(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Ack, Ack...Musk is destroying Twitter! Where to Go Instead of Twitter?

As the implosion of Musk's Twitter continues, people are desperately hunting new versions of it. Kind of reminds me of the great LJ exodus to Dreamwidth, and then the Tumblr exodus to well Pillow(?), and then Ao3 exodus...to SquidgeWorld or in my case, to Wordpress and Squidgeworld. We're all looking for back-up plans.

Twitter, however, has been a bit more difficult. None of them are workable, until...now.

Apparently, Zuckerberg finally took advantage of his tech billionaire rival, Musk's, stupidity in regards to social media - and built his own version of Twitter, entitled Instagram Threads. And unlike all the other versions, it's a lot easier to get on, follow folks, and use.

If you already have an instagram account? (And let's face it - most everyone on Twitter does). This is remarkably easy to pop into. You just sign in using that account, and it will carry all the folks you are following from instagram onto threads. And then some.

So what are the alternatives...and are they worth the effort?

* bluesky aka [Bad username or site: bsky @ com]. which is still in the beta stages, with a waiting list, and by invite only. It's by Jack Dorsey. And it's hard to find people on it. Neil Gaiman and a bunch of folks from book twitter leapt onto it. Considering they mainly used to Twitter to promote themselves - I foresee a shift to instagram threads. Because it's not happening on bluesky until everyone is on it. If most people can't get on it - you are mainly talking to yourself. (Kind of like I've been doing here the last few posts and on Twitter for the most part.)

* Mastodone - is difficult to use, and no one can find anybody. I went on it, and gave up. There appears to be only 20 people on it.

* Spoutible - is worse than Mastodone, and I didn't think that was possible. It took forever for me to get on it, and I couldn't find anyone but weird marketing folks, and jumped off.


They were discussing Instagram Threads on NY1 this morning - and loving it. NY1 jumped on it, along with all of the NY State agencies, government agencies, and media outlets. Then the celebrities followed. I don't think the politicians have yet, so the media is enjoying it at the moment. The media has decided they like Threads better than the other alternatives. And where the media goes - everyone else goes - if they want to market themselves and their wares. It's really the news and entertainment media that's going to pick the outlet. And they'll pick the one that's easiest to maneuver, and follow people, and find newsworthy items.

***

Everyone at work is still traumatized by what happened Wed. It scared them.
And they are all happy to be in the union. (I'm glad I wasn't there - I probably would have said or done something I shouldn't. But I got all the stories from my co-workers, and several were contradictory. They all had different perspectives. But all agreed it was uncalled for, nasty, and bad, and that BYT went too far.)

This place has taught me to follow unions. Didn't think that was possible, but here we are.

***

I bought more books via Smart Bitches for about $1.99. I swear I'm nickle and diming myself to death on books. My weaknesses are books, television streaming services, and music.

I was told by Amazon that I'd already purchased one of the books way back in 2021. I keep forgetting which books I've bought.

***

Comments

[spiffikins]

Are you into cozy mysteries at all?

https://cozymysterybookclub.com/book-blast/

[shadowkat]

Not really. But thanks for the link.

[elisi]

I'm on Mastodon and I like it. Yes, it's more work, but I found it worthwhile. I was a part of the original migration from Twitter back in November (because f*ck Elon Musk and his Nazi pals) and went through basically everyone I follow on Twitter to see if they had added a Mastondon address in their bio or username so I could find them on the other side. From then I just began exploring and have a nice feed (chronological, no ads, no algorithm) with stuff and people that interests me. It's not perfect, but I feel like I am a person in a community, talking to other people, not someone there to be fed to advertisers or trending topics or to have all my data stolen and sold off to the highest bidder. It's like... Dreamwidth compared to Facebook.

But yeah, it's more work initially.

ETA: I guess it also depends what you use Twitter for? I was a lurker and was there primarily for news/politics and the random delights that Twitter would throw up - a lengthy thread on medieval buildings or shoe making in Ancient China, you know the stuff. And Mastondon works very well for this. Also there are many many cats. :) But if you want soap news or any sort of drama, really, you need to look elsewhere.

