Preparing for the Xodus? Battleaxe considers social media

Battleaxe hadn’t intended this post to be about boring old social media, but, dear readers, I have to get this blog shared onto the platforms that you, the readers use. I know some of you have efficiently created email links to ‘Battleaxe’ for yourselves, so you get automatic notifications of new posts (if you want to do this, and please do, put your email in the ‘Subscribe’ box in the side bar of the posts), but most get the blog link via social media.However, some, I know, come via X-Twitter… which I am now considering leaving… So, let’s have a look.

Why hadn’t I intended this post to be like this? Well, I had planned to write about my new life as a Volunteer Wildlife Care Assistant at the local Mallydams RSPCA Wildlife hospital, but I have only been once so far – was laid low with a sick bug earlier this week so had to miss my day. I am due to go again on Tuesday, so will do a post after that. So, sorry, photos of cute baby seals will have to wait.

 

Back to social media then. For a start, no Tik-tok. Too old. Those that want videos of Battleaxe break-dancing in her bikini will have to wait a very long time….

So, the big issue facing most of us sofa-surfers of a thoughtful and liberal disposition is what to do about our presence on X-Twitter. As most will know, it has been taken over by the ghastly Elon Musk. His views are ill-thought out and very undesirable. For example, he preaches the virtues of ‘free speech’, which for him seems to mean allowing any old false and inflammatory crap on his platform.  Hells teeth, I don’t have to be Philosopher to understand the well-used example – the danger of shouting ‘Fire’ in a crowded theatre… You can report the most horrendous posts, and evil posters don’t seem to get sanctioned, which has the result of turning the whole thing into a cess-pit full of Bots, extremists and loonies. Also, he posts terrible things himself, including support for Trump and rubbish like how Britain is heading for civil war… and why change it to ‘X’ in the first place? My feed is now unpleasant and frequently aggressive, full of manic X-ers wanging on about Trump, ‘Keith Stormtrooper’ (why do they call the poor man ‘Keith’?), Covid conspiracies, Transwomen are Women, Putin and so on. I follow some excellent accounts, eg @GermanderSpeedwell, who writes about her mudlarking on the Thames, and @NialHarbison, who adopts dogs in Thailand, but they now seldom appear…

But currently, Battleaxe has 4,629 followers on X. A hard act to replace. The number has dropped because I am not now following anyone new, or accepting new followers.  I am only posting these blog links, and ‘test’ posts (see later). There are several other sites competing to be the successor to X, and currently I have a presence on Threads, Mastodon and Blue Sky. So far, all of them seem kinder, less full of crap, and with fewer irritating advertisements.  I’ve put a link beside each so you can read more about them.

Threads is probably the easiest to manage, because it is in the same Meta stable as Instagram and Facebook. You can post on one and the posts will appear on all three. Also, some of the ‘heavy-hitters’ from X are taking refuge there. I need to do more to test it out thoroughly, currently only have 36 followers! Somehow, though, to me it seems a tiny bit dull – a lot of verbiage and fewer nice pictures –  and of course it is part of the Zuckerberg mega-empire…

Then there’s Mastodon. I’ve got 402 followers on there (wow – how?) My bones tell me – and I may well be wrong – that it is heading to be the Betamax of new sites. It is a mixture of twee – posts are ‘toots’ – and nerdy, with all its weird different servers etc etc.  Am not drawn to it. It advertises itself as ‘open source’ – to be honest, not sure what that means.

Finally, my current favourite, Blue Sky. Why do I like it? Don’t know really. The app looks good, it’s easy to read, and the site has loads of strange and wonderful content. At the moment, I have 165 followers, but the number is growing rapidly.

At the moment, as well as blog links, I am putting ‘test’ posts on each, to see who, and how many, like them. Too early to see the results yet, but Blue Sky is doing well, as well as faithful FB of course. Here are the things I have put up so far:

 

 

Of course, I still have the faithful Facebook and Insta, and am not deserting those. Insta is just Insta, and Facebook (270 friends, 632 followers) is important to Battleaxe. It is the link source for the most Battleaxe readers, enables me to keep contact with old friends some of whom I have not seen for years, access local news, events and information, and pick up on some zany things. For example, a few days ago I got a random post about a group called ‘Manhole Covers of the World.’ Now, Philosopher is fond of photographing manholes, so I sent him the link to the group. He has joined it and is now posting his own manholes! Crazier still, I even sent him a pic of a rare Japanese manhole from none other than John McCullough, the poet from Brighton… who knew… Then, this morning, a 60% off Flash Sale crops up, from one of my favourite alternative clothing emporia, Desigual. Next thing I know, I’ve somehow bought a pair of boots, even though its still August. Check out these babies! Hurry up, winter!