Mastodon!

Back in 2019 I first heard of Mastodon. I saw this: a Pi Zero with stats back at XOXO in 2019.

Since the Twitter changes, I’m using my Mastodon account more than my Twitter account.

Simon Willison recently wrote Mastodon is just blogs, having blogged for twenty years I definitely feel that. Anyway, read Simon’s post. It’s thoughtful and good.

November 8 2022 blogging mastodon twitter Make a comment

from Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CkoWtgiP4rd/ via IFTTT

51°F air when I hit the water. Standard Time. Dawn patrol in my future.

from Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CkmKWJtyJVn/ via IFTTT

I don’t think about my novelty among the surfers but I am. Two conversations today. (I ride in on the face of a wave, end up near a surfer). He asks: “how are you doing that?!” “What?” I reply. “I mean, what are you riding?” I hold up my handplanes: “handplanes—for bodysurfing.” “Cool! Thanks!” …(later)… A surfer turns around and starts his takeoff in front of me. I go to ground, going to the bottom—it’s in my interest to be well out of the way of large heavy fiberglass boards moving fast. When I come up, the surfer is still there. He missed his wave. “You scared me!” he exclaims, but friendly. “Sorry,” I say, sincerely. “I didn’t know what you were! I thought you were a sea lion!” “Aren’t we all though?” I reply. #bodysurfing #stoke #handplane

from Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CkjPP2Tvxnu/ via IFTTT

No beach yesterday but there were rainbows.

Twitter went private, then it got weird.

I’ve been using twitter since October 2006. That’s not a short amount of time to be using a service. 16 years!

It’s deeply weird to return to what was once called “internet time.” Internet time was what we called the era where brand new web pages or services would pop up and get massively popular overnight. Think about Hot or Note or Nosepilot or Flash games that made the rounds quickly. To see Mastodon suddenly get tons of interest and activity (I joined in December 2021).

This here blog persists.

Instagram seems like it’s felt no impact from the changes.

I suspect Facebook usage numbers have had no change.

Twitter however has been eroding as people try to reckon with what the new owner who took it private thinks the site needs. I’m not sure a ~~$20~~ $8 per month charge for Twitter verification was what it was crying out for.

Given the Twitter destabilization and the Mastodon growth I’ve been thinking about “Hot Tubbing” a bit. I remember the old Webmonster mailing lists – awesome discussion of web tech in the late 1990s. I think they made some managerial change or structural change — I can’t even remember what it was — but it was enough for a mass exodus to take place and WebDesign-L and Evolt I think were created out of that.

Moderating an online community–which is to say–governing a group of people–is not easy. It’s hard work. The satiric and yet accurate Hey Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run The Content Moderation Learning Curve is an excellent short distillation of just some of the issues any large community faces on 21st century earth.

It’s an interesting time. Which is to say, it’s a mess.