Lately I’ve been feeling very alone on Micro.blog. My posts are mostly ignored. I post a variety of things, so it can’t all be uninteresting. This place makes me sad more than it makes me happy. Don’t know what to do about that.
@mbkriegh I’ve been a little distracted and distant myself. You post only with positive energy, but I haven’t commented so much. I don’t want you to be sad. Hoping this will turn around. 🤞😔
@mbkriegh did you read my mind coz I feel similar feelings! I don’t really feel any engagement here but I also don’t think that was the point - but I exactly know what you feel!
@stupendousman no, i think M.b wants a community, wants engagement. There just seems to be some narrow silos. I appreciate the structure of it and lord knows I hate the mainstream alternatives, but there is a surprising lack of engagement here. Maybe it would be better if we could just like posts without all the other garbage that goes with on other platforms. I don’t know what the answer is but something isn’t working from my perspective.
@mbkriegh I enjoy your posts too but often don’t comment. Sometimes I do wish there was a simple way to “like” things on mb.
@mbkriegh interestingly, I’m enjoying being here and your posts are part of that! I actually like that the platform makes me slow down and actually write a response… which admittedly I don’t do enough.
@velocykel I much prefer the M.b way of doing things to say FB and Instagram... but the silence can be deafening in discouraging at times...
@Annie I've been asking for "private" likes here since 2017. It's one reason I gravitate toward interacting on Mastodon instead. archive.baty.net/2017/like...
@jack I like your suggestion to make them visible only to the two people involved (Like-r and Liked). Seems that would solve the popularity context issue that happens on other platforms
@mbkriegh Well you have one more follower now as I stumbled across this thread via replies from other people I follow. I’ve gone through similar waves sometimes of feeling like I’m sending out radio waves to nowhere but I just focus primarily on writing for me. But If a stranger knocks on my door because of it then I welcome it.
@mbkriegh I keep reading, and looking. As with some others, the lack of “likes”, or “nods”, private or not, is the main reason why it feels lonely, in my opinion.
I feel a few people I met on M.b, over at Mastodon, and I “like” often.
Maybe I’m pressed for time, maybe I have nothing extraordinary to comment, maybe I really just want you to know I have read, and appreciated, what you have shared. It’s easy to do over there, impossible over here.
People keep asking for that particular feature, have been for years. Then they drift away to other platforms. I’m guilty of that as well. I still love this for the hosting but others seem to be better as fostering that community feeling.
@maique and I am guilty of same. I have a mastodon insurance but don’t go there much. Maybe I should till M.b does the private like thing.
@mbkriegh @jack @annie @DaveyCraney @manton Despite my having extolled the virtues of a real response over a like button, the "liker/likee-only" opion also is very appealing. On mb it does sometimes feel like I'm speaking into a void... I hope this option can be put under consideration.
@mbkriegh I read your posts. If there was a like button I’d press it. But I like that there isn’t one. You’re appreciated. And I somewhat feel the same about my blog.
@mbkriegh Fwiw, I understand the sentiment but think that it’s also an unavoidable part of an “internet community” that doesn’t cater to the easy (and addictive) likes and shares. Personally, I have much more anxiety (to a degree I’m not excited to admit) over online conversations and commenting, which I always fear will be “judged,” misunderstood, or read in the wrong tone (I use the 🤓 face to cover a multitude of sins … 🤓), than I do about just posting for posting/writing/sharing’s sake. I opened a micro.blog page because friends and family had asked for so long for some way to “follow” me online. I know zero people in real life who use micro.blog. It was (is) meant to be for them to check and read if and when they feel like it, which they sometimes do, but it’s never the same because it doesn’t show up in a newsfeed or a notification. But that means, again, personally speaking, that I have to remind myself that while what I write or share here at least can be for others, it’s mostly just for me because I like doing it. When I start feeling like I’m posting for the micro.blog community or for comments, I quickly feel that anxiety come back in and it makes me want to remove the internet from my life altogether. (Still not an impossibility, frankly.) I’ve also found benefits to different kinds of online life: this one, a static blog with no social connection, a Buttondown newsletter — each has its own (mental) benefit, for sure. In any case, I hope you find some peace about it and keep on sharing 🙂
@mbkriegh I couldn't reply earlier. I used to think that MB wants a community and engagement, but then it would have made the web app or the mobile app much more easy to use and encourage engagement. However the reverse is true - it's almost difficult to engage by design on MB. While I am very glad that I dont have that FOMO or attention behavior anymore that I had developed on Twitter/FB, I also do think MB is sort of on other extreme haha! That said, I truly enjoy reading your posts and your journey; it's refreshingly different and helps me understand others better! I may not reply to all your posts, but I definitely do enjoy reading them.
@mbkriegh I will endeavor to pipe up more!! I’m generally quiet because I have come to hate most social media and I find the quality and speed of MB to be substantial. It reminds me of the early days of the internet, alt. groups and AOL chat rooms which seemed to have robust and honest conversation
@mbkriegh I also read and like your posts though usually don't feel like what I would comment would 'add' anything. I will try to comment more than I post and just 'give thanks' a little more!
