The evidence of the past decade and a half argues strongly that platform corporations are structurally incapable of good governance, primarily because most of their central aims (continuous growth, market dominance, profit via extraction) conflict with many basic human and societal needs.

source: Bad shape

I’m finding it difficult being “off” social media right now. Every time there’s a lull in my thoughts, I want to reach for one of my feeds. It’s how I avoid doing anything useful.

I want social media to be a source of information and not purely entertainment, but it usually ends up being entertainment. Also, it’s often infuriating, which is why I stepped away in the first place.

One thing I’ve noticed is that when I’m not sharing things, I feel kind of invisible. I like sharing things. My blog(s) are good for sharing. It’s what they’re for. But not having comments on the blogs means there’s not much actual engagement. I like engagement :). That’s what Mastodon (and more recently, Micro.blog) is good at, which is why I find it difficult to leave.

Dammit I just lost an hour on Mastodon even though I’m supposed to be “off” social media. I have nothing to show for it, either. It’s insidious!

I lost my head for a second and thought maybe I’d do the whole “Emacs from scratch” thing again. This time, I tried the new beta branch of Crafted Emacs because I like their approach on the new version. But yeah, it’s beta and things broke and I’m not good enough to troubleshoot. Back to Doom for now.

Twitter was the place I liked to be from 2006 until 2022. Or more accurately, it was the place I liked to be from 2006 until around 2015. After that, it was the place I felt I needed to be. Still, I managed to curate my Twitter feed well enough to avoid most of the awful bits. I’m a CIS white male, which made it easier of course.

Then Musk happened. I gave him the benefit of much doubt, hoping that just maybe he would “fix” things. The opposite has happened so far, so I’m out. I visit every few days to see if I’ve missed anything from my friends still there, but otherwise, it’s no longer a place I want to spend time or contribute to. It’s quite sad, honestly.

I decided that a single-player Mastodon instance isn’t ideal. It’s overkill for one person, and it’s lonely! The #local feed is just me shouting to myself. That’s no fun. What’s the point in having a giant Rails app with all sorts of moderation tools, user management, and monthy costs if it’s just me? That’s what I thought, so I’ve moved.

First, I considered heading back to fosstodon.org. The vibe there is kind of what it’s like to be in my head, but it also ends up feeling a little narrow-scoped, if that makes sense, so I decided against it.

This is not a review, but I wanted to jot down some notes after a few days in a new app that I’m enjoying very much: Wavelength Messenger. You might like to read John Gruber’s post for details.

My wife believes that I have some kind of processing disorder that causes me to quickly become overwhelmed by too much simultaneous input. She discovered this after several visits to the local Costco. After a few minutes in a busy Costco, I sort of shut down and become surly. I can only think about leaving. I’m no fun in a Costco.

In mastodon technology Shutdown, Ash Furrow writes:

I have sad news that I have decided to shut down the mastodon.technology instance. In accordance with the Mastodon Server Covenant, the server will be shut down no earlier than December 1, 2022.

Ash Furrow

I’ve been on the Mastodon.technology instance for nearly 5 years. It’s been great, but given the coming shutdown I needed to find a new instance.

I almost gave up on the whole Fediverse. After all, I’ve been on Twitter for nearly 20 years already. Never had to move or change anything. That’s of course no guarantee, but you know. Plus, it’s Twitter.