It’s a new year, and I’m going to try something new, even though this involves writing a post on a topic I thought I was done with–social media. But hey, time moves on, things change, and all that. Twitter has a new CEO, and they’ve ratchetted up their censorship to what I think are ridiculous levels. I’m still on Twitter, though–they’re not threatening to kick me off or anything like that since my content is pretty inoffensive. So this is in addition to my current Twitter plus Facebook.
Using Gettr.com is a lot like using Twitter. Your posts still need to be reasonably brief–777 characters or less. And there does need to be a way to ban people on social media platforms–otherwise you end up with a feed that’s full of Nazis and porn. I get that. The following is an excerpt from the terms of service:
“GETTR holds freedom of speech as its core value and does not wish to censor your opinions. Nonetheless, GETTR may, but will not have any obligation to, review, monitor, display, post, store, maintain, accept, or otherwise make use of, any of your UGC, and GETTR may, in its sole discretion, reject, delete, move, re-format, remove, or refuse to post or otherwise make use of UGC without notice or any liability to you or any third-party in connection with our operation of UGC venues in an appropriate manner, such as to enhance accessibility of UGC, address copyright infringement, and protect Users from harmful UGC. Without limitation, we may, but do not commit to, do so to address content that comes to our attention that we believe is offensive, obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, pornographic, violent, harassing, threatening, abusive, illegal, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate, or to enforce the rights of third parties or these Terms or any applicable Additional Terms. For example, this may include content identified as personal bullying, sexual abuse of a child, attacking any religion or race…” https://support.gettr.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410447029267-GETTR-TERMS-OF-USE
The downside for me is that it’s like a return to 2015. Instead of thousands of followers, I have hardly any. And that’s no fun.
So I thought I’d invite people to join me there. If we get enough, then our networks should start to grow organically. I figure the people there might want to read something besides politics, right? And we bloggers and authors are constantly generating content. Having read a lot of it, I’ll go so far as to say we produce entertaining content. So who knows? It might be a way to break through the static-y fog of Twitter and Facebook. They’re so huge, it’s hard to stand out. I thought I’d try someplace that’s just starting.
One quick note: Gettr seems to be as conservative as Twitter has become left-leaning. As a centrist, it doesn’t bother me much. If that’s a problem for you, you might want to give Gettr a pass.
You can find me on Gettr here: https://gettr.com/user/cathleent. Please leave your username in the comment section, and I’ll follow you. Hopefully, we can all follow each other.
Happy New Year! : )
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Avid writer and reader of Faerie tales and noblebright fantasy.
Cathleen Townsend 
I cringe at the thought of starting over on another platform. I wish writers and readers had their own and none of that crazy dividing people would be an issue. It’s my dream…lol. I wish you luck, and I never say never to anything though but for now I’m social media-ed out.
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I know the feeling. Mostly, social media has been a time sink. Other than blogging, which I normally like, it’s been a huge amount of time invested for I’m not sure what, exactly. I totally skipped Instagram because I just couldn’t face it. Parler, YouTube, and TikTok were also a pass. I don’t have the drive to go out there and just kill it. I have people to talk to in real life.
I used to like Twitter, though, and lately it’s become too bloated to actually use socially. So I thought I’d give Gettr a try. : )
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Keep us posted how it goes for you on Gettr.
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Well, right now I have 36 followers, so I’m hardly tearing it up. And it’s REALLY political so far, so we’ll see. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find more people who are interested in y’know, art and literature. And funny dog memes. All that sort of thing. : )
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Followed you, Cathleen. If you hurry, you can be my first follower! I do hope Gettr gets into other topics than politics.
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Oops. I thought I added my handle: https://gettr.com/user/jacquiwriter
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I followed you, but someone beat me to being your first. : ) FYI, a lot of the Twitter tricks for finding followers don’t work. You can’t pull up someone else’s followers and follow them. On the other hand, you don’t have to be careful of following ‘bots yet. I found most of my followers so far by making a scathing Joe Biden comment on a news story. Commenting on those seems to be a good way to meet people when you don’t know anyone.
It’s a good time to join. Lots of people are right now–probably a New Year’s thing. I haven’t been there a day and already I have 50 followers, so that bit’s good.
I think it’s so political because a lot of people have been watching their tongues on social media for so long, and it’s nice to virtually let your hair down.
So for me, it’s like the flip side of Twitter. I can criticize Biden all I want. But I don’t make a big deal over hoping for a different Republican candidate in 2024 besides Trump. It’s like my big, dark secret or something. The continuing saga of being a centrist in a polarized world.
