Elon Musk now owns Twitter. He promises he won’t make the place a “free-for-all hellscape.” I’m not so sure.
If Musk turns the place into a total nightmare, or you’re quitting Twitter now just on principle, where will you go?
If you don’t use Twitter now, what social media do you use?
Is Mastodon still a thing?
I’m asking partly for selfish reasons; I need to figure out where to go myself if (when?) things deteriorate precipitously on Twitter.
Comments, please!
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@Crip Dyke:
I joined Disqus largely so I can non-comment over on Wonkette, which I started reading mainly because you mentioned it here.
I’m in Discord right now, considering checking out cohost.org — FYI, Counter.Social is owned by some wildly racist people, don’t use.
Mastodon and Discord.
I think Matrix has a lot of potential, but it needs work to be ready for prime time. The spec is changing fast, which makes it hard for clients other than Element to keep up. Element itself is much less beginner-friendly than Discord, making it harder for me to recommend to less tech-savvy people. Also, Element Android had a bunch of performance issues/crashes on my phone the last time I tried it (a Pixel with unmodified Android).
networks using activitypub are the future in the FOSS sphere of influence
Yup, use Twitter (and Reddit, that’s about it). I keep my feed strongly curated so I rarely see the rubbish. Mostly use it for following reporters, analysts, and news, an sharing. I’ll stick around as long as those things are there. No plans on where next, I suppose I’ll see what Blue Sky shapes up to be.
Uhm, WHTM already has a Discord server that’s still active. Don’t know who’s currently in charge of invites, though.
There’s a post on Pharyngula on how there’s already a noticeable uptick in racist, antisemitic, and outright nazi tweets. Time will tell if this is a temporary thing or not.
I’d like to think I’ll spend less time enjoying Twitter in the future. But realistically, I’ll just enjoy Twitter less while still spending too much of my time there.
Incidentally, I first started dipping my toes in Twitter years ago because this blog used to have a widget showing David’s tweets and retweets. Less than a year ago, when I was already substantially addicted to reading other people’s output, Twitter began restricting its content to members only. This move successfully coaxed me into starting an account and using Twitter even more than previously, but I suspect it will discourage the entry of new users in the long term.
Until recently, I spent most of my online procrastination time reading old-fashioned blogs. For several years now, I’ve commented sparsely but somewhat regularly on Pharyngula and Affinity in the Freethoughtblogs community. Other than those and WHTM, I scarcely read any blogs these days. Here on WHTM, I comment less than I did 5-10 years ago, because there’s less social chatter around and I’ve become less prone to mansplaining my insights on the blog subject matter to other readers.
Other than Twitter, I’ve never much used major social media sites. On YouTube there’s some cool music videos and science videos. I don’t bother to comment there even though I have a gmail account and sometimes read the comment threads. Back in the 2010s I often lurked on Tumblr, because there was cool fetish porn and some interesting bloggers. Nowadays I almost exclusively use Twitter for my interest in very specific fetish porn.
I’ve been active over on Mastodon since spring of 2017. It’s been consistently active; I wouldn’t call it a 1-to-1, drop-in Twitter replacement, because the dynamics are just different. It’s much harder to be the Main Character, but there can be a whole new type of drama thanks to clashes between servers (“instances”) having different cultures. I’d recommend not starting out at mastodon.social itself, as moderators can be more rapid and effective on smaller instances.
Stumbled across this link detailing some of the problems Musk will almost certainly run into trying to make Twitter an unfettered free speech zone. Like, getting Into it with Germany about neo-Nazi speech restrictions, or China putting pressure on Musk to block certain sites by putting pressure on his Tesla sales, or…..
https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23428132/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-problems-speech-moderation
Be careful what you wish for indeed.
@skiriki: Hadn’t heard about Counter.Social. More info, please.
It might just be a rumor, but I’ve heard that Musk’s real plan was to enter exclusive negotiations, drive down Twitter’s value, use the lower value to negotiate a lower asking price, drive the price back up, sell it for a profit, funnel most of the profits into his companies. And during the period while Twitter was in his hands, use it to give his backers and supporters a free pass to do whatever, in hopes that they’ll send a bit more money his way.
If that was the plan, it backfired. Musk was slapped with a lawsuit over his antics. He ended up paying a bit higher than the original asking price. If people do end up leaving en masse, the site’s value will crash. If they don’t, good luck driving up he site’s value enough to make a (relatively) quick profit.
4chan has a market value of 50,000 (fifty thousand) dollars. It had that valuation before Musk even floated the idea of buying twitter, and it will have that valuation after Musk drives twitter all the way to zero
@ snowberry
It’s less of a rumour and more of an inference from Musk’s manoeuvrings. This all came out in the court documents. Of course, this never made it to trial, so we only have Twitter’s claim. And I as aways say, you can’t infer anything just because a party chose to settle.
However the claim was, Musk offered to buy subject to due diligence. There was a clause in the contract that said Musk could pull out if more than a certain percentage of Twitter accounts could be shown to be Bots. Musk sought to rely on some reports from companies that purport to analyse such things. Twitter argued that these companies just produced reports saying whatever the person commissioning them wanted them to say. And thus sought an order for ‘specific performance’ i.e. forcing Musk to go through with the deal.
