Crazy to think that I’ve been on Twitter for some 15 years or so. And for many years, Twitter was my favourite place on the internet. These days, not so much.
Twitter bots, trolls, and alts
When I joined the platform all those years ago, the community was great. These days, there are so many bots, trolls, alts, and generally nasty bigot types, it’s not a fun place to be. And I’m a straight, white, middle-aged man. For those that are not straight, white middle-aged men, it’s even worse.
The Elon Musk takeover is the icing on the cake. Like me, he’s an advocate for free speech but unlike me, he thinks free speech is a licence to attack anyone you like for any reason. He also seems to think it’s okay to use his online influence to influence the price of stock and cryptocurrency. He seems to be above the law in that respect.
And with that, I am done. For now, at least. If the situation changes, I may go back to Twitter but for now, it’s just a signpost to my Mastodon account.
Mastodon for the win
Speaking of Mastodon, that’s where you’ll find my drivel from now on.
Mastodon is different in many ways. First and foremost, it’s not owned by anyone. It’s decentralised, which means users connect to community-run servers around the world. And that also means moderation is essentially community-based too. Freedom of speech is still promoted but the general rule is: don’t be an asshole.
If you’re looking for another place to spew your brain puke, Mastodon seems like the best option for now.
The problem with Mastodon
The main problem with Mastodon is that it’s not easy to get set up. Most social media users don’t understand decentralised networks and the business of finding a server is complicated to say the least. As far as decentralised social media goes, it’s been that way for about a decade, so don’t expect it to change any time soon.
Get @ me on Mastodon
Lastly, if you want to find me on Mastodon, you will find me here:
At the time of writing, the web version of my Mastodon account seems about three days behind the app version. Not sure if this is a bug or something. Could be a few of those.