 Speak only for yourself, HuffPost. I deleted my Twitter account on November 4, and my life has improved big time. Less rage on my timeline. Dunks are rare. No “main character”. Life is good on the Fediverse. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/twitter-elon-musk-quit-black-twitter_n_6418e2a2e4b0fef15245b85f 76 comments
 Of course the mainstream media are the biggest hypocrites because ever since November, they’ve been like, “Elon Musk is destroying press freedom—let’s double down on Twitter!”  @atomicpoet "Let's tell Elon Musk, on Twitter, that we disapprove, and feed all his sycophantic trolls." The whole befuddling thing is that mainstream media could have as much freedom of the press as they want if they gave up Big Social. Their inability to do this demonstrates a lack of ambition and drive.  The real paradox of the press is that they have two choices: 1. An open protocol for which they can report on news on their own terms And they opt for the 2nd option!  @atomicpoet the press as a class is not known for adopting new things quickly. Also, the fediverse probably doesn’t have the tools and integrations they need/want eg analytics. They will get here eventually but not overnight. People talk about how press is afraid to “give up followers”. Except: * Follower count is a vanity metric Case in point: @mmasnick is more influential on the Fediverse now than he ever was on Twitter. What’s he doing? He’s present, active, and conversational. That’s pretty much it. Other than being an early adopter, there’s no special sauce.  My posts are utterly unseen on Twitter. I get tons of great conversation on Mastodon. Somehow I'm heading for double the connections here. In addition each Mastodon connection is worth huge numbers of Twitter followers for interaction & reach. I've run tests. @atomicpoet 100 percent agree. So sad that so many folks gave Mastodon a 2 day trial before returning to Elmo. I do feel bad though for the good journalist that aren’t so big that feel the need to stay there for traffic to their newsletters… I get we all gotta eat but that really sucks. What I am noticing is it is much more likely to get interaction from "high follow" and my ordinary account here than it ever was on twitter. Not just Mike I have many examples now.  @atomicpoet @mmasnick Youʼve done pretty well yourself, Chris. Been following you since the 2010s here. @atomicpoet @mmasnick Well, there is what he writes. I kinda think of that as his special sauce.  @atomicpoet Such a good example. I'm delighted to follow @mmasnick here and had never even come across him over there. (I quit Twitter last December.)  @atomicpoet @mmasnick I'm having problems to get connections with my Spanish written toots, not so much problem when engaging in English. I think the Spanish people haven't came already to the Fediverse. I think the crucial part of it is that he's also generated consistent valuable microcontent. Some Twitter faces I've seen here have just been firing off a handful of very niche micro-blog statements ("I went for a walk this morning, it was snowy") or publicity copy ("my comedy tour is starting, dates and places on my website!") and expecting an audience to engage. Mas.to's local feed (to a lesser extent now) was filled with that content from randos - it's not valuable. @atomicpoet Love this! #FuckStatsMakeArt (reminds me of the old ChemLab slogan Fuck art. Let's kill)  @atomicpoet And since we're on about it: follower count is a completely fictitious vanity metric. Just ask Elon's bots, or all those media cos. that pivoted to video. What matters, per everything that I've seen on the subject, is 'engagement'. [shudders] Actual people, actually reading what's been written, and engaging with it. That's what advertisers are chasing, and the #FediVerse has that in spades. Hell, if Steak-Umm had got masto account, they'd have 100k followers in the 1st day. @atomicpoet Charming how throughout this thread you are assuming good faith on the part of the press. Just all the familiar character flaws including being sort-of thick, but not who owns them 😐 @atomicpoet, is it a paradox, though? People say the United States has a “free press”, but it’s owned entirely by a few corporations. @atomicpoet The media don't like the fediverse because of the tendency for media sites to get defederated for transphobia and similar. Which is, y'know... The whole point of the fediverse.  @atomicpoet @atomicpoet I think their usual approach (post links to ~all their articles) wouldn't work as well on a chronological timeline. For instance, over the past 8 hours, the NYT has tweeted an article every 10 minutes on average. On a chronological timeline, that's going to feel like spam and people won't follow. @atomicpoet Absolutely bonkers to me that so many journalists can't be bothered to so much as cross post as Musk cuts off all research access and holds regular circuses where he loudly tweaks the algorithm to promote his preferred viewpoints. @atomicpoet Let's beg our way back in."  @atomicpoet So many people I was interacting announced they were leaving Twitter - months later they're still at it. @atomicpoet I haven't actually killed my Twitter account as a protective measure. But in terms of its value to me? It's handy for opening links to tweets from other sites. I spend about 30 seconds per week on it. @atomicpoet If you rewrite the headline as any other situation that lumps their decision as collectively including everyone, it sounds just as silly "Opinion | This is a serious drought, but I still water my lawn. What are we doing?"  @atomicpoet I think the reason most haven't left is they don't want to rebuild their follower list. They are afraid to lose all their virtual clout.  @atomicpoet Near as I can figure the only reason journalists love Twitter is because it makes their beat so much easier. They can turn in lazy stories about "such and such said this on Twitter" and fill their word-count jar for the day. They'd have to do reporting otherwise. That and, much like the record industry, they're pining for a retro-world that no longer exists. You can almost smell the cigar smoke.  In other words: I am fat and just can't give up on the brownies and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. @atomicpoet@mastodon.social I want nothing to do with whomever is left there. And I don’t miss it one bit.
