So long, Twitter, and thanks for all the fish

Elon Musk has been working feverishly to put a bullet in Twitter’s head, and it seems to be working. There’s a lot about Twitter that I really like(d), mostly around interacting with other writing friends, seeing updates from speculative fiction journals I like, and catching up on industry news. But the place has long been a toxic cesspit, and while I’ll be sad to miss the updates that I care about from people/mags/industry, hopefully they migrate to something better.

Mastodon—social networking that’s not for sale

For now the few things I posted to Twitter will remain, but I’m moving over to Mastodon, and I hope you do too.

While similar to Twitter, Mastodon has some (welcome) differences:

• No ads

• No tracking/targetting

• No algorithms to drive content or agendas

• Longer post limits (500 characters vs. 280)

When you first sign up, it looks pretty empty. That’s because Mastodon requires intentionality; you’re not going to be spoon-fed a list of topics, politicians, and personalities to follow. Instead you need to build out your own network by finding and following people and interests that matter to you. As there’s no algorithm manipulating driving you toward particular content, it’s up to you to fill your feed. This may seem daunting at first, but it’s pretty easy to get the hang of it, and once you do, it’s really quite nice.

It’s not a single island like Twitter is. Rather, Mastodon is comprised of ‘instances,’ each linked (or not) to another with their own rules, moderation, and purpose. I’m on the wandering.shop instance, for example, which is more of a home to SFF folks. If you're looking for more information or to figure this out, I found this write-up to be informative.