Alternatives to Twitter / X for birders (2 Viewers)

[kb57]

You can see the feed of who you follow, there is a local server feed of everything on your server, and a wider feed of everything posted anywhere on Mastodon by friends of friends I think.

In fact, I've just switched to the app "tooot", and I have the choice of:
Home feed: Everyone I'm following.
Local: everything on my local Server,
Federated: an unfiltered view of everything on mastodon, except banned servers, and
Explore: which has trending subjects; Plus I can add other Servers, such as birdon.social, for a look at what is being posted on that instance.

So is joining Mastodon worthwhile because of the 'birdon.social' server? Or is it too early to tell?

With X / Twitter, I agree that avoiding 'for you' filters out a lot of the unsavoury stuff, but at the same time enables you to avoid people who's opinion you may disagree, which I'm not sure is always a good thing?

 

[pppppvvvv]

So is joining Mastodon worthwhile because of the 'birdon.social' server? Or is it too early to tell?

No, I'm not finding a great deal on birdon.social. Every now and then it gets a boost with a new joiner with relevant posts, but it never seems to get any critical mass. I just follow the interesting folk that land there!

In fact, most of the themed servers are a bit of a disappointment, except for ecoevo.social which I enrolled onto. That at least has a few posts that are interesting to me.


I think the whole idea of specialist servers doesn't really work as well as you'd hope. Everything is scattered across the whole system, or people have multiple interests etc. So a birder into football might join birdon.social, then post loads about sports.
Following hashtags seems to be the best way to get a focused list of posts.

 

[Owene]

Gave up on twitter today. The sheer number of vile racists it was throwing up on the for you thread just got too wearing. You get 30 days to change your mind so might go back when my mood changes Will miss the bird content though

 

[pppppvvvv]

With X / Twitter, I agree that avoiding 'for you' filters out a lot of the unsavoury stuff, but at the same time enables you to avoid people who's opinion you may disagree, which I'm not sure is always a good thing?

I've recently made a deal with myself, and the Internet in general, that if I don't spout my personal views on a subject, I shouldn't have to listen to others spouting about the same thing!

However, the "for you" feed is needed to find new people to follow, when the algorithms do their job properly and recommend someone relevant. So avoiding it will cause your news to eventually dry up(?)

 

[Scozmos]

No, I'm not finding a great deal on birdon.social. Every now and then it gets a boost with a new joiner with relevant posts, but it never seems to get any critical mass. I just follow the interesting folk that land there!

In fact, most of the themed servers are a bit of a disappointment, except for ecoevo.social which I enrolled onto. That at least has a few posts that are interesting to me.


I think the whole idea of specialist servers doesn't really work as well as you'd hope. Everything is scattered across the whole system, or people have multiple interests etc. So a birder into football might join birdon.social, then post loads about sports.
Following hashtags seems to be the best way to get a focused list of posts.

I joined birdon.social eventually after trying another but I agree Peter, Mastodon is pretty quiet at the moment and you have to find those that interest you, following hashtags helps but I have had it with FB and never got into Twitter/X at all despite having an account with lots of "followers"
One good thing from Mastodon is the total lack of algorithms and "for you" junk

 

[kb57]

Gave up on twitter today. The sheer number of vile racists it was throwing up on the for you thread just got too wearing. You get 30 days to change your mind so might go back when my mood changes Will miss the bird content though

Open a different account - you are allowed more than one - and strictly limit your follows and posts to birding / nature accounts, and you should be OK. I have a photography-biased second account, and all I get in the 'for you' feed is whimsical landscapes and flowers. Unfortunately I can't say the same about my main account, which mixes birding and nature conservation with politics and sport - even here, I've filtered out the worst by blocking.

