Digital Atomization and the Dark Art of Blogging

NinaIllingworth November 6, 2022November 6, 2022 algorithm, algos, anticapitalism, Big Tech, blogger, Can't You Read, capitalism, censorship, content, content serving algorithms, Elon Musk, Facebook, Free, free market fundamentalism, instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, Mastodon, Media Madness, Meta, Mini Theory Blog, Musk Twitter, News, Nina Illingworth, personal, reactionary capital, Scurvy, Site Update, social media, Socialism, Subscribe, Tech Bros, Theory, Tumblr, Twitter, update, writing schedule

“I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.” – Virginia Woolf

The Problem

Hola, my friends! I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it seems that a billionaire fascist Afrikaner weirdo has purchased Twitter and is actively running it into the ground. Although I’m still on post-Musk Twitter, I’m not using it a whole lot right now and I’m not even remotely certain the service will exist in six months. I’ve already decamped to Mastodon, and Discord; interested parties can find me by following the appropriate links. I’ve also been trying to use my Facebook Page as part of my Twitter replacement routine, but I have to be honest with you here; it’s not going well, and the problems I’m having with Meta’s content-serving algorithm ultimately necessitated the production of this post.

When I originally started this website, my only method of sharing my work with a larger audience was through my semi-popular Twitter account. After getting my account banned several times for mouthing off to rich people online, it dawned on me that it might be a good idea to widen my presence before then-CEO Jack Dorsey took me out for good. I opened up, or activated old accounts on Facebook, Blogger, and Tumblr, while dabbling with Mastodon. At first this worked out pretty well, I was posting more links in more places which made up for the fact that my main social media networking tool, Twitter, was constantly being restricted. Furthermore, this decision turned out to be a lifesaver when, immediately after exposing numerous fraudulent “leftist” influencers in our online community, I was the targeted by what I believe was a mass report attack, and lost my large account on Christmas Day in 2020.

Unfortunately, and at least in part due to covid-related health difficulties, I’ve been unable to rebuild my social media presence, and thus my ongoing readership. Worse still, over that same time period, the content-serving algorithms on most social media services tightened up considerably; presumably to stop fascist coup plotters. I am neither a fascist, nor a coup-plotter; but I am an anarchist and an anti-capitalist, which is more or less the same thing as far as reactionary capitalists tech bros are concerned. I’ve had some success with a new Instagram account, but by Facebook’s own metrics it’s only showing my blogs to a handful of my 375 followers; I refuse to pay Zuck like 30 bucks to get him to show a post to folks who literally follow my page to see my posts. I’m not angry, but I’m certainly fed up with tech bros, social media, and content-serving algorithms.

The Solution

After giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided to simply move all of my relevant work here to NIDC; including, and perhaps especially, the Facebook Blogs, and longer Twitter threads I frequently publish. I’m not talking about offsite links either; I’m going to just start posting my blogs and mini-theory posts here in full. I’ve also asked our site administrator Scurvy to help me streamline our frame, and make the website more phone browser friendly; that should be completed sometime within the next few days. Given what we have planned at the moment, I’m pretty sure you’ll notice the switch immediately.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach, but at this point I’d just much rather have full control of my work and know that every single subscriber is seeing my analysis even if billionaire reactionary CEOs would rather they not. While I would greatly appreciate my readers sharing my work on their social media accounts, I’m prepared to let my writing stand on its own merits because I’m simply tired of trying to game a rigged content-serving algorithm. I’ll still post links back to here on Twitter, Facebook, and Mastodon, but at the rate we’re going the only place I can guarantee you’ll see them for sure, is right here on NIDC; you can subscribe by clicking the button in the upper right hand corner of this page.

Please note that aside from the Instagram Mini-Theory blog, I’m unlikely to post items shorter than about 500 words long; I’m not looking to catalogue my social media trash-posting, I’m just sick of wasting good content on a digital cone of silence. I’ll probably keep making those kinds of posts on social media however; whether you want to follow along or not for the added, um, value, is your decision.

Question and Answer

“Doesn’t this mean your subscribers are going to get a whole bunch of notifications?”

Yeah; about two to four every weekday unless I’m off sick. Look, I don’t love this either folks but the current political and media environment is not really giving me a lot of choices here. I’ll try to label the posts well, and you can skip the ones that don’t tickle your fancy. Or, I dunno, I guess you can unsubscribe. I’m not really the one with the power here; I’m just a lady who writes a free blog about socialism and I’m tired of losing to a trumped-up calculator.

“Why blogging though; what if I miss your long form essays?”

Hey, I do too; and I haven’t given up on essay writing. Originally I shifted to blogging full time as a way of working myself back into shape after covid-complications took me out again, and just recently I’ve published a couple of essay-length journals; so there is progress on that front. The truth however is that the metrics don’t lie, and longform nerdlings like us are a dying breed; my stat trackers on every single website tell me people want to read 500-800 word blog posts that clearly communicate one or two important ideas. Furthermore, a huge portion of my younger readers simply don’t browse my work (or pretty much anything) on a desktop anymore; the shorter format blog actually meets their needs better, because they consume the analysis on their phones. Once I get back to full health, I intend to try to publish a couple longer (2K or more words) essays a month, but the days of spitting out eight of those puppies every four weeks are long gone; it’s just not how you reach people anymore in 2022.

“What about your Patreon subscribers?”

Given the sheer volume of blogs I’ve been publishing over the past six or so weeks, I don’t think it would be great time investment to produce links to all that content, complete with tags and teasers, every single time. I’m also going to just assume that most of my Patreon subscribers are just trying to help me keep the lights on, and also subscribe to this site; if they don’t, they probably should? Once I get back on my feet, I’ll start sharing links to long form essays on Patreon, and maybe revive our Film Sessions blog as shared content. Otherwise, let’s not worry too much about Patreon right now; after all, reading my work is always free so you don’t even need to sign up as a donor.

“What about your other blogs?”

To tell you the truth, I haven’t quite figured that out yet. Facebook seems fine for sharing memes and personal updates, and there are certain types of info-graphic based posts I think actually look better on Tumblr. Blogger on the other hand, might be a lost cause; Google has more or less given up on it and most of the sites on the service are long since abandoned. At some point I may figure out a way to use those sites to produce unique but fairly low effort content, so I won’t be furious if it gets taken away from me; but I have no idea what that would look like right now. For the moment I’ll keep mirroring the regular content I’d post in those places, but going forward all the analysis that’s really worth reading is going to be here on NIDC; unless you’re big into memes and snarky trash-posts, that is.

Alright folks, that’s more or less what I came here to say. If you haven’t already subscribed here on NIDC, you might want to do so now; once again, you can find the appropriate button on the upper right hand side of your screen. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for our winter website update, and if you find an article you enjoy then feel free to share it with your friends and community. Capitalists probably will sell us the rope with which to hang them, but they’re clearly done letting us advertise the party on Big Tech platforms; your help getting eyes on my work can make all the difference for a rebuilding writer like me.

Thanks for your time and have a great weekend, my friends.