Tag Archives: Twitter

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While the “sky” is Blue(r), X users are fewer.

Greetings all, I hope this post finds you well. ICYMI, in social media news, over the last few weeks, Bluesky has gained a massive amount of users migrating (or as I like to call it “skygrating”) from X (nee Twitter) as a result of Elon Musk’s November 15 2024 new terms of service. I personally find the skygration reasons legitimate, and that’s to mention many other reasons regarding what the platform has became since Elon took over. Before I continue, I’ll give you some chronological back history of my existence on social media platforms similar to both Bluesky and X

  • 2001: Joined BlackPlanet
  • 2004: Joined MySpace
  • 2006: Joined Twitter (user #14023, Nov 21, 11:52pm)
  • 2014: Instagram
  • 2017: App Developers Network (adn.net, Mar 14, 1:24 pm (now pnut.io))
  • 2017: Mastodon
  • 2023: Bluesky (user #25950, Apr 19)

Mastodon was my first taste of using a decentralized network, but I really didn’t use it that long because it didn’t interest me and felt like it was just another social network to keep track of, along with the fact that I wasn’t very familiar with the benefits of using a decentralized network.. I won’t go into detail reasons on why I continued to use the above platforms other than MySpace, at that time, was THE place for sharing music on many levels, BlackPlanet was my OG simply because of why and for who it was created to attract, Instagram was to socially share photos in a way you couldn’t on Flickr, for example. ADN was more a tech atmosphere and, finally, Bluesky, the so-called Twitter replacement.

While this post is not about why I like Bluesky and why I am deactivating my main X account after 18 years, but more about my observations about the massive skygration from X users to Bluesky. As of I type this, Bluesky shows me that I have 2000 followers and following 1500. In my 18 years on X, I’ve never achieved numbers that, on both sides, just because how I’ve continued to use the platform. I was, and still am, of the mindset: quality over quantity, when it comes to social media engagement. I’ve always been more of a consumer of information that interests me vs a social butterfly, so that information I tend to bookmark, archive, whatever such that I can make future use of it accordingly. I’ve also always provide enough in my social media bio to let people generally know what kind of person I am in terms of my interests followed by the general content I post. The combination of the two, I figure (just like everyone else) helps one make a decision as to if they want to follow me or not, as those are the first two things I look at when making my decision.

What I’m finding interesting on Bluesky is the amount of people that follow me (presumably as a result of the skygration) but seem to have nothing in common with me, coupled with the fact that some have followed well over 1000 users, but zero posts, and very little following them back. A general rule of thumb for me I never guarantee a follow back when you follow me (back to the quality over quantity thing). Secondly, having zero posts means I first need to see what you are posting about until I even follow you. Bluesky has instituted a somewhat recent feature called “starter packs”. A starter pack is essentially a group of people who share the same interests, this group (list) is made up by a user and present to the “skyline” for other users to peruse and decide who they want to follow in the group. I suspect that many go through starter packs, sometimes following the whole group, sight unseen, or cherry picking whot they follow, even if a said user has zero posts and/or being followed by other users they have have seen before. I suspect that is how my followers numbers grew to 2000 quickly since 15 November. I’m starting to see the crypto accounts and scammer/AI bot accounts make it over slowly as well – two out of four which I engaged with personally and have now disappeared, the other three I have blocked without engagement. I’m sure more will come.

I’m seeing an influx of content and users from X that share my interests and its very slowly resembling my experience on X, without all the mess that X is now carrying. As of today, Bluesky has exceeded 2 million members. Apparently I have “elder” status there (and if X defines it the same, on there as well). We’ll have to see, as time goes by, how things unfold, based on this article, Bluesky Says It Won’t Screw Things Up. I’m liking Blueskly and glad I got the invite when I did. In the meantime, I’m maintaining an account on X which has the sole purpose of being used to document my #100DaysOfCode journey and interact/receive information on space startup/Python coding/various other tech interest content from users that have yet to make it over to Bluesky. X’s November 15 ToS states that all public tweets will train it’s Grok AI entity….good, mine will train it on Python….something far more useful than much of the GARBAGE it is and will continue to be trained on. As for my main account, as soon as can follow desired accounts from my new account, I will deactivate my main account.

