Mastodawn

@liztai For me mastodon is not really working for me... I suspect it's me, but I cannot really tell. I was also souring on twitter since january of 2022. I feel I need to do longer, more crafted stories. But I also love the sense of friendships with the people I interact with online, and twitter still has that much better. On mastodon I feel terribly adrift.

@chris_mahan Just seeing your feed, and you need to use more hashtags, and you need to create a feed full of people you like. It takes time, I guess!

@liztai Yeah, I've been told this before, but ai loathe hashtags with a passion, seeing them only as some artifact of search optimization which machines should be doing :(

@chris_mahan You loathe hashtags, you mean? I wasn't sure at first what you mean by AI lol.

Look at it this way - either you control your feed or the alogirthm controls it. Hashtags are just a way to build it. Put it at the bottom of your text, perhaps? Or if you want, engage with people more so they can find you :)

@liztai Ha, yes, I loathe hashtags, not AI ( I mean I think I loathe AI too 🤣)

but yes, like you said.

I do try to engage with people, yes, and keep my feed clean :)

@chris_mahan the hashtags will help people find you. :) What is it about hashtags that you don't like btw

@liztai

Hashtags, in my mind, are like a vertical classification system that is like its own ad hoc channel that anyone can see on demand, but not in an established way, and it creates ephemeral contact points between humans, and what appears in hashtags isn't vetted like reposts or mentions. I guess there is a wildness to the hashtags result that I am not keen on. I do use the Poetry hashtag occasionally.

John Hartley Writer Jan 16, 2023

@liztai as a newly- identified writer with years of unidentified writing behind him, I’m finding Mastodon ace!

@johnyNocash It is very lovely. What do you write?

John Hartley Writer Jan 16, 2023

@liztai I’ve been writing non-fiction music based stuff for ages, for various websites, but never thought of that as writing. Also a couple of books on limited runs (100-150); again, I hadn’t considered it made me a writer. And academic essays and dissertations- again, didn’t see that as writing.
I’m now writing some teen/young adult fiction and dabble in poetry as well, and THAT is what has made me think of myself as a writer, because of the creative side I suppose 😂

SDK_Resists Jan 16, 2023

@liztai I am a writer of poetry but never thought to post any of it. Most of my pieces I don't think would fit within the space available. As a Twitter transplant I know it would never fit on that platform. I should look for more diversity on this platform than just political conversations. Thanks for the insight.

@SDK_Resists I see people posting poetry all the time. I think the hashtag is #poetry

JacobCoffin Jan 16, 2023

@liztai

I'm still finding my feet as a writer, but I'm going kind of slow. I really enjoy the community and the very deliberate, non-commercial way it's been designed and curated. I have been enjoying the #solarpunk and #scifi tags so far

Brekekekiwi Jan 16, 2023

@jacobcoffin @liztai I philosophically really like the idea of #solarpunk and really need to read a lot more. My stuff often comes out quite dark but I'd like to shift it!

@Brekekekiwi @jacobcoffin #Solarpunk sounds like utopian sci fi! I didn't even realise it existed.

JacobCoffin Jan 16, 2023

@liztai @Brekekekiwi

I think it's definitely aspirational. In a world saturated with warnings going unheeded I think it's nice that there are people carefully and deliberately building a genre, trying to make sure it's responsible and inclusive, which is itself often about futures where humanity tries to rebuild in a more thoughtful, responsible, and inclusive way.

JacobCoffin Jan 16, 2023

@liztai @Brekekekiwi Something that reconsiders how we do things and how we use the tools and resources we have. It's still very new and you can find endless arguments about steering the genre, what is and isn't solarpunk, but it gives me some hope

Even if my own writing tends to be more cyberpunk or dystopian

Brekekekiwi Jan 17, 2023

@jacobcoffin @liztai I really first encountered it through following the kickstarter for Earthborne Rangers

BrightFlame 🌟☀️🌙Jan 17, 2023

@Brekekekiwi take a look at Rob Cameron's essay about the case for solarpunk noir: https://solarpunkmagazine.com/the-dark-city-as-a-hot-place-to-be-a-call-for-solarpunk-noir-by-rob-cameron/ @jacobcoffin @liztai

The Dark City as a Hot Place to Be: A Call for Solarpunk Noir

The Dark City as a Hot Place to Be: A Call for Solarpunk Noir by Rob Cameron. First published in Solarpunk Magazine Issue #6: a lunarpunk special issue. Published November 8, 2022.

Solarpunk Magazine

pospi 🏳️‍⚧️Jan 17, 2023

@BrightFlame @Brekekekiwi @jacobcoffin @liztai I wonder if he's come across #LunarPunk...

pospi 🏳️‍⚧️Jan 17, 2023

@BrightFlame @Brekekekiwi @jacobcoffin @liztai I should probably also add that #LunarPunk exists in part due to #SolarPunk being an overwhelmingly White movement / ideology that carries a lot of unconscious bias and privilege with it

BrightFlame 🌟☀️🌙Jan 17, 2023

@pospi, I'm guessing so because that was the lunarpunk issue of Solarpunk Mag....and I'll ask him. Rob is a founder of the writing group I'm in and how I discovered #solarpunk.
@Brekekekiwi @jacobcoffin @liztai

pospi 🏳️‍⚧️Jan 17, 2023

@BrightFlame @Brekekekiwi @jacobcoffin @liztai I am going to have to read this issue!