Social Media Wars

[Rabshakeh]

I follow a couple of people on here on Instagram and Twitter. It seems like the latter is now collapsing, but it's still not clear what is going to replace it. There are a few contenders out there: Threads, Bluesky and Mastadon seem to be the main ones, plus legacy Twitter.

I have no actual problem with Twitter. I don't see much in the way of trolls or political extremists (both the result of careful pruning and muting). But it is clear that posting numbers are plummeting and there is far less energy and engagement there than before.

I've tried moving to Threads but it seems pretty unusable. It's like the worst and most inane bits of Instagram but without the cool bits (and crucially without any of the accounts I follow on Insta). It's basically a beta though at the moment and it might improve. Equally, it might get even worse. 

Bluesky is obviously closed to most people still. Clearly it has missed the magic week when everyone has fled twitter, but, equally, it might work, unlike Threads.

I don't know Mastadon. It's been going for a while but clearly hasn't really taken. 

Instagram still seems great. No change there. But it's nice to talk and Instagram is not a talky place.

What are other forum members thinking of doing?

 

[mjazzg]

Money on it that there's more Facebook users here than either of those platforms. I'm not one.

I'm sticking with Twitter, I don't follow a large number, for the time being as I haven't noticed any significant exodus amongst those I follow.  Though I think there may well be a tipping point in the not too distant future.

Jazz Instagram is fun but sometimes can feel a bit like a manhood comparison site when it comes to pressings. Largely enjoyable space nonetheless and valuable for following record shops, discovered some nice stuff.

[jazzbo]

Of all these. . . I'm only on facebook. It started out because in some senses that was the best way to keep up with family. And it's grown to be a place where I can read about politics in a "private group" and find some interesting musical info.

I only have a basic phone that does not connect to the internet, so any social media is only when I have the laptop open, and I have forums to go through first, and often don't get to facebook before closing the laptop.

Edited July 8, 2023 by jazzbo

[Rabshakeh]

52 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Jazz Instagram is fun but sometimes can feel a bit like a manhood comparison site when it comes to pressings. Largely enjoyable space nonetheless and valuable for following record shops, discovered some nice stuff.

I find Instagram has a wider variety of things posted. There is a fair amount of swing, trad, South American fusion, etc. Twitter is probably more narrow and trend driven, so I learn about less interesting music, but it helps to find out about other stuff.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

What are other forum members thinking of doing?

Keeping the status quo and staying off and out of all of it.

And not thinking of doing it. Resolutely actually doing it. Or not doing it, as the case may be. 

[ghost of miles]

I signed on to Threads on Thursday and am still using my Facebook and Instagram accounts, though I often go for several days without checking the latter two. Still using Twitter occasionally for certain news topics that I follow, but it’s become such a toxic dumpster fire in the past nine months that I’m about to abandon it completely, especially with Threads taking off so successfully. Threads could use a fair amount of tweaking, some of which I’m confldent will happen. I haven’t seen too many jazz accounts yet, though, from either musicians or writers and DJs/radio stations. As for a “war,” Threads will ultimately win, largely because of what’s happened to Twitter since Musk took over. Lots of people on Threads are simply looking for a pre-Musk Twitter-like place to post and read. 
 

All of that said, this forum remains my favorite place to read about and discuss jazz, and that’s driven completely by the people here and Jim Alfredson’s longtime commitment to maintaining it. 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by ghost of miles

[rostasi]

Threads is just a horrible extension of Facebook inextricably paired to Instagram.
There are all kinds of reasons to not go there - actually, to not go to all of those
places except Mastodon (for now).

Bluesky, like Twitter is sh*tpost city. You wouldn't believe how faulty the actual
mechanism is even if you were interested in the BS smack-talk that goes on there.

Never went on the big social media sites until after researching Mastodon (notice spelling)
which is a world of difference and it's growing like crazy - and for good reason because
Mastodon is the only one who doesn't ask for your personal preferences and is
decentralized-based which is what "social media" should have always been about.
You also have their "Notes"/"Substack" connection which makes it so you can condense
down to only the people/articles that you want to see and interact with. It's growing like mad -
and sometimes it'll show some slowness for a day or two after a big migration (especially after
this last asinine thing that Twitter pulled - yet again), but they seem to come out of it fast
and keep right on moving - again, due to its decentralized nature.

[jlhoots]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Keeping the status quo and staying off and out of all of it.

And not thinking of doing it. Resolutely actually doing it. Or not doing it, as the case may be. 

👍

[Teasing the Korean]

I don't do any of this stuff.  I have a dummy FB account that I use to participate in some groups, but I don't post on my own page, and I don't have FB friends.

[rostasi]

Just wanted to say that I don't really "do" these either.
It's just that Mastodon is an open/transparent decentralized location
for info of various kinds. I don't engage with anybody there.
I will look into it sometimes as a small source of actual civilized discussion
(though I'm not interacting with them).

Edited July 8, 2023 by rostasi

[sonnymax]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Keeping the status quo and staying off and out of all of it.

And not thinking of doing it. Resolutely actually doing it. Or not doing it, as the case may be. 

exactly!

[Rabshakeh]

I suspect that what will happen is that in three years, those of these apps that have survived will have their own personalities and will have specific types of users.  For now, they're just different, crappier, versions of old Twitter (including Twitter itself).

The problem with Mastodon is it is a bit dead. I like it the most in terms of feel, but there just isn't the user base at this point in time.

16 minutes ago, rostasi said:

Just wanted to say that I don't really "do" these either.
It's just that Mastodon is an open/transparent decentralized location
for info of various kinds. I don't engage with anybody there.
I will look into it sometimes as a small source of actual civilized discussion
(though I'm not interacting with them).

