I'm debating which other social media platforms to adopt. Obviously I won't have time to be active on loads of them, so I'm going to have to be selective.
TL;DR: Threads has the biggest audience by far and is the most Twitter-like*. Mastodon (Fediverse) has 13 million plus users and _grows_ 450k each month compared with Bluesky's _total user base_ of 150k.
Bluesky is looking like Dorsey and his cryptocoin front woman are getting ready to speed run Twitter with rage clicks.
Hive/Countersocial/Post are already VC funded also-rans.
Reddit is alienating the volunteer community that keeps it going by removing moderation tools and accessibility tools access (developed by 3rd parties). They're shoe-Horning mods in but a lot of people have gone elsewhere (including the Fediverse's Lemmy and Kbin Social).
LinkedIn... well... LinkedIn is somehow currently the best run and least worst centralised social media instance. #BrandNewSentences
Threads... strategically they're going to be the next Twitter in that, they'll have a huge user base. However zero noticeable moderation, computer algorithm stifling all but the biggest voices, verification of transphobic hate groups like "Libs of TikTok" and "Gays against Groomers" (with their 99% cis straight white man memberships) it's looking pretty grim. The "protocol" (the bit that it uses to make computers talk to each other) that thread uses is ActivityPub. They've specifically stated they want to be compatible with Mastodon (the Fediverse).
All of the above are computer algorithm driven, centralised social media. This means that they share a few key weakness:
1. That users don't really get to decide who or what they follow. That's the platform shadowbanning progressives and promoting hate.
2. That they can be bought by state actors to repress dissidents (see Russia on LJ and the Qataris and the Saudis funding Musk on Twitter).
3. They get funding through ads. Rageclicks drive ads. Therefore the clear financial incentive is to keep as much hate and bigotry as they can legally do so because that drives "engagement."
Mastodon (which isn't the right name BTW. It's the Hoover to the microblogging services Vacuum Cleaner.) Is _de_centralised and puts things in chronological order.
1. You have SO much control over what you see. It's awesome. There's a culture of using content warnings. People that were "big accounts" (and who engage rather than dropping off a post from their pedestal and f... flouncing off) report that it's much higher quality engagement and nicer with it. I, personally, have had passionate disagreements with people that didn't end in blocking. Got frosty but that was it.
2. Can't be bought. Users can just pack their accounts up and move between servers (like changing an email address before everything was gmail). Therefore no ads.
3. No ads means that moderation has different incentives. Rather than keeping advertisers happy, they keep _users_ happy. Hate speech and assholes piss people off and doing that sort of thing gets you booted, swiftly. As in 20 minute turnaround swiftly. That's because the servers cost money, crowdfunded by subscription from the userbase, this in turn means that if users leave OR other servers get annoyed at you because your mob are arseholes than you'll get shut out of the greater network.
So, technically Gab and Parler and other Nazi servers exist but they're less popular than Millwall fans (j/k) and no one talks to them and they can't see anything outside of other Nazis.
Sorry for the mega infodump, there's a lot of hilariously badly written articles out there about why "Mastodon is Doomed" (earliest I've picked up is 2017).
Thanks for this mate. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will find it helpful.
I'm thinking Mastodon and Threads for now, and see how they go. It's possible they just end up in stasis like my AAV Instagram page because the posts just don't share well, but we'll see ...
Threads sounds fine, but remember they are only (at the moment) available on Mobile phones as an App. For anyone like myself who only use Social Media on a PC (where I can fully control my end) the only way to see anything on Threads is if a link is posted on Facebook
The main problem with Threads is that it’s literally not fit for the desktop. It requires an Instagram login too, which in my case I have not got, but no browser access?
I've been following you on FB for a while now and love your work. It's been a real struggle to get access to your content on FB so great to have you somewhere more accessible.
I think you will find SubStack a success. I follow a few freelance political writers on here and I’m sure most of your followers will make the transition.
I’m looking forward to what you have to say as even I, who has made setting changes on FB to ensure your posts are at the top of my feed, have noticed an absence of your writings.
Great to catch up with you on here, Twitter has been sketchy to say the least, cannot remember the last time you popped up on our feed and its been 5 years since we started following you. Unable to support you financially I'm afraid, we have enough grief trying to keep going ourselves but more than happy to cross post material occassionally. All the best
Good stuff. Nice to have you here.
Thanks for the welcome mate. Hopefully yours is the very first reply of many ...
Hey Thomas, you should post your Mastodon handle and use Jetpack to get your blogs out there.
Centralised platforms like LJ and Twitter are vulnerable to oligarch takedown.
Thanks for the tip mate.
I'm debating which other social media platforms to adopt. Obviously I won't have time to be active on loads of them, so I'm going to have to be selective.
Mastodon is in the reckoning.
Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on them all.
TL;DR: Threads has the biggest audience by far and is the most Twitter-like*. Mastodon (Fediverse) has 13 million plus users and _grows_ 450k each month compared with Bluesky's _total user base_ of 150k.