 

[Owene]

Thanks, it wasn't so much the for you itself it was mainly stuff I was ok with, it was opening any post at all about current affairs and having to wade through a bunch of awful, largely blue tick, responses. I'll probably go back in a week or two and just limit engagement in the way people are saying

 

[Mono]

The usefulness of social media is basically a numbers game. I have tried out the various Twitter alternatives and none of them cut the mustard. No because of technical reasons they just have orders of magnitude less users.

 

[MiddleRiver]

…was just reading about lack of censorship as hamas vids get shared on X. So, I remain in the ‘won’t support musk camp’. I know it doesn’t make one whit of difference but that’s just the way I roll…

 

[MikeInPA]

Thought-provoking article, although it's made me worry about what was I previously regarded as one of the positives of visiting Japan - 'Hackers have shown that they can access everything from a smart toilet in Japan to a self-driving car in the US. The more automated our lives become, the easier it will be for those who wish us harm to interfere with our lives.'

Seriously though, it makes some good points - but there are other choices which still allow us to enjoy the benefits of borderless digital communication, which was more or less what provoked my OP - can / should we as birders be migrating (excuse pun) to a more benign digital social media platform in terms of ownership and ethos?

When I was last in Japan in 2001 was very impressed with the smart toilets with built in Mission Control. I found the temperature controlled jet of water right where the sun don't shine very invigorating.

 

[kb57]

When I was last in Japan in 2001 was very impressed with the smart toilets with built in Mission Control. I found the temperature controlled jet of water right where the sun don't shine very invigorating.

Agreed, which is why having a toilet hacked with malign intent would be unfortunate!

 

[pppppvvvv]

I have an invite code for bluesky if anyone is interested message me. First come, and I'll work down the list as I get more codes. Think it's 1 code per week at the moment. (Known birdforum user's only lol)

Very similar to Twitter, and I suspect this will be a real alternative when it opens it's doors fully.
#birds! And #UK Birding seem to have plenty of traffic.

 

[Mono]

Yes please

 

[pppppvvvv]

Yes please

Sent to your inbox

 

[Mono]

Looks very Twittery. Just have to start rebuilding my following list. A lot of folk still on Twitter, some have jumped to Threads, some to Mastodon, some to Bluesky, some cross posting everything. It is going to take a while before everything settles down and I won't have to check four different things to get what I was getting on Twitter.

 

[MiddleRiver]

I have an invite code for bluesky if anyone is interested message me. First come, and I'll work down the list as I get more codes. Think it's 1 code per week at the moment. (Known birdforum user's only lol)

Very similar to Twitter, and I suspect this will be a real alternative when it opens it's doors fully.
#birds! And #UK Birding seem to have plenty of traffic.

Interested but I guess I’m curious about details. Who owns it, use of personal info, etc….

 

[Mark Lew1s]

I have an invite code for bluesky if anyone is interested message me. First come, and I'll work down the list as I get more codes. Think it's 1 code per week at the moment. (Known birdforum user's only lol)

Very similar to Twitter, and I suspect this will be a real alternative when it opens it's doors fully.
#birds! And #UK Birding seem to have plenty of traffic.

Yes please!

 

[pppppvvvv]

Yes please!

Hi Mark, i'll likely get one in a week's time for you.
I was lucky, people offer the codes on X, but then want money, or they are gone in seconds.
I found someone on Mastodon who had been offering one for a few days!! which says a lot about how the respective platforms are going!

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Hi Mark, i'll likely get one in a week's time for you.
I was lucky, people offer the codes on X, but then want money, or they are gone in seconds.
I found someone on Mastodon who had been offering one for a few days!! which says a lot about how the respective platforms are going!

Thanks very much! However, I’ve been sent a code from someone else so please pass it on to someone else.

 

[pppppvvvv]

Interested but I guess I’m curious about details. Who owns it, use of personal info, etc….

i found this..

https://blueskyweb.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/19002666608397-What-is-Bluesky-

which has a link to data privacy as well

and Privacy Policy - Bluesky

It was a side project of twitter originally , as they experimented with a federated platform, but now have broken ties and gone it alone