Misuing Social Media

I'm pretty sure I have a touch of ODD. When I'm 'supposed' to do something in this way or that, I'm pretty much NOT gonna do it that way. If I'm making music, for instance, I'm probably not going to obey the rules of whatevsr genre of music I'm making.

And so it is with social media.

Twitter:
Twitter is not where I share my thoughts, or witty comments, or events in my life. No. Twitter is where I scroll through other people's links and posts and share them. Part Pinterest, part feed reader.

Pinterest:
On Pinterest I'm not so rebellious. But I'm pretty much just a hoarder. I rarely add to the pot, but I explore what's already there and cull it into my various boards. So it's basically a free stuff bin of images, all ready to be hoarded.

Facebook:
Facebook is my Pinterest. When I find cool stuff I share it on Facebook, then I leave. I don't really spend much time there anymore (Thanks politics).

Social Media Truther

Social media sucks. Of course who am I to talk, I'm on it all the time. However when I am on it, I spend most of my time scrolling past garbage.

90% of y Twitter feed is advertising tweets and tech doomsday. 'If you don't learn how to leverage AI your company will fail'. I have carefully crafted my feed hoping to see nerdy Linux, Java, tech, and Drum and Bass posts. I've failed. Why? because Twitter, and other users are trying to get their ads in front of me to make revenue.

Facebook is FAR worse.
There amid fuzzy kittens and cool posts from people I know in meat space are more ads and - worst of all - politics. Sure I agree with some of them, but that's what groups in Facebook are for. Instead politicians and activist groups seed Facebook with posts designed to get people pissed off and share them. So it really is nothing more than a political soapbox. I liken it to a backyard BBQ where most of us just want to hang out and eat burgers, but 'that one guy' keeps spouting off about politics.

IRC with its tightly controlled concept of channels is so much better. You spew politics in #bbq and you're banned.

I wish the social networks people migrated to were open source platforms, monetized by donations or corporate oriented distros (Slack-like). A place that doesn't cull your information or pummel you with ads or push politics on you. A barebones public arena with groups in which most of the interaction occurs. your feed would be a set of group 'modules' that you have full control over. And maybe it's the social network API that's the real product, so you can chose whichever UI you want to view it in.

Companies can try to sell their own implementations of the API if they like, but open source or commercial, it's all the same back end.

Maybe someday.

Where You Should Be - IRC

Welcome to the first installment of Where You Should Be. Here I tell you where I think you should be, cause anyone cares where I think they should be. But maybe I've stumbled on something you've forgotten about. Or didn't know about. Anyway...

Today's installment is IRC. I've written about IRC a bunch already, and have most likely already mentioned some of the places below, but I'll gather them into one place for you.

irc.freenode.net
 

I lurk exclusively on this IRC server. Why? It has 'free' in its name (And it was the first one I remembered from back in the day), of course.

#linux

You have to be registered and ident'd to join most of these by the way. I mention Linux first because it is less of a niche audience than the others below. I thought I'd be way over my head when I first started hanging out there - and I pretty much am - but there are moments here and there where I can contribute a '+1'. Hehe. But everyone there are great and welcoming.

#vim
For anyone obsessed with VIM this is your channel. I've picked up some great links and information. It's great to read other people's questions etc and hear the solutions and answers offered. Everyone is very patient and willing to share their vast stores of knowledge.

#qutebrowser
I love the QB channel. Here you can not only ask questions but also offer suggestions or ideas etc. So far this is the most personable channel I lurk in.

#java
This channel is great for knowledge, but so far not so personable. If you have questions or comments, you better come correct.

IRC On Your Phone

If you're like me, you miss the good old IRC days. If you don't know, IRC is a powerful and refreshingly utilitarian social network that has been around forever.

While MySpacers were blinging out their homepages with horrible gifs that tanked everyone's AOL dialup, IRC was quietly doing its thing.

When the 'get rich by blogging' thing happened, IRC was still there doing its thing.

While Facebookers politick and generally piss each other off, IRC is still alive doing its thing.

If you're sick of bloated apps and websites hosing your CPU and or battery, ditch those social feeds and jump on the text-only IRC networks. I'll talk more about IRC itself in the future. Here I just want to give you some tools to get you started IRC'ing on your phone. I've only used a couple different tools on my phone so I will start with those. Surely in the future I will be sharing more.

For the Faint of Heart
(In other words, the sane ones)

AndChat for Android is a great IRC client. I tried a couple others but AndChat seems to be the best, so far, at keeping and re-establishing IRC connections. The connection is the roughest part when using IRC on your phone. Its interface is clean and clutter free. You can set up multiple saved servers and auto join channels etc. I am kind of a basic IRC user so I haven't explored its other tools. I just do my work manually, in IRC.

For the Nerds
(me)

IRSSI. I love me some IRSSI. It is a console based IRC client that has been around forever. It's powerful and can be extended with scripts. Minimalists can run it without any tweaks etc and enjoy its scant interface, but I believe it can be tweaked to have more GUI elements. I'll have to research that.
It isn't going to be native to your phone so you're going to have to find another way to run it (This is - in part - why I say it's for nerds). I personally use GnuRoot Debian and install IRSSI via apt, just like I would on a desktop.

Enjoy checking out IRC. And watch for future IRC topics!

Slacking on the Keyboard

Hotkeys are how I roll. There's a reason I'm down with VIM and it ain't the GUI, baby. If I can get away with not using any mouse work, perfect.

This is why the most amazing hotkey in the world is Slack's Ctrl+K. You hit that sweet little bit of dopeness and you can navigate to anything, different conversations, different teams, different channels, just by typing part of the name of where you wanna go.

Slack, you get ALL my kudos for this sizzling piece of awesome. Software developers out there take note!

The # is for Channel

I miss IRC. I remember back to when I was working at a company that was me, a buddy of mine, and the boss. We rented an office in the lower level of a small building. No windows, no ambient music. Just working away in silence. To keep away and stay sane I kept an IRC window open. Soon there was a small tight knit group of chatters in our # - and later we became friends in meatspace as well.
I remember poking fun at the noobs in #teen and other high drama channels. We developed our own dictionary of slang, entertaining chat bots... essentially we had a culture all our own.

But as time passed, meatspace crept in. We all got busier or work changed so IRC access changed. Then social media phone apps drove in the final nail. And now our virtual coffeeshop is just a memory.

The funny thing is, people are still into chat, only now it's on Facebook etc. And it seems like #teen has taken over everything. It's like the vast majority of people online now a days are n00b current affairs trolls. I have yet to find a SINGLE social feed where I can just mindlessly hang out and interact with others. I have a twitter feed of JUST music and development, and I swear every other post that comes through is political or some other kind of drama.

I miss IRC. Where you can just chat and hang out. Where you chat more like you would at a party or in real life. Where no one ever just randomly blurts out:

"I believe in <INSERT CAUSE> and if you have a problem with that just unfriend me now"

If you do that at a BBQ, you're an arse. But apparently it's totally Ok online.

RIP : Chat.