In the case of Read-out we found that we started to be followed by people who had little if any interest in instrumentation or automation. It was notable that these new followers had few followers themselves.
We also found that many of those we were following suddenly ceased to use the platform. Some advised that they were no longer comfortable using it. Other serious users like newspapers and news services decided to use the platform no longer as they considered that it was no longer a serious or useful medium. Others just quietly left without trumpeting the fact.
If we continued to use the "Following" facility the contributions seemed to be fairly ok and relevant to our interests however if (as happens occasionally for no apparant reason) we happened to be switched to the "For You" facility then we were in a very different world.
For the first time since we started using twitter we found that we had to block users. The amount of what can only be described as bile (an "bad language") was quite incredible. This has not changed and in fact has worsened without any apparent oversight from the owners of the platform especially in the use personal insult to further particular beliefs or political biases. Compassion. appears to be a lost virtue!
So what to do.
In this regard an article by Chris Rand on his daily articles, Bluesky an opportunity of a frivolity, (3/12/2024) is worth reading too.
Some people went to a platform called Mastodon and indeed for a while we tried to use it too but it was cumbersome and difficult to use. Tik-Tok seems to be far to trivial for serious business. We have tried recently to use Bluesky which is very similar to the old twitter but there are few comercial users in our disciplines using it. Nevertheless we have recently started to use it and set up an account.
We have found that LinkedIn has been a good serious platform followed by Facebook which though less serious than LinkedIn still can be useful. We've looked at Instagram but that seems to be more for sharing pictures.
The Read-out Signpost is now on several platforms where we post regularly:
- Facebook page where possible with pictures also on
- LinkedIn News Page,
- Bluesky:
- “X” (formally knows as twitter)
We are still considering if we should remain on "X" in the long term or abandon it.
In passing we wonder if one uses X can your contribution accurately be described as "a tweet?"
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