Aligning my Social Presence Online

You know the drill: a new social platform crops up, you check it out and sign up for an account for whatever reason; early adopter and name placeholder, the people you interact with the most online have joined — FOMO etc. You now have multiple networks to tend to, each vying for your attention, some in their dreaded algorithmic way.

My interest in witnessing the breakdown of siloed social networks and the rise of decentralised networks gives me curiosity and calls for my presence on new networks. So evidently, and of course, yours truly has an account on some of these new networks. Managing your presence online on all these different networks can be overwhelming, at times, especially if you have multiple accounts on each.

Simplifying

One of my approaches to creating accounts on social platforms is to have a personal account, and an account for this blog for presence—and for those that may not use RSS (or want to follow my personal account just to keep updated on Chamline blog posts) to have another way of keeping updated with new posts if social platforms are the place they keep up with sites/blogs.

Even though the Chamline accounts on these platforms were all automated to deliver the latest blog posts, to simplify things even more, I have decided to do away with those accounts and post all new updates to my personal accounts. I am currently exploring making full use of the Ghost subscribe by email feature to receive newly published posts via email, again, for those who may not use RSS or Social Media much.

I could’ve easily left the automated accounts and forgotten about them, but I don’t think they are necessary at this point. Having just one account on these networks makes life a lot more manageable—one less account to tend to. It is possible to create verified usernames on Bluesky by using an existing domain. Similarly, on Mastodon, you can join multiple servers using the same username and verify the domain link in your bio. Therefore, the name placeholder is less concerning at this stage.

Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon.

As for my participation on the networks, my Bluesky engagement waned six months or so into the beta period. I went eight months without posting there, only returning to see what was happening after the invitation-only was dropped and registrations opened to the public. Checking out my timeline and some Feeds I follow, I can see communities thriving in their own way. So it gives me hope it is here to stay.

Threads? With WhatsApp the exception, I haven’t used any other Meta product knowingly and intentionally for more than a decade—I’ve had my reservations about the company. In the interest of observing and continuing to learn about this new shift to social networks, I had to put aside my reservations about the company, for now. I’ve been a lurker extraordinaire over there since I created my account when Threads launched and locked it in private mode, with no attempts to follow individuals or post anything. Ahead of Federation opening up to this side of the pond in the UK, I have started using the account, publicly.

This brings us to Mastodon, the platform that seemed to have captured my attention and interactive interest; from engagement to communities that match my online interests and such (I have a strong feeling the same will probably be true with Threads, as I’ve seen the majority of people I follow on Mastodon actively using Threads). As of writing this, Mastodon is my preferred network right now. The network that clicked with me without much effort, but considering I am about to give Threads an extended try, who knows if it’ll topple Mastodon as my preferred network to be most active on?

Whatever the case, I continue to be pleased these networks exist. I just want to be able to connect with like-minded people who share the same interests (or learn and discover new interesting things). It doesn't matter which platform it happens on, as long as I find engagement and peace there.

Below are my current personal accounts on each network if you wish to follow:

🐘 Mastodon

🪡 Threads

🦋 Bluesky

🫶🏾 See you out there, friends.