-- WORDS IN PROGRESS -
"You were talking like it was the end of the world" -- U2, 'Until the End of the World'
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out
But I am a socialist.... and many other identities that are now being vilified. So yeah, in some ways, it feels like the end of the world as we know it.
I no longer want to be disappointed with the uninformed opinions and hurtful and disparaging remarks on Instagram and Facebook, but do want to stay in touch with people. I have already closed my Twitter account a while back when Doctor Evil took over. So - I got curious on what other platforms are out there. Here's what I learned.
First, Figure out what you're looking for.
There are a number of distinct flavours of social media platforms, and here are some of the options. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list! The biggest first question is - are you looking for something where you can share and post information publicly and follow public figures, or are you looking to communicate share with a specific group of people?
Here is a review of the major players, my personal assessment and to my current knowledge. I have never joined TikTok, as no one can argue that that platform provides any sort of privacy.
Fourthwall has also published a pretty good review of the various options. Based on the above information, I decided to join Mastodon and BlueSky. We already host NextCloud Talk, so will include that as well.
Thanks to Math-is-a-Drag's question, I realized that I had never considered if there were options for content producers. Will include that shortly.
How to get started with Mastodon
Mastodon is a federated, open source solution where you have a 'home' server but can follow content on any server.
First, choose your 'home server' based on a theme or community: here's a page with suggestions.
In my case, as I'm interested in a lot of cybersecurity topics, I've chosen one of the main cyber servers called infosec.exchange. And yes, you can still find the daily cat pictures you need even if your home server likes a particular topics - that is just your starting zone.
Create your account once you have navigated to the URL.
Of course, you have to accept the rules:
And of course you are using your password manager to store your information and you use a generated password for this particular site, right? :) Mastodon will do an email verification - so if you want to use an alias, make sure to set that up first.
It will use HCAPTCHA for testing your humanity. Already very promising with all the cat pictures.
And voila - you are set up to start following people and posting content.
You can select to follow any of the sources that are presented, or use the search bar to find a specific account. Note that you can also use the URL to find and follow.
Mastodon has a 'like' button by using the star to 'favourite' a post and supports hash tags.
Recommended desktop client: Sengi: https://nicolasconstant.github.io/sengi/
So far - not bad. I have found quite a few of my local media outlets as well on Mastodon, and a lot of informative content.
NextCloud
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BlueSky
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Alternatives to youtube: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/best-youtube-alternatives/
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