• Home
  • About
Epic Whim
 
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About

Tag: countersocial

No comments

Flipping the Bird: The Class of 2023

  By David July 10, 2023 January 15, 2024 Current Events, Social Media

A lot has happened in the social media world in the past eight months.

Since I originally posted my roundup of microblogging Twitter replacements, some major players have joined the game, while others have fallen by the wayside. Twitter hired a new CEO, for all the good it seems to have done them. So what does the microblogging landscape look like in July of 2023?

Still in the Game

Mastodon

joinmastodon.org

Mastodon (and federated social media in general) is still very compelling to me, and to many others: signups and WAUs on Mastodon continue to spike every time Musk makes news with Twitter. The fact that this is a protocol, not a corporation, gives Mastodon much more staying power than the other options on this list, but their difficult signup is still a liability (which I’ve talked about a bit here). The promised interoperability with Meta’s Threads (more on that later) has given the Fediverse a new lease on life, though. Don’t sleep on Mastodon.
 

Tumblr

tumblr.com

This venerable old platform just keeps chugging along. It hasn’t made any major moves in the past year, but the fact that it still boasts 135 million monthly active users gives it a significant advantage over the competition. Its promised ActivityPub integration also looks to give it a big boost in user reach, if it ever comes to fruition. Frankly, the fact that it’s been around for sixteen years and its owner is not currently making decisions that are enraging the userbase is perhaps reason enough to give Tumblr a second look.
 
 

New on the Scene

Threads

threads.net

In my previous article, I panned the idea of using Instagram as a Twitter replacement, saying that “as an image-sharing and shortform video site, it’s not really a replacement for a microblogging site like Twitter.”

Well, now it is. Threads by Meta launched only five days ago, as of this article’s writing, and it’s already amassed over one hundred million users. Further, it’s the first Twitter alternative that’s actually putting a dent in Twitter’s traffic. It’s also the first one that seems to have gotten Musk’s attention since he banned Mastodon links in profiles and tweets last year.

Meta seems to have rushed the application out quickly, after having worked on it for a few months, to capitalize on Musk’s recent, infamous, and highly head-scratching decision to limit the number of tweets visitors can view. As a result, it feels like a beta, or a minimum viable product; there are missing features, including a “following only” timeline (currently the only timeline is an algorithmic one with suggested posts). Hashtags don’t seem to work. There’s no post search, and user search is rudimentary. There’s no edit button. There’s no post scheduler. There’s no website. The promised ActivityPub functionality is still in development.

Threads also has some legitimate privacy and security concerns. The service is not currently available in the EU, and it seems that the reason for that is that it would run afoul of the European Union’s strict privacy laws. It’s also currently not possible to delete your Threads account without also deleting your Instagram account (though that seems somewhat like a flaw with the current “beta” version of the app, rather than an intentional decision). The mobile app (which is currently the only way to access the service) requests a dizzying slate of permissions. And since it’s a Meta product (that is, a Facebook product), most of these things are unlikely to change for the better.

But, buoyed by an effective use of the Network Effect and a remarkably simple signup process (at least if you have Instagram), it’s definitely captured the interest of a whole lot of users, and the vibe on Threads is party-like; exuberant, even. Puns abound. It’s rocketed onto the list of most used social media platforms faster than any other application; you almost certainly have friends on Threads.

Spill

spill.com

I’m definitely not in the target demographic for Spill. Launched by two former Twitter employees, both of whom are Black, Spill is intended to be a new home for Black Twitter, which has never truly found a safe home since the Twitter platform began to reject them in favor of right-wing voices. The signup flow centers Black, indigenous, and people of color, and the marketing is similarly focused on non-white people.

It’s not a place for me, and that’s awesome. Marginalized communities making their own spaces that cannot be controlled by outside interests is always going to be good news. Spill is still in invite-only beta, but has already generated significant buzz; and with a community that is intentionally and explicitly rejecting the toxicity of recent Twitter, this could be a home for any Black folks who never found like Mastodon or BlueSky (more on them later) had everything they needed.

bluesky

bsky.app

The heir apparent to the Twitter crown had been BluesKy (nobody can seem to agree on the capitalization, even officially, so I’m going to be chaotic about it). Originally spun off from a Twitter side-project to make a decentralized, federated version of Twitter, bLueskY was exempt from Musk’s takeover bid and continued development throughout the fall and winter, launching for iOS in February and Android in April. The application is still invite-only, which limits the service’s growth; but until the launch of Threads, that was generally treated as a positive attribute.

