In December I killed my Twitter account. I was minorly proud of how long I'd been around there (ID 15751: palindromic and an early adopter; living that nerd life), even if I was mostly a lurker, however Musk's layoffs affected friends I trust, and Twitter's security & ethics teams — two teams I wanted to be at full strength.

I wanted to give Mastodon a try (I was already using PixelFed from the Fediverse) and a friend recommended @nova's Hachyderm instance. It's been wonderful for so many reasons (thank you for the tip Julz!) — in particular Nova's expert technical direction of the instance (though I've still to watch one of her twitch streams), the lovely people I've connected with, and the rapidly evolving approach Hachyderm has taken to administration and funding (including Nivenly, its parent org).

Like many of the tech-oriented folks on Hachyderm I've also embraced the nostalgia of early-twitter, 'web 1.0', and POSSE (Publish your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere). I say "nostalgia", as that's the overwhelming feeling for me, but moving towards open protocols, decentralising, and bringing more creative diversity back to the web are all important to me, and to the web in general.

I plan on bringing more of the IndieWeb to my sites, at least once I'm back in front of a real computer after my sabbatical, but I plan on at least adding links to my friends' sites as so many seem to be following a similar journey of starting to own their own spaces online.

In the meanwhile, come and say hi in the Fediverse — I'm @byJP!