Bluesky is looking like Dorsey and his cryptocoin front woman are getting ready to speed run Twitter with rage clicks.
Hive/Countersocial/Post are already VC funded also-rans.
Reddit is alienating the volunteer community that keeps it going by removing moderation tools and accessibility tools access (developed by 3rd parties). They're shoe-Horning mods in but a lot of people have gone elsewhere (including the Fediverse's Lemmy and Kbin Social).
LinkedIn... well... LinkedIn is somehow currently the best run and least worst centralised social media instance. #BrandNewSentences
Threads... strategically they're going to be the next Twitter in that, they'll have a huge user base. However zero noticeable moderation, computer algorithm stifling all but the biggest voices, verification of transphobic hate groups like "Libs of TikTok" and "Gays against Groomers" (with their 99% cis straight white man memberships) it's looking pretty grim. The "protocol" (the bit that it uses to make computers talk to each other) that thread uses is ActivityPub. They've specifically stated they want to be compatible with Mastodon (the Fediverse).
All of the above are computer algorithm driven, centralised social media. This means that they share a few key weakness:
1. That users don't really get to decide who or what they follow. That's the platform shadowbanning progressives and promoting hate.
2. That they can be bought by state actors to repress dissidents (see Russia on LJ and the Qataris and the Saudis funding Musk on Twitter).
3. They get funding through ads. Rageclicks drive ads. Therefore the clear financial incentive is to keep as much hate and bigotry as they can legally do so because that drives "engagement."
Mastodon (which isn't the right name BTW. It's the Hoover to the microblogging services Vacuum Cleaner.) Is _de_centralised and puts things in chronological order.
1. You have SO much control over what you see. It's awesome. There's a culture of using content warnings. People that were "big accounts" (and who engage rather than dropping off a post from their pedestal and f... flouncing off) report that it's much higher quality engagement and nicer with it. I, personally, have had passionate disagreements with people that didn't end in blocking. Got frosty but that was it.
2. Can't be bought. Users can just pack their accounts up and move between servers (like changing an email address before everything was gmail). Therefore no ads.
3. No ads means that moderation has different incentives. Rather than keeping advertisers happy, they keep _users_ happy. Hate speech and assholes piss people off and doing that sort of thing gets you booted, swiftly. As in 20 minute turnaround swiftly. That's because the servers cost money, crowdfunded by subscription from the userbase, this in turn means that if users leave OR other servers get annoyed at you because your mob are arseholes than you'll get shut out of the greater network.
So, technically Gab and Parler and other Nazi servers exist but they're less popular than Millwall fans (j/k) and no one talks to them and they can't see anything outside of other Nazis.
Sorry for the mega infodump, there's a lot of hilariously badly written articles out there about why "Mastodon is Doomed" (earliest I've picked up is 2017).
If you like give me a shout there. I'm @homebrewandhacking@mastodon.ie if you get signed up.
Thanks for this mate. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will find it helpful.
I'm thinking Mastodon and Threads for now, and see how they go. It's possible they just end up in stasis like my AAV Instagram page because the posts just don't share well, but we'll see ...
you should get yourself on Threads while were not being down ranked by an algorithm
Threads sounds fine, but remember they are only (at the moment) available on Mobile phones as an App. For anyone like myself who only use Social Media on a PC (where I can fully control my end) the only way to see anything on Threads is if a link is posted on Facebook
The main problem with Threads is that it’s literally not fit for the desktop. It requires an Instagram login too, which in my case I have not got, but no browser access?
Not heard from you on FB for months
They're basically just hiding my posts now, even from all the people who put me as "see first" in their feed.
Hence this diversification.
same happened to me
Welcome to Substack, mate, it's about time you arrived
Thanks mate. It's nice to hear from you. It's been ages.
Hi - came here from FB and I’m glad to see you’re still going!
Cheers Dan. Hopefully I'll have some good content for you on here soon ...
Pleased to give this a go!
I'm totally fed up with FB and it's shocking lack of morals.
Pleased to give this a go as fed up with FB and it's shocking lack of decent standards.
Hope AVV thrives here!
I've been following you on FB for a while now and love your work. It's been a real struggle to get access to your content on FB so great to have you somewhere more accessible.
Glad to catch up with you!
Sue x
Absolutely intrigued - looking forward to reading your posts!
Thanks Kris, what a lovely welcome☺️
I think you will find SubStack a success. I follow a few freelance political writers on here and I’m sure most of your followers will make the transition.
I’m looking forward to what you have to say as even I, who has made setting changes on FB to ensure your posts are at the top of my feed, have noticed an absence of your writings.
Onward and upward.
Good to see you again
The balancing act and ongoing fight for visibility. Welcome, Tom.
I'm in
Great to catch up with you on here, Twitter has been sketchy to say the least, cannot remember the last time you popped up on our feed and its been 5 years since we started following you. Unable to support you financially I'm afraid, we have enough grief trying to keep going ourselves but more than happy to cross post material occassionally. All the best
Would happily pay for your articles if I could afford to. Keep up the great work😎👏🏼👌🏼