Do your thing
This might sound obvious but it bears repeating.
The internet has no shortage of opinions, some helpful, some not so much. If you spend too much time worrying about what other people think of what you do, you’ll end up stuck, second-guessing yourself instead of actually doing the thing that fills your tank. Let me save us both some time: the opinions of random people online don’t matter.
If you’ve got a blog, write in it. If you don’t, make one and start. If posting on Mastodon makes you happy, do that. If Bluesky feels like a better fit, go for it. You don’t need permission, validation, or even an audience. The people who say otherwise don’t know you, don’t understand you, and don’t get to tell you how you spend your time.
Ignore the noise. Lean in to what makes you happy. Do your thing.
Instagram moderation is broken
On Tuesday, I loaded Instagram and learned Meta had disabled my account. The alleged reason was that I was under 13, the minimum age for joining the site. It gave me 30 days to appeal before the account was permanently disabled, asking me to upload a copy of my state ID. I decided to trust Meta’s promise it would be “stored securely and deleted within 30 days.” But after review, Meta insisted I was still underage.
I’ve had a similar experience with Instagram lately. My account, roughly a month old, has been deactivated three times. Whenever I appeal, which requires me to upload a selfie to verify... something, the account gets reinstated within minutes. The reason for it all? Meta says that my account is related to a seperate account that’s on their shit list.
Threads still sucks
Against my better judgment, I decided to give Threads another shot. Unfortunately, it’s only slightly less painful than I remembered—which isn’t much of an improvement. The main “For You” feed is a chaotic mess of generic, uninteresting, and often offensive content. It’s filled with bland, overused questions you’ve seen countless times elsewhere (and often wish you hadn’t). It all feels so fake, just people posting literally anything for engagement or ripping off old jokes from Twitter.
One thing Meta has managed to change since my last visit is how much harder they’ve made it to access the “Following” feed. They’ve buried it so deeply that the app feels practically unusable. If you want to see content you actually care about, you have to dig through a clunky interface that looks like a half-baked knockoff of Bluesky’s feeds menu. And I genuinely cannot overstate just how terrible the “For You” feed is.
Case in point: the algorithm assumed I’d enjoy a post where some dude asked what the female equivalent of video games is. (For the record, it’s video games, you moron.) The fact that this question even exists is embarrassing enough, but what’s worse is that the comments were full of people treating it like a serious discussion. It’s borderline insulting that Threads assumes this kind of trash is what I’m there for.
After this latest experiment, I can confidently say Threads isn’t for me—and honestly, I’m not sure who it is for. The endless stream of engagement bait and the massive effort required to filter out anything worthwhile make it feel like work. Threads, like many other Meta products, isn’t about connection; it’s about keeping you trapped in an endless scroll of nonsense. Hard pass.
Remember Ello?
Digging through SEC filings, I discovered that the newly-launched indie social network had taken nearly half a million in seed funding from a venture capital firm, which seemed counter to its indie manifesto.
Wow. I completely forgot about Ello.
I remember when it launched, people scrambling to get access to it. There was a ton of buzz. Unless I’m mistaken, you needed an invite, similar to Bluesky.
I loved the minimal design. I also really dug the attitude of the founders, sort of a “fuck you” to the big social networks. It felt true. It felt authentic.
Turns out, it was anything but.
Mastodon 4.2
On the surface, everything looks and feels mostly the same, with the developers working to polish the harsh edges. As you continue to toot and scroll, you’ll notice wonderful little improvements and quality-of-life tweaks.
Great breakdown of the updates coming today to Mastodon.
Looking back at Mastodon hot takes
Mastodon has potential. It can be easy to use and there are clearly a lot of people trying it right now. But its weaknesses are glaring. It’s more project than product. Unless someone buys the code off Rochko today and consolidates this mess ASAP, it can’t survive.
This article is from 2017 and has aged like a piece of fruit.
There’s a lot to unpack here but, most importantly, the article is riddled with inaccuracies and misunderstandings about how Mastodon and the network of instances actually work. It’s no wonder he had so much trouble.
Hilariously, he’s since decided to give Mastodon another shot.
Post.news
I got my invite for Post and it’s rough, even for a beta.
Payment and tipping systems were prioritized over basic security features like muting and blocking (which are still unavailable as of this writing), privacy settings for posts are marked as “coming soon”, the mysterious “explore” section is prioritized over the feed of people you follow, and explore is exclusively US politics and the drama at Twitter.
Facebook’s problems are too numerous to list, and so [Zuckerberg] is pitching products that don’t exist for a reality that does not exist in a desperate attempt to change the narrative as it exists in reality, where we all actually live.
Zuckerberg Announces Fantasy World Where Facebook Is Not a Horrible Company
The Facebook Files
Facebook Inc. knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands. That is the central finding of a Wall Street Journal series, based on a review of internal Facebook documents, including research reports, online employee discussions and drafts of presentations to senior management.
Apple Music Twitter account fiasco
YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee seems to be the ultimate sleuth when it comes to Twitter, as recently he’s been busting companies for tweeting from competitor devices.