Still, blUESKY has not been without drama. Some high-profile moderation failures have drawn significant negative attention to the platform, leading to several minor exoduses from the service. And although it has sought to create a decentralized microblogging platform, it has specifically eschewed ActivityPub, the standard behind Mastodon and other Fediverse projects, in favor of creating their own “AT Protocol;” which means that it is not interoperable with other services.

The vibe on BLUEsky has been muted, even post-apocalyptic since the launch of threads; but prior to that, it was what I would characterize as angry. It’s possible that the service’s time is short. Still, with a very invested userbase and a strong network effect, you can’t count BlUeSkY out just yet.

Substack Notes

substack.com/notes

Much like Instagram, in my last article I laconically dismissed Substack as “not social media.” Well, also like Instagram, now it is.

Substack Notes is functionally an overpowered news feed and comment system for Substack’s flagship product, its paid newsletter platform. As such, its possible reach is fundamentally contained; while it’s certainly possible to use it to discuss other content, or point users to other sites, it doesn’t seem like that’s functionally what it’s being used for.

The real driver of Substack has always been the ability for readers to patronize authors whose content they value; and as an extension of that functionality, Notes seems to have a lot to offer: discoverability and engagement are key in this space, and this platform should help grow those. Still, it doesn’t seem like a platform for the masses. And that’s fine; not every platform needs to be for every audience.

Update: Substack has recently announced that they intend to continue platforming and even paying actual Nazis to host their newsletters on the service, so I now vehemently recommend against using any service they offer.

Cohost

cohost.org

Cohost sounds like a cool social platform: their homepage promises no ads, no tracking, no algorithm, and no engagement lock-in. Their core ideas, including “nobody has gotten it quite right yet,” are really compelling. Their platform also offers rich text and longer post lengths, making them something more akin to Tumblr than to Twitter, and their design is adorably early-00s.

But with dreams and promises like that, you would hope for it to be open-source; Cohost doesn’t appear to be. And you’d also hope for it to implement open standards like ActivityPub; again, no such luck. It’s also attracted quite a contingent of NSFW creators, which could limit its reach over the long run.

It’s worth keeping an eye on, but it doesn’t quite seem ready for prime time.

Out of the Picture

In my previous article, I mentioned five other would-be Twitter killers. So how are things going with them? Why haven’t they made the list?

  • CounterSocial never really picked up any amount of steam, and despite a few spikes of activity when Twitter behaves badly, has fallen significantly behind the competition with no real hope of catching up.
  • Tribel Social, after some shady marketing attempts and funders came to light, has lost a lot of its luster. The homepage now sports a banner seeking crowdsourced funding, and users have plateaued at under a million. Tribel seems to have peaked at being banned from Twitter by Musk.
  • Fanbase hasn’t made any waves in over six months; and the waves they made before that were like those made by Substack: creators jumping to a platform where they could fish for monetization from their audience. Nobody seems to be biting.
  • Hive, to their credit, has come back up after their self-imposed security bug shutdown; but like the others in this part of the list haven’t made any notable waves since they returned. Their Android app is still in beta, there’s still no web access for the platform, and the signups look to have plateaued at about one million.
  • Post might be a controversial addition to this section, but with its strong connections to Twitter interests, the fact that it’s only recently come out of invite-only beta, its general lackadaisical attitude toward future development and growth, and its unclear messaging about accessibility and interoperability, this platform seems to have plateaued. (I mean, the CEO is one of the platform’s most prolific posters. So it’s just like Twitter.)

So that’s what the social media landscape looks like in July of 2023. Where have you found to hang your social hat? I haven’t tweeted in six months, but I’m still pretty fond of Mastodon and I’m having fun on Threads (and looking forward to when they become a single combined network). Come find all of my various accounts and handles on this page, and drop me a line!

Tagged   Bluesky, Cohost, countersocial, Elon Musk, Facebook, fanbase, hive social, instagram, mastodon, post.news, Spill, Substack Notes, Threads, tribel social, twitter
2 Comments

Flipping the Bird: The Options (as of November 2022)

  By David November 18, 2022 October 16, 2023 Current Events, Social Media

Replacing Twitter has become a bit of a topic over the past few weeks, for some fairly obvious reasons (well, one particularly notable one). In the last couple of days, with the continuing chaos surrounding it, this discussion has reached a fever pitch.

Imminent potential downfall aside, I’ve talked previously about the reasons I find Musk’s leadership concerning. In this article, I discuss what I’m going to do about it (Spoiler alert: not much, at least in the short term).