[shadowkat]

I like to discuss cultural works of art and entertainment with folks online. And it's very hard to do on most social media platforms, mainly because people don't want to discuss - they want to publish their opinion, fanfic, writing, get a lot of likes, and move on. Or just chat about their cats, kids, lunch, or post pics about their cats, kids, lunch. Discuss? Nah, that requires work. We don't want to do that!

That's always been the case. I ran into that on the voy platforms at times. Took me six months to find a discussion platform back in the early 00s. Finally found one.

I'm not sure DW works well as one. We used to have long rambling discussions on LJ. But a lot of the people who liked to discuss stuff have long since migrated either to FB (where they kind of do it, and kind of don't) or Twitter (same) - and I've been trying to follow them over there. That's why I went over there.

I haven't spent much time on Mastodone, so don't know, except that I had troubles finding anything on it. But keep in mind - it took me ten years to figure out Twitter.

[elisi]

I like to discuss cultural works of art and entertainment with folks online.
Hmmmm. Now Mastodon might work for you there... How it works (you'll know some of this I'm sure) is that you pick an Instance (server) to join. There are loads of instances (which is why joining can seem very daunting and complicated), but on the plus side is that although some are just big 'general interest' places, there are also instances that cater to specific groups. There are instances for software developers and gamers and activists and people who cooking or art or archeology - or for specific places (I'm sure I saw one of the Isle of Man or similar). So for you, mastodon.art might be a good place to join (https://mastodon.art/about) - it's a dedicated instance for the Artists and the lover of arts. It has around 13K followers. Now the great thing about instances is that you don't have to look for people - your instance has a local feed with posts from all the other people on your instance, meaning that people on mastodon.art have 13k people to interact with at their fingertips: https://mastodon.art/public/local (Although I presume not all of them are active!). The other thing is that everything works off hashtags, so you can follow hashtags for stuff you like and that will bring through people for you to interact with and follow. (They go in your personal feed.)

Anyway, I'm rambling - sorry. I just think it's a good set-up, although I hope they make it easier to join.

[shadowkat]

I'm on it - but I haven't figured it out yet. All I have is God, George Taki, and someone else. But the instance thing - makes sense. I may try that. Also, thanks for the tip that everything works off hash tags.

Threads is hard to figure out too - it seems to be the same setup as Twitter, but here's the thing - you end up with a lot of threads of people you aren't following on it. I am not following katie couric for example. Also some people take it over - such as charisma carpenter, and british memes.
I'm trying to follow a securities lawyer who is obsessed with music over there, for example, but it took a while to find him.

I do have the patience to figure it out. Social media is crack for writers. LOL!

[shadowkat]

Update, did it. And Matodone reminds me of Facebook. Facebook has private communities too. Actually it's just like FB, same model. It's not like Twitter, more FB.

Threads is basically Instagram without the pictures.

I think there isn't a substitute for what Twitter was really providing for folks. Which is community alerts, agency information, etc. Such as the whole submersible crisis? Or when trains are taken out of service?

The stuff you mention - is all on FB and DW already.

[mefisto]

A key feature of Twitter (before Musk) was that anyone could read the tweets -- no need to log on. That made it useful for government notification, emergencies, etc. Threads doesn't have that. Plus, some of us are not on Instagram (or any other social media), so it's unusable for me.

[shadowkat]

Oh you can sign on without IG, but the problem is? You need to download the App. It's not available via your computer. With Threads you have to use it via an app on your phone. Which makes it useless to a lot of folks, who only go via their computer.

So, that is a problem.

Twitter does still allow you to read the Tweets without signing on for the most part.

[mefisto]

I just checked Twitter again and it still requires a log in. That's been true for almost 2 weeks now.

As for Threads, I'm one of those who really only uses a desktop, so it doesn't really work for me.

[shadowkat]

You can't get into Twitter without joining now? Damn. That's a problem considering various agencies were using it as a way to send notices and alerts, and how the media was using it. Without that option it's kind of useless for that.

[mefisto]

It sure is.

[brittdreams]

I think I'm in the small group of people who was Twitter but not IG or any of the other Twitter alternatives.