That’s it fornow. Be well, be safe.

Oceans of rhythm…

Fresh.

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Twitter and the (bitter)sweet 16!

Greetings all. I hope you’re well. Today (actually tonight at 11:43:36 pm) will mark the 16th birthday of being a Twitter user. My very first tweet is below:

I’ve seen the the evolution of Twitter since pretty much the very beginning, as the platform was just seven months old when I joined. Back then it was a veritable shell of what it is now – very quaint, innocent devoid of ads, the whole nine yards. It was not uncommon at all to see tweets about the most simplest (most would say mundane now) things such as what one had for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc to running errands, and the like (way before cats took over the internet). It was a fun time, easy going, with no such things as bot accounts, 2FA, blue tick marks, Twitter spaces, political arguments, and the like.

I’ve always found Twitter to be very useful for what I need to get out the platform – specifically as a vast resource of information that keeps me learning about topics that interest me, primarily those in the tech world, and allow me to learn a great deal. There came a timeframe where I didn’t engage in Twitter as much but even when I came back, things changed very little.

Since the news of, and actual purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, the platform, users, employees (those still left) and the news media have been in an uproar about the predicted fate of Twitter based on Elon’s recent actions. A good summary blog post (with linked articles) was recently written by Clay Lowe, another prolific blogger and Twitter friend of mine. You can find it here, it’s highly recommended.

Clay, myself, and many many other Twitter users have set up camp over at Mastodon, for various (and mostly obvious) reasons. The consensus across most of media is that Twitter will go up in flames, thanks to Elon’s continued activities. There are plenty of what I like to call “chicken little/doomsday” articles and tweets that predict Twitter’s demise. As for me, I’ll believe it when I see it. I don’t plan on leaving Twitter until I deem it to no longer be of use to me nor aligns with my desire for what I think the platform should be. I, like Clay mentioned, have requested a download of my entire account activity which is supposed to be ready for me within 24 ours of the request. As of this post, it’s been almost 48 hours and I’ve received zero notification of status. This is not the first time I requested it. There has been a mass exodus of Twitter employees over this past weekend, some of which belong to Twitter’s engineering team, so I suspect it’s possible it may be longer or I may never receive it – at this point, it is what it is.

As for Mastodon engagement, I learned of a crosspost feature called MOA that will auto-crosspost my tweets so that takes care of my engagement there. In any event, I’m still tweeting as nothing has occurred that will drive me away….at least for now.

Hmm, amongst all the craziness happening on the platform…..I wonder if I’ll still get a birthday card from them…LOL.

oceans of rhythm…

Fresh

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Exploring Mastodon

(Image source: CNN Business)

Greetings, I hope this post finds you well. This is the post for Day 4 of the #30DayBlogChallenge that Soulcruzer, Darrenkeith, and I have accepted.

For those of you unaware, Mastodon is free and open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services. It has microblogging features similar to the Twitter service, which are offered by a large number of independently run nodes, known as instances, each with its own code of conduct, terms of service, privacy options, and moderation policies. When Twitter was just turning 11, in 2017, I joined the Mastodon.technology instance just to poke around and engage with like-minded individuals. I explored it very briefly but never stayed around long enough to engage as I had planned to. Twitter was still very much giving me what I needed from a social media site I joined 11 years earlier.

Fast forward to this timeframe, the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, and all the, seemingly, chaotic activity that has ensued since. As such, there is a great deal of worldwide opinion that Twitter is going to go up in flames. As bleak as things seem to be, I’m not subscribing to what I call this “chicken little/doomsday” hype, but will take a wait-and-see attitude. For reasons I won’t delve into here, there are specific things I need to experience to make me leave the platform – until I do experience them, I’ll be around.

