April 24, 2018, 03:51:28 AM

Author Topic: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?  (Read 1025 times)

Offline tebakutis

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Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« on: November 12, 2017, 08:41:53 PM »
It's only an inkling of a thought, but I've long been considering abandoning Twitter for a similar platform like Mastadon, or another service that doesn't have such an egregious problem with enabling harassment and refusing to enforce its own TOS. I checked out Mastadon today, but while it looks interesting, it's a bit hard to navigate and hasn't impressed me. Mastadon also doesn't seem like it's easy to follow people without signing up, which I don't imagine most people will do. I'll probably try it out for a couple of weeks and see what I think.

Other than Mastadon, does anyone have any suggestions for "Twitter-like" social media sites (other than Facebook) where authors can promote their books and content? Twitter is excellent for that (and for networking) and I enjoy the stuff I see from those I follow quite a bit, which is why I've been so hesitant to abandon it. Still, it's grown increasingly hard to ignore their refusal to address abuse and harassment on their platform, especially since they seem to have no problem with suspending or banning users who speak out AGAINST it.

Offline Bradley Darewood

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Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2017, 07:53:30 AM »
It's more of a fb alternative, but my french friends were all into Ello a few years ago.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tn-ello-app-20150617-story.html

Not sure if it's still going on over there, but it's full of creative types.

As for another twitter-- my thoughts are long form so for an alt-twitter to work for me, it would... well have to be nothing like twitter. God, when I see "journalism" that is 1/2 screenshots of tweets I honestly vomit in my mouth. It's painful. Tho tbh I've gotten the most flack for not being on instagram (given that I'm sometimes hired to do video work), but whatevers.

If you're sick of twitter you can always join me being largely ignored by the 13 year old SJWs over on Tumblr.  Tumblr is listed as one of several twitter alternatives in this article:

https://beebom.com/twitter-alternatives/

These actually look pretty cool.  I'm esp. interested in Plurk b/c the name is cool.  But Keek looks interesting (if you have a webcam) but functionally soup.io seems like it would integrate well with your other platforms and make for a great transition tech-- it just doesn't have a cool name.  Some of these seem to have way less users than Mastodon (like 780,000 right?)... which is wayyyy less than the 100,000 on app.net, but soup.io has 3.8 million monthly users (tho more based in Australia), tumblr has 183 million blogs (they don't interact much tho), not sure how many users plurk has but like half of them are Taiwanese, and keek has 58 million users
« Last Edit: November 13, 2017, 08:11:57 AM by Bradley Darewood »

Offline CameronJohnston

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2017, 12:16:17 PM »
At the moment I don't think there is any viable alternative. Tumblr is decent if you want to blog/post but nothing beats Twitter for engagement and being heard.

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Offline cupiscent

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2017, 08:55:12 PM »
Ello is RIFE with porn spam these days. Every couple of days I get a new "friend" who's only a pair of boobs...

Offline Cas Martin

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #4 on: November 14, 2017, 04:36:01 PM »
I've been looking for Twitter alternatives for that exact same reason, but not found a viable option yet. It's disheartening.

Offline Not Lu

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #5 on: November 14, 2017, 04:38:14 PM »
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the sites most readers and authors go to. So, if you want to promote or network you just have to live with the downside of the platforms. You might feel better being on Mastadon, but you probably won't reach an audience or many other authors. Bottom line, is the reward of the platform worth the work?

Offline tebakutis

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Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2017, 03:31:19 PM »
After spending a couple of days looking at options, I kind of agree with this, sadly - there really isn't a good competitor to Twitter right now, and I *do* enjoy a lot of things about it, despite their problems with enforcing their own policies regarding harassment.

On the upside, however, this happened yesterday:

https://gizmodo.com/twitter-might-be-removing-verification-from-a-whole-lot-1820487230

Twitter unverified a number of alt-right/Nazi sympathizers, including the man who organized the rally where a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd, injuring many and killing Heather Heyer. A number of alt-right folks lost their "verification" checkmarks and one constant ****poster was banned entirely, though some of the worst offenders (like Jack Posibiec) are still on there. Still, it's a start.

I suppose I'll stick with Twitter for the time being, if for no other reason than to continue to contribute to sane/progressive voices on the platform, until a decent alternative comes along.

Offline cupiscent

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2017, 09:38:52 PM »
I assume teb and most others on here have already seen this, but for completeness/posterity, here's some thoughts from Chuck Wendig on Mastodon (which, seriously, I keep thinking of the metal band and getting confused).

