"The Thrill of Discovery"
At the midAugust 2018 influx of Twitter refugees I delighted in seeing
strange new creatures beautifying Mastodon fediverse timelines. I noted
some patterns in the noise:
- few strange new creatures received recommendations to create an
introduction post with hashtagged interests. They introduced themselves,
but didn't make their passions, joys, interests searchable and
boostable;
- some strange new creatures concocted drama about a celebrity blogger
I'd actually not heard about so I had now a second name to put into my
filters. I saw the blogger's profile and ratio of 2 following to 2,568
followers and deduced none of us fediverse citizens would appeal to him;
- I started blocking accounts who made toots in which they declared "no
h8" yet also used slurs about subpopulations I hadn't even seen on
Twitter and engaged in 'screendunking' and 'brigading' accounts they
charged with sympathizing with those subpopulations. I also added slur
words to my filter as it's complicated to follow someone who's that 1 in
40,000 sharing a rare quality yet boosts "hate toots" with those slurs;
- these aforementioned events, along with my renewed interest in gopher
(back then, in the old days, nobody thought to use gopher as a blogging
platform; gopher was a protocol for connecting to academic and
scientific files) led to the epiphany that I much prefer searching or
pulling, to pushing.
I'm an introvert, but I also have a powerful fear of rejection.
Candidly, repeatedly experiencing no reciprocal engagement from accounts
tooting about my interests rots my socks, and I want to find and bond
with aficionados who aren't so dismissive. I check my interests, seven
to twelve of them, every week and they're so niche only my introduction
posts show up.
I like signal! Noise is overwhelming. This is why I write penpal
letters, use gopher, recommend hashtags for interests in introduction
posts so I can boost them and help people find each other.
**********
Non sequitur: My 15ml bottle of Caswell-Massey perfume "Marem" arrived
yesterday. It is resplendent with rose and citrus, and I love the woodsy
drydown. Caswell-Massey created the scent for Alla Nazimova in 1914,
when she was a Broadway actress. Marem was her actual first name. The
scent is feminine and glamourous, suitable for any time of day. "Marem"
may already replace Estee Lauder's "Love" as my preferred regular scent, and
ranks with Robert Piguet's "Fracas" among the "I want people to notice
me!" scents.
Non sequitur #2: This month is my six-month Gopher anniversary! :-D