The way I see it, there are a couple of options, and I’m taking a little bit from each. Let’s start with the most obvious possibilities, and go from there:

Stay on Twitter

Look, for a lot of people this is a very valid option (at least as long as the site is alive), and if you’re choosing this route I have no ill will against you. In fact, at least for the time being, this is the option I’m choosing. I’m just also supplementing with a couple of others. Just in case.

Get Off Social Media

Also a valid option. However, I find that a lot of the connection and what little reach I have would be tough to replicate in the short term. I’m choosing this option too, at least a little bit; but if we ended here this would hardly be an article worth reading.

Go Back to Facebook

A lot of the problems I have with Elon Musk exist in Mark Zuckerberg, too; he’s just a little bit quieter about them. His obsession with the metaverse is exhausting. The platform is overrun with bots and bad actors. It promotes echo chambers and deplatforms genuine attempts at good faith communication. Its future is uncertain.

Due to some interpersonal dynamics, my Facebook time is already at a minimum, and I’m not really looking to increase that time.


Those are the options I have to consider in order to consider this a fully-featured article. Here are the new players in the game:

Go to Mastodon

joinmastodon.org

Federated social media is a very compelling idea to me. Instead of a single network, Mastodon is a series of shared protocols that any server can adopt to host a subset of the entire network; but users on different servers can interact with one another over that shared protocol, meaning that the federated network (also known as the “fediverse”) tends to feel like a “best of both worlds” option. If a billionaire buys a node of the fediverse, if moderation on the server you’re a part of is too weak (or too strong), if the operator disables some feature that you want to be able to use, if you find your instance’s advertising excessive, moving to another server is simple, and you can still interact with anyone you were interacting with before if you want to. In short, it’s potentially groundbreaking, and helps solve a lot of the problems inherent in the current monolithic social media landscape. It’s also extensible and customizable, though you don’t have to do either.

But the barrier to entry is currently very, very high. It’s not going to be good for those who have trouble with technology. I don’t see a whole lot of support for people with disabilities, though that may be something I’m missing. Although moving away from bad server operators is simple, the barrier to entry is low enough that there will almost undoubtedly be many bad-faith server operators on Mastodon instances (case in point, Donald Trump’s “Truth Social” uses a modified version of the Mastodon code). But at its core, I also worry that this is just early-2000s web forums with a new coat of paint, and with all the echo chamber and radicalization potential of that format.

Still, this is the first really compelling new player in the game, and the one I’m actively trying out. Later in this series, I’ll be doing a signup tutorial and a review of my time on the platform.

Go to CounterSocial

counter.social

I don’t know much about CounterSocial beyond what they advertise on their site. They’ve pitched themselves as a “Next-Gen Social Media” network with “No Trolls. No Abuse. No Ads. No Fake News. No Foreign Influence Ops.”  Which is quite a bold statement. Essentially, while many social networks pride themselves on being all about “free speech” and not banning too many accounts, CounterSocial seems to be marketing to people who have been harmed by light-moderation social media, offering a very curated and protected experience to their users.

Their advertised features include artificial intelligence to identify deepfakes and identity theft, as well as partnerships with Botsentinel and Factlayer to combat foreign bots and misinformation. They offer self-destructing posts which automatically go away after a particular amount of time, as well as “ephemeral” (though no mention of it being encrypted) video conferencing, and support for Groups (something Facebook has had for a while but Twitter only rolled out quite recently). Good steps in the right direction.

However, their design is an absolute nightmare. It reminds me of the TweetDeck add-on to Twitter, except this is the default experience. The service seems to be bolting on new features everywhere they can (they have a VR mode, emergency radio and TV news, an “enhanced privacy mode” which feels more like a browser feature than a social media feature, and a file sharing function which feels more like Dropbox).

Still, with extensive support for users with disabilities and a focus on good-faith efforts at quality community building, I can’t entirely rule out CounterSocial. I’ll probably claim a username there at least.

Go to Tribel Social

tribel.com

Tribel doesn’t give much information about its distinctives, other than advertising itself as an “innovative pro-democracy Twitter alternative that’s free of hatred & fake news.”

“Innovative” doesn’t mean much, especially when they’re not providing details. On their website, they answer the FAQ “Why Is It Called Tribel And What Makes It The ‘Smarter’ Social Network?” with some vague language about targeted audiences, ranking posts and posters by popularity, filtering your feed, and working your way to becoming “a Star Contributor” to a particular category, which sounds to me like Verification by another name. They don’t answer why it’s actually called “Tribel.” None of this strikes me as particularly innovative; the most innovative thing might be verification within categories, which sounds a bit like verified hashtag users, but everything they mention here already exists elsewhere.

