Goldkin @Goldkin@awoo.space

I find myself spending much more time now working with people who are creating stuff that takes a long time, and isn’t based around common cultural touchstones that share rapidly, so much as labors of love they’ve invested in (including my own longer-form projects). And... Masto isn’t shaping itself well around those discussions for me, in ways I cannot easily articulate.

But chat, project boards, longer posts, and in-person are, so I’ve been there instead.

I think this is a common trend and mostly a pendulum swing, because the same trend happened with BBSes, USENET, and around the advent of early forum software and image hosting. Enough people diasporaed off of bigger hosts, causing the next iteration to slowly come online.

I guess the other side of Masto not working for me is personal: I lack the unbounded optimism for public posting I had for LJ and early Twitter, and the jump from long-form projects to memes doesn’t work for me.

I think my conclusion is that I’m going to use other services than Masto for art blog and public presence, and relegate to communities off Masto for now. Birdhellsite and Tumblr are better image boards (masto-dot-art is getting there), and I’ve submarined most of my personal life nattering to other communities.

I’ll miss having the fusion of public discussion and community around neat projects that was LJ or early Twitter, but so far, I’m not finding that just yet through Masto.

So, other than rawring about and continuing to migrate away from birdsite, what have I been up to?

* I finished another year of Art Fight. All of the renders are here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u3g339ish3kbuh9/AABqPIDVimHq40nydMmoDEUKa?dl=0

* I'm participating in Smaugust! In which I am deliberately using media I am less experienced with to learn things, here: http://colorslive.com/author?id=33323

* I am working through Monster Hunter World for PC! If anyone would like to join me, please feel free to add me on Steam as Goldkin.

I guess I do have a masto-dot-art account I can start making more use of. But I guess it seems split-brain to use so many different accounts, and part of why that never really worked for me.

I could also assume I’m worrying to much and post all the things as unlisted?

An issue I’m having making the jump from birdsite to Masto for public posts is I want to post too much stuff, including linking in things I post on gallery sites. It all sort of logjams into not posting at all, because I’m worried about clogging timelines with what I made for dinner that day, nightly art, old Art Fight posts, etc etc etc.

In other words, the private community vibe is good, but doesn’t shape itself well to putting art posts on blast for people to follow. So, what do?

One extra note here: I get it if people still want or need to use Twitter, especially if they're running their own business and/or have a need for a public facing presence. It's part of why I keep an account there.

Even so, please please please be careful, consider deleting old tweets (eg, via reputable service), and give these articles a read on how to protect yourself on an increasingly hostile platform: http://www.crashoverridenetwork.com/resources.html

And as an occasional reminder: I'm best found on chat applications like Discord and Telegram at this point (as well as encrypted platforms).

If you'd like those contacts, feel free to message me privately -- though my handles are pretty easy to find on your chat services of choice.

I didn't expect keeping Alex Jones was a hill Twitter (through Jack) was willing to die on, after his hate speech was deplatformed from iTunes, Facebook, and YouTube: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1026984242893357056

For those who have tried migrating back or creating a presence there, I strongly urge you to reconsider at this point. Twitter has been increasing its support of hate speech and disinformation because it continues to be profitable for their platform.

I received a card from all of my coworkers this week for my six year employee anniversary. I never expected to be there this long, nor did I expect the overwhelmingly positive messages I received.

Once I got home, I cried.

It's the first time I've had a longstanding group relationship that hasn't, yet, resulted in me being thrown under the bus for someone else's political expediency. And these people really do care.

Thank you. ;..;

I guess this turned into a winding rant when the core message is to continue to be good to each other and that capitalism sucks, y'all.

Even though I'm charged with defending against this kind of thing at infosec dayjob daily, I guess this worldview grinds my gears and makes no sense to me. It's like looking in on an alien civilization that finds all of this zero-sum chaotic nonsense perfectly acceptable, and that nihilism is surely the only acceptable coping strategy to maximize value, sense of self and ambitions and hopes and dreams for the future be damned.

Um. Fuck that?

While this isn't exactly a subtoot, I'm thinking about this after a minor disagreement with someone I used to know over this comic: https://zenpencils.com/comic/king/

I noted that it's very good at describing how art isn't really about maximizing one's value, but is instead a celebration of existence. To which I received the response that, of COURSE art is about maximizing value.

This was several months ago, and I've still been trying to process how someone can even think that way.

It's taken me the better part of a decade to realize how highly unusual, and toxic, it is for people to be treated as transactional objects. Doing so leads to a sense of nihilism that completely annihilates any sense of self, of the exact form many fled birdsite for to be here.

It's taken longer for me to realize people who were transactional with me weren't really friends, and that I'd much rather be a person than be someone that facilitates those kinds of relationships.

This has passed my dash several times. It contains advice on dealing with the constant deluge of depressing and difficult news happening right now without tuning out entirely: https://twitter.com/CindyOtis_/status/1012488916178436096