Tim MakJul 22, 2023

Are you finding Mastodon to be less vibrant/active?

I’m worried that we are not getting as much engagement on our Ukraine war reporting as we used to.

We’re trying to decide which social media platforms to continue posting on, given how much effort it takes to replicate across all of them.

If you want to send a signal to us that we should keep posting here, will you sign up for our newsletter? http://Counteroffensive.substack.com

I’m only asking Mastodon users today so we can gauge impact.

The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak | Substack

A war correspondent's open notebook, reporting live from Kyiv. Compelling human stories that illustrate what’s happening during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Click to read The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Show threadScott Tribe - Proud Ketchup Chip NationalistJul 22, 2023
@timkmak If it hasn't been mentioned already, Mastodon is much more tag-dependent on finding topics or posts.. so if you're writing on Ukraine, putting a #Ukraine tag on at the end or in the post somewhere will help matters.
Show threadTim MakJul 22, 2023

@stribeprogblog it can take twenty minutes just to copy and paste a long thread into each social media platform. An hour to write the thread.

Adding tags would substantially increase our daily effort. And would the juice be worth the squeeze?

Show threadireadalotJul 22, 2023

@timkmak

I've read that adding hashtags at the end of a post is better than putting them in the middle of sentences, for the visually impaired. And I prefer it that way too as a reader. So, it's mostly a cut a paste thing to add hashtags to a post I think. But I understand everything takes up your team's valuable time.

I follow a lot of people on Mastodon, I value their work, but I rarely reply or boost or favourite. I read all your posts on Mastodon. I don't know if you can see how many people read your posts.

Do I have time to read all the really great in-depth articles from the many sources I follow? No. I subscribe to some writers, but can't afford to subscribe to every excellent one. Your substack looks well-worth it though, and I might just become a paid subscriber soon.

Show threadTim Mak
@ireadalot I hope we can convince you!
Jul 22, 2023 at 3:30pmWeb