If you’re a Twitter user, you’re probably annoyed right now. Twitter’s made yet another tone-deaf change to the way their platform works.
Remember when they allowed tagging of people with no limit? I’m sure Twitter thought this would be really convenient. The trolls thought so, too. Users can spam as many people as they want. 🙄
Social media platforms make unwanted changes, then people move somewhere else. Heard of a little pop-up called Mastodon. (You toot instead of tweet. How adorable.)
But I feel like you’re still going to have similar problems, eventually. You will still be an unwilling subject to the whims of change of the Social Media Gods.
Let me offer you an alternative to Twitter. Yeah, that’s right. I think you should go old school and start a listserv.
Reasons To Use Listservs as a Twitter Alternative
Trolls
If Twitter is an open playground, listserves are a gated community. You can let people in and kick them out as you wish, without having to continually patrol your feed.
Got a troll? Kick them off. Better yet, ban their IP.
With a listserv, you can carefully oversee your membership. You’re less likely to have trolls because you’re less likely to have invited one in the first place.
Stability
Listservs run off email. Emails have been emails since the dawn of time. (Well, OK, since the dawn of email.) They will probably be around long after we’re gone.
Your basic email doesn’t change, and probably never will. Unlike Twitter. Or Facebook. Or Instagram.
Community
You can say you have a Twitter “community,” but what you really have is a Twitter “shouting contest held in a parking lot behind Walmart.” 😉
With a listserv, you really do have a community full of people who you know and who know you. You can have discussions that are longer than a few characters. And your group members will be tied to actual names and actual people, not an anonymous handle. (Looking at you @LordVoldemort and @ChipotleEffect.)
In Summary
Basically, it comes down to this:
Twitter is a giant open field where whoever wants to can come join your discussion ….. or yell at you. To stop them, you have to mute them specifically. Then, other people have to mute them specifically, too. And yet, they’re still there—yelling.
A listserv is a walled garden where only your friends, associates, or non-trolls are let in. If someone’s a moron, you can just kick them over the wall.
Where would YOU rather have a discussion? Try our software for free. You can get started in just a few minutes.
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