PRO TIP: Before replying to a post, be sure to check if it's part of a larger thread.

Often, what is said on Mastodon requires more context.

Every day, I have someone in my mentions who's upset because they read *one* post in a thread, and make big conclusions.

Then I ask them, "Have you read the whole thread?"

Well, have you?

Why I write Mastodon threads instead of blog posts:

1. It's how my brain thinks -- not everything comes to me at once
2. It allows me to make individual points in a larger conversation
3. I find myself adding to threads as commenters bring up additional points
4. In my real life, I talk to myself

I've tried to write really long posts on my Pleroma instance. But it instead ends up like a Mastodon thread anyway. 5,000 characters, and I only use 300 of them in the initial post.

And then I think about something else, and so I add to the initial post.

Kind of like what I'm doing right now.

The other thing is, I've spent 3 years on Mastodon literally talking to myself and then responding to myself.

Think I'm going to stop that now that I have 9,400 accounts who are seeing me talk to myself? Nope.

I am my biggest fan on Mastodon.

It took an entire year of me posting on Mastodon before anyone replied to anything that I wrote.

And the first person who actually replied to me was a camgirl who was fishing for clients.

(Not saying being a camgirl is "bad" -- just explaining what it was like on Mastodon back in 2018.)

On my first year on Mastodon, I didn't go out of my way to talk to anyone because it seemed like I was completely different from everyone else.

For example, I never put my pronouns in my bio because I hate being defined by gender.

And no, I'm not non-binary either—I really don't like being defined.

@atomicpoet I find pronouns very practical, when I don't know the firstname: Is "Chris" he or she? Will she be offended, when I write, "Dear Mr. Trottier"?
If there are no wrong pronous for you, that's ok.
I ask myself: Are pronouns gender or are the just part of the name? Part of how you want to be called: He, She, They, Chris, Christian, Christine, Christoph, Christa, buddy, Mr., Mrs. Trottier, atomicpoet?
@kaffeeringe I will leave those questions unanswered.