Earlier this month, he caught Samsung using Twitter for iPhone, and now he’s apparently busted the Apple Music account for using Twitter for Android.
Apple Music is available in a variety of places including the iPhone, phones that run Android, and even Amazon’s Echo devices. Seeing the Apple Music team tweet from something other than an iPhone doesn’t seem weird to me and especially not embarrassing, which the article suggests.
Tumblr banning all adult content on December 17th
Banned content includes photos, videos, and GIFs of human genitalia, female-presenting nipples, and any media involving sex acts, including illustrations.
My longtime Tumblr blog isn’t affected by the update to their content guidelines. That said, I find it infuriating that neo-nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups are allowed to remain on their platform as photos of “female-presenting nipples” are being flagged and removed left and right.
Based on how well users are taking the news, they might as well just shut the site down.
Mockingbird writer Chelsea Cain harassed by trolls, deletes Twitter account
Mockingbird writer Chelsea Cain, the bestselling author of Heartsick and other thrillers, deleted her Twitter account today after receiving abusive tweets yesterday.
In a now vanished series of tweets […] Cain noted that she was getting harassing tweets, presumably over the above Mockingbird cover and her work there in general. It’s possible that she was targeted from 4chan or Reddit as well.
It’s crap like this that makes reading comics in 2016 almost embarrassing to admit to. These people should be ashamed of themselves.
What’s even more frustrating is that this is yet another case of Twitter’s complete lack of control on abuse. While other social networks have begun rolling out tools for their users to help prevent this sort of thing from happening, Twitter seems content in releasing updates to remove links and usernames from message character limits.
Perfect, give people even more characters to harass comic book creators with.
Facebook considering autoplaying videos with sound on mobile
Facebook has confirmed to Mashable that it is testing a new version of autoplay videos in its iOS and Android apps – one that automatically plays the audio also as you scroll through your newsfeed.
Who besides advertisers would want this?
Twitter's night mode coming soon to iOS
Last month, Twitter added a night mode for Android users, hoping that it would drive people to use the app and boost its flagging user-base. The update wasn’t extended to iOS users, who were left it in the dark (no pun intended). Now, it looks like Twitter might finally be adding night mode to its iOS app soon: it’s included in the latest beta build for iOS.
I can’t wait for this. Twitter’s dark mode, available right now on Mac and Android, is a great feature. Fingers crossed we see it in the next major update to the iOS app.
Instagram tackling abuse while Twitter sits on the sidelines
Jacob Kastrenakes for The Verge:
Online harassment is a serious issue that any network needs to deal with, period. And flexible tools like a custom banned word list can let individual users take matters into their own hands to clear up their comments section, should someone begin posting hateful or otherwise offensive or tasteless remarks.
In my experience as a single white male, the harassment on Instagram is far less frequent than on other social networks. That said, it’s a smart move by the company to get these sorts of things in place before issues get completely out of control.
Facebook is killing Paper
Paper was beautifully designed and almost universally adored by the design community for its novel animations, clean UI and immersive experience that provided an entirely ad-free way to view your newsfeed. The app transformed the typical newsfeed into a Apple News-esque reader, complete with customizable sections for a variety of topics from food to politics.
I think I understand why they’re moving away from the app, likely because Paper doesn’t encourage the velocity normal users require while browsing Facebook, but damn if it isn’t disappointing. Paper was unlike anything Facebook has ever done and likely will ever do again.
Twitter's Android app gets Material Design inspired update
Twitter has announced its native app has been overhauled with a “revamped look and feel” in order to move its aesthetic in line with Android’s Material Design guidelines.
The earlier version of the Android Twitter app, in my opinion, suffered from a number of issues revolving around general usability, buttons were placed in awkward locations, buried in other sections, were tough to reach with one hand, etc. With this new update, thanks in large part to the Google design spec, it seems many of those issues have been alleviated.
The new design looks great, it’s much simpler to use, and will give users a much more consistent experience alongside the other apps on their devices.
Instagram testing redesign on iOS
Instagram, following the controversial announcement that it would change the order in which images appear in user feeds, now appears to be testing a complete redesign of its app.
I really like the direction they’re (potentially) going with this. Flushing the colour out of the app UI and really letting the pictures come to life and take centre stage. I haven’t always been the biggest fan of Instagram but it’s thoughtful, smart updates like this, rather than a couple new filters every few months, that would make me actually start using it again on a regular basis.
Who knows, maybe we’ll finally get a new iOS icon out of this too.
Twitter's Moments feature now live in Canada
Rory Capern took over leadership at Twitter Canada and stated the country is a top ten market with “tremendous growth potential.” Canadians flock to the platform to keep updated on the latest news, sports and entertainment and today it has officially launched Moments in Canada.
Moments reminds me of the old Discover tab that Twitter had a year or so ago but rather than a chaotic mess of information, it’s presented in a nice, digestible card view. Interesting feature, it’ll be neat to see where they take it in future updates.