Sarah Brown

Dear Twitter people. Lots of us were once Twitter people too. This place will not spoon-feed you. Passive participation doesn’t work here. This is a very active and buzzing place, but unless you FOLLOW people and INTERACT, it will pass you by.

Follow people. Lots of them. You can always remove them later. But really, follow early, follow often.

Jul 1, 2023 at 11:19pmWeb
Show threadSarah BrownJul 1, 2023
Oh, if you want to follow me, know that I’m on Friendica, not Mastodon. This means I tend to do long-form posts. Some of them can be very long indeed.
Show threadAvogadro's ConstantJul 2, 2023
@goatsarah is Friendica a different server?
Not sure how the different servers work. How do you find people on them?
Show threadSarah BrownJul 2, 2023

@AvogadrosConstant Friendica is a different platform. Mastodon is, roughly, like Twitter. Friendica is, roughly, like Facebook.

Finding people: follow people you like the look of. You will see them interact with other people. If you like the look of them, follow them too.

Show threadDHeadshot's AltJul 1, 2023
@goatsarah
Or you can hang out on the public timelines and interact with people there, then when you get into some good conversations, you know who to follow! Same goes for hashtag timelines for interests!
Show threadLuna:babaw_is: NOT  Jul 2, 2023
@[email protected] Also, using the different timelines is a good way of finding people to follow. For example, Calckey has these five:

- Home: People you're following
- Local: People on your instance
- Recommended: People on a few instances picked by your admins
- Social: Home + Local
- Global: Everything from every instance yours is aware of
Show threadTomsprints2Jul 2, 2023
@goatsarah Key thing is following AND interacting. I have numerous followers for certain things who regularly like what I post, but who are really very passive otherwise. I guess that a lot of immigrees from Twitter have gotten used, over the years, to others putting on the show for them.
Show threadSarah BrownJul 2, 2023
@Tomsprints2 Yeah. I was on Twitter when it was still largely an SMS based service and there was no auto content discovery then, so you either sank or swam. I guess a lot of people are used to more comfortable slippers!
Show threadAshley HJul 2, 2023
@Tomsprints2 @goatsarah twitter did become a source of curated news for me over the years and there is a lot to be said for that. Actively interacting isn't what a lot of people are after on a daily basis...at least for me. The removal of any meaningful verified status dampened that a lot though
Show threadTomsprints2Jul 2, 2023
@supercharv @goatsarah Sure. I wasn’t suggesting that all users should be interacting on all of the issues that come their way, even if they had the energy. However, there are many who limit their interractions to retweeting/boosting, and I think social media is a better place if they do more than that.
Show threadMab_813Jul 2, 2023

@Tomsprints2 @goatsarah

I think some people are here for reading and don't want to post much themselves. And that's okay.

Show threadDanny Vandal 🥦Jul 2, 2023
@Tomsprints2 @goatsarah After several goes at Twitter the way I found to make it work for me was to treat it like radio. I gradually found some people to follow and let them ‘broadcast’ to me which in turn allowed me to follow more and interact over time. Trying to spend more time over here and kind of going through the same process....
Show threadTomsprints2Jul 2, 2023
@dannyvandal @goatsarah Very fair comment.
Show threadkætJul 10, 2023
@Tomsprints2 @goatsarah I'm not sure it's a twitter thing, I think it's always been a little bit like that in online networks. Even just "likes" are a great step forward from the olden days when you made something and was received with deafening silence, and then six months later multiple people come up to you saying: "I really liked that thing you did".
Show threadBezJul 2, 2023

@goatsarah

Hello Sarah!

Other than sailing and warm weather, what are some things that bring you joy?

Show threadSarah BrownJul 2, 2023

@StuffByBez Earl Grey, although of late I’ve developed quite the fancy for Yorkshire Tea.

I’m also learning Portuguese, which is very hard work, but rewarding.

And I still do some climbing-adjacent stuff: via ferrata, arborism, that kind of stuff. I just can’t do proper rock climbing because I have early onset #Dupuytrens disease.

Show threadBezJul 2, 2023

@goatsarah

I had to look up ferrata/arborism.

They look super-exhilarating!

I'm sorry about your physical problems.

Enjoy Portugal! 🙂

Show threadLikely Jan LukasOct 17, 2024

@goatsarah

*waves hello*

I've just discovered I have #Dupuytrens (the latest in a long line of conditions I've had to manage)

Reaching out to say hello and perhaps chat about things you've learned? (At your discretion -- no pressure!)

I've been learning what I can but do not yet know the larger contours of the condition nor what sort of outright quackery I need to avoid. 😂

Show threadMike Taylor 🦕Jul 2, 2023

@goatsarah Corollary: feel free also to UNfollow early and often. Following is not lifetime commitment or a promise of friendship, it's just wanting to see someone's messages.

For example, I love @doctorow's writing, but unfollowed him when it became apparent there was just too much of it, and it was overwhelming my timeline. It's all good.

Show threadMatthias BürcherJul 2, 2023
@goatsarah @nohillside not very easy to follow a protected account.
Show threadLudovic :Firefox: :FreeBSD:Jul 2, 2023
@goatsarah use hashtags to find content
Show threadCeren Jul 2, 2023
@goatsarah thank you sarah ill follow you. I am open to new friends
Show threadEsther  🌱🐾🍋 #fcknzsJul 2, 2023
@goatsarah And follow hashtags!!!
Show threaddantose Jul 2, 2023
@goatsarah
I do kind of wish there was a functional "discover" type feed though. Or even just the option of subscribing to an instance
Show threadSarah BrownJul 2, 2023
@dantose You can see all the posts from an instance on its "local" feed. Can't subscribe to that feed from elsewhere though.
Show threaddantose Jul 2, 2023
@goatsarah Yeah, I know. But browsing around to a buch of different instances is obnoxious on a computer and effectively impossible on the apps I've seen.
Show threadLuke ChadwickJul 2, 2023
@goatsarah @ohmrun just like early Twitter. TBH I'm still struggling to get back to that mode and I've been here a while.
Show threadCatherine BerryJul 2, 2023

@goatsarah

Also, boost early, boost often. Boosts drive others' discovery.

Show threadSilvercloudfoxJul 2, 2023
Thanks for posting this @goatsarah
I couldn't agree more. Makes perfect sense but then I'm sure you already knew that, just I'm not sure about "liking the way people look" 😂😂
Beginning to wonder if I need a whole new wardrobe or maybe a new range of make-up
💅💄🪞
#newtomastodon #newtofediverse
Show threadJohn G FitzgeraldJul 6, 2023
@goatsarah Well said @goatsarah
Show threadNlroundaboutJul 6, 2023
@goatsarah There were two things I liked about Twitter. People could be very very funny and the immediacy of the news (from reputable people) was great. Can someone direct me to some suggested follows to find similar? I seem to have a lot of deep tech connections and I’m just an ordinary Joe who knows how to click on things.