Something about Mastodon- and this may be just a feeling rather than an actual thing- is that it feels like when I shout into the void, someone might actually listen.
I don't mean followers (hi everyone!) but also random people- assuming I use a hashtag that people follow.
Sure, Twitter did this too, but you could never "follow" hashtags. The trending ones got read, and if you saw a tweet from someone and then clicked the hashtag you could find them, but... 1/🧵
it all became a bunch of nonsense. Not to say that doesn't sometimes happen here- I've already had to mute two accounts spamming tons of hashtags in a message, one of which was a bot that just went crazy sending toots and the other an NFT based account.
Right now, I can follow MagicTheGathering (tag omitted to be polite) and see all sorts of related, interesting stuff, including finding other tags like MTGArena.
It reminds me of the best parts of Twitter (being able to follow people for 2/🧵
information) and some of the best parts of Reddit (getting to see a lot of random, interesting stuff from other people).
It definitely has it's limitations (I don't think there is ever going to be a similar sense of community as you might have on a subreddit) but it's nice to be able to see other peoples thoughts on the things I actually am interested in, and share my own. Someone might be interested! Or not. It feels less void screamy and more "discussion with a lot of random people."
3/🧵
It's also a little terrifying, because it also means people are far more likely to stumble along what I say.
Of course, I can just... not have my account be suggested to people. Which is what I turned on- people who know me can find me easily, and people who actually interact with what I say can still request to follow me.
That all basically sums up to say this whole thing is only for my friends who are following me on Mastodon, and definitely wasn't written after a night with no sleep. 4/4
TheInferno