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                    Try Topical Alternatives to Social Media

   Adam Engst

   Veteran blogger [1]Jason Kottke writes:

     For the past few months, I've been working on a new commenting
     system for kottke.org and today I'm launching it in beta. '¦ So why
     comments? And why now? Blog comments have been long since left for
     dead, a victim of spam, social media, toxicity, and neglect. But
     there are still plenty of sites out there with thriving communities.

     The timing feels right. Twitter has imploded and social
     sites/services like Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon are jockeying to
     replace it (for various definitions of "replace"). People are
     re-thinking what they want out of social media on the internet and I
     believe there's an opportunity for sites like kottke.org to provide
     a different and perhaps even better experience for sharing and
     discussing information.

   I don't know Jason Kottke personally, and I started subscribing to the
   email digest of his [2]25-year-old blog only a few months ago, but I
   have been intrigued by the parallels with TidBITS. Most notable is his
   [3]Kottke.org Newsletter, which joins our weekly email issue in
   supporting those for whom well-managed email remains a
   high-signal/low-noise communication channel. Like TidBITS, he relies on
   Arcustech for hosting and Sendy for email delivery.

   But what caught my eye this week is that he's adding (bringing back?)
   comments to his blog, a move I applaud for its considered reaction to
   the evils of social media. We've hosted comments successfully on
   TidBITS articles for decades, enabling readers to ask for help,
   contribute their expertise, and build a vibrant community. Blocking
   spammers and keeping conversations on track requires some extra work
   (Discourse does most of it for me), but the result is absolutely
   worthwhile.

   The key is that blog comments, and the communities that coalesce around
   them, provide topical social spaces where people can comfortably
   interact within a specified context. For TidBITS, that's the Apple
   ecosystem; for the wide-ranging Kottke.org, each post will likely
   generate its own context. Context is also why we created a family Slack
   group'it provides a familial context for all discussions (see '[4]Fed
   Up with Facebook? Move Your Family to Slack,' 12 February 2019).

   That's one of the many ills of scattershot social media. The context
   switches constantly to whatever the algorithm shoves in your face, and
   its goal is to get you to click, react, share, or post'anything to feed
   the fire and capture more eyeballs rather than encouraging constructive
   conversation. I've reacted by opting out of that hellstew and instead
   spend my time on comment threads, focused forums, private mailing
   lists, Slack groups, Messages conversations, and, yes, personal email.
   You can, too.

References

   1. https://kottke.org/23/10/introducing-the-new-kottke-comments
   2. https://kottke.org/
   3. https://kottke.org/newsletter/
   4. https://tidbits.com/2019/02/12/fed-up-with-facebook-move-your-family-to-slack/

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