Why I left Twitter again…sort of.

Many of my followers may know that about 3-4 yrs. ago I was at Twitter. I had over 25k followers and got tired of just being ignored by 99.99% of them. After losing years of my life, I had enough. I took some time away from social media. Truthfully, I really needed the break. Twitter was the very last social media website I left. I was free to just goof off. But after awhile, even that becomes boring. The drive to create always sneaks back in.

Fast forward to now and realize, the plandemic has come and gone. The world sits on more shaky ground, and Elon Musk now owns Twitter. I thought well maybe. The problem with maybe is usually maybe is a NO! I had hoped that a return to Twitter would be different. It was different. But not in a good way. The platform that wasted my money and time earlier had just become more of the negative and less of the positive. The only time people comment is political crap. I made over 200 posts and received less than 5 comments TOTAL. Likes were only slightly better. After 4 months I had gained less than 1000 followers. Using basic math, it is clear it would take over 10 yrs. to get just 30k followers. To get an amount that might actually make a difference, well, that would take longer than I will probably live.

I suppose this speaks volumes about all the things Social Media has done to drive people away from their platforms and really, I could write for days on all those flaws. Heck, I even know how to fix Social Media. But then I would be giving something to world that they don’t deserve. Honestly, how many people really feel mankind has shown anything but hatred that few years toward each other. How many times have I seen people treat each other badly on the internet? Our behavior does not deserve to be rewarded, thus I will just let Social Media die off. Social Media companies and the people both seem to want this, whether they realize it or not.

At any rate, all of my blog posts and my portfolio posts will be published indirectly to Twitter. There is no sense in going to Twitter for engagement, when there is none. Instead, I shall begin work on my photography blog. Even though I have been doing photography for more than 10 yrs. I never bothered with a blog. I think the time has come. I also plan on setting up a store at Etsy. This store will feature all my photos and artworks in both digital and physical forms. Thus giving customers, more options, at less cost than Fine Art America, where I currently have all my creations. My new photography blog will be here . Bookmark it and visit often. I promise, it will be exciting!

Human and A.I. artwork created recently.

Hope to see everyone at the new blog. Take care and have a magikal day!

JB

The End Of The First Amendment

You don’t have to be political. You don’t need to be Republican. You don’t need to be Democrat. You don’t even have to care one iota what goes on in Washington, D.C. to see, what is the single largest step any company has taken, in suppressing our right to free speech. Just go on to Twitter and read the reason why Twitter banned Donald Trump. It clearly, is all made up, supposition and conjecture. There is not a single reason in their statement that says Trump did anything wrong. Without proof, you have nothing!

I really love how they think that they can read between the lines and consider that a fair reason for a permanent ban of the man. The minute we think we can read other people minds, is the moment we need to check into the crazy asylum. Trump stated “I will not be at the inauguration”. There is nothing in this statement that implies anything to most people. Yet, according to Twitter, he was inviting his followers to go attack the Capital again on Inauguration Day. How exactly is it that you know what Trump was doing? How do you know his intent? (As a side note one has to wonder if they think they know because it is what they would do. Liars believe everyone else to be liars.) There is not any proof in this because nobody can know any else’s thoughts. This is completely and utterly absurd! Twitter goes on to say, that other people tweeted this notion of Inauguration Day being a perfect time to attack, because Trump won’t be there. So now we punish one person for the actions of another? If this were true, them Mr. Jack Dorsey should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, for allowing Trump to post as long as he did. This is Twitter’s logic, not mine! Maybe I should be prosecuted for speaking my mind too!

This has just gone too far, at this point. You cannot read between lines, make up conjecture when there is none, assume you know someone’s intentions, and punish someone for the actions of others, all in the name of taking away someone’s rights. A man must be judged on what he does, not what you THINK he has done. If I was judged based upon what people THINK I have done, I would be spending the next 1000 yrs. behind bars. Thankfully, that is not the case, because it would be so very wrong.

I want to clarify this for the record. I am not Republican. I am not Democrat. I don’t even vote. I don’t believe anyone has been worthy of my vote. All politicians are criminals! However, I do believe EVERY human being has inalienable rights. The right to free speech being of the highest priority for me. I cannot stand idly by, while someone’s rights are so blatantly violated. Evil wins when good men do nothing. I will never reward or champion evil deeds.

After having read this far, do you see what happens next? Maybe the next thing you post to Twitter is grist for the mill, something perfect for them to use, in the erasing of our free speech. Maybe you will be lucky and never say anything they don’t approve of, but history has shown that those who abuse power, will continue to do so until they are stopped. The Holocaust is a perfect example of just how far people will go when the have gotten drunk with power. It starts with them taking away our free speech. It ends with them taking away our lives. You can stand up now or lay down forever! Your choice!

As for me the choice is clear. I must remove my support of this platform forever. I will be deleting my Twitter account within the next week, thus giving my followers a chance to come and sub to this blog. This blog has been here for 14 yrs. because they support free speech. Perhaps I will make a Parlor account too!

