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Eternal Beta Tester

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Yesterday Threads came out which is the Meta/Facebook/Instagram equivalent to Twitter. I tried it so you don’t have to… but let’s be honest I also sort of sign up for every social network that comes out. Someone might view this as me being fickle or indecisive, but it is just in my personal mindset to want to get in and poke around with a lot of different things. While I was a WoW Tourist for years, it did not stop me from playing every new MMORPG that came out even though I had no real intentions (until Rift that is) of actually leaving that game. Threads is not exactly what I would consider good, but it does seem like there are people who love the damned thing. My spouse is a teacher, and apparently among her friends… they are completely enamored with it. It also seems to be a big hit amongst the celeberatti types.

At its core… Threads is essentially “what if Instagram was Twitter”. My core complaint with Instagram and part of why I only use it for idly scrolling… is that most of the posts that I end up seeing are not from people that I followed, and even then nothing is in chronological order. Twitter for me was very much an “in the moment” experience, and focused entirely on the people that I followed and the things that they might have been retweeting. There was a sense of immediacy to the platform and if something was more than a few hours old… you might as well not respond to it because it was already “old news”. Instagram and Threads are applications decided to have some algorithm feeding you content, in the order in which it deems most relevant. On the day Threads opened… most of my feed was made up of completely random people that I did not know at all. On day two it started to feed me more of the people I was following… but also still a lot of randomness. None of this is conducive to a reasonable replacement for Twitter.

I feel like it is VERY important to understand that I have never used official apps with Twitter. Algorithmic fucking about and promoted Tweets were never part of my user experience. Instead, I had a very user-crafted experience and I was able to tweak the site and my TweetDeck layout to match my interests. This is also why I use Mastodon and what I expect out of a social media experience. Coming from that background… Threads is a completely unusable mess of an application. There is also the problem that it is mobile-only… and I really don’t use social media that much on a mobile device. Sure it is great for idly browsing while laying in bed waiting for sleep to claim me… but during the day I am almost always using it on a computer through a web browser. I didn’t start using Instagram at all until I could access it and upload through a browser… which I did by tricking the browser to think I was on an Android phone. I am not willing to jump through those sorts of hoops for Threads, because it just doesn’t add anything of value to my life. In fact, I had uninstalled it from my phone until this morning when I decided I wanted some screenshots… and now have uninstalled it again.

Blue Sky on the other hand… is charming. There is something about that platform. It has a vibe not unlike what those heady early days of Mastodon felt in 2018. Granted it is a different type of user that is hanging out on the platform than the deeply FOSS/Anarchist vibe that was on early Mastodon, but still it has a unique thing going on. Right now I am mostly there because the handful of friends that were unwilling to convert to Mastodon seem to have taken up residence there. It is still feature-limited, and I still think the At Protocol is the Betamax to ActivityPub’s VHS and will ultimately lose… but it is interesting enough to keep me logging in periodically. There is still an awful lot of “talking about other social media networks” going on regardless of your platform. Things are in a state of flux and I guess it is natural… but I also was sort of happy to have reached a point on the Fediverse where it was coming up less and less.

I think my core problem with Blue Sky or BSky as most users seem to call it… is the interface. I hate the default Twitter interface and BSky seems to be a carbon copy of it. I never understood how people could use that interface… or the default Twitter app… and was always shocked at how few people used TweetDeck or any of the third-party apps like Fenix or even HootSuite. Among the options I have found so far with Blue Sky, I think TokiMeki is maybe the best. It essentially allows you to create a multi-column view like you would it tweet deck. Some of the layout of the site bugs me a bit but I have gotten used to it. What I don’t love however is the lag involved with using any of the third-party options.

Another option is something called SkyFeed, and thus far I do not love it. I might learn to love it eventually though if I ever figure out how to make my own custom feeds. Part of the claim to fame with this interface and Blue Sky, in general, is you can roll your own feeds and assign some pretty detailed filtering parameters to them. You can then either publish your feed globally or simply use it privately. I’ve subscribed to a GameDev one and a Cat Pics one and they both work pretty well. Skyfeed has a helper tool for generating feeds so even if I don’t end up using this as my final multi-column UI, I might use it to help build some feeds.

