I really don’t like talking about Twitter at this point. I know it’s called something else now but it died when Elon bought it in my book. The people I cared about there the Apple community left for Mastodon. I was happy with that its built on a federated platform that encouraged third party apps like Ivory.

I think there was still kind of an uncertainty though. Many people liked to use Twitter to see what celebrities were up to or their favorite sports team. Neither of these things were important to me. But as time has gone on I think there was another milestone with Threads being launched. It quickly went to 100 million users and while I guess engagement is down there it cemented a few thoughts I had. I think the biggest one though is these platforms will come and go and it never ends too well for users.

Threads is owned by Facebook so I really don’t want to use it for that reason alone. But one thing I was afraid of is my Mastodon timeline to suddenly go quiet. That hasn’t happened luckily. I saw lots of people I follow sign up and create accounts but after a few weeks now on Mastodon it seems like nothing happened. It’s definitely the people I follow and for everyone it will be different but I’m happy things are moving still. I could be wrong and there would be things I’m interested in. But just like I’m not on instagram I need to be okay with there being a few posts here and there that I would like but don’t see.

Threads is so new and they have barley put in a timeline letting you see only posts from those you follow. There really isn’t any ads yet but there will be. It’s kind of interesting seeing this launch after watching Twitter and other social networks mature. You can see where this will go on Threads. Creepy ads, tons of data harvesting, and people trying to get paid to use the platform. The thing I really care about is will this be the place the Apple community is? Will this be the platform where people post about apps they’re working on. Post links to blog posts talking about things I care about?

While my Mastodon timeline isn’t dark there are silos now. Some people never left Twitter, some never joined Mastodon, some joined Threads. Twitter for all of its faults was the place. That was one of its greatest strengths. The place we ended up with is a fragmented mess. So how can we all keep in touch and communicate? Federation and how it works can be a North Star for letting everything become more connected. But I don’t really see that happening in a convenient way. I think the best case scenario is being able to see content on different platforms. But I’m not sure users will be able to interact on different platforms.

So with the fragmented state things are in I guess it’s time to focus on good old fashioned blogging. I don’t think Mastodon is going anywhere for a good portion of the Apple community. It’s not as big as it once was in the better days of Twitter. And nothing Im writing about here is a unique thought but I do feel like since Threads things have been clearer. Even if it was something like Bluesky going to 100 million users. The platform and its algorithms and people who run it were always going to influence the people on it.

I bought this domain with the expectation to make a blog out of it. I really like the name and the heavily quoted phrase it dates back to. I do struggle to regularly post. Either I’m unsure what to write or end up typing something on my Mastodon. But with my thoughts more clear I feel like I will make more time to write. To see what kind of blog I want this to be. I also don’t want any pressures or influence so I stopped paying for analytics to see the traffic. I want to just put things out there. Maybe it’ll resonate maybe it won’t. But while platforms will come and go, or will end up not serving the community. I think I need to put my efforts here in my little thermal corner of the internet.