I admit it. I’m a Twitter fan. Or, at least I was. I love being able to get information via Twitter. I follow a wide variety of people including genealogists.

Since I have a science background, I also tend to follow scientists. When Swine Flu hit, I started following virologists from around the world. It was thru them, I learned an easy way to disinfect shared keyboards and mice in the high school library and computer lab. With COVID, I have added quite a few virologists and doctors to the list of people I follow.

I enjoy reading my Twitter feed and keeping up with fellow genealogists, the status of COVID and the news. That was until Twitter started changing and some of my sources of information quit using Twitter.

And now, Twitter is making it difficult for me to share my blog posts. I use a tool that automatically shares my blog posts in a variety of ways once they are published. This tool is built on an API. First, Twitter broke the API. Now, Twitter has fixed it but wants to charge more for that access. Instead of passing on that additional charge to me as a WordPress user, WordPress has elected to drop the automatic posting to Twitter. (Currently, I can still open a post and share it manually.) Since my blog is not supported by any advertising, I support the choice WordPress has made.

In the future, WordPress plans to add the ability to automatically share my posts to Mastodon. Thus, I need to learn to use it!

A couple of months ago, many genealogists set up Mastodon accounts and some quit using Twitter. At the time, I set up an account but have not really used it. With the possibility to automatically share my blog posts to Mastodon, it is time to learn to use it.

If you are on Mastodon, you can follow me by searching for @mcphilbrick – or your can find my posts at https://mastodon.social/@mcphilbrick

For more information about genealogy and mastodon, check out George Eastman’s blog, How Does Mastodon Work and How to Get Started or Cyndi’s List of Mastodon resources.

On my phone, I am trying the Ivory app. This is a subscription app so I may not continue to use it once my free trial expires. Mashable article: Ivory Is a Great New Mastodon Client with a Horrible Name

Let the fun (learning) begin!