Musk then indicated he was willing to purchase, so Twitter could discontinue the lawsuit.
Twitter said, nice try matey; but we think we’ll keep this lawsuit ongoing until the ink has dried on the contract. And here we are.
But yes, some people, less cynical than I of course, may come to the conclusion that Musk was merely trying to set up a deal that would fail, to crash the stock price so he could then come in and say, well I’m not contractually obliged but I’ll offer you $X. Then pump and dump.
I’m going nowhere-I don’t have Twitter, just Instagram and Reddit. I know nothing about Mastodon, but I think it’s still a thing.
Unfortunately, Twitter has become the official, public platform where the white house, world leaders, and organizations make official pronouncements. That platform turning right-wing will reinforce the delusion that right-wing is mainstream, and anyone not rightwing is fringe. The overton window moves rightward again. Just reinstating Trump’s Twitter account would reinforce the toxic lie that the 2020 election was invalid.
If I were active on Twitter, I’d keep my account there just to show the world that there are still a lot non-right-wing people in the world. Elon has a job in front of him, corrupting Twitter safeguard agreements with advertisers, China, and Germany, to prevent toxic lies from getting out of hand. But he can probably find conservative advertisers. But losing countries like China & Germany would hurt worse. Another source of hope is the incompetence of reactionaries.
I made my Twitter account only to troll TFG and his administration. I never post anymore; and I read posters I follow but only rarely comment back because they’re mostly bloggers, academics or politicos, and I’m not there to engage with their other followers – I’m there to keep up with the OP.
I still have a Facebook account but haven’t used it to post in 17 months. I keep the account so I can read linked stuff from here and elsewhere, and very occasionally to find out more about resources I’ve seen mentioned on other sites.
Reddit’s an interesting story. I avoided it for years, based mainly on impressions of it taken from WHTM, but in the past year or so I decided to see for myself and dipped a toe in. I found it far more amusing and congenial than expected, not to mention more progressive and accepting – so long as you avoid the subset of hate-filled manosphere and alt-right subreddits – so I am now about ankle-deep in my engagement there. I’ve also found a fair amount of balanced information on Reddit for so-called orphan illnesses – the type of information and posting I would never trust coming from Facebook, even if I could locate it and then keep it on my radar with the ever-metamorphosing algorithm.
(Personal aside: It was recently determined that a set of disorienting and exhausting symptoms I’ve experienced over the past 2-3 years are those of an uncommon, not widely recognized degenerative condition that has multiple possible causes, and I am now in the midst of undergoing diagnostics to determine what type it is exactly, and if there is any treatment for me. The symptoms are mostly neurological, so it’s very scary stuff, and it was quite a relief to find a SMALL subreddit of fellow patients who understand what it feels like and how difficult it is to function, much less to find specialists who are conversant in the condition.)
In summary, I really enjoy the anonymity on Reddit, and the capability it offers to follow topics, give and receive input, but not become deeply involved/invested/obligated in individual conversations. There’s a lot less expectation of regular presence than I experienced on Facebook (among both friends and groups) and I like that lack of what I’ll call “attendance rules”. Though that’s very much a cultural thing, and I guess it may vary from subreddit to subreddit and I’ve just lucked out. I don’t by any stretch think Reddit’s the best place for bloggers and other content creators like David to amplify their work, but it has a niche and it’s currently providing some of the topical connective space that Facebook and others have tried – and failed abjectly – to sustain.
I use Twitter quite a lot and have met some fantastic people on there; adopting a wait and see attitude for the moment. Other than that, Discord and a few specific sub-reddits. No Facebook anymore – that place makes Twitter look like paradise.
Always meant to check out Mastodon, and mammotheer comments here have made me decide to take that step! Any specific servers recommended?
I think others have already mentioned it, but isn’t there a WHTM discord? I keep meaning to ask if I could join.
I’m waiting to see what happens. I use Twitter for my book review blog. A lot of blog tour organisers expect social media links for hosts, other than the blog.
The standard advice to book authors is to get a large social media presence before you publish, particularly if you self-publish. I have laboriously worked my way up to 3,000 followers which makes me reluctant to leave.
On the other hand, I fear that any criticism of billionaires and TERFs will get stomped on, while any amount of hate towards trans people and lefties will be allowed.
I think I’d better revive my Instagram account.
@Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
We have the WHTM discord.
https://discord.gg/MMJK7uXc
@ mish (and lovely to see you around again)
Man, a lot to think about. My plan at the moment is to ride it out on Twitter unless and until it gets too awful, then maybe check out mastodon again. I ended up a bit annoyed the last time I used it because I got on what seemed like a good “instance,” and then a couple of months later, the guy running it decided for some political reason I didn’t understand that he was going to delete the whole thing. So I guess I’m really looking for an instance with lots of media people and activists (esp. feminist and trans) on it. That won’t get deleted.
Reddit has some decent subreddits, along with the terrible ones I write about. I might even go back there; it was my main social media hangout in the somewhat distant (pre-mammoth) past.
I should probably join the whtm discord, too though I’m a little scared of and confused by discord, tho I think that’s probably just ignorance on my part.
Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts on this distressing topic.
We have an official Twitter account at work which takes up too much time for whoever is in charge of it (everyone above a certain pay grade has to babysit it a week at a time). Mostly we spend time blocking people/bots.