It’s been a little while since you’ve heard from me here which just means I’ve been really busy with life offline. In any case though, I do have a small announcement to make.
I’m shaking up my social media presence a little bit in that I now have accounts on Mastodon and Bluesky. These accounts aren’t just for The Beskirted Man though. Instead, they are general accounts I’ve created for me as a person. Any new post I publish on any of my blogs (including this one) will automatically be posted to both accounts.
I am also going to more or less retire my Twitter/X account. I won’t delete it, but also won’t be updating it anymore. It hasn’t really picked up any traction with only the occasional response or like but primarily, I don’t want to support the whacko, chainsaw-wielding owner anymore.
In any case, here are the links to the new accounts. You will also find them in the sidebar and footer.
- Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@alexseifert
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alex-seifert.bsky.social
I hope to see you there!
Glad to see you are moving to BlueSky and have followed you there.
Gerry
https://bsky.app/profile/kiltedn8.bsky.social
Thanks for following! I followed you back. 🙂
Hi Alex,
I greatly appreciate what you have accomplished with this website and the positive effect it had on me and many others. I’m disappointed with your decision to inject politics with your latest post.
Mark
Hi Mark,
I don’t intend to say much about politics on this blog, but between recent cuts made my DOGE having negatively affected my family quite a bit and the trans friends I have in the US now having to fear for their very lives both lead to some pretty strong feelings about the current administration.
I’m curious how US government cuts (DOGE doesn’t have the authority to make cuts – only provide information) have negatively affected your family – can you share?
Cuts to COBRA have meant my currently unemployed, diabetic brother is no longer getting the insulin he needs to survive, cuts to the VA mean that my cousin who served in the Army in Afghanistan and was severely wounded is no longer receiving the physical therapy he needs to live more or less pain-free, my uncle had worked for a large contractor for the US military since the 80s until recent budget cuts meant that his project was canceled and he was unceremoniously laid off, and one of my best friends (a transwoman) worked for a company for more than 12 years and managed to work her way into a position on the board until they just recently voted to fire her due to her becoming a “political liability” under the Trump administration. So yeah, it’s been a disaster.
Twitter is terminally warped and now moribund. Welcome to Bluesky.
I couldn’t agree more!
Cool, I think the distribution towards other, although similar social media platforms is good – while we all want to have everything easily accessible, I think this makes us stick too much to Twitter and YouTube, ignoring the niche alternatives all around. I don’t have that much of a problem with X and its owner (I wonder though how many absent minds hide behind various “big names” in IT industry anyway, this guy isn’t shy for sure), but I’m not surprised your posts didn’t pick up. And I wouldn’t expect such things to “click”, let’s try to enjoy this little, distributed community across the world that gathers here and there to enjoy freedom in clothing.
In my opinion, we need a much more distributed web again. That’s part of why I host my own blogs and don’t rely on any single platform. I use Instagram and the others to promote my blog, but the real content is here under my control rather than some huge corporation’s.
Well, I created a Bluesky account to follow you. I made one comment complimenting you on one of your posts and they immediately blocked my account and accused me of spamming, scamming, causing harm to others and phishing. Then they wanted a proof of identity with photo ID number and more to unlock my account. Well, I’ve told them where to put their social media platform and deleted my account. So, no follow, I’m afraid.
I’m sorry to hear that! They locked mine as spam shortly after I created it as well even though I hadn’t even posted anything yet. They didn’t require a photo ID though to unlock it. It seems like they have overzealous security. You could also try to follow me on Mastodon. I haven’t had any issues there with accounts being locked.
I find a I get a lot of traction from X – but it does take some effort. It has generated significant sales for my online galleries.
It is a shame to see what you said about a “reason” to leave Twitter. It reminds me of the adage: “Cutting off your nose to spite your face.” Like letting someone else dictate your success. LOL
I’ve been posting pretty regularly on X since it was still Twitter and it has never really gained any traction, unfortunately. I had 124 followers at the peak and it had gone down to somewhere around 70 for some reason despite posting regularly.
The politics of its owner just fed fuel to the fire. I’d probably still use it if it helped me at all. I still use Instagram quite a bit because it helps even though I massively dislike Meta and its (lack of) data privacy practices.