And people there have got to have other interests besides politics. It will just take a while (I hope) to find them. I’m going to post funny memes and quotes with determination. Somebody else will like them, and I’ve got whole folders of the things from Twitter. : )
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Great tips, Cathleen. I have a few scathing thoughts I’d like to share, if only I could get this mask to work! I’m going to see if I can get an alert when you post (like I do for some of my Twitter folks) so I can better support you.
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Good for you for trying something new, Cathleen. I’m not on any social media right now except WordPress, and though I tell myself that I should be… I just can’t seem to muster the will to start. Good luck to you!
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Thanks, Diana. I don’t think Gettr would be a good fit for you, anyway. I’m not even sure it’s a good fit for me. I’m hoping to find more non-political discourse once more people join. Right now, it’s a bit…intense for my taste.
*insert sigh here* I miss Twitter from 2015.
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I don’t engage in politics on social media at all. It’s too stressful.
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Hi Cathleen, well done on trying something new. Having read the correspondence between Jacqui and yourself about the political nature of this SM, I don’t think it’s for me. I avoid anything political like the plague.
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Good for you. I used to be like that. Currently in the US, that’s a tough trick to pull off since the country is really, appallingly divided. The closest I can get to being apolitical right now is that I don’t really trust either side. I look squinty-eyed at both of them. : )
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I am aware of the political situation in the US, Cathleen. It impacts the world. I don’t ever comment as it isn’t my place too as a non-American. I do have an opinion though.
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As you saw, I signed up. Are there hashtags there like on Twitter? How do people discover other people?
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I’ve seen people use hashtags, but I haven’t seen any place where you can go meet people who use the same one. So, uh, I have no idea on that one.
As to how I found my grand total of 84 followers thus far (including you), the best thing I’ve found is to go read the news articles. Leave a thoughtful response, and you’ll be able to read the responses of others. Hover the mouse over their name, and you’ll be able to eliminate some people you don’t want to follow. I haven’t run into any ‘bots, so you don’t have to worry that they haven’t got anything but a blank icon. Anyway, about half the people I followed have followed me back. That number may go up–I’ve only been on for a few days.
There may be other ways, but that’s the one I’ve found so far. Hope that helps. : )
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That makes sense. I will try that tomorrow. Thank you.
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I’m keeping mine at writers, apolitical. I have a different handle for politics. I’d like to hope Gettr can be a robust platform for writers sharing ideas, like I found in the past with Twitter. We’ll see!
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That’s what I’m hoping, too. The current obsession with politics is unusual, for those of us with significantly more life experience than millenials. And it’s being fueled by both sides, which I resent. Honestly, it’s gotten to the point that if this isn’t some sort of attempt at a Communist takeover, I’m going to be pissed. All this anxiety for nothing?
OTOH, maybe the extra watchfulness on the part of the general public is what’s keeping politicians from grabbing too much power. What do I know? I’m just an ordinary person who wants the world to continue to be ordinary. : )
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What’s your handle, Sam. I’ll follow you. Mine’s https://gettr.com/user/jacquiwriter
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I’m under samgoldiekirk and followed you.
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found you!
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Hey, I broke a hundred! Currently sitting at 102 followers, following 189 others. This isn’t impressive, maybe, but at least it does mean I actually have a feed and people to retweet, although this platform calls it reposting. : )
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I’m only at 21, but I’m limiting mine to writers. My other persona–Patriot Woman–has just as many and no tweets! And it’s aimed at anti Socialism stuff. Interesting stuff going on.
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Where on earth do you find writers? I’ve maybe found half a dozen.
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I did a search for ‘author’ and ‘writer’ and found more than I expected–more than I found on Parler. So far, they aren’t terribly active.
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Best of luck on your new venture! I don’t do twitter, and I don’t think this is for me either. But I do appreciate the invitation, thank you!
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Still not sure I’ll stick with it, either. But hey, at least it’s new. And once in a while I like to try new things. : )
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Just checked it out and good gosh starting there seems like a daunting task especially when my Twitter profile has thousands of folk… as you pointed it seems very Twitteresque with a dash of Pinterest style buttons
all the best and flourish
~B
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Thanks, Beaton. I’ve slowed down a bit–I only pop in a few times a week. I follow and have around 200 followers now, so at least I have a feed. With Twitter I got aggressive with it–following everyone I could at first, joining hashtag groups to find more people to follow, etc., but I’m mostly just going to let it grow organically on Gettr. : )
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