@mbkriegh I read and greatly appreciate your posts! That said, I've largely given up commenting here because I've mostly given up on the timeline aspect of it. I have your blog in my RSS as well as in a Safari tab group along with a few others that I follow here.
My focus now is to post to my blog, share it on Mastodon and use that for most of my discussion. The opportunity for discussion and positive affirmation is on Mastodon. The community there is far more diverse and engaging if that's what you're looking for.
@Denny i have begun to add those i follow and interact with to Reader or Feedbin... i do have a Mastodon presence and have linked my posts here to it... i am going to explore more on Mastodon and see if i can develop a little more interaction there...
@lewism thank you so much for letting me know you do!... by the way, my career was as an architect... i got frustrated with it and got out, but i had many good years in the profession...
@Annie I know the idea of likes isn't being considered for Micro.blog, but I also miss the ability to like things. Just being able to acknowledge a post and show you appreciate it without trying to find the words to say so can mean a lot. Even if only the post's author could see the likes - that would be good.
@jack I replied back to @annie about this and then seen your reply after I posted. I like your take on this with only the lik-er and the lik-ee being able to see them.
@mbkriegh I’ve felt the same way. But I see your posts and appreciate them. App.net didn’t have a like button so people took to posting the bread emoji in a reply to indicate a like. Someone said that in Germany when an audience likes a performance they throw bread onto the stage. (I don’t know if that’s true but that’s what they said.) So it caught on, just posting the emoji. Since I joined I’ve been surprised that something similar didn’t start here, since there are many app.net veterans on MB.
@mbkriegh, there are a lot of good things in this thread already. I also felt the void lately, and then I recognized how often I read something in the timeline and did not write a comment. So, I try to be more active with commenting. But that also takes a lot more work than liking.
@Denny it also does not help that we don't have a community manager any more and that the discover page is death.
@V_ Yep, it's been an ongoing frustration of mine. In fact, as I've been transitioning my efforts away from micro.blog the past couple days I wrote yet another thing about this topic but decided not to post it as it's just a rehash of the many other times I've written about it. I would only add that the Discover Page is broken even beyond the lack of a community manager. It's poorly designed and there's no sign that @manton has any intention of fixing it. I have no doubt he looses people because of this but I'm likely to grow wings and fly before it's fixed.
@manton @Denny @V_ I love the Mb project. But I entirely agree with you on the community part. I tried hard to use it as my main ActivityPub hub, but it was frustrating.
After my experiment, I'm more convinced than ever that the lack of a "like" or "re-post" is a big contributor to the feeling you're referring to.
When I don't have anything to reply, a "like" would say a lot to the author. I know it because, when people "like" my posts, it means a lot to me.
@manton @Denny @V_ As for re-posts, they helped me find countless interesting accounts to follow and interact with on Mastodon.
If someone I follow re-posts something, that's an important signal that makes me take a look at the re-posted author's timeline (content shared). Many times, I end up following and interacting with that person.
Finally, following hashtags on Mastodon is a great way to find people who like the same things as you.
@mbkriegh yeah it’s real difficult to get engagement here and I’m part of the problem. 99% of the time I appreciate a post but I have nothing to say. A private like sure would be nice
@mbkriegh Your posts make me smile when I see them, but I just realized I wasn't actually following you 🙃 fixed that now 😁
@mbkriegh im not yet sure that it is the answer here. I'm actually quite like not having a number to increase. But then I feel the issue of posting into the void as well.
@lewism i have added it to Reader so i can keep an eye on it... i am envious of you being based in Helsinki!... my first trip to Europe was a tour of the architecture of Alvar Aalto... we began and ended in Helsinki... i remember things about that trip like they happened yesterday... above all the really special quality of the light and the beautiful birch trees that seemed created just to show off that light... of course i was there in mid-late spring and never experienced the long darkness of the winter...
@V_ i have come to the conclusion that whenever we begin to feel we are speaking out into an endless black void, we should simply say, ok folks, i am feeling sad and lonely in this void so could you reach out and let me know you are still listening?... i have had more interaction from doing so than ever before and i think i can run on that for quite a while...
@mbkriegh thanks so much any for adding me to your reading list. Yes there are days in summer when I think truly this is the most beautiful city on earth and even some of the winter days also when it's so cold the air is dry and the fresh snow sparkles and there is a special quality to the natural silence its amazing. Then there is the dark autumn, cold, wet, bleak...October or Lokakuu literally means mud month. Swings & roundabouts!
@matthewlang @mbkriegh @jack @annie @DaveyCraney @velocykel
I'm not opposed to a plugin as @gdp suggested but for now, gonna go with using emojis as my way of expressing simple acknowledgement/appreciation.
@Annie I was so tempted to just put 👍
🤣 I think using an emoji as a quick “like” is a really great idea. You can show a bit more flare with it as well. Laugh. Share frustration. Send a heart. Send a chef emoji for cooking etc. absolutely something I plan to adopt.