The biggest challenge I've seen for a lot of people with Mastodon seems to be picking the right instance. It's something you don't usually have to think about when signing up for a social network, but picking the right instance is both incredibly important for optimizing your overall experience, and arguably a waste of time in the very beginning.
Shatner’s on Twitter, too, which is a “micro-blogging” platform. It’s like a blog on training wheels, for bloggers too stupid or boring to put together a compelling paragraph or three, and social media gurus who don’t like dealing with people all that much. Ev and Biz clearly had no idea the monster they were creating.
Between research for Comics Plus (aka, the day job) and many hours of the wonderful Mangasplaining podcast, I've been able to zero in on stories that are most likely to be up my alley without putting too big a dent in my wallet. As a result, manga has become the majority of what I've read and enjoyed this year.
This time around, we skipped the origin story and jumped right into things. Epp let me rattle on about Comics Plus (aka the day job), Panorama Project and libraries, DOJ vs. PRH, and Twitter — and then cleaned it all up so I sound reasonably coherent. It's also on video this time, which caught me by surprise as you may be able to tell from the hat I'm wearing — I was a couple of weeks overdue for a haircut!
Of course, like quitting smoking or other addictions — and let's be honest, for some of us, Twitter had become an unhealthy addiction — it's left a gaping hole in my life. Over the years, Twitter had evolved into my main source of current events, engagement with topics of interest, and connections with people I've known for years but am unlikely to see in person any time soon. The spoke became a hub, something the marketer in me knew was very wrong.
