Kos describes pretty well the Twitter death spiral underway-so no need to repeat that.
In my comments on his story, I suggested trying out Spoutible.
In case any of my fellow DKos users want to check it out, consider this Spoutible 101 to ease the transition.
Spoutible came about after Christopher Bouzy (@cbouzy), the developer of BotSentinel, asked his followers on Twitter if they were interested in an alternative that incorporated the BotSentinel protections.
The response was enthusiastic. That was in November of 2022. I was one of the folks who pre-registered.
The platform launched in February of 2023.
Some Twitter features translate over pretty directly:
- Tweet = Spout
- Trending Topics = Making Waves
- Who To Follow = Suggested Follows
- Explore = Explore
- Retweet = Echo
Etc., etc.
There are, however, significant differences.
- Blue Checks on Spoutible mean what they USED to mean on the Dead Bird Society. If the handles match, a legacy blue check transfers from Twitter without a lot of additional hoops, but there is also a standalone verification process. If you do a people search, you can filter for just blue checks if you want to find your old sources on the new platform.
- Timeline- On Spoutible, you curate your own feed by deciding who to follow-which can be a bit of a catch 22 when you are starting out. I decided to be expansive in following folks-but it is completely up to you as the user who to include. Just remember, little follow list = light and repetitive timeline.
- No Porn. This was voted on by the Spoutible community, twice, and the answer was very clear. Talk about adult topics, not a problem. But the porn folks from the Dead Bird Society are gonna need to keep walking…
- Editing-Find a typo right after you hit send? You can edit within seven minutes of posting. After that, you and posterity will just have to live with the fact that you can’t spell.
- Enhanced Threads – Got a lot to say? Reply to your own spout, and select the option “Add Threaded Spout”. There is a box to confirm you want threading when you post. The numbering is automatic, and UPDATES ITSELF if you come back with further thoughts. (Can you tell I love this feature sooooo, soooo much?)
- Collaborative Threads – You can give permission to a co-author to contribute to your thread. Live coverage of events becomes a lot easier. If you’d like to see an example, here’s one covering an Ad Week panel featuring Christopher Bouzy.
- You have to chose to add a collaborator.
- Limit of four collaborators on a thread
The following features are in active development. The App in particular is very close to release.
- Mobile apps
- Cross-platform posting
- Pods (Live audio chat feature that allows users to host and participate in real-time conversations.)
I do have one gripe. #DogsofSpoutible is a thing. That’s fine, I like the woozles.
However, I have repeatedly requested more #CatsofSpoutible cute pics but let us simply say, the Feline Overlord is displeased.
#Pootie People, you know what to do...
Boadicea’s suggested follows.
These are folks I’ve found friendly, helpful, and informative. They’ve helped broaden my timeline to be much more pleasant and eclectic than it was over on the Dead Bird. In no particular order:
That list is by no means exhaustive, of course. I found most of them by discovering an interesting Spout, and following threads of commenters.
I urge you to engage to the extent you are comfortable (or a little further). We are building a community. I’d love for it to include a significant crossover from the Great Orange Satan.
If you decide to splash on over, leave your Spoutible handle in a comment so I can look for you. :)
The link for Spoutible support can be found here. You can also submit a ticket if you run into an issue on the same link.
I’m boadiceatx over on the friendly waves. Don’t forget to add #DailyKos to your intro so we can find each other!
boadiceatx