@viticci in 2022 leaving Twitter was the right decision. Good, you had some principles. It was the right decision for me too - though I had no skin in the game. 4 years later has something about the platform gotten better? Or was your principled stand more about trying to get off a social media platform going downhill and on one with some momentum? And now, will X welcome you back or will they remember your perfidy as you help feed the enragement? Congrats, you & MacStories get blocked too.

@viticci We all use platforms, purchase from companies, and pay taxes that are used for things we disagree with. We can use our voices to push against those. There’s a strong purity testing culture on Mastodon that can’t see this nuance and reduce complex decisions to black-and-white straw man arguments.

@viticci Oh, and also - tell Myke at Relay that Connected is off my list due to your participation. @imyke

@viticci unimpressed.

"The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges"

@viticci Money has gotten us in a fight for the survival of humanity. Values have to be more important. Your new passion of AI is only adding to the degradation of the planet. More interesting articles would be better than dropping your values.

@viticci Honestly, nah. If you need to suck at the teet of a nazi to stay in business, you shouldn’t be in business.

@viticci " A substantial part of the audience interested in what we cover is still on X, and by leaving the platform, we stopped reaching those people [...]"

I'm curious if you actually tried to actively encourage people to follow you here.

On a related note, have you read about The Forkiverse?

https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/fediverse-an-overview-for-community-organizers/#case-studies-forkiverse

@viticci this is tough to read. I think business wise you would be better off creating a new website for all the AI stuff. I get that’s what you’re passionate about and I don’t fault you for that, but trying to drag Macstories with you and saying it’s just more automation feels off to me.

Going back to X is a doozy. That’s where the AI audience is, but I think to all of us that left for principled reasons watching people go back, makes us realise that us leaving had no effect and that hurts.

@viticci Hey - thanks for the apology… I'm still pretty disappointed with this move, after y'all wrote before how you quit Twitter and Threads out of principle, and now you come back, and pay for a premium account, even though nothing changed there… but I understand that running a business is hard.

@viticci The fact that this is posted here and not on MacStories is illustrating the problem - it feels sneaky. I unsubscribed months ago because of the pivot from apps to AI, and after this I think the respect is gone for good.

@viticci they’re making fun of you guys all over my timeline, btw. calling you sellouts, basically. said you went full bandwagon already. just fyi.

@viticci Nope.

@viticci@macstories.net dude just fuck off from the fediverse if you are so invested in white supremacism. like, you know it's wrong, why don't you at least try to hide it and delete your account entirely

@viticci gross. I was disappointed with you all for posting so much AI garbage recently, but this is next level.

@viticci Federico per quanto non é che sia un fan della direzione editoriale attuale di macstories, troppo ai, poco app cover, ritengo che questa shitstorm sia veramente assurda, e sia ahimè colpa della visione semplicistica che hanno gli americani della nostra community riguardo al mondo

Musk ha idee politiche deprecabili, ma letteralmente a miliardi di persone non importa nulla, io ho lasciato Twitter solo perché non ci sono le app ma c’è ancora tanti contenuti e tanta gente… fate bene, ciao

@viticci

@viticci This post doesn’t fix anything at all 😕👎

@viticci Well... you had one problem, but now you have two. Good luck! 😅

@viticci so many people here seriously need to touch some grass. This outcry is so disproportionate

@viticci
”returning to X does not represent a change in our values, what MacStories or we stand for, or an endorsement of Elon Musk.”

Except it does! You aren’t just automating links on the MacStories account, you and John are back on personal accounts, an not only that, you’re also paying for a premium membership at the Nazi bar.

Claiming this doesn’t represent a change in values or and endorsement is just ridiculous and as a long time reader and listener I expected better of you.

@viticci That’s your choice.

My choice is to stop reading and boosting MacStories.

@viticci there is no explanation in that post at all.

I am deeply deeply shaken by your move. This year will be the first that I won’t read your long release article for the OS updates. Good bye.

@viticci Weak. No excuse needed. Just weak.

