Leaving Twitter

While I may come across as confident and occasionally humorous here and on Social Media, I’m not a strong-minded, or thick-skinned person.

For ages now I’ve had tweets “liked” by probable-bot accounts trying to get me to click their, let’s say, “adult” links. And I’m having to almost constantly block this stuff. Shoving pictures of women’s bodies in everyone’s faces isn’t social media.

It’s also degrading to women and perpetuates the lie that it’s okay to treat them like that.

Other Reasons

There are other reasons why I don’t feel I am protected there, but I don’t have to share them all.

I have spoken all this through with wifey and she is in agreement that I need to do this for my mental health.

Water Off a Duck’s Back?

People talk about “water off a duck’s back”, but if a duck has too much oil on its feathers, water becomes a danger.

In the same way, for me, after having stuff dumped into my head too often, I can’t distance myself from it anymore.

The more I hear about people being blasted to the outer galaxies for a tweet – either recently or 20 years ago – the less I think Twitter is about free speech.

You see, if you pour hate on a hater, they will continue to hate. If you try to love a hater, they will ridicule you and continue to hate. But if you pour hate on the compassionate, some of them will break.

Free Speech is only free if everyone can talk without fear.

I don’t feel that is true of Twitter any more. So long as you either go with the angry crowd or remain silent, you do fine.

I can’t remain silent any more. But neither do I want my mind hurt, damaged or otherwise negatively impacted anymore.

So, yes, I’m leaving Twitter. But I don’t trust it, nor the bad people and groups that use it. So I cannot afford to let the account become inactive. That could lead to it becoming deleted and my @FibroJedi handle being misused.

I don’t need my name dragging through proverbial mud, or others being misled by someone pretending to be me either.

It’s not that I’m a somebody. To Twitter/X/Polka-dot-monkey-king-platform I’m an unpaying nobody. But “evil people with evil intentions will commit evil deeds”, to quote Strider in LOTRO. I won’t have even one person taken advantage of under my name.

So, I’ll check in occasionally, but I won’t commit to how often that will happen.

Ko-Fi to Twitter

As I currently have the option to auto-post to Twitter whenever I add one to Ko-Fi, I’ll continue to use that feature.

But there’s no way to customise that auto-tweet, so you won’t often find me on hashtags.

Mastodon

My new social home is on Mastodon at @[email protected]. So long as you see the green tick next to my domain name, you know it’s the real me. I hope that matters.

But it’s not a like-for-like replacement to Twitter. I’m not posting all the time as I did on Twitter. And I post about LOTRO, FFXIV, my fiction-writing and anything else. Feel free to mute words/hashtags if you only want to see my posts about a certain game or topic though. I won’t know, so I won’t be offended!

Facebook

I try to remember to post new and updated blog posts on my Facebook page.

But I suck at replying to comments and messages! I’m sorry. It’s partially my fault for forgetting to check, and partially because I don’t get the notifications. So FB is more an “announcements” stream than social for me.

Also, sorry about FB over-compressing all my images. I hate it, but can’t change it.

(Occasionally) Bluesky

I’m not totally comfortable with Bluesky. Only because I’m not used to it yet, but no other reason. Mastodon is, and will continue to be, my primary social platform.

I also don’t want to feel like I have to post everywhere, or that I should post only about expected subjects. That’s the issue I’m mostly feeling my way through. Like if LOTRO people from Twitter follow me over on BlueSky, I start to feel like I can’t talk about FFXIV, for example. That’s my issue, not yours though!

Anyway, my username there is @fibrojedi.me.uk

Here on the Blog

My lack of tweets does not mean I will stop creating content! If anything, not being on social media as much makes it easier to create content, because I only focus on one thing.

I will continue to cover LOTRO events and other topics as I have for years. To see the latest and updated posts, see the bottom of my homepage. And for larger screens, I try to keep the sidebar up-to-date with “pinned” posts that relate to current, ongoing events or issues, as well as a recent post.

Patreon and Ko-Fi

You can also find me on Patreon here, or Ko-Fi here.

I don’t say this to get donations or subscribers. You can follow on both platforms for free.

I believe you can also set up an email notification on when I post to Ko-Fi, if you really want to know.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

So that’s it, really. I’m leaving Twitter as an active poster, but dare not unregister or allow my account to become inactive.

Whether you follow me anywhere else is up to you. I don’t mind. I’m not here to “sell” a different platform to you. Where you live digitally is your call and your life. But if you’re a friend, I’ll happily connect with you anywhere.

And if you do think you can stick it out and make that Force-Forsaken place better – then please do. Just remember my mantra please: Stay Safe and Be Kind.