[shadowkat]

I'm still on Twitter, but I jumped on the others - to keep in contact with the folks I'm in contact with on Twitter - who are jumping there. It's confusing.

But there's a lot of folks like yourself who haven't jumped, mainly because it's hard to replicate the same interactions they currently have on well, Twitter. IG Threads does provide more protections against hate speech. I think the others do as well. Although I managed to avoid the hate speech posts on Twitter - because I auto block anyone who is bigoted in any way. And Twitter like most marketing platforms sends you what you like, and doesn't send anything you tend to hide, block, or mute.

[brittdreams]

Yea, everyone keeps telling me that they haven't been able to replicate the same interactions, which is one of the reasons I haven't moved to any of the others. I'm also pretty able to avoid bigots and hate speech on Twitter but I also block a lot of people.

[shadowkat]

Exactly. Twitter is no different than any other platform - just block and ignore the people and things that make us crazy or offend. I block and mute a lot of people. In 2016 - I blocked the Doofus, and anyone promoting or discussing the Doofus. I still do.

I think the problem people are having on Twitter (besides being disgusted with Musk) is that he keeps limiting how many posts they can make every once and a while. But I don't post that much?

And it is almost impossible to replicate the interactions elsewhere. It's why I'm still on it along with a lot of other people.

[brittdreams]

The real loss, imo, is that emergency services and government people haven't yet figured out where they're going to post their announcements if not Twitter. During our hurricanes in the fall, I was getting updates on what was open and what wasn't via Twitter. If I have to check like 4 platforms to figure that out, it's going to be a mess.

But yea, limiting tweets is a problem. I get why Reddit, Twitter, etc. are upset that the LLM/AI people are profiting off of their datasets but also, the cat's already out of the bag on that so IDK how much limiting things going forward really helps at this point, you know?

[shadowkat]

I don't either. I honestly find high-techs obsession with bitcoin/cryptocurrency and AI annoying.

The emergency services is a huge loss - that can't be replicated on Threads. Zuck couldn't figure out how to do it on either Instagram or FB. Threads is only doing better than the other startup alternatives - because it's linked to Instagram. Blue Sky could potentially work in that way - but not at the moment, its exclusive. As is Mastodon - you have to get accepted to it. None of the above are open enough.

Even Twitter has become less open, and you now have to "join" or "log in" to Twitter to see anything on it, when before you didn't.

[brittdreams]

Yea, the lack of openness on these platforms is a real issue. At some point, we need to make it easy for info about major events, especially weather-related ones, to reach people quickly and easily.

[yourlibrarian]

It's a real problem -- a lot of services uses Twitter for different sorts of alerts and info. DW uses it for updating about site issues or downtime.

However an alternative is hard, especially when you're talking about a large userbase. Instagram is useless because you can't link out from it. FB has been doing the same blocking of views to non-logged in users (though I gather it's less universal than Twitter). Reddit is having its own meltdown and Tumblr has been randomly censoring posts.

One alternative I haven't heard much about is LinkedIn. I remember hearing a few years ago that a lot of people moving off FB were going there, which made sense because a lot of people used FB for professional reasons. But I can't see it being a good alternative in this case.

I...have not been hearing good things about Threads. But it's not something I would end up using anyway.

[shadowkat]

It's a real problem -- a lot of services uses Twitter for different sorts of alerts and info. DW uses it for updating about site issues or downtime.

Yup. I'd agree. And from my experiences with all of the alleged substitutes and alternatives? None of them provide that ability.

Instagram Threads is too much like well Instagram. It's basically Instagram without the pictures.
Mastodone is too much like Dreamwidth and FB - you have to join communities, and can't link to it.
Linked In - is a professional networking business site. And there is no way I'd be using it in that capacity and no one else would.
Spoutible - I've not figured out.
Blue Sky - is taking too long, and not everyone can get on it, including myself.

The difficulty I'm having with threads, is I'm seeing threads from folks I didn't know existed, and some folks take it over (which granted was an issue with Twitter to, but to a lesser degree). It does police better, but...it's more like Facebook and Instagram.

ETA: They can't really use Twitter for alerts either. Apparently you now need a login to see anything on Twitter.