Choosing Community Over Chaos

Introduction #

Last week was a week 🫠. Several events have unfolded that scare, concern, and sadden me—but precisely because of these, I’ve finally reached a breaking point.

I’ve long been aware of how some of the biggest social networks use their algorithms and UX implementations to serve their monetary goals (if you need a primer, check out this YouTube video). And in particular, over the past few months, it has become crystal clear how some platforms have been taking political stances, and how this has played out—mostly for the worse, in my opinion (source 1, source 2, source 3).

In this blog post, I want to share my thoughts and what I’m doing about it, hoping it might help you reflect if you’ve been grappling with similar struggles—and maybe inspire you to take action.

Current Status and What’s Next #

I think the best way to discuss this is to start with how I’ve been using social media, as it might differ from your experience. For starters, I have entirely dedicated/separate accounts for my work/developer persona on Twitter, Threads, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon (via Elk), and Reddit. (You can see them all listed on the homepage.)

The second “weird” thing is that I don’t have the apps on my phone; I only use them via web apps. I can’t tolerate having the apps installed and only do so when absolutely necessary, like when attending a conference.

I usually create content for these platforms by drafting them via Typefully, which is a product I like a lot (though it doesn’t have Bluesky integration… yet). I then manually copy-paste and tweak the content for each platform. (Aside from Reddit—I barely use that one, but sometimes it’s useful for posting links to specific subreddits.)

A side note about debug:mind, my podcast about mental health in tech: it has accounts on Threads, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube (in addition to being on podcast platforms).

All that said, to cut to the chase, I’ve decided that going forward I’ll:

• Only be active on Mastodon and Bluesky
• Turn private and inactive both Threads and Twitter (for debug:mind as well)
• Post only the important bits but not be active on LinkedIn (and even less on Reddit)

More Reasons Why #

Aside from what I mentioned earlier about the big-picture reasons for not wanting to support Threads and Twitter anymore (by voting with my feet), I wanted to highlight some additional issues that have been bothering me for quite a while on both platforms—issues I find annoying enough to keep you off them as a user.

Twitter Sucks #

I can’t think of a platform that exemplifies “enshittification” quite as much:

• They’ve been adding half-baked features for a long time, and most of them are completely pointless and useless (did you know you can post jobs on it?!).
• The changes to blocking and the blue checkmark are some of the worst product decisions I’ve seen.
• It’s still very much full of bots. Even on my small-ish account (8k+ followers), at least once a week I get spam DMs from bots. And look at the 250 followers of the debug:mind account - most of them are so clearly 🤖.
• Notifications don’t even work half the time.
• The algorithm is literally your worst enemy when posting.

Threads Sucks #

I had some hopes for this one when it started, given the promises of integration with the Fediverse, but since then it’s been a letdown:

• Just like Twitter, the algorithm sucks hard and is easily exploitable. Tom Warren puts it best: “Threads is just full of people stealing content, engagement bait, and grifting. This is why an algorithmic feed sucks.”
• It’s incomplete—for example, no DMs—and they’re lagging behind on their Fediverse integration promises.
• It’s called Threads but doesn’t let you actually read threads well. There’s basically no good UX when someone posts a thread and you want to read it all.
• It miscounts replies. Look at this example: it’s just a 4-part thread from me, but for some reason it’s counting the items of the thread as replies.
• Some features don’t work at all. A while back, I pinned this post, and now I can’t figure out how to unpin it—the option isn’t there anymore. (My best guess is that it’s a mobile-app-only feature, which… UGH!)
• Fake notifications to pull you back, like “Here’s a post you might like” or “This person is active!”

Mastodon and Bluesky Are… Good-ish #

The reasons why I want to keep using these as my primary platforms are multifaceted, though I still have a few reservations about both. Mastodon is an OG of the microblogging space, and while getting into it might seem daunting, after finding your server and app (personally, I like Elk for web and Ice Cubes for iOS), I think the Fediverse is pretty cool. I also know some of the people driving the Mastodon project, and I think they’re great humans.

Regarding Bluesky, I have mixed feelings. In the past, I didn’t see it succeeding—but things have changed. They’ve stepped up their game; moderation is in a good spot, and there are all the features you might want from a Twitter replacement—and even more! But most of all, what convinces me right now is that the engineers are not only active on the platform but are also responsive and listen to their community. Not just the PMs or marketing people—the engineers. When the coders are this involved and passionate, it’s, in my opinion, a good sign that a product is healthy.

And both of them are open-source and free from ads!

Resources If You Want to Do the Same (or Similar) #

At this point, I think I’ve talked enough about the “why.” Let’s discuss the “how” for a moment.

First off, if you want to remove Twitter, here’s a complete guide by The Verge. And here’s a tool in case you want to publish your old tweets in a public archive, like Andy Bell did here.

If you want to get started with Mastodon, here’s a great list of resources that will cover everything you might want to know—from what it is, to tools to help you migrate, to how to find new people to follow.

Regarding Bluesky, most resources focus on migrating from Twitter to Bluesky, and for that, I think this website is currently the best option. Here’s a guide from the EFF about Bluesky’s moderation tools.

One thing about Bluesky is that it has this concept of a Starter Pack, which is great for quickly finding accounts to follow. Here’s a directory with all of them. I made one myself with people from all over the OSS world.

(And for those of you who miss TweetDeck, here you go: Bluesky alternative, Mastodon alternative. I don’t use them—I can’t deal with multi-column layouts—but I’m sure some of you find it mandatory.)

Going the Extra Mile #

Around the time last week when the world felt particularly heavy and painful, the OpenUK team had a virtual meetup about the topic of IndieWeb, hosted by the wonderful Lorna Mitchell and Jamie Tanna, with Ana Rodrigues and Ryan Calum as speakers. I wasn’t very familiar with the concept, but Ana and Ryan did a great job introducing IndieWeb, the movement/website/etc.

I believe that, in the long run, we should move toward the idea of “owning your domain and using it as your primary online identity, publishing on your own site first (optionally elsewhere), and owning your content.” (In case you want to read more about it, here are a couple of articles: one and two.)

In that context, I think Mastodon and Bluesky allow you to take your first steps towards it.

For good measure, if you’re growing more concerned about Big Tech owning your stuff and your overall privacy, here are the Privacy Guides and Opt Out Project websites.

Closing Thoughts #

It took me a while to write this up and take action—I had a lot to digest, feel, and think through. The next few years are going to be a rollercoaster, to say the least, and I feel we need to do what we can to be at peace with the situation we live in as much as possible.

Focus on what you can control.

Breathe.

And keep going. Time is an arrow.