“Pro-democracy” sounds nice, and the fact that they’re up-front about their status as political activists (presumably left-leaning) is refreshing in its honesty. It does raise concerns about echo chambers, though; and while I’m becoming much more of a moderate with regard to echo chambers recently (more on that another time), this could still portend a lack of challenging ideas on the platform at best and a Parler-but-for-Democrats at worst.

As for “free of hatred & fake news,” this sounds like it’s going to tend toward heavy moderation. This is probably a good thing for some users, at least in theory; but the reality is, this site has already had some serious trouble with moderation and that was before the Twitter migration began.

I’m personally going to pass on Tribel for now.

Update, 11/26/22: Tribel has been caught doing some slightly shady things with actor Wil Wheaton’s content, as well as being operated by some people with a shady history of using other people’s money illicitly. (Yes, I’m aware of the irony of posting Twitter links here.) I’d pass on Tribel.

Go to Fanbase

startengine.com/offering/fanbase

Fanbase seems to be focused on monetization rather than on social interaction, baking Patreon-like features right into the platform. You can pay to support a creator or tip them for a particularly good post.

But the platform seems to be more a takeoff of Facebook than of Twitter, meaning that it’s unlikely to really catch on as a simple text and image sharing service. There’s no really easily-accessible information about their moderation policy, which is also concerning.

In short, this one is a non-starter for me.


There are also a couple of established names that are coming up in the conversation:

Go to Instagram

instagram.com

The first major establishment player that I’m taking seriously. Look, I’m already on Instagram (privately). This is emerging as a frontrunner in the “established networks” category. Their moderation is good, and their tools are good. It does what it does pretty well.

But Instagram is another Zuckerberg property, making its intentions and its long-term prospects a bit sketchy.

Plus, as an image-sharing and shortform video site, it’s not really a replacement for a microblogging site like Twitter. I’ll be using Instagram, but it won’t be replacing Twitter for me.

Go to Tumblr

tumblr.com

The second major establishment player that I’m taking seriously. Tumblr is a good option (even though it’s not exactly microblogging), but for some reason it just hasn’t come up very much in the conversation; it may just be that it’s fallen enough by the wayside as to be completely ignored.

It’s got good, well-developed features and moderation. It’s got good discoverability, and a lot of people are already there. I think I’m already on Tumblr, in fact; but I haven’t logged in for ages.

I’ll keep this one in my back pocket as a possibility, and keep an eye out for it to become relevant in the conversation about possible social media replacements.

Go to Substack

It’s not social media.


So that’s where we stand right now. I’m going to continue posting about social media and Twitter replacements; I think the next piece will be a primer on signing up for and using Mastodon. But in the meantime, I’m going to really enjoy all the memes of Spirit Halloween taking over the empty Twitter building and Patrick saying we should “take Twitter and push out Elon.”


Update, November 26, 2022

Since the original publication of this list, a couple of new names have popped up, even as the number of Twitter refugees has reached a fever pitch with Musk’s announcements that he would un-ban former president Trump, along with thousands or more of previously banned accounts. The number of former Twitter users is truly impressive; if you’re one of them, and the previous options don’t appeal to you, here are the two newcomers as of late November 2022:

Hive Social

hivesocial.app

A bit of a dark horse, Hive emerged as an option in perhaps a surprising form: a MySpace competitor. Offering the ability to post text, images, gifs, and videos, as well as adding music and custom colors to your profile (!); and to see others’ posts in either a chronological Home feed or an algorithmic Discover feed, this seems like a more well-rounded social media platform than the Twitter that it’s taking on; at least in terms of amenities.

Hive is also woman-led; CEO Raluca Pop is a young Romanian woman who developed the app herself. Of course, that doesn’t mean anything if the service is bad, but her leadership certainly brings a different point of view to the platform than many of Hive’s competitors. And her vision seems to be gaining traction; Hive has raised an impressive amount of money in a short amount of time.

Hive’s moderation policy appears to be free-speech friendly but not moderation-averse. The community guidelines read almost like boilerplate, so there’s no surprises to be had there.

The surprises that are to be had are in its web app: namely, that it doesn’t have one. At least not yet. Right now, Hive is entirely accessed via its iPhone app or its recently released Android app.

How does it work? Tough to tell.

I made an account several days ago, but I don’t follow anyone. In the course of writing this update, I tried to see how the mechanics of the app work, since the website is light on details.

Alas, the servers seem to be down.

And, look, that’s not a huge issue right now. It’s early days, and with the Twitter exodus reaching a fever pitch as Musk welcomes almost every previously-banned account back to the platform with open arms, it’s inevitable that replacement services would have issues keeping the servers running.

