Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It’s Saturday Night again –

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along – cue the Mission Impossible music!):

1)  What was your genealogy-related highlight of this past week (or two weeks)?  

While I’d love to write about my highlight of the past few weeks, I don’t think I can at this time.

SO — another highlight of my past week, has to do more with social media than genealogy.

I received an INVITE CODE to Blue Sky. Yes, this is another potential replacement to Twitter. While I’ve only had an account for a little over a day, I think Blue Sky looks promising.

So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the various Twitter like platforms.

Twitter

• Now called ‘X’
• Rumored that it will start charging
• Users report increased bullying
• Many genealogists have left
• Scientists and reporters still seem to be present
• Posting from Feedly goes to drafts
• Twitter broke ability for WordPress blog to share posts on Twitter

Mastodon

• Confusing — at least to me
• Logged in on my phone but don’t know where to go to login on computer
• Posting from Feedly WORKS
• Some genealogists here
• Some users have multiple accounts — likely on multiple servers
• Scientists and reporters may be here
• WordPress blog automatically shares post on Mastodon

Threads

• Many genealogists moved here
• Some scientists and reporters are here
• CAN’T search for anything covid related
• Can only share ONE blog post from Feedly without closing and re-opening Feedly
• Cannot automatically share posts from WordPress blog to Threads

Tumblr

• Can automatically share posts from WordPress blog to Tumblr
• Scientists and reporters that I follow are not on this platform
• Few genealogists here
• Cannot share from Feedly to Tumblr

BlueSky

• Requires invite code or placement on wait list
• Looks like and behaves like Twitter
• Currently can’t share from Feedly to BlueSky
• Currently can’t share from WordPress to BlueSky
• Few genealogists here
• Scientists and Reporters hers
• Can search for covid information

So, what is my preference:

1. BlueSky — this is promising and I’m hoping that the ability to share from Feedly and WordPress will be added
2. Someone purchasing Twitter and restoring the functionality and ability to report / block bullies
3. Mastodon — This would be promising IF it wasn’t so confusing to use.
4. Threads — For genealogy, this might work — BUT — I use this platform to stay on top of public health news including COVID. Since searching for COVID related topics is blocked, I doubt that I will fully embrace this platform — even if they fix the sharing issues.