@randahl yesterday at FOSDEM there was a member of the European Parliament who was asked why so many politicians are still on X and her answer made total sense (sadly):
Politicians stay on X because journalists are still there, so they feel that if they leave they will become irrelevant / not be written about.
And journalists stay on X because politicians are there.
It’s a vicious cycle
@randahl It wouldn’t matter. Politicians and journalists stay on X because they believe their audience is there. Given the values they advocate, there’s some irony that they continue to support X through their presence on the platform. Though, there’s been some cross-posting to Bluesky as its user base grows.
@randahl @osma
A turn-key solution needs more than just hosting. It's less about making it easy to switch, it's more about teaching them how to do it and why they should.
As an individual, where would I even point people to, e.g. if I was emailing my congressman?
Is there an elevator pitch, or a pitch deck? If you had 5 minutes of their time to convince them to change their social media footprint, what would you tell them?
What tools support it? I'm guessing that most orgs that have a social media presence on multiple networks use some tool to help manage it. Skimming quickly, Zoho, Buffer, and Typefully support mastodon, so if they use one of those it's an easy addition to their current workflow.
Is it enough to *also* post on mastodon, or should they also stop posting on Nazxitter? Yes they're trying to reach journalists but they're also trying to reach people who may be even less tech-savvy than the politicians and journalists themselves.
So many questions, maybe someone has answers?
@randahl @osma I tell people about Mastodon, so thanks for the link. My FB account is still there as I have been with it since the beginning. The people who are my friends are actually only people that I have met, the only one who is a request on my side is Philip George, who writes tremendous short articles. 🤗
@randahl
A bot made it easy for Bernie Sanders to be on Mastodon...
as long as he's on X :-(
By the way, Randahl, why aren't you using PeerTube instead of ad-tech?
But, Randahl, perhaps they are attempting to attract new voters who are fed up with their opposition aka trump's crowd of idiots. I am backing James Talarico here in TX for US Senator; he has been on FOX news several times; and only with Joe Rogan, who liked what he had to say. His opponent in the Dem primary is Jasmine Crockett who is a firebrand in the House, and though I like her, she doesn't like James being on right wing shows; to me she is limiting herself by NOT being on those shows. I just think James who has a very calm delivery will attract more middle of the road & dissatisfied Republican voters than she ever will. Peace, my brother.
@BillMcGuire I agree with your point. They probably need to be everywhere. But my point is: So far they are not on Mastodon, and it would be very helpful to nudge them into being here.
@randahl exactly, is there an effort for doing just that, wondering
@randahl I can't see anything difficult. They can easily go to mastodon.social and create an account.
Who wants something will find a way. Who doesn't will find an excuse.
@randahl Great! And change the name. Mastodon sounds so unappealing.
@randahl yesterday at FOSDEM there was a member of the European Parliament who was asked why so many politicians are still on X and her answer made total sense (sadly):
Politicians stay on X because journalists are still there, so they feel that if they leave they will become irrelevant / not be written about.
And journalists stay on X because politicians are there.
It’s a vicious cycle
@_elena @randahl This is why I think we need to adopt the "snowball" approach. We need to keep presuring politicians and journalists on why they are still on X. And we need to be prepared to being ignored a lot of the time. But occasionally we will succeed. In the Netherlands, for example, @volkskrant no longer posts on X and are working to #LoseTheXLink (still there but defunct). Every small success adds up, until we might one day reach a tipping point. Keep pushing.
@greenpartyni THANK YOU for being here! Someone mentioned you at FOSDEM last weekend. I wish ALL political parties would follow your example, especially here in Europe (but honestly, everywhere) 🙌
@randahl
@_elena @randahl This doesn't excuse the lack of posting elsewhere. They could just copy-paste their posts to Fedi or Bluesky. There are lots of journalists on bluesky. And a few here on fedi.
They could prepare to dump x, by putting in a tiny bit of effort on any other platform. Or rather a tiny bit of their interns' efforts.
@kristinHenry @randahl hey I absolutely abhor all Big Tech platforms and deleted all my accounts, so I agree with you.
We should also not underestimate how tech illiterate many politicians and journalists may be...
@_elena @randahl I get a lot of actually useful-to-me news right here from @MLNow. They're a fantastic local news team that has embraced distributed social.
@ProPublica is also here. But not as active.
@kristinHenry @_elena @randahl @MLNow @ProPublica
Electoral politics is the pursuit of and the holding onto power. Sure, people go into it for noble reasons. But the sheer amount of noise inside there cannot help but dissipate those intentions. Power and unbridled ego goes and stays where the strange attractors are. Mastodon is an antidote to that. So in my view we shouldn’t be surprised that they’re not here, nor likely to be
@urlyman @_elena @randahl @MLNow @ProPublica
I really should be going to sleep soon. But I have to expand on what you are saying here.
Yes, politics is one way to pursue and hold power.
But politics is the public solving of problems, at it's best and most powerful manifestation.
To some, it is a game. To most, it is the boring process of getting things done, sometimes in the benefit of the most.
The worst politicians, for the people, are those who want to be in office for the power.
A cycle is only a cycle if you don't step out of it.
And I will also say this, if your political "success" depends on lazy journalists grabbing your lazy messages from X and slap dashing lazy articles with X screenshots of what you "said", then you are not the politician you think you are.
And for the others, what you fear is not what actually will happen. Stepping away from X will not make you irrelevant. On the contrary, it will put you in the spotlight.
@_elena @randahl I think there is a rise of fascism in many countries (which does not mean people became fascist). Fascist politicians will not move from fascist platforms. Worst, the non-fascist politicians are mimicking the fascist ones to obtain votes. For instance, in the Chilean presidential election, most of the candidates focused on migration because that was the main topic of the fascist candidate. Then, non-fascists will be where fascists are.
@randahl I don't want to defend ppl on X. I love the Fediverse and deleted two very nice accounts when Musk bought Twitter. But recently I am having second thoughts and I am wondering if some of this is behind decent people staying there: here at M. I preach to the choir, so to say. I can post, boost and comment as I want, but the people who should hear/read it are not here. All the news and pictures of Gaza - actually my main concern, bc family - should be there to be seen, not just here.
@randahl The list of politicians, parlament members ... officials that are still active there is shockingly long.
For many "all this new media and internet" is still hocuspocus and black magic with zero understanding how anything of this affects a modern society.
Someone recently postet a list of EU politicians still active on X ... but I can not find right now :(
@randahl they are on Bluesky.
You can buy turn key solutions for Mastodon (and less often other Fediverse software).
And there are already instances by political parties, e.g
https://gruene.social
https://spd.social
Unfortunately this doesn't mean all acting politicians of these parties have an account and use it regularly.
@filippodb interessante idea (magari per i tuoi omologhi di altre istanze...?)
@randahl Or create new politicians that are not on X.
