Five Things: February 16, 2023
“A dim future for big publishers is not a dim future for readers.” Five things for February 16, 2023. That’s it! That’s the excerpt.
The Year-Long Scavenger Hunt (A 2023 Reading Challenge)
Comments on blogs aren’t really a thing anymore, especially on this here blog, but I occasionally have someone pop in via WordPress Reader, I think, and while checking out the blog of one such commenter, It’s The Bageler!, I discovered “The Year-Long Scavenger Hunt” at Birdie’s Book Nook.
On Mastodon — Four Months (and Five Years) Later
I still don’t consider Mastodon a straight Twitter alternative — at least not the Twitter we’ve come to know during the Trump/Musk Error — but it has replaced the Twitter I used to know and love back in the day…. Contrary to some self-serving media coverage, people continue to sign up and kick the tires — most surges apparently align to Musk’s latest shenanigans — and a lot of them are sticking around and, like me, enjoying the experience.
Five Things: January 5, 2023
Five things for January 5, 2023. That’s it! That’s the excerpt.
Masto do, Masto don’t? YMMV.
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.
[FLASHBACK] The Future of the Blog: Robots Win
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.
Five Things: November 17, 2022
Five things for November 17, 2022. That’s it! That’s the excerpt.
Twitter Detox
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.
Five Things: November 3, 2022
Five things for November 3, 2022. That’s it! That’s the excerpt.
Should I stay or should I go?
Twitter is an irreplaceable platform for me, and I recently learned I’m among its small minority of “heavy users” who drive the platform’s revenue. I’ve invested 14+ years and more than 51,000 tweets in curating an optimal feed that keeps me informed, entertained, visible and connected to the topics I care about most, and more importantly, other people who share those interests. I’m not as active as I used to be, but I’m still way more active than the vast majority of users, even among those I follow.