It''s my fediversary -- eight years since I set up this account! I've had multiple accounts since then, and these days am mostly at @jdp23@neuromatch.social, but this was my home base for quite a while and I still enjoy it here whenever I check in. Thanks to the original admins for setting it up and inviting me, to @woozle@toot.cat for doing such a great job running it over the years, all the folks here for keeping the local feed interesting, and the Glitch developers for years of producing software that's so much better for communities than vanilla Mastodon!
Like so many othes I was drawn here thanks to @sarahjeong@mastodon.social's Mastodon Is Like Twitter Without Nazis, So Why Are We Not Using It? and it's interesting to look at what has and hasn't changed since then -- Lessons (so far) from Mastodon for independent social networks, originally written in May 2017, remains very relevant. Still, despite all the ups and downs I remain optimstic about the potential of decentralized social networks (although realistic about the challenges). If not now, when? has some of my current thoughts. Looking forward to another 8 years!