@viticci Thanks for making a statement about this, but the decision still doesn't sit well with me. I hope you continue to be active here.

@viticci You’re free to make money however you want but I’m not sure I’ll even bother with @connected if you think it’s okay to hang with someone you ‘abhor’ for a quick buck.

@viticci that’s the worst move ever

@viticci
I don't have any 'skin in the game' with regard to owning/running a business.

But I do from the perspective of social/professional networking. I lost that when I quit Twitter.

IMHO, the takeaway for all of us is we need to convince friends, family, and everyone else to leave* capitalist social media...and decrease, if not eliminate, the incentive for others to stay.

*That means deleting your account, not just going dormant.

@viticci Thank you for letting everyone know your pro nazi stance so they can respond accordingly.

@viticci it must have been an incredibly difficult decision, as the creator and “leading man” of Macstories, to prioritize the business’ needs over your strong values and I commend you for it. Sucks @johnvoorhees and you mistakenly didn't share it with your team prior to doing so but thankfully life’s mistakes bring us great lessons.

Like you I wish you didn’t have to contribute to Musk either but I continue, excitedly, to support your work and am excited to see the company continue to grow.

@viticci if you are willing to pay Elon Musk money for growing your audience clearly I’m not the kind of person you want in it anymore.

So this is good bye, good luck with your future endeavors with your new audience.

@viticci I understand the economic constraints, but it’s still very depressing to see that nothing ever changes in this regard. Everyone is still on X because everyone else is still on X and everyone hates it? Really? It would only need a few large organisations, government administrations, and influential individuals who don’t feel economic coercion to lead an exodus, and X would be nothing.

@viticci

Don't fucking care at all.

You hang out with Nazis, you're a Nazi.

Don't like it? Stop doing it.

@viticci don't want to post it on the main site because you don't want the people you hope will come from Twitter seeing it?

I don't know what the Club looked like before the AI pivot, but my guess is that the content is what's driven the loss in subscriptions, not "other subscription services".

You talk about lots of nebulous plans to expand coverage of what your old subscribers actually did care about but there's nothing concrete. There's no reason to trust that you're actually going to do that, especially now that you're back on Twitter to court the AI people.

There's the old joke about the guy who wouldn't want to be a part of any club that would have him as a member. I wouldn't want to be a part of a club that would have a bunch of 2026 Twitter users as members.

@viticci You’ve reversed a decision made 4 years ago which you proudly declared as representing your principles. You now advocate readers giving $100s in monthly subs to companies you once asked for Congress to take action against. It is disingenuous to claim your values haven’t changed.

@viticci Yeah nope. I'm out.

@viticci Shameful. Too late. Too little. In a Craft doc. Sad.

@viticci hope you find the readership you’re looking for; you’ve lost my clicks.

@viticci @stroughtonsmith

@viticci if your business can't exist without enabling fascists and supporting them monetarily - which is what using X is - then your business doesn't deserve the support of marginalized committee and deserves to die

Sorry to hear MacStories has died

@viticci seems like it’s going to be an even tougher next few years. Don’t know if a lot of us can ever support a company that has made a decision like this

@viticci So… did you post this on X?

@viticci Good luck, but I can’t support these choices. I’ve dropped following on RSS and social media.

@viticci Ask us why we're leaving. I would have been happy to share but I’m not sure anyone even noticed.

@viticci Curios to hear how much engagement you can get from X nowadays. From what I‘ve heard from other news outlets and our own experience @tazgetroete, posts that aren’t racist, antisemitic or ragebait in some form barely get any engagement let alone are actually shown on users feeds.

@viticci Does X really represent a significant source of traffic?

@viticci If you really think that returning to X does not change your values, than your values were not as great as you believe they were.

You did your contributors really dirty. They were the ones that led me to buy a club membership. But now it is cancelled as quickly as well.

@viticci I disagree with everyone piling on. Using a service does not mean you agree with everyone involved. I'm sure there are people at Google that you don't agree with? Do you still use Google.

What about your politicians? Don't agree with them so decide you aren't using the roads anymore, etc.

@viticci sad :-(