's own ends requires significant collective action, which I hope we are able to damage X and to thereby thwart the (as we know transparently bad) agenda of Musk.
Simply mandating absolute verification of account holder identity would remove 90% of all silicone cyber accounts. We the People should put that on our list of demands if we ever get off of our ass and into the streets.
Dear Helen,
I left Twitter when it was indeed still called that. Despite all the wonderful serendipitous encounters and access to real-time news it offered, I could no longer deny that it was first of all a commercial endeavor with a centralized nontransparent rules that could change without warning.
It was probably on Twitter that I first heard about the fediverse, which seemed closer to my own values and democratic as well as academic ideals. I was willing to try out something new and made an anonymous account on the main Mastodon server from which I followed a few people. Initially, I didn't feel like I could find a community there and I didn't log in often for about a year.
Meanwhile, I had seen a Belgian journalist's account banned for no apparent reason, while lynch mobs and other terrible behavior by users seemed impossible to stop, even if you reported it. By then, I had been blocking diligently all accounts that showed me adds every weekend (which kept them at bay for another week), while I used a specific link to keep accessing the chronological timeline and had a plugin installed in my browser to remove metric info (number of likes etc). Still, I noticed patterns of addiction in my own behavior.
To counter this, I decided to put more effort into finding accounts of interesting people on Mastodon and posting and interacting for real this time. For instance, I chanced upon someone who suggested to post prompts for short poetry and started writing poetry there. I also followed more academics and decided to move my anonymous account to an academic server, where I have since posted under my real name. I let my Twitter account expire just before the current owner took over. My timeline on Mastodon was still slow, but it felt healthy rather than toxic. And it has become much more vivid over time and all interactions have been with real people.
At first, I still read a few accounts over on Twitter (via nitter.net). Lately, I only read yours that way. Although I couldn't boost your posts because Twitter isn't interoperable with other social media, I genuinely liked nearly all of them. I was saddened when I read that your account had been suspended and glad when it returned, though I understood it couldn't last.
All this to say that I am somewhat sad that you chose for Bluesky. In my eyes, it's just another commercial platform without interoperability with the open web. It can't be read without an account at all. Decisions on who will be banned or not will be centralized.
As I wrote in my essay 'Towards convivial science', "participating in decentralized networks, where acceptable behaviour needs to be negotiated on a continuous basis, is excellent practice for participating in democracy at large." Some universities have started to open their own servers, which aligns with the motivation behind Diamond Open Access and offers an excellent way for academics to be active on social media, under moderation rules that are transparently communicated via a code of conduct. In my opinion, all your arguments also point to exploring alternatives on the fediverse and really starting to interact there. I still hope you will consider it.
Very best wishes,
Sylvia (@SylviaFysica@scholar.social)
Hi Sylvia! This has been a long time!! I'll try it again but I tried it for some months and it didn't work at that point (a decentralized network, interestingly Bluesky eventually also wants to do this from what I've read of their blog etc). I don't know if it's the right move, probably not. I can't help but feel that there is a genuine loss but as you point out, already before, the commercial incentives were bad. This is why Twitter kept on allowing accounts that violated their own terms (Kanye West, Trump) to continue posting there, because it drove traffic to the site. I hope Bluesky opens up because if it continues to be a gated community, that's a problem. Maybe they are worried about what happened to Google+ which opened up quickly, got a huge surge, then cratered. If they continue to be gated, well that's a big problem and the downsides of that outweigh I think the potential benefits of bots etc invading the platform. We'll see!
There are communities and people on twitter I don't see elsewhere, so that's my one caveat. Sex workers in particular don't really have many other options; bluesky is still too small to really support most people or work as marketing, and of course it's also closed, so people can't get in.
It looks like twitter is making adult content invisible now, so maybe that's over as well.
One advantage of former twitter was that it was so big. You had Black Twitter, the community of (mainly, but not exclusively) disabled people raising awareness about covid and its continued ill effects and pushing back against the idea that people who are immunocompromised are simply a casualty to be accepted for the sake of normalcy (something that the CDC and others have stated explicitly). So that's a genuine loss, I'm not saying Bluesky (which is still invite-only and my worry about long-term viability, is it billionaire-proof etc remain) is better. I know the owners of Substack also promote far-right content and are very light touch on moderation. We've lost a lot with Musk buying Twitter, but I feel it's now a dead lost cause to remain, and remaining mainly or only to be the change/to push back is not a sufficient reason to stay. We'll see how the rest pans out.
I enjoy the writing and deep thought of Substack. Once I began interacting fully on this site, I abandoned nearly all social media, although I have returned to LinkedIn for my own business purposes. I never really gained much traction or relationships on Twitter, although I will read some of the breaking news, but for deep thought and introspection, Substack is where I choose to invest my time.
Thank you Helen. I enjoyed your tweets and am glad that I have picked you up on this side of the divide
I still feel sorry about the fragmentation of Twitter. Love it or loathe it it was a common public square around which we all converged. Now we have to find connections around a myriad of communities, including rump X, the unusable mastodon, the tedious Threads. I wish that Bluesky could be that forum but because I am a public official who can’t post in policy matters I don’t have the profile that entitles me to a Bluesky code
As a hobby photographer I’m reminded of the fragmentation of Flickr, from a site that was a common denominator for photographers to one of many sites, some of which drained my previous contacts
I’m trying here now. Id be very happy to pay £20pcm distributed between contributors per hit, but paying my favourite contributors £5pcm to get behind their paywall on subscriber stuff is too expensive.
Two things the Substack creators might consider:
1 -- an appreciation tip jar from which they take a small cut (this keeps the platform viable, ad free etc), a bit like Kofi but in house. I'd encourage that and tip as well
2--an option for creators to have Substack donate the net proceeds of their earnings to a charity of their choice, such as Give Directly.
I find it a huge loss, Gareth. I'm so annoyed that Twitter was vandalized into the fashy X. It was indeed a public square of sorts and that someone can just buy it and put it into flames is a huge problem (I talk about it here--I blame John Locke, not my fav early modern philosopher to put it mildly! -- https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/philosopherszone/owning-the-public-square/14107858)
I agree we should leave Twitter. Substack has its own Nazi problem but it is preferable for the user in that one cannot be harassed. Bluesky is not free of trolls but I have so far seen almost no racist/homophobic/transphobic/misogynist trolls. It can only last if they are very stringent about moderation. But it’s nice.
I wish there were a real solution. I miss the experience of exchanging ideas with strangers in a friendly atmosphere. Though it’s probably been 10 years since social media was anything like this, it was wonderful. I learned so much.
What an excellent issue you raise, about the utility of staying on X to serve one’s own ends. Great essay, lots of food for thought. I’m grappling with this myself right now, so, very timely. Thanks!
Thanks! I think considering this was what finally convinced me that posting on X is no longer worth it. Sometimes furthering one's own ends requires significant collective action, which I hope we are able to damage X and to thereby thwart the (as we know transparently bad) agenda of Musk.
Simply mandating absolute verification of account holder identity would remove 90% of all silicone cyber accounts. We the People should put that on our list of demands if we ever get off of our ass and into the streets.