@atomicpoet People are still on it because selfish gits like Huffington advertise and promote Twitter as seen at the end of that article. Effectively showing approval of both of those nasty places @atomicpoet The whole platform is now full of bots and right wingers. Many people did left. @atomicpoet i agree, and deleted twitter a couple of months ago. I used twitter for two reasons:  @atomicpoet @atomicpoet People say that there are just not the same amount of people on here for a post to reach the point where it gets lots of likes and comments and things, which is why they have to stick with #Twitter - But the whole problem with Twitter is just the sheer amount of people! Humans can't deal with that amount of interaction, we are tribal wee things. #Mastodon suits me just fine for that. Mostly I deal with people I know, sometimes (like now) I see something from soneone new and comment.  @atomicpoet Same here! No need to be manipulated by commerce and algorithms and a toxic far right owner. Social media belong in the public domain. @atomicpoet I know some people like Euan_MacDonald stopped posting exactly when Musk banned APIs, stayed on Twitter. And he posts about Ukraine much @atomicpoet It's hard to know how many people actually ARE still on Twitter, given that many have left, but since #ElonMusk fired the entire team responsible for getting rid of #bots, & since he reinstated all the deleted accounts, most of #Twitter is probably bots now. It certainly felt like it was mostly bots when I left for good. He's bragging about all the accounts, but the human:bot ratio is hideous and getting worse. @atomicpoet Technically I still have a Twitter account, but only so nobody else can spoof my username.  I heard a rumor that people who stay around rats like Rat Shit and eating Rat shit but maybe thats just me  @atomicpoet ⬆️ #Fediverse versus the #BirdSite, this is my overall experience since having my Twitter account permanently suspended the week of the #2022election without warning and creating my #Mastodon account the same day. ⬇️ #Fediverse : Much better prose, more awesome photography, more global political insights, respectful engagement. #BirdSite : Better comics (c’mon over DeAdder!), more #chemistry (wtf #ChemTwitter ?!), legions of Russian bots 🤖, #WhackAMole engagement. @atomicpoet If your argument for staying on Musk’s brand name Troth Sential is “I haven’t lost any of my followers” you need to take a look at your follower list and prune out the bots and inactive accounts. @atomicpoet My "withdrawal" period was approximately 15 minutes. Yes, "we" can leave it alone. @atomicpoet I blocked the hell out of everyone that annoyed my - anything MAGA and even the man-child Elon as soon as he started tweeting his juvenile BS, but then then twitter cut me off for a WEEK for literally nothing fresh on the heels of some MAGA dolt accusing me of flinging dead fetus’s at BLM protests (I’m not exaggerating) so I never went back - screw them. Was easy. I am amazed, though by the number of folks I respect who left over Musk’s BS then returned for more. @atomicpoet I left the former site the day the idiot allowed the traitor to reactivate his account. I can't say I haven't looked back -- so many wonderful, enjoyable, enlightening & amusing relationships & friendships are lost to me now -- but I don't regret my decision & my life is infinitely -- INFINITELY -- better without the daily barrage of nasty stupid mindless trashy political posts that used to upset my stomach. @atomicpoet The media are still there because they can't get good copy over here. The sensible people are over here.  @atomicpoet This is why I don’t write OpEd pieces for newspapers. Because the answer can be summarized with “Equal parts momentum and laziness while not caring about your mental health.” 🙂  @atomicpoet same! @atomicpoet I'm pretty happily surprised by the amount of comments on that article from people who have quit twitter and have no intentions of going back. I expected it to be comments supporting the article. @atomicpoet Odd how I have no trouble staying away from it. Maybe Huffpost just loves garbage fires? |
Gregory's Server
I mean, we already know why people who should know better are still on Twitter: slacktivism.