I knew I hadn't posted in a while but I didn't know that I averaged a post a year and didn't do any last year. That's not good. Also I wanted to do a follow-up to my lengthy post about Mastodon.
I'm still enjoying it a lot. Tried Bluesky which is fine and I followed a great many accounts that deal with history (useful, right?) but they don't post very often. I can't be bothered to pop in there lots and build up a better timeline.
Which brings me back to Mastodon. I ended up not staying on writing.exchange and went with a UK based instance after trying several others. The yesterweb instance does not seem to get monitored much or had much upkeep done, I'm not sure if someone in charge is still active there. I liked that the character limit there is 5000. For when I want to write a literal essay. Then repost from my main account. There seems to be some issue with the Zirk.us account or instance, I should check if I closed that account.
I still haven't closed my old writing.exchange account - I dip in every so often to delete a few more posts of mine so I can easily find the ones that I haven't looked at in a long time. Then I might repost one that I want in my current timeline (listerally copying the text and posting as a new toot), follow some links to see if I want to save a bookmark offline, that sort of thing.
I have gone off Facebook majorly, their anti-diversity stance is atrocious, I just don't want part of it. Unfortunately there are a few people I don't have other contact info for. I intend to see if I can get an email or number. I am very close to finally deleting my instagram account. I had already unfollowed all the sewing, crafts and other accounts and only stuck with people I actually know, but the algorithm of what Instagram puts into your timeline is scary: it seems to know me incredibly well. I don't like that. With all the AI nonsense going on (even the MS Notepad suddenly contails an AI feature offering to help me rewrite!! Well F off you stupid thing. Definitely not needed, let alone wanted), that's too intrusive, too much, too way out of my comfort zone. So yeah, getting close to closing that.
If you are looking to try out Mastodon or want to know more about migrating from one community to another: you can take your followers with as I mentioned, and also your bookmarks (you save followers and bookmarks in a file each, and then import them in your new place) but I think I have not yet mentioned that you can't take your favourites with you. I tend to go back and remove them after a while to keep fewer of them. I haven't looked into Lists yet, that's meant to help you filter your timeline.
What I would like to find is a good RSS reader, and a balanced news site. I obviously access the usual but I am not fond of the BBC site (they were horrible during the time before we finally got Equal Marriage in the UK and I will never forgive them for it), and might access the Guardian more often but it keeps nagging you to pay. I'm not convinced that it's the site for me.
A lot of other websites I used to like have gone, it's the way of things: the world doesn't stop - it's constantly changing. I'd love to hear about useful new sites that make me feel that I'm able to dip into current things, the world's affairs. I'll keep an eye and ear out.
