The number of self-identified thoughtful-people-in-tech whose social media energy still goes primarily to Twitter doesn’t bode well for, well, anything. I’m genuinely not judgy of people whose thing is Just Being Online, but if part of the self-image you like to project is “oh, yes, I really dislike fascism and care about other people” then… yeah, I’m judging you for still being active on Twitter.
A few tips that have helped me move to the fediverse:
- If you were very dependent on your X following and don’t want to abandon that, that’s understandable. If so, follow the Xlast strategy: yes, continue to post on Twitter when that’s important for work, but do it a bit slowly and less interactively.
- Don’t treat Fedi like late-period twitter, when you were picky about who you followed and humble about who you interacted with. Treat it like early-period twitter, when we all followed quite a few randos, and said things like “hi” and “thanks for sharing that!” It’s a small town, not the big city.
- Filter aggressively: Mastodon has great filtering capabilities, which makes following a lot of people easier. And also makes my 2020 advice on social media in an election year very relevant.
- If at all possible, find a server that’s specific to your place (like sfba.social or cosocial.ca) or your interests (like hci.social). The server functionality isn’t great (it is telling that the default UX calls it a server and not a community) but it can help you get your footing.
- Use an alternate client. Phanpy.social is genuinely excellent, with the one exception that it doesn’t do RTs. If you need RTs and can’t be bothered to copy-paste, Mona is very nice.
- I’m also on Bluesky but (perhaps because of which of my follows migrated there instead of Fediverse) it has trended hyper-US-political, which I have not enjoyed.
If you want a better world, you can’t wait for others to build it for you. To borrow a favorite “urgent optimist” phrase, you’re working in the early days of a better nation. Or, if you prefer: you are the one you’ve been waiting for. That’s not necessarily easy, but I at least am having quite a bit of fun on the Fediverse. Come on in, the water is fine!