I'm Making a Callout Post ABOUT Twitter Dot Com
THAT’S IT! This is the final! The VERY VERY LAST STRAW! This is my 13th reason why! (/j for the love of god). This is the possibly the start of the my indie web/ Fediverse Villian arc!
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In short I’m done with twitter dot com.
So What Made Me Snap?
It was going to be a Canada day like no other! I was going to post a short for every province in territory in Canada… AND THEN ELON! STARTED LIMITING TWEETS YOU CAN VIEW to 600! UNLESS you were a Twitter Blue Subscribe where you are privileged with BECAUSE of either, Bots, OR he couldn’t pay the twitter bill! not sure which is more true but I’m siding on the community because why would I trust a billionaire at this point?
BUT NOT ONLY THAT! But Elon then took away being able to view tweets without an account, and broke Nitter, and FeedBro* which was how I was viewing tweets when I didn’t want to use the hellscape that is that site and its algorithm.
To a point… This felt personal now. Like regardless of how temporary these changes are, the timing SUCKED. And I was UPSETTI SPAGHETTI!
*Btw Freedbro seems to be working now so I’ll likely be following my friend and non syndicated meme accounts for the vibes that way, but I wish I could pull feeds to AnOtterRSS or Freeder (android app). Also, It’s totally possible this functionality will break again.
Upset and Disappointed. But Also Not Surprised
I can’t say I’m surprised by this no matter how pissed I am. While Elon did buy Twitter and Championed of “Free Speech” and “Town Square” (I don’t even want to get into the lies and dumb analogies with that. that’s a whole other blog post) it soon devolved into begging for 8 dollars and then taking away features instead of adding actual value to a social media site.
“I don’t care how many features Elon paywalls. I am not paying for Twitter Blue” – Dan, Dan VS Elon Probably
This isn’t even getting into the lacks content moderation, the site seeming to constantly break, Twitter Blue people being just the worst generally (unless they clearly got it for necessity), Elon’s flippant behaviour as CEO of the company.
And I’m not even going to talk about Elon himself because…
Look… I’ve blocked him along time ago. I can go on and on about him personally as if he’s my celebrity nemesis. But I won’t because I don’t want to make a 10 page essay on a guy who doesn’t even know or care that I exist. And if he does care that say more about him than me.
If you know, you know.
And it’s not even about him anyways. Well… Okay it kinda in the same way any CEO has the responsibility of their company. Elon of course has Twitter exploding in the most fantastical of ways, but we could have seen a more subdued fall under any CEO. People still complain about Youtube, and twitch, and now reddit who also got sighted their access to their API. No central social media is immune to policy change whether it be internal or their hand forced by law (See Tumblr’s issues when the first mastodon wave happened).
Twitter is long sinking ship. We have no idea where it will go down for good but many people are making their plans on where to go next, and hav understandable anxiety on what happens when one of the biggest Free (Gratis, user data is the payment) sites goes away or becomes unusable. We have a few options but neither are perfect solution.
Never JUST Be In One Place. Post Everywhere
One thing that we can take way from the recent trends is that individual sites die, but social media (for all its problems) is likely forever now. The user data is to valuable and if you want to look at it less cynically any users rely on social media to promote themselves and make new connections. Social Media are as much as a necessary tool of communication and out reach as it is a hell of unproductive meme and doom scrolling.
You’ll find that most how have anxiety about Twitter’s impending demise are artist and Content Creators. This is because social media sites in all their years of being around, is the easiest way of providing content and updates to Millions of people globally. This is imperative for those who rely on commission work for most if not all of their income.
That being said I have no doubt that there will be a twitter replacement that people will flock to for when it does become unusable or the light are long gone. Threads in fact already got people signing up because. And even seen the likes of Blue Sky, and cohost I think we are spoiled for choice for what will likely replace twitter.
However, a key thing that we should all remember is that we need to nomadic about this. Site can die, but Social media is forever. We should start considering syndicating our content to other social media aside from the main ones we use JUST IN CASE, and Back up useful information (cough cough reddit) to ensure important knowledge is not lost.
The Tragedy of twitter… The comedy of twitter? The Canon Event of Twitter’s down fall, is one that will be repeat until we run out of Net and/or the super heat death of universe. Do not be content with one site, become a Netizen of the Wider Web of the World.
Okay but what if you want to be extra?
IndieWeb/Fediverse: Reject Centralization Return to the Old Ways of the Web
If you want take this to an extreme might I recommend a Website? NO! not a carrd co, Not a link tree! A website! A real legit (probably through Wix or Squarespace but who cares lol) website! This is something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time now since finding out about Neocities, a geocities revival that free and open source! it also has a small social media layer to it, but it’s main draw is a fully customizable site! To your liking! A Personal Website that is all about you, and you special interests, and yes even your blorbos if you want!
It’s a lot of work, but it also seems fun. I’ll let you know if I ever get around to it but it is something that many tech creator have mentioned.
The biggest proponents when it comes to creators is Epos Vox (His stream guides and personal Neocities site, as some examples with more to come), Chris Titus Tech and Gardiner Bryant’s Heavy element. All have different goals and uses for their sites, but they’re all still owned by the content creators in question, and customized to their liking.
And you know, who said that Social Media should just be hosted by Big Tech tm? Heck during my time forums where all the rage, and they were usually operated by small teams. What if we could harness the grassroots. This is where the Fediverse comes in.
The Fediverse is a series of self hosted Social Media apps that can allow users to follow and talk to others across servers and even other services. Mastodon has become a sort of poster child for the Fediverse, but you also have Misskey (twitter like), Pleroma (Tumblr like), Peertube (Youtube like), Pixelfed (instagram like), and even Write.as (self hosted version is write freely). Each serve there own function, with their own UI and design principles, but can followed by anyone across the network.
For example, I on Mstdn.ca can follow people on Mastodon.social and Ohai.social (as some server examples). I can also follow ChrisWere’s Peertube Channel on share.tube and The Linux Experiments Podcast on a Castopod instance with my mastodon account.
Fediverse deserve its own video to try and describe it in full. because while Some features are straight forward, others can be a obtuse, and seem like extra steps for most people.
THE POWER (Choice) IS YOURS
I’ve mentioned that I’ve switched Twitter to update only mode as while all the decisions are terrible this still where many people are, but the recent BS is what made me finally push to break my habits. Life to short to be arguing with randos on the internet.
… though I have switched this to other habits. Tumblr has been my meme, and serotonin haven, and the ability to turn off the algorithmic parts of the sites. Mastodon will slowly be my twitter replacement as I which to support the project and the instance I’m on mstdn.ca.
And of course you have my rambles here! I get so much use out of these blogs.
Obviously, I can’t force you to come with me with to my Techno Hipster ways. I’ve made my choices and you’ll make yours. All I can do is explain my choices, and if they interested you come long of the ride. Find what sites appeals to you, whether that be Threads, BlueSky, Space hey or something else!
If you must use twitter then I recommend adding the Blue Blocker Extension as Twitter blue users are getting paid for engagement now (not sure if it’s verified). It’s pretty customizable, and I’ve found it to be reliable and useful!
And if you want to stick it to Elon, Think about using the old twitter layout. I haven’t used it yet but apparently it’s really good! Even runs the site faster! Lol.
Whatever the future holds for the internet, you’ll probably see me on the other side. And in the worst case scenario… We all just need to touch some grass. Doesn’t sound so bad.
A Nemes Content Blog 2022.