Maybe give this one a few days.

Update, 12/1/22: A German security research firm called Zerforschung has identified a troubling number of security vulnerabilities with Hive. To their credit, Hive responded by going offline to fix them; however, the fact that these vulnerabilities are so extensive is quite concerning. It’s worth waiting this out, or joining with a burner email address so that a data breach doesn’t impact you very much. And, it should go without saying, don’t reuse a password from another website on Hive.

Post

post.news

As the laconic name might suggest, Post is leaning heavily into journalism. With support for longform pieces (of “any length”) and the ability to buy, sell, and tip for articles natively, this app isn’t likely to be an idle scroller.

It does, however, promise civility, lively debates, and a robust moderation policy, as well as the lofty goal of resurrecting a social media experience that’s “fun, introduce[s] you to big ideas and cool people, and actually [makes] you smarter.” I find the claim that social media ever did all of that at once a bit dubious, but maybe I followed the wrong people.

Post is currently in closed beta; if you’re interested, joining the waitlist with my referral code will get us both closer to being able to see whether their claims are true or just marketing.

Update, 11/28/22: Some buzz has been going around about Marc Andreessen’s investment in Post. While this could be a nonissue, it is worth noting that Andreessen also owns shares of Facebook and was a co-investor helping Elon Musk make the Twitter acquisition (even reaching out to him directly to strike the deal); meaning that there is quite evidently a potential conflict of interest at best, and an active approval of Musk’s actions as Twitter CEO at worst. Concerns have also been raised about the Post terms of service, which includes “net worth” as a protected class; and about their roadmap, which pointedly notes that they will not be pursuing accessibility features at this time. This may also be another hard pass.


My first port-of-call on this odyssey away from Twitter remains Mastodon. I’m still working on a brief overview of how to use federated social media, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, let me know: are you leaving Twitter? What are you trying out to replace it?

Tagged   countersocial, Elon Musk, Facebook, fanbase, hive social, instagram, mastodon, post.news, tribel social, twitter
  • RSS Reel World Theology

    • Releases, Returns, and Resurrections (ICYMI April 20, 2024) April 21, 2024 David Atwell
    • The Disney and Jon Favreau Show, featuring Me (ICYMI April 13, 2024) April 14, 2024 David Atwell
    • Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, and Science Fact (ICYMI April 6, 2024) April 6, 2024 David Atwell
    • Freaky Friday news; plus, Swift Quakes, Hot Takes, and Remakes (ICYMI March 30, 2024) March 30, 2024 David Atwell
  • Archives

    • February 2025
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • October 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • August 2022
    • August 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
  • Categories

    • ADHD
    • AI and Machine Learning
    • Current Events
    • Debunking
    • HTML Email
    • Indianapolis
    • Linkblog
    • Meta
    • Nintendo
    • PCA
    • Personal Updates
    • Politics
    • Redeeming Culture Meta
    • RPGs
    • Science
    • Sermons
    • Site News
    • Social Media
    • Technology
    • Theology
    • TV
    • Work Theory
    • Writing Prompt Responses
  • Recent Posts

    • Hope for the Future: Ding Dong, HB1136 is Dead
    • A Theological and Astronomical Fact Check
    • Linkblog | Google apologizes for ‘missing the mark’ after Gemini generated racially diverse Nazis
    • Linkblog | Jon Stewart Tackles The Biden-Trump Rematch That Nobody Wants | The Daily Show
    • A Lunar Itinerary
  • Recent Comments

    • David A. on INTEGRITAS
    • Carol thoma moore on INTEGRITAS
    • Cory Howell on Linkblog | Google apologizes for ‘missing the mark’ after Gemini generated racially diverse Nazis
    • Cory Howell on A Theological and Astronomical Fact Check
    • David A. on A Theological and Astronomical Fact Check
  • Archives

    • February 2025
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • October 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • August 2022
    • August 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
  • Categories

    • ADHD
    • AI and Machine Learning
    • Current Events
    • Debunking
    • HTML Email
    • Indianapolis
    • Linkblog
    • Meta
    • Nintendo
    • PCA
    • Personal Updates
    • Politics
    • Redeeming Culture Meta
    • RPGs
    • Science
    • Sermons
    • Site News
    • Social Media
    • Technology
    • Theology
    • TV
    • Work Theory
    • Writing Prompt Responses
  • Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
  • Home
  • About
  The personal blog of David Atwell, the Redeeming Culture guy, coder, and overall geek.    
Powered by Parabola & WordPress.