I think the biggest challenge for me personally with Blue Sky as a whole though… is that I don’t really feel like I belong there. I mean I am sure this is partially just a me thing, but as a platform goes it seems to be dominated by the most charming shitposters. All I really want to do on social media is spout off my random nonsense about the video games I am playing, and comment on other people’s random nonsense. While I can in fact do this thing, it also doesn’t really feel like that is the vibe of the platform as a whole. There is a certain oily sheen of Twitter clout that I recognized when stepping aboard and does not really fit what I want anymore. I kinda want a bunch of unabashed geeks talking about their super grognard and arcane exploits. I have no interest in appearing cool anymore, and I am just not sure I fit into the community that is gathering there.

Part of that is absolutely on me though, because I am not sure if I want to fit in. I found a home and it is a delightful one, and while I keep poking around looking at other things because it is my nature… I am always happy to return to the blue-grey interface of the default advanced mode Mastodon client. I think what I daydream about is a future where maybe my sticking around on Gamepad.club doesn’t mean not being able to hang out with the friends that didn’t connect with the Fediverse as a whole. My hope with the focus on federation among the current crop of platforms… means at some point they will all standardize on a single federation method, or at least that there will be gateways and bridges that are built between them. I dream of an era when we all get to settle into whatever social platform feels the most comfortable to us… and also still get to share conversations freely.

I would love to say just create an account on Gamepad.club and hang out there with me. I’ve helped with this instance in order to have a comfy place for my friends to land, but I also am tired of being the guy who is constantly trying to recruit folks away from whatever platform they are enjoying. I had come to realize that I was just going to lose access to a number of friends, and I had been okay with that… but the last few weeks and the continued dumpster fire that is Twitter sorta ripped open some old wounds. However, I am sorry to say… I won’t be coming to Threads and while I am lurking there… I won’t be adopting Blue Sky as my new home. My home is and will continue to be Gamepad.club. That is where I feel most comfortable and honestly feel most loved. I’ve tried almost every social platform that has come out over the last few years save for the more toxic ones like Gab or of course Truth.Social… and none of them have done it for me. On Gamepad we have a little over 100 users and most of them are active, and it just feels comfy.

The Fediverse can be a wild place, but it also feels like home. I love gamepad and I love all of the other bright little hubs out there that folks have coalesced. I love how open and free folks seem to be in their discussions. I love that folks seem to be genuine with each other and are willing to tear down the layers of defense that we threw up while using Twitter. I don’t want to be cool anymore, and I am not sure if I ever wanted to be. I don’t have to even give the slightest fuck about what my follow count looks like as compared to someone else. I just want to be me, sitting on my virtual porch waving at other delightful geeks and nerds as they pass by. Maybe that is a weirdly utopian viewpoint of the Fediverse, but it represents how I feel about it most of the time. Sure there are little wars that get waged between instance admins that are diametrically opposed on a given issue… but being on our small little island we are often insulated from a lot of that. I trust Gazimoff, Aywren, and Scopique who I share admin/mod duties and I am always happy to welcome a new face that shows up on our shores.

It isn’t perfect, and I realize our little corner of the internet won’t be for everyone. However it is where I live now, and while I might visit other places… it is the only place where you can always find me. I still hope for a day when a bridge gets built between my home and wherever you call home, but I’m not willing to abandon my peace of mind to keep looking for a mythical realm that everyone will simultaneously decide to call home. Like I said the other day… there is no new Twitter, that time is over and you have to figure out where it is that you call your home.

Of Social Networks

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A New Challenger Awaits

Yesterday morning I rather easily allowed myself to get  talked into a brand new social network account.  Over the last few days there has apparently be inordinate amounts of buzz surrounding the self proclaimed “Anti-Facebook” known as Ello.co.  The folks behind it posted a rather lengthy manifesto talking about their high minded ideals.

