I’ve never really been into social media much, at least not for the typical social conversations that many yearn for.
I joined Twitter in March 2009, when I was working on architectural 3d models which I just wanted to share with others. I started to post updates to what I was working on, and when my content was available for sale, I used Twitter to share release updates, and links to product related blog posts. Twitter was basically just one of many channels that allowed me to share updates of my work and reach interested people that liked to receive news via Twitter.
I did the same with Facebook for a while, but preferred Twitter.
Over the years, I hopped on and off to write the occasional status update on Twitter, or even Instagram, but I've never felt the desire to spend much time on any of these social media platforms.
When Mastodon rolled around, or better when I took notice of it being there, it felt somehow different. Just the fact that you need to select a server, and you are not just one in millions, made me want to give it a try. I guess I have this zig when others zag mentality.
I love Ruby so I joined Mastodon on ruby.social in Nov 2022 and suddenly felt as being part of a smaller, like-minded community, with lots of other rubyists, that were leaving Twitter behind and looking for a new social home.
Mastodon, has a special vibe, which is really difficult to describe; I'd say there is almost this feeling of protection against growth to preserve the humanity of it. It's described as being difficult to join and adopt due to the decentralised nature, the need of choosing a server, no algorithm, etc. — I'd say that's all the reasons why I love it.
My Mastodon feed is very curated and expands really slow, based on things I read and interesting people that I come across. Lots of the people I follow have very strong opinions about the open web, which means that I (not an algorithm) create unintentionally my own bubble. This might be a nice topic to reflect on and dive deeper in another post...
I think the message on the Mastodon home page gets to the point:
Social networking that's not for sale.
Your home feed should be filled with what matters to you most, not what a corporation thinks you should see. Radically different social media, back in the hands of the people.
After the US election, Bluesky got a massive boost, with lots of the ruby folks moving to Bluesy as they found it to be so much more lively and easier to be with their community; initially I got really frustrated and significant about that.
Then Bluesky announced $15 million Series A funding, which felt like a confirmation to all the doubts for Bluesky to potentially suffer the same fate as Twitter and other social media, very much as described in Pluralistic: Bluesky and enshittification (02 Nov 2024) by Cory Doctorow.
At this point, although not really very much active on any social media platform, still enjoying following my curated list on Mastodon, I read Justin's Leaving Twitter for Bluesky post, which somehow calmed me down and even encouraged me to give Bluesky a try.
It’s complicated, but it’s not supposed to be like that!
My feed was empty, so I thought why not to try those fancy starter packs that are all the rave — joining almost 600 accounts in the "Ruby on Rails", "Solopreneurs & Indie Hackers", "Founders and makers" and "Build in Public" communities, with just 4 clicks. Now my feed is super busy and I'm basically back on Mastodon, enjoying my curated feed, avoiding all the hustle & bustle.
However, the best feed of all is my RSS feed in Reeder. I feel so much happier, reading various blog posts then anything else on social media. The open web and RSS (there is also a great post from Cory Doctorow why You should be using an RSS reader) is the best social network, and I want to focus on it much more going forward.
I want to use my time to work on personal projects and write more, which leads me to my latest project that I'm currently working on — Inbound RSS.
I started my work on this new service immediately after Dave Winer's feature request for inbound RSS and got it within a couple of evenings to the point where my own posts and notes are automatically posted from my RSS feed to Mastodon and Bluesky.
So if you have an RSS feed and that's something that you'd be interested in, follow my updates here, Bluesky or Mastodon.