When I finally decided to re-join Mastodon a week ago, I found that the mastodon.technology instance, as of December 5, 2022, will be no more. If I recall correctly, it’s due to its age, low usage, and the server maintainer’s lack of time to fix issues with it that have occurred over the years. When I went to joinmastodon.org to look for the mastodon.social server for login, the page didn’t show it. What’s the deal with that? All my Twitter friends joined mastodon.social, but how? I never took the time to find out how and, instead, ended up joining (somehow) mastodon.online. In the end that was fine because mastodon is a decentralized network and that allows me, once setup properly, to follow anyone whose account is on another instance, so all is well.

In the last week, I set up my account, added links, said hello to a few familiar immigrants from Twitter and followed them, the opposite has occurred as well. Twitter will still be my main site until I decide to leave and until then, I won’t be engaging on both places – I don’t have the time BUT at least I’m properly set up.

I don’t know what will become of Twitter, but I’ll keep tweeting, while Mastodon keeps tooting.

Thanks for the read, oceans of rhythm…

Fresh

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Early morning musings: Twitter

It’s Saturday morning. My alarm woke me up to a sunny day and I remembered that have zero tasks or events on my plate for today.

I purposely laid in bed for an hour checking for my usual tech tidbits in my Twitter feed. Being a user for 16 years (an early adapter to, and adopter of, the platform), I’ve amassed over 65,000 tweets. Though I’ve watched Twitter evolve to what many call a cesspool, I find it invaluable as a source of information for things I’d like to learn about regarding certain aspects of our evolving techsphere.

With that, and all the impending doom many predict after Elon purchases it, I’m adopting a “wait-and-see” attitude. I’ve taken actions to make my feed enjoyable to read and will only exodus Twitter if those actions become OBE beyond my control.

Have a good one.

Fresh!

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The Doomsday being presented as Elon Musk’s Twitter

I joined Twitter in November 2006, upon being told about it by a friend I knew from the days of AOL Instant Messenger, iMusic, Yahoo Instant Messenger, and Blackplanet, Lis. Shortly afterwards, I began to connect with other early adapters like Ray, Kenya, Brian, EJ, Will, Terri, and Todd aka The Big La. “In the early 2010s, when Twitter, which launched in 2006, was still relatively fresh, the site had a dramatically different atmosphere. People were more likely to tweet about fairly mundane things: school gossip, lunch, Shonda Rhimes’ hit TV series “Scandal.” Twitter was a place where ordinary people could talk about ordinary things”1 For me, it was just that, posting about the what DID appear to be mundane things – what you had for breakfast, lunch, dinner, running late for work, how you’re feeling, etc. I posted about all those things and, in addition, mainly about tech and music production (to include podcasting), along with other hobbies of mine. It was a relaxed, friendly, and fun place that forced you to be confined to the microblog’s limit of 140 characters. It was about or year or two later when my friend DarrenKeith aka DK joined. He and a number of us, including EJ, Fave (RIH), BSOTS, and many others were hosting podcasts on a regular basis, some weekly like DarrenKeith’s My Love For Music, Fave’s Friday Favecast, EJ’s Wayback Wednesday, and my podcast, theSunday Soundtrack. We are all pretty much regularly blogging back then. I know DK and I still do.

Fast forward to 2022, Twitter has changed tremendously as Internet technology advanced. Twitter was once known as a social network (like Facebook), but that term died and has been replaced with “social media”. Twitter has adopted a slew of new features, just like many other social media sites, but with the growth of technology, the advent and ease of first person news reporting, the use of advertising, algorithms, mobile device social media apps, and the like, Twitter has grown to possess the good and the bad (the latter I like to refer to as being akin to a cesspool).

Recently, the news has been full of the fact that Elon Musk has purchased Twitter. Most of that news (I’d say close to 100%) is that Twitter, based on who Elon Musk is, will suffer greatly at the hands of this millionaire and what he proposes to turn the site into, with respect to free speech and non-anonymity. From what I read, it’s a forthcoming doomsday for sure. Frankly, even with all Elon has been in the news for, the good and the bad, it’s speculation, which I treat as just that. Many say they’ll be part of the exodus already, despite the fact that he hasn’t fully taken over and no changes will be seen for at least six months from now.