Your social network is owned by advertisers.

Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.

We believe there is a better way. We believe in audacity. We believe in beauty, simplicity and transparency. We believe that the people who make things and the people who use them should be in partnership.

We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce and manipulate — but a place to connect, create and celebrate life.

You are not a product.

Yesterday evening it got me thinking… do we really need another social network?  I am a sucker for all things new and more than anything I accepted the invite as a way to go ahead and sign up and claim @Belghast like I have done so many times in the off chance that I want to use it.  This morning I thought I would talk about the various social networks that I use and what they mean to me.

The Network I Care About

During the launch of many of the social networks I dabbled in them, but the first one I found myself using on a daily basis was Twitter.  When I entered the world of games blogging it became my front doorstep allowing me to communicate and collaborate with other bloggers.  It doesn’t hurt that the WoW Blogosphere has such a tremendous twitter presence, but even after fading out of those circles I stuck around and found new cornerstones of the non-Warcraft landscape.  Over the years twitter has been a source of much enjoyment and much frustration, but at the end of the day it still remains one of my primary means of conversation with a lot of people that I care about deeply.  Ironically I would not likely be as connected to twitter today, were it not for the fact that my wife found such deep and meaningful connections there before me.

There is something genius about the sheer brevity of the 140 character limit.  It is just big enough to express a thought, but too small to go into much detail about it.  I’ve found the more I blog, the more I need my social interaction to be in small bite sized chunks.  So right now Twitter fits me perfectly.  There was a time when I was not blogging when I craved something more.  Ultimately if it is going to be a long discourse I end up posting it here, and simply echoing it to all of my networks for the sake of stirring up discussion either in the comments here or in the threads I post them  there.  The biggest problem I have with twitter is the fact that it is a very closed community to anyone who did not get in on it early.  It also frustrates me that I have friends who cannot get the name they want because someone who doesn’t use twitter at all and never has, camped it years ago.

The Network I Had Hope For

When Google Plus rode into the social network scene I latched onto it with both hands.  It was telling me everything I ever wanted to hear and more.  I shuffled into that network during a period of time when I was not blogging at all.  I’ve always found that I craved dumping my thoughts to the page, and need it as some sort of mental reset button.  Google Plus became this reset valve for me and I essentially started blogging regularly through the network.  The early days were pretty great when the only people that were on Plus were the people who cared enough to be on  it.  There were some really valuable networks of gamers and geeks to be found there, and it reached a critical mass around the launch of Star Wars the Old Republic.  Folks used it as a way to find other guilds and collaborate with them for events bigger than themselves.

Then Google opened the flood gates, and the awesome people got diluted by a sea of all the frustrating parts of the internet.  I watched awesome women go from being able to start genuine conversations about things… to having to constantly fend off the sexual advances of men making inappropriate comments in their threads.  I watched the people I cared about on the network slowly taper off their usage or retract into private circles.  Something happened for me at the same time… I started blogging again and more regularly, and my need to dump out my thoughts onto social media changed.  I started to favor brevity again, and as such retreated back into Twitter.  I still poke my head into Google Plus a few times a day because there are people I do care about that use it as their primary network, but I just don’t feel nearly as engaged as I once did.

The Network I Wish More People Used

When Anook launched it was yet another website that I signed up for but had no real use for.  I simply didn’t get it.  I expected it to be Raptr, but I saw none of the automatic games tracking hooks that I had come to expect.  In a moment of frustration I exclaimed to Twitter that I didn’t understand what was so great about this network, and why various people were using it.  At that moment as if by magic one of the hardest working community managers I have ever met appeared to explain.  The fact that he dealt with my frustration and quite frankly abrasive commentary… and stuck around to try and explain the mission statement in earnest says a lot about his character.  Lonrem explained that what they were wanting to create was not a new Raptr but almost a Facebook for Gamers for lack of a better description.  I made it my mission to start trying to use the site, and I have really enjoyed the interactions I have had there.

