The Ghost of ÉmilieI have a few different philosophies on bios...
@futureisfoss The first one is that a bio is like a description of an app. If you saw an app, and you didn't know what kind of app it was, you would want to be able to right-click it and see... "Ah, this is a text editor."
@futureisfoss Same thing with a bio. If you saw someone's account on fedi, and you didn't know what kind of account it was, you would want to be able to click it and see.
@futureisfoss And a bio is short... even long bios are short in the sense that... functionally, if you click someone's profile, it's to see that little description and all of their previous posts... There isn't much "space" there for anything else, and if someone is on your profile, chances are it's for either of those two reasons. They *probably* aren't there to get a detailed description of exactly who you are as a person, you know?
@futureisfoss That's why I prefer shorter bios. I don't want to distract people with a ton of text. I just want them to get to following me, finding a previous post of mine, or learning the basic basics of what my account is.
Dr. PercyWhat was I gonna say? Oh yeah, some people have very specific bios... like @[email protected]'s, I'm sure... Remember that thing I said about the app... What kind of account is TROM?
@frankie @futureisfoss
@frankie @futureisfoss
Ah, TROM is:
"Trade-Free Directory: The ones who offer, should not ask anything in return. The ones who receive, should not have to give anything in return."
@frankie @futureisfoss
"Trade-Free Directory: The ones who offer, should not ask anything in return. The ones who receive, should not have to give anything in return."
@frankie @futureisfoss
Rokosun@thebiologist1117
The link on your previous post gives me an error, but I believe you're referring to this account - @[email protected]
BTW, the main account of TROM is actually @[email protected] and it has a different bio 
@frankie
@futureisfoss
Yes, I was. The other account is what got suggested to me. The main account's bio is much better:
"TROM is a project that aims to showcase in detail the root cause of most of today’s problems and proposes realistic solutions to solve those problems. But it is also about challenging people’s values, explaining in simple language how the world works, and providing free and good quality educational materials/tools for everyone."
Yes, I was. The other account is what got suggested to me. The main account's bio is much better:
"TROM is a project that aims to showcase in detail the root cause of most of today’s problems and proposes realistic solutions to solve those problems. But it is also about challenging people’s values, explaining in simple language how the world works, and providing free and good quality educational materials/tools for everyone."
@futureisfoss Because it says it's a "project" which clarifies what kind of account it is.
@futureisfoss So your account... is a personal account, and I think your current bio does tell people that.
@futureisfoss I think that's the main purpose of the bio, and yours does that. The other purpose is just to have something there at all, which makes your account look real.
@futureisfoss So a simple bio would look like this: "This is the personal account of Émilie Fecteau." However, obviously, that bio sounds "forced." It doesn't have any personality to it, and that's one of the challenges of making bios—to give it personality.
@futureisfoss Also, I notice that sometimes people's bios make me uncomfortable because they're *so* personal... So it's good to keep in mind how personal your bio is.
@futureisfoss That's something that's unique about fedi... On here, there are both personal and non-personal accounts where the expectations are different.
@futureisfoss For example, I wouldn't expect @ Mojeek to always reply to me (even though they are very good about replying to people) because it's a business account. Other accounts, like @ aral's, exist somewhere in between. They make professional posts about the projects they're working on (not personal) and they also reply to people normally.
@futureisfoss My account os a personal account, which isn't professional at all. It's informal.
@futureisfoss So the expectations are different. I wouldn't expect @ Mojeek to follow me back, either.
@futureisfoss With other personal accounts, it's a lot different. In reality, all a "follow" means is that someone saw your account, and they decided to add your posts to their feed for whatever reason (and add your account to their list of people they follow). It doesn't mean anything more than that.
@futureisfoss At the same time, socially, it does mean more than that. If I follow you, it means "I saw you and and I acknowledge you as a person, and I'm including you in my space so I might be able to interact with you."
@futureisfoss It entails a bit of "maybe we can have a chat or something."
@futureisfoss I wouldn't expect that from a business professional account, but I would expect that from another personal account... so if I'm acknowledging you and all that other stuff, I would ideally want you to do the same for me.
@futureisfoss And that's why I'm generous with the follows... I want to acknowledge other people if they're trying to do it with me.
@futureisfoss I also want to point out the differences between fedi ans RSS and "non-interactive" blogs...
@futureisfoss If you've used RSS, you'll know it's a lot different to following someone on fedi, even though functionally they do pretty much the same thing.
@futureisfoss If you subscribe to someone on RSS, they have no idea you're doing it and there is no social contract there.
@futureisfoss They're not expected to subscribe to your RSS feed because you subscribed to theirs.
@futureisfoss So fedi is more personal in that way because it tells you when someone follows you (instead of being silent and anonymous like it is with RSS).
@futureisfoss Like I was saying, though the expectations are not the same for non-personal accounts.
@futureisfoss Blogs, like my website I sent you, are also not personal. If someone reads it, it's silent and anonymous. There is no pressure for them to leave a like on my blog or "reply" to it.
@thebiologist1117 It also doesn't give you any context about the person Émilie Fecteau. She is smart, sweet, very chatty and casual, listens to a lot of music, drives a taxi, is also a very good driver, interested in video games, etc. I could keep on describing you, but you get the point, your name Émilie Fecteau doesn't tell us about any of these.
@futureisfoss True, true!