All of these apps are great sources of information. I get a lot of recommendations out of them, find out about gigs, new articles, who has died, etc. It's not all politics or posting about what you've just cooked.

[rostasi]

24 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

The problem with Mastodon is it is a bit dead. I like it the most in terms of feel, but there just isn't the user base at this point in time.

Twitter people are flocking to Mastodon and Bluesky, but Bluesky is so wedded to Twitter and their draconian new rules,
that Bluesky had to stop new users from joining until they take care of their technical issues. Meanwhile, at Mastodon: up, up, and away...

According to third-party trackers, Mastodon currently has around 12 to 13 million users across the decentralized social network.  Fediverse Observe  concurs that Mastodon saw an increase of over 438,000 monthly active users during the long July 4th weekend for a total of 2 million.

Edited July 8, 2023 by rostasi

[mjzee]

I've been on Facebook for more than a decade - it's been a great way to keep up with family and friends.  I've lately seen a lot less usage and engagement - it seems tired.  I've been reading Twitter a lot more; since Elon bought it, it seems fresher and more pertinent.  Most of these online forums are a huge time suck, so I try to limit my time there (both individually and collectively).

[Ken Dryden]

I have avoided these websites and need to close my Facebook account. I am on MeWe because they respect privacy.

 

[rostasi]

Quote

“Threads is indeed automatically creating accounts for those who already have an Instagram account. Confirmed that with one of my lovely girlfriends.

That lovely 70 million number which Zuck is putting forward? That's just the active Instagram account number. That's it.

It's a level of flimflam and shenanigans which we've come to expect from the man who decided to outright support a genocide with his platform.”

…and you can't delete your Threads account unless you delete your entire Instagram…

Edited July 9, 2023 by rostasi

[Brad]

I’ve used Twitter for quite a few years and find it useful for finding out or keeping track of my various interests. Once in awhile I discover a new writer or historian and that makes it particularly rewarding. As a rule, I don’t get involved with political discussions because there it gets toxic and so forth. I don’t care for FB and rarely go there. I post on IG sometimes and do follow a few people there, mostly jazz related.  I signed up for Threads but I like Twitter better.  When I’m on Twitter I just see the content of people I follow whereas on Threads it includes a lot of other people, which I really don’t need. 

[JSngry]

What does the Hoffman board recommend? 

[Dave Garrett]

My engagement with Twitter has lessened significantly since Elon bought it, but probably not for the same reasons most other people cite. I have long found the official Twitter app to be hot garbage, and had been using the far superior third-party iOS apps Twitterrific and Tweetbot for over ten years. A few months ago, Elon cut off third-party developer access to Twitter's API without any warning, meaning all the third-party apps suddenly stopped working. I tried using the official app for a while before giving up, and now when I do look at Twitter, it's either via the website on a computer or not at all. I never used the algorithmic feed, and have always preferred the chronological feed, which in concert with the now-defunct apps allowed a much better degree of control over what you wanted (or didn't want) to see in your feed.  

Reddit has also limited API access recently, announcing they would start to charge huge access fees that most developers won't be able to pay, so the most popular third-party app, Apollo, went dark a week or two ago. They are preparing for an IPO, so I expect other changes to follow which will be in the best interests of the investors and not the users. 

Facebook I have long regarded as a necessary evil, as it's the only social network that many longtime friends and acquaintances use. I've never had an Instagram account and don't intend to start now, so I won't be on Threads. 

Mastodon seems to be the most promising, but as others have pointed out it has a long way to go to reach any sort of critical mass. Decentralized networks like Mastodon, and Usenet long before it, are a far better option than the walled gardens that practically every VC-funded/publicly-traded social network has implemented. The walled gardens'  only interest is in mining user data and monetizing it, and that means engineering their sites and apps to keep users' eyeballs on them for as many waking hours as they can. Why this is a bad thing should be fairly obvious.

[Dub Modal]

On 7/8/2023 at 11:59 PM, JSngry said:

What does the Hoffman board recommend? 

The Razor and Tie sets 🙃

11 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

The walled gardens'  only interest is in mining user data and monetizing it, and that means engineering their sites and apps to keep users' eyeballs on them for as many waking hours as they can. Why this is a bad thing should be fairly obvious.

Yeah, need that bill that forces these companies to pay consumers for the data they monetize to happen at some point. Will be shocked if it ever happens though. 

[danasgoodstuff]

I have a personal FB for family and friends and a FB page for my Studebaker Drivers Club local chpt.  Don't do Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, etc.  do spend too much time on the Hoffman forums and Amtrak Unlimited.  Rail fans make record collectors look like amateurs when it comes to mastery of arcane detail.

[Rabshakeh]

Must say, coming back from holiday to find Twitter rebranded as X is a bit of a final straw for me. The number of users is pretty clearly collapsing and, whilst it is still better than it's rivals (Threads is just dire, and Mastodon is a bit of a ghost town), it is increasingly not worth really carrying on with it. The users whom I like are now spread across three platforms and rarely posting at the rate that they used to. Probably time to call the old micro-blogging a day.

Still going to keep a lurking insta site, since it does have some good jazz vinyl accounts that I learn a fair bit from.

[mjazzg]

And the fact that the new logo looks like a dystopian proto-fascist organisation's armband symbol doesn't help a lot either.

Which Jazz insta accounts do you recommend?

Edited August 2, 2023 by mjazzg

[Rabshakeh]

Just now, mjazzg said:

And the fact that the new logo looks like a dystopian proto-fascist organisation's armband doesn't help a lot either.

A dystopian proto-fascist organisation created by someone with precisely no imagination either. Even 2000 AD could have come up with something less dire for it's bad guys.

[sidewinder]

On 7/9/2023 at 4:59 AM, JSngry said:

What does the Hoffman board recommend? 

One to add to the Joe Harley question list.