In fact I use Anook often enough that I have started to fear that people might think I was somehow being paid by them.  Truth is…  no one is getting paid, not even the amazingly hard working community manager.  This is very much a grass roots by gamers for gamers network, and that is why I have latched onto it so hard.  The problem is that right now it is inconvenient, and simply doesn’t play nicely with other things.  I can’t automagically syndicate my blog posts each morning to it, and there is no mobile client which for most of us is the real killer.  The thing is… I believe in its mission and I want to see it grow so I keep trying to force feed it to people.  I just wish it was a more active community, at least more active by the corner of the internet that I really care about.  The biggest feature for me is the Nooks themselves, because it allows you to carve up little communities related to the games you play but still all be in the same broad network.  I would really love it if more of you became active participants in what could really be an amazing community for gamers.

The Network I Actively Despise

Once upon a time there was this fledgling social network called Facebook.  At the request of some friends I signed up for it, and I somewhat enjoyed the interactions there.  There were these cool apps that let you do interesting things like draw pictures with other users, or make interesting buttons and post them on a virtual bulletin board.  It was a fun place full of light hearted interaction.  Then something changed… the world found out about it.  Over  a series of months it found like everyone that I really didn’t care about knowing still existed found me.  There is a weird social pressure to accept an invite from people you don’t even like.  I unfortunately did this over and over until my Facebook was full of things that frustrated me.  Essentially it became all too much like High School all over again, as the majority of the people who tracked me down were folks that I went to school with.  I decided I did not need that negativity in my life, and went through the overly difficult process of actually deleting your facebook account not just cancelling it.

The problem is in this world… not having a Facebook account can be a severe detriment.  There are lots of things that can only be reached THROUGH Facebook.  There were various contests and product giveaways that I wanted to participate in, and they all required that I have access to that network.  As such I started a new Facebook account connected to my blog, with the express purpose of only ever friending other bloggers or gamers.  It is pretty much a broadcast only medium for me, and I use it to syndicate my blog posts for the people who use Facebook as their social network of choice.  It is an account I really wish I didn’t feel like I needed to have, but until companies stop focusing so heavily on Facebook…  it will remain there.  You can follow me and I will likely follow back, but just realize that everything you are seeing is an echo of either Twitter or my Blog, and I don’t actually log in and interact there.

The Network Of Lofty Ideals

Now it brings us full circle to the network that started this present discussion.  Right now I have not made up my mind what I think of Ello.  There is a lot of what they are saying in their manifesto that I really do like.  The problem is the realist in me also thinks there will be a significant degradation of those ideals over time.  Google Plus started out this awesome place to interact with other like minded individuals… but mutated into a frustrating mess that is for some reason integrated with the world possible place on the earth for discussion…  Youtube.  At some point they have to stop being a boutique network and think about becoming a business… and I simply don’t see that their feature focused approach is going to bring them enough operating capital to stay afloat.  Granted the premium thing might work, especially for a niche site like Anook.  I would totally pay money to unlock more automated functionality to make my life easier.

For the time being I am using it… because to be truthful it is the new trendy toy.  I have a very small group of friends there, and for now it is a cool place.  The problem is that there are literally no privacy settings of note.  You either have a fully public account or a fully private account.  As such I think that everyone is posting very censored bits of information until they figure out how things like that will work.  Basically I would not post anything there that I would not also post on twitter or publically on Google Plus.  The design ethic pisses me the hell off to be truthful.  There is minimalism… and then there is crippling minimalism…  and Ello tends to be the later.  I’ve learned over the years that I am really just not a fan of minimalist design at all.  Give me lots of buttons and gadgets that let me configure things until my heart is happy.  For the time being I am somewhat rationing my own invites to the network until I see just how limited they end up being.  It feels very much like those early years of Gmail, when you had to know someone in the know to get access…  which has its positive and negatives.  Folks seem to be broadcasting, but not that many people seem to be actually interacting.