At any rate, thank you for reading and I do hope you join me here.

Until next time I type…

Axe(JB)

The State of Twitter

As many are aware, Twitter is not gaining followers. In fact, it may be losing them. One of the many factors for this is simply, that it is useless. Not just to the average Joe on the street but even to advertisers. If people are not sharing things with each other and only use the site to fight in semi-real time, then usefulness of the platform is null.

Now I am sure a lot of people who read this might disagree. However, I should point out that I have been on Twitter for more than 5 yrs. and have 19.2k followers. Yes, that is not a huge amount of followers, but it is certainly enough to be able to figure out the average users posting behavior. That is why I stopped bothering spending the time gaining followers. What would be the point?

I have written multiple Tweets and posts regarding retweeting. I have explained on site and on my blog, how this benefits for everyone involved. However, the average user either does not care or just simply ignores the facts.

I have made it abundantly clear that if my followers retweet my tweets that I will gladly return he favor. It seems obvious that if you have a few hundred followers, getting someone with nearly 20k followers to retweet, your tweets, would be of benefit.Yet, they can’t or won’t get this simple common sense.

The state of Twitter is such that I can comfortably unfollow EVERY single one of my followers and not lose anything. If they are not sharing, they are simply doing a disservice to both of us and they make this glaringly clear. I would rather not tweet to a bunch of people who ignore the opportunities involved, than keep them around to make me feel like I am some kind of loser or burden. If you are just following people for another number and not taking advantage of that new connection, then YOU are the loser and the burden.

If other users are feeling like this, then there is certainly good reason for the decline of the platform. If the platform is filled with nothing but ignorant and lazy people who only care about themselves, it will just continue sliding downhill.

Seeing this has made me realize that the time for Twitter will likely end soon. In the interim, I will unfollow every follower, with the exception of those, who actually seem to get it. Even then, unfollowing the vast majority of my followers, I will still have over 9k followers and will be following a couple of handfuls of people at most. My account will still look fine, and it will be as useful ,as it was before I unfollowed most everyone.

When one considers the big picture, it s far better for me not to carry around dead-weight and feel like crap, and redirect my efforts to another platform that has potential. This make perfect sense to ANYONE who is trying to get a business up and running. You have to go where you have the most potential for opportunity. Twitter has proven time and time again, that it is not the best place to spend your time and resources.

Over the course of the next few months, I will be eliminating the baggage. I will be doing this extremely fast, so it is completely possible that I accidentally unfollow some people not intended. I wish I had more time to be careful in doing this, but that is not the case. I have thousands of pictures to process and upload. I simply do not have the time to spend on unfollowing people from Tweeter, but I also refuse to reward anyone for lazy and ignorant behavior.

If I accidentally unfollow you and you have been active, PLEASE just send a message to @JB_Thomas and I will re-follow you. I don’t want to lose any good followers. Most of those that I plan on keeping have become friends.

I really hope Twitter reads this and figures out that these ignorant people really need a better tutorial, when they join the site. If they don’t make some big changes, this site is done for.

As for me, I will be re-directing all my efforts towards Facebook and Instagram. I am sure they both offer much more than Twitter ever did, in regards to communication and connecting.

Lastly, I want to thank all of my loyal and completely helpful followers. You get how important it is for me to be successful in my online endeavors. You understand that this not only affects me, it also affects my wife, who works 2 jobs and is gone all the time. The sooner I can find some success in this, the sooner my wife gets to come home and relax some. After her stroke earlier this year, I am more concerned than ever and the loyal followers get, that this is why I am pushing 200% into this photo business.

My loyal and helpful followers have taken the time to get to know me. They know I understand not everyone has money to buy my stuff and that is why I never ask that of them. I only ask that they share. This not much to ask especially when you consider that I have ALWAYS been willing to reciprocate the sharing.

I really do hope that Twitter figures all this out and finds a way to get people to understand and become more involved in the site. If they do not, they will certainly lose more people.

Life is just too damn short for shit like this. Take care and enjoy what is left of your day!

Axe

 

 

My lists on Twitter…

The purpose of them is not what most people probably think. I have seen tweets about how they can be used to build blogs and such. Considering I have 658,899 hits(as of this moment) to my blog, that obviously would not be of use to me. Furthermore, 7 yrs. worth of content brings a steady stream of visitors everyday. So what is the purpose of my lists on Twitter?

The answer is a lot more simple than you would think. The purpose is to help out my followers. By sorting my followers into various lists, my followers can then easily find others with similar interests. While they are still a work in progress, my goal is to have it up to date weekly, with every follower being on at least one list.

Lastly, I should mention the list category of “Awesome Followers”. These are the followers who seem to grasp the basic concept that a favor should be returned. If I re-tweet or favorite a post of yours, you should do the same for me. Those followers who get this idea will make it to this list, those who do not, won’t. Furthermore, those who forget this simple concept, will be removed from the list. I believe good followers should be rewarded and that is what this list is for. 🙂

I hope this brief explanation was helpful to those who took the time to read it. TC and have a good one!

Axe