Rawen's Musings

Alright, time for something rather bland but at the same time thoughtful. It’s been just a bit over a year since I started making my online presence a little bit more visible. Previously, I barely had any since I nuked my Facebook account back in 2020 (good riddance), Twitter I set on fire the moment the ketamine-fueled egomaniac took over (very good riddance) and my fledgeling Reddit presence which ironically got me among the fluffy folks I doused in acid and let it dissolve back when it though it’s “the shit”. And to give credit where it’s due, it is indeed “The Shit”; the one rotting and festering pile of narcissistic and elitist brainrot that’d best launched into sun and scorched.

Anyway, enough rant. Last year I stared my journey in the realm of BlueSky and Mastodon. In the case of latter I already had my dwelling but mostly quiet and honestly, a little shaky due to the culture shock. But that’s where the story begins.

Between the butterfly and the fluffy pachyderm

I’ve already mentioned that I had my place on Mastodon before already. Namely quickly after the X-termination of the blue birdie. But the place for me felt way too different. On one hand it wasn’t the raging dumpster fire but at the same time I didn’t really feel good there either. Way too many people “trying to save the world while setting everything else on fire.” So when I heard about the direct competitor to the dying bird, I was on one hand curious but at the same time not really keen on doing this thing all over again. It didn’t help that I was already bitter from quite a nasty and hostile atmosphere of some spaces I’ve been in back then and the “invite only” thing gave me a whiff of the type of elitism I personally detest. I gave the same response to a friend of mine when they offered me an invite, stating that I don’t want to feel like I’m someone “better” just because I’m in an “exclusive” place.

So once the “floodgates” opened for everyone, I eventually “caved” in, hearing that the place can be more easily curated and without the discomfort of the “culture shock” that is Mastodon. And truth be told, the place definitely felt “homier” at the beginning. Could’ve been the familiarity or the “lower constraints” of the place but I started to settle in quite well. Later I also started this little writing gig and having two networks allowed me to see what kind of audience will it attract. Is it going to be similar? Am I going to create a “bubble”? There was only one way to find out.

The skies are starting to turn grey

Time progressed and well, World has been doing its World thing. In the midst of this, my little presence has started getting some small traction. Turns out that I had something to say to the world and apparently folks like the occasional rambles of this fur-covered being :3 However, what also started happening was the development of the interactions and the atmosphere in the spaces. On BlueSky, I always felt like things were bit more light-hearted when it comes to my feeds but when I ventured into the more “public squares”, the shadow of “benign but hostile superiority” loomed over them. Mastodon on the other hand, while still maintaining its weirdly “restrictive” ruleset, began feeling more authentic. I started fostering the more, how to say it … mature? presentation while managing to keep the overall informal tone (trust me, just because I talk like a book doesn’t mean I can’t let loose a little). Sure, given the nature of the place, sometimes you also hit the “mildly unhinged radical” type of person who behaves like a swarm of unguided bombs but not only it’s easier to curate but this stuff doesn’t proliferate as easily.

You can take people out of Twitter …

… but you can’t take Twitter out of people. A response I’ve given to a fellow Mastodon dweller here when they expressed similar feelings. And it’s frankly quite an accurate observation. When BlueSky opened the gates, the place had this “honeymoon” phase when it felt like a breath of humanity in the sea of clout-chasing, trash-talking and other corrosive stuff known from the “mainstream” social spaces. But as time passed, I’ve started observing the same behaviours – the pillorying, the benign superiority, the “we’re not like them” attitude. But since it was from the “correct” camp, it was observed as acceptable. But is it really acceptable?

I remember an article that circulated around the social space about a month ago which compared BlueSky to a containment dome. I immediately dismissed the article since it was written in the typical “fash trash” language but there is one merit to the analogy. The place is indeed a containment dome; a containment dome for people who can’t take the hit. Sure, many can “dish out the pain” but they can do the same anywhere. But being able to take it, that’s a different story. And I don’t mean arguing with a raging monkey. That’s a pointless endeavour. I’m talking about being able to offer something else than more of the same. Because if you just behave like an insufferable dick, it doesn’t matter what your “life philosophy” is. Anyway, that’s not the point of my retrospective/rant here.

In the end, BlueSky started turning really sour slowly but surely. The place is deteriorating at an alarming rate, relative to previous spaces. How? Because the behaivour is still the same. People use it in the exact same way, not understanding that this urge to “be a moral victor” is one of the reasons why the things are going to fall apart. It also doesn’t help that BlueSky is putting a lot of weight on the people when it comes to curation even on larger scale (labeling, block lists etc.). Sure, the idea is good on paper but are you sure people there can handle the responsibility? The tools are already being abused and little is being done to correct the course. Add some spice in the shape of some “bad faith” features making a come back because “people are used to them” and THE question comes up: “When is it going to crash and burn?”

Chilling with the fluffy giant

And this is why over the course of time, Mastodon is starting to win, at least in my book. Yes, my active “audience” overlaps between both but the key is the feel of the place when venturing out of the comfort of your “digital home”. The “global” timeline there feels much less forced, being fully chronological and not pushed by any algorithm (yes, BlueSky HAS algortihmic timelines in feeds so it’s succeptible to exactly the same rot as all the others) and when something that would drive me insane decides to show up, I know it’s “just a fluke” and it either goes away or if the author turns out to be more abrasive … the cureation tools are available.

“But … but the content warnings! You have to censor the silliest things …” Shhh. Hush my dear and let me tell you a secret. First, it’s not censorship because you’re still free to say it. But it’s up to the recipient whether they accept your message and most importantly, WHEN. And here lies, in my opinion, the core reason why so many people have problems with that. Because they can’t just “shove things down your throat”. They have to give this level of control away. And since many people are chasing clout more than being their genuine selves, anything that doesn’t allow them to score “cheap points” is an obstacle. So ironically, even though I personally find some of the CW policies a little heavy-handed, they seem to be part of the “secret sauce” that make Mastodon easier to handle in the long run. And yes, the technical hurdle of “choosing the right home” is there and the risk of an instance owner/moderator going apeshit is there but here’s the thing. The former is part of the charm of Mastodon; you get to “choose” your “hometown” to build your virtual house in. As for the latter, the point is rather moot because this is a risk everywhere since it’s not tied to the platform, rather it’s a result of wrong staff. And even then, despite the technical workings of migrating instances are similar to moving houses, how likely is such thing to happen if you know your instance mostly aligns with you?

“But … but what about my reach?” My dear reader, if this is your concern, professional or personal, then let me introduce you to a rule from investing (and yes, now I’m going to sound like the most stereotypical conman): diversify. That’s mostly it. If you need to maximise your potential reach, you need to be on multiple platforms as long as they won’t be openly hostile towards your business. Moreover, algorithmically boosted reach doesn’t really help your cause in the long run because eventually, you’ll start serving that instead of the customers you should and are likely trying to approach in the first place. But that’s a whole another story and I’m no “marketing expert” (mostly because I detest “artificial growth”).

So yeah, while the butterfly is slowly heading towards losing the sparkle from its wings (eventually the wings themselves), the fuzzy pachyderm is still just doing its own thing and living its happy life in many incarnations. I’m still present on both, mostly because many of my fellow furs are there but if I were to choose to stay on one, Mastodon would be my “winning” choice now; of course as long as it doesn’t start tripping over its own rules but that can be alleviated. And something tells me that it’ll “win the race” in the long run.

R.R.A.