The next innings of social media – following-on

Yesterday at 06:47 AM

3minute read

Using social media sites has always felt to us a little like building a user base for someone else’s website. We did however enjoy using Twitter in a casual, in-the-moment, thinking-out-loud kind of way and we always felt that worked well while games were actually in progress. But now it doesn’t work so well. So what next?

The comedian Frank Skinner used to tell a story about a gig he once did in Bournemouth. When he asked an audience member what life was like in the town, the response was so negative that Skinner asked whether he’d ever thought of leaving. In utter confusion, the guy replied: “But my house is here.”

The point here is that you are in fact free to leave rubbish places.

We’ve never been to Bournemouth, but we know what a faded seaside town feels like. For quite a while now, that’s essentially what Twitter’s been. It’s conspicuously quiet and nothing works quite right. You can sort of see what the place once was, but the general atmosphere is that life has moved on. It’s all a bit ghostly and empty – although before too long you’ll probably bump into a racist.

We’ve been keen to leave, but no-one’s really been sure where to go: Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky? Instagram? TikTok? Back to Facebook?

We therefore settled on the course of action we always adopt when people argue about where to go next. We sat still and waited without at any point venturing an opinion of our own.

In the last day or so, it’s felt like the balance might have tipped towards Bluesky. Even with only about 3% of the followers we have on Twitter, it’s seemed more active and people are clearly pouring through the doors right now.

These things always turn sour eventually, but for the time being at least, we’re going to give it a whirl. Here’s our Bluesky profile if you fancy following us.

It’ll mostly amount to early access to the same jokes we make on here but with a greater number of typos. We’ll follow you back because we’re pretty sure it’s the same rules as situations where you feel obliged to say ‘morning’ to a fellow tribesperson (hiker/parent/cyclist or whatever).

We do have a Mastodon account as well, but that’s just a placeholder thing really should Bluesky at some point develop an unsavoury musk.

Obviously sign up for this website’s email as well, which is the main, obvious way to follow us in a world where social network eras are shorter than the careers of England seam bowlers.

Some other things to watch out for

Partly off the back of this, we’re currently having a bit of a tidy-up around here. As we remove Twitter links from menus, sidebars and email templates, we’re unavoidably spotting other stuff that could do with a lick of paint (or being chucked away).

The goal here is obviously to make the website work smoothly and correctly. But, you know… goals are there to be missed. In our experience, you start mucking about with this stuff and some component or other will fall over or explode. Apologies in advance for any resultant shrapnel.

We’re not doing anything major, but if there are any changes you don’t like, just let us know. We figure we can’t please everyone, but we may as well strive for a decent breadth of grumpy tolerance.