Being a user of Twitter for as long as I have been, I’ve seen its evolution and know pretty much exactly how it works. I choose to follow who I do and use its privacy settings available to make my Twitter experience as pleasing as it can be for me. I can’t stand its algorithms in the least bit, BUT, algorithms are innate to social media technology so it’s something we all must live with.

As of today, I have no desire to leave Twitter and don’t plan to UNLESS (under the guise of ‘”free speech”) the environment becomes unavoidably more riddled with hate speech and the like. If that becomes a reality, I’ll take my 65000+ tweets and hit the road – meaning I will not participate/engage as a user any longer. No, I am not going to create a Mastodon (or similar) account and start all over. There is one site similar to Twitter, pnut.io, 100% user run, that I will continue to remain on (since joining in 2017). What I will also do is something DK and I have discussed ad infinitum – crosspost my blog posts from my blog (or walled garden as DK and I refer to it), along with future episodes of my latest podcast Tech Times, and give Twitter users the opportunity to visit. Might as well leverage social networking tech, yes? I’ve lived without Twitter prior to it’s existence, and if I feel the need to do so in the near future, I will. I enjoy Twitter for what it offers me and have connected with many great and resourceful users over the years that have expanded my personality, as well knowledge in a handful of personal interests, for the better. For what it’s worth, I never saw Twitter as a “race thing”, but a community of global users. Yes, racial issues continue to plague us today, but nonetheless…

Time will tell with regards to my exodus or not.

If you decide to leave Twitter, for whatever reason, what will you do, where will you go?

Thanks or the read.

Fresh.

1: Elon Musk’s possible takeover of Twitter is unsettling for many Black users

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Ten Tips To Better Tweeting

Greetings readers.

Hope this post finds you in good spirits. I thought I’d take a moment to do a post about my favorite social media/networking site of all time, Twitter. November 21, 2010 will mark my fifth anniversary of tweeting, so I can safely say I am an early adopter and have seen the evolution of this micro-blogging site. I’m pretty much still subscribe to the original reasoning behind the creation of Twitter, though I’ve read more than enough times that some feel tweeting about the oatmeal you just ate is inane and boring. I beg to differ, in that it gives insight to one’s everyday activities (how’s that for “reality”?).

In any event, Twitter 2.0 (if you will) has evolved to be a major force in content and social branding. I simply love it for the info-push that I receive in various areas of technology, music production, and yes, those everyday so-called “boring” aspects of daily activities some tweet about. That being said are *my* ten tips for better tweeting.


1. Acknowledge new followers with a tweet of thanks.

2. Pay attention to the interests of your followers. If you come across information that they may be of interest to a follower, tweet it directly to that follower (or followers).

3. Follow Friday: If you’re going to suggest to your users why they should follow someone, give a reason why. A large list of IDs followed by #FF = #FAIL..

4. Retweeting someone else’s large list of #FF = #DOUBLE FAIL. Personally to see entire list of folks that I have no idea who they are is annoying. Call it a pet peeve, but hey….

5. Be courteous. Despite the origins of Twitter. It’s a social network.

6. Airing dirty laundry, twitter rage complete with expletives = #FAIL. (Yeah, yeah I know, unfollow the person – I do when it gets excessive).

7. Retweet info that you think would be beneficial to most, if not all, of your followers. If it’s just a few, try using list for that. I doubt all my followers would be interested in a retweet of how long a Shuttle EVA event lasted on an ISS mission.

8. Twitter is not a chat client (contrary to popular belief) . Though it can be done, I’ve found it difficult to carry on an ongoing conversation. The mechanism of Twitter is too dynamic (update-wise) to meaningfully keep track of one. Yahoo IM, Google Talk, AIM, MSN Messenger, BBM…you get the picture.

9. Relentless arguing on Twitter = #FAIL. You unnecessarily subject your entire list of followers to something they could possibly care less about. Doing it in real life is ridiculous enough.

10. When using URL shortners (bit.ly, etc), ensure that they point to the intended page before tweeting. Sometimes they dont always work properly.

That’s it. Have a great weekend. Oh, and if you like….retweet this (see 7). (wink)

peace,
F!