Where to Go When You've Had it With "X" and Musk

 

To paraphrase (or mug) Stevie Wonder: you can’t say you’re in it but not of it. That’s where I’m at now. I’ve been on twitter for eleven years. Through the second Obama administration, Tea Party shenanigans, and Trump, I watched it all play out in 140 characters (now 280). I’ve also enjoyed many PitMads, WriterWednesdays, and great friendships, many of which continue to this day.

But I can no longer support the meth-fueled-carney brawl that Musk is orchestrating, even for 18K followers.

So, when you’re DONE with X where do you go? I mean hopefully not to a hermitage in the woods or a leaky old cave. It's not my kink, but I don't judge. 

Just know, you do have other options. But where to start?

We’ll start with purpose. I like to write. Music is a big deal. I also like to talk politics. I LOVE cats. Then there’s the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe thingy. I’m a man of eclectic interests. 

As previously mentioned, once a week I engage in a promotion for writers called #WriterWednesday. It’s from when twitter was still a thing. I do a blog crawl, (sharing links to blogs I find informative, topical, or just of interest to writers) I promote fellow writers with new books, poems, or posts, and I post memes. So many memes. Somewhere in there, I also pimp my own posts. It’s cheap entertainment and I don’t get out much.

Obviously, not every platform is suited to my needs. I require a lot of lumbar support and knee ro— Wait, different evaluation, different product.

It’s easier if we get the also-rans out of the way first. 

HIVE Social: There's a waiting list and it’s a mobile-only app. I’m old and can barely see my phone, much less use a small-screen interface. That’s a nope for me.

Instagram: I’ve been on site for years, I only just figured out how to post something to the platform. It is still highly limited, (you can’t post a hyperlink). Hard pass. 

Mastodon Social: Lots of early buzz. Then the user experience caught up to the buzz. It is a community of silos. You either stay in your writer silo (or political silo, or music silo) or you have multiple user profiles. Again, no.

Tribel Social: Same as Mastodon.

Tik-Tok, Telegram, Whatsapp, no, no, and no.

So who did make the cut?

Counter Social: 

Upside: they have the right ideas. It’s easy to sign up, (no invites, no waiting list) and the community is strong with a lot of good-hearted interaction. Posts may be up to 500 characters, with hashtags, links, and polls. While mostly easy to use, the interface is BUSY. Every square cm of real estate is in play and it can feel claustrophobic. 

Downside: did I mention three columns? One column is the main feed, in real time, the second is friends/follows posts, and the third is your notifications…I think. You will still likely miss notifications, replies, etc. 

I’ve been on site for over six months and my stats are underwhelming to say the least: for 1K posts, I’m following 280 people, and I got maybe 150 followers. The interactions have not been as easy as on twitter.

I dropped CS from my Writer Wednesday activity in August. There simply wasn’t enough interaction for the time I tied up in it. Not terrible, not great.

Post.News: 

Upside: while Post News is not as polished as CS, the interface is simpler and closer to twitter. There is no character limit. There is some kind of points/money thingy I have yet to understand. Downside: the platform is still a bit buggy. It may take two or three attempts to post something, especially with a link. More than once I simply could not share a link/post at all. The notification alerts are not ironed out yet. Notifications I saw—and cleared—in August still show up as new but none of that is a deal-breaker. 

No, the big issue isn’t even a problem. The big issue is in the name “Post News.” That’s the point of the platform—news. Ninety-percent of the folks are there to discuss events, people, news. There is some writer-interplay but not much. Like CS, I’ve been on site for six months or better, posting my Writer Wednesday shenanigans. For 800 posts, I’m following 130 people and have almost 100 followers. 

But yeah, the interactions are few/far inbetween. I’ll likely go silent on PN, soon.

Blue Sky

I’ve been on Blue Sky for only about three months.

Upside: as the site was developed by Jack Dorsey of twitter fame, the interface is the closest to twitter and very user friendly. The character limit is 300 which is more than generous.

Downside: it still feels like a rough draft. There can be a lag for your posts to show up in your profile/log and a longer lag for notifications. There are no hashtags, which hampers building communities around an activity or even, (like #WriterWednesday). Some of the more…passionate elements of twitter have found their way there but I’ve encountered no hostility.  

Again, not much writer interaction but more than the previous cited sites, (puns). In two months: 400 posts, I’m following 250 people and have almost 150 followers. I’ll hang for a bit longer just because it took so long to get an invite.

Spoutible: 

Spoutible is, (as they say in the Army) easy to use, easy to clean. Like bsky, the interface closely resembles twitter with a 300-character limit. The notifications are relevant and near-real time. The community is diverse and I’ve had the greatest interaction here, to my own surprise with a lot of new author connections and even some of my old schoolies from twitter.

In six months and 800 posts, I follow 490, and I have 450 followers. Obviously, I’m not going anywhere.

Threads:

I’ve been on Threads the shortest time of all, only about a month.

Threads is the least like twitter, fitting as the platform was developed by folks behind Instagram. With that stated, the interface is clean and simple to use with 500-character posts, hashtags, and links. 

Upside: if you’re on Instagram, everyone who follows you there will follow you on Threads. There is even a handy toggle to move between Instagram and Threads. 

No real downsides, just differences. And, the differences are minor. Do you really need a cover photo/graphic when you have an AVI?

 

The community is civil and supportive. Everyone is pretty much just figuring the place out. I have engaged with a number of writers. I’ve also discussed politics, movies, and food.  

In a month-ish: there is no count of posts, but I estimate around 150, with 40 followers, and I’m following 70. The numbers don’t tell the whole story. I really enjoy the platform and look forward to interactions. I’ll be sticking around.

I may yet investigate other platforms. Sadly, twitter is gone and the sooner we accept that, the sooner we can build something better. BTW, if you want to connect, I'm EliasJMcClellan on all the above evaluated platforms. Stop by on Wednesday and we'll talk books, or any other day and we'll talk cats, or something.

I have no further need to discuss "X." It's done.

All of the images belong to the author except the very top image. All images are used for educational/instructional purposes as covered by the Fair Use Doctrine.