Offline Bradley Darewood

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Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2017, 09:47:03 PM »
After spending a couple of days looking at options, I kind of agree with this, sadly - there really isn't a good competitor to Twitter right now, and I *do* enjoy a lot of things about it, despite their problems with enforcing their own policies regarding harassment.

On the upside, however, this happened yesterday:

https://gizmodo.com/twitter-might-be-removing-verification-from-a-whole-lot-1820487230

Twitter unverified a number of alt-right/Nazi sympathizers, including the man who organized the rally where a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd, injuring many and killing Heather Heyer. A number of alt-right folks lost their "verification" checkmarks and one constant ****poster was banned entirely, though some of the worst offenders (like Jack Posibiec) are still on there. Still, it's a start.

I suppose I'll stick with Twitter for the time being, if for no other reason than to continue to contribute to sane/progressive voices on the platform, until a decent alternative comes along.

I really don't know how you can stand twitter. It's a total mystery to me.  That and white chocolate.  Who thought white chocolate was a good idea? It's disgusting.

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And young that take pictures and videos of their breakfast and post it to instagram every day.  Maybe I just don't belong in our Brave New World....
this is hidden in spoiler quotes for its excessive negativity

Offline shadowkat678

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2017, 09:58:06 PM »
I've seen writers on Tumblr, but it's a h***site of discourse, so that might be a pretty big strike against it...and yet I stay on it. *shrug*
Be not a writer, but a Storyweaver. For that, my friend, is how you'll truly leave your mark.

Offline tebakutis

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Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2017, 02:27:06 AM »
(which, seriously, I keep thinking of the metal band and getting confused).

Hahaha! I do the same thing *every* time. I'm not a *huge* Mastadon fan, but that's the first place my mind goes every time I see the word.

I really don't know how you can stand twitter. It's a total mystery to me.  That and white chocolate.  Who thought white chocolate was a good idea? It's disgusting.

Honestly, two things keep me around on Twitter - the fact that it DOES get you news much faster than most of the news networks (though you have to be careful to vet everything) and all the random ways it makes me laugh.

One recent example? KFC, of all places. Their social media account has been around forever, and has followed 11 people for some time. An intrepid Twitter user thought it was odd ... why 11 people? ... and took a look at their following list.

At that point, they noticed something interested - the KFC social media account followed 6 guys named Herb, and 5 former spice girls. In other words ... 11 herbs and spices.

>.>

Needless to say, he immediately posted his discovery on Twitter, with a WTF? attached. It immediately blew up and went viral, which led to even ME seeing it, confirming it, and literally going "LOL". Well played, KFC media person.

The best thing about it? A couple of days later, KFC rewarded the person who figured it out and posted the viral tweet with this ridiculous piece of artwork, printed out full size, which he can hang in his living room.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/kfc-twitter-joke-painting

So, that sort of stuff happens all the time, and it's not just brands. It's often just random bits of humor as one person lands a particular snappy comeback, or a politician getting owned, or pics/videos of random funny stuff similar to other platforms. That sort of nonsense keeps me entertained when not annoyed with the Nazis.

Oh, and sometimes something happens like Chuck Wendig and Sam Sykes improv'ing a comedy/horror bit:

https://twitter.com/samsykesswears/status/890751932779839488?lang=en

Offline Steve Harrison

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #11 on: November 17, 2017, 06:44:51 AM »
I haven't found anything better than Twitter for keeping my sales ticking along. It's also a great place for throwing out clever, funny and insightful political comments. I must try that...

But the best part is that I can spend less than half an hour a week using Twitter and still maintain enough of a presence to make it very worthwhile.

Offline SarahW

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2017, 07:23:07 AM »
I'll just list the ones I use:

Mastodon (Yes, I know.): LWFlouisa
Diaspora: ToDiaspora
GNU Social: todiaspora
libertarianism.club: https://libertarianism.club/users/1744

Emphasis is on decentralized platforms. I also make my own website.

Offline Bradley Darewood

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Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2018, 11:09:30 AM »

So I finally gave in and joined Instagram... well my Skyrim character did.

It's sort of a "bro science life"-type parody of instagram fitness models, but set in Tamriel.

https://www.instagram.com/killin_it_in_tamriel/

Offline MrTea

Re: Alternatives to Twitter, for Writers?
« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2018, 11:55:29 AM »
I find Instagram a much nicer environment than Twitter.

 
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