To me, the topic of the failure of peer review is the same problem — we just are not using the tools we have to enable exchanges and building of synthesis across different people and teams.

Thanks Emelien. I need to get onto Mastodon. It may be good to get back to using various platforms and not counting on any single one. I also want to put in more time looking into the ownership and management policies of these platforms. Clearly, relying on monetized spaces like twitter is not the greatest idea. I like your point about slowing things down. I was just thinking about this in relation to how blogs work. Comments take time. It’s not just an instant feed. Like here at anthrodendum, our comments are moderated so it takes some time. This is not a bad thing. I’m hoping a lot of folks start looking back into the potential of newsletters, rss, and blogs again. With the online anthro community, we had some solid networks about a decade ago. Maybe now it’s time to rediscover and rebuild. Thanks again for your comment!

Thanks Colleen. I feel the same. Looking back, we had some great networks, ideas, and conversations going. We need to get back to that–and be more vigilant about protecting the spaces we build. Always good to be in touch.

Thanks Kerim for the advice about Mastodon and for the link to your new project. I love it. In some ways it feels like we’re back in 1997 and starting over. Maybe this time around we’ll avoid the trap that leads to another Elon Musk/Twitter situation where we’re shown, very clearly, what monetized, privatized platforms are really all about.

Thanks Marcel. Ya, I’ve been thinking a lot about where all these conversations can happen. We’ve seen several things come and go, but right now feels like a low point. I have 3600 some followers on Twitter, and that used to mean a good number of interactions and conversations. Now it’s mostly a dead network. I just joined Bluesky, and now I’m going to look into Mastodon too. We need more spaces that we have some ownership and control of. I’m hopeful about possibilities for building new things and networks out of the current ashes. Thanks again for checking in here.

https://colleen-morgan.com/2023/07/03/rest-repair-reconciliation-the-end-of-twitter/

I’m looking forward to the new old days.

https://triptych.oxus.net/

As Twitter continues to implode, my advice is to try Mastodon again, if you tried it before and gave up. This time, follow these three simple rules:

1. Start with a good server. Zirk-dot-us is my server and I haven’t had any issues with it. (I’m @kerim)

2. Use a good third party client app. I love Ivory for iOS. Tusky and Fedilab are popular for Android.

3. Use hashtags. A lot. There is no algorithmic feed for Mastodon, so you need to follow hashtags to discover stuff, and use them yourself so you can be discovered.

Finally, a word about Bluesky. Bluesky might eventually be a good alternative to Mastodon, and it has gotten a lot better lately, but it still isn’t there. Mastodon has a solid track record now and a lot of great people are already using it regularly.