#exodus from twitter

[tomorrowusa]

Normie users are finally leaving Twitter/X in a more noticeable way.

Journalists begin new exodus from Elon Musk's X

Elon Musk’s social media toilet X is facing a new exodus by journalists and organizations fed up with both the tanking quality of the site and the upcoming changes to its terms of service set to take effect Nov. 15. X’s new service terms require users who wish to sue the company to file in specifically the “U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas or state courts located in Tarrant County, Texas.” These courts are a favorite of conservative activists as they are stocked with Republican appointees. On Wednesday, The Guardian announced it would no longer post on the site, though it would not block X users from sharing its articles. “Social media can be an important tool for news organisations and help us to reach new audiences,” the media outlet writes, “but, at this point, X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work.” Journalist Don Lemon, who is in the midst of a lawsuit with Musk for alleged breach of contract, also posted a statement on Wednesday about leaving the site. “I once believed it was a place for honest debate and discussion, transparency, and free speech, but I now feel it does not serve that purpose,” he wrote.

Bluesky surges as users seek social media alternatives to X

After X, formerly Twitter, saw a record estimated 281,600 accounts deactivated worldwide in just one day on November 6, according to internet traffic analyzer Similarweb, speculation has surged that the best days of Elon Musk's social media platform are behind it.  Other microblogging sites, including Bluesky, have rocketed to the top of app download rankings and courted millions of new users in the week since Donald Trump won the US election. Whether users are permanently leaving X or simply establishing new accounts elsewhere is unclear. But major brands and individuals are citing Musk's substantial financial and rhetorical backing of Trump in the US election, as well as the polarizing nature of the X platform, as the reason for their departures. [ ... ]

Among the reasons cited for departing the platform is the continued increase in negative content on the platform. That includes the increase of toxic content, remarked by The Guardian in its published statement as "the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism."

So what excuses do you hear from people who still cling to a virulently pro-Trump platform?

[disconnected-dragon]

im-- im just trying to process this "twitter rebranding to x" move like-- WHY is elon so obsessed with the letter x?

he named his cars x. he named his rockets "SpaceX". he maybe got booted out of paypal partially because he tried to name it x. he named his KID x.

and now he's trying to rebrand TWITTER, the brand so ingrained by now they got us to call tweets TWEETS, into x too????

what IS WITH this man and the letter x? why does it have him in such a chokehold???

[vaethryn]

sick to bastard death of having to deal with a platform shift every 4-5 years i hope muskrat explodes

[eskiworks]

Bsky is down for me, probably because I posted a stupid pic of Dashi... 😔

[wallbang-buzzkill]

old sketch of miller from Metro

[toastydumpster]

Dunno if I ever shared my BSKY here but !!!

[gentil-minou]

sharing my wangxian phlebotomist!wwx/blood donor!lwj au from twitter here (a summary here if you wanna see)

--

The hardest part of the adoption process was supposed to be endless paperwork and screenings and the anxiety of not being good enough to meet high standards of the court.

It wasn't supposed to be A-Yuan's first doctors appointment.

His pitiful screams fill the small doctor's office. He's clinging to Lan Wangji's shoulders like there a lifeline, hiding and all LWJ wants to do is bundle up his son and carry him back to safety.

But these are mandatory vaccines he needs in order to attend pre-k. So he cant.

Nurse: Shots are never fun at this age, huh He would beg to differ; they're never fun at any age But see lwj isnt afraid of the shots themselves. Hes terrified of the sight of blood. His BFF loves horror movies & he watches them with her bravely by staring at the corner of the tv

When lwj gets his blood drawn, he looks closes his eyes and imagines being in a cold pond somewhere. But he's never been afraid of just the shot before.

He's helpless in the face of his son's distress. The nurse sighs, saying theyll have to try again another day.

A-Yuan sniffles into his baba's shirt, exhausted from the crying fit. His eyes are still watery and he looks around the room with such fear in his eyes, before withdrawing back into the safety of his baba's chest.

Lan Wangji has no idea what to do, only cradles him closer

Thankfully, LWJ has someone who can help. His best friend, Jiang Yanli is a child therapist and has been helping him prepare his home for A-Yuan.

If anyone knows what to do, it's Yanli-jie

JYL: Zhanzhan, have you tried showing him its not scary?

LWJ has not, bc he's terrified

JYL is the only one allowed to call him Zhanzhan. In Uni she was the one who mentored him his first week of school. Someone slipped him alcohol and he got deliriously drunk.

Yanli-jie was the one who found him and took him home. This is what they told the cohort but actually…

JYL: seeing his Baba get a shot and be okay might motivate him to be more brave

LWJ certainly doesn't feel brave. He's thinking of the blood flowing from his veins and then LEAVING them to go who knows where. It sounds barbaric

He has the distinct memory of learning what a period is in middle school and promptly passing out

He is not a fan of anything related to blood

But LWJ has learned that Yanli-jie knows what she's doing, so, despite the way he can swear he feels his blood pumping with fear, he agrees...but there's a problem.

LWJ: I am up to date on all my shots. How can I show him it is safe?

JYL: Hmm....I have an idea. My brother is a phlebotomist! He can help.

LWJ is confused. Last he heard, the younger Jiang is a prosecutor who makes a living viciously yelling in a courtroom.

JYL: Not him, Zhanzhan. My adoptive brother, A-Xian. I bet he would be happy to help you. He works at the blood bank at Yiling Clinic! The perfect exposure!

For who?, LWJ wonders. A blood bank sounds like a house of horrors to him. And a person who chooses to stick a needle in people and remove the very force that gives them life? He cannot imagine getting along with this person at all.

--

Yiling Clinic is a community clinic in a part of town Lan Wangji has never been to, especially since the Gusu Group has their own private hospital.

But this is where Yanli-jie's phlebotomist little brother works.

A-Yuan clings to the back of his legs as they approach the receptionist, a young man with amazing cat eye makeup named Mo Xuanyu

These two definitely do not fit the bill for their usual patients, with their designer clothing, so he asks with some skepticism: Um, can I help you?

LWJ has spent the last two hours siking himself up for the blood part, he isn't prepared at all for social interactions. He flounders like a fish.

LWJ: …I am…We are here for…

A shout comes from behind them: Ah! A-Yu, is that A-jie's friend? Zhanzhan?

LWJ flinches until he sees a man sprinting towards them. The 1st thing he notices is this man is wearing lilac scrubs with little white rabbits on them.

The 2nd thing he notices is this man has the most enchanting smile he's ever seen. Already, LWJ feels more relaxed.

The man winks at him: You like the scrubs? A-jie said A-Yuan liked bunnies, I figured this would help keep him calm.

LWJ does not blurt I like bunnies too. But only just.

Beside the man is a pediatric nurse named Wen Ning, no relation, who says he's here to help with A-Yuan

Yanli-jie's little brother, the phlebotomist, introduces himself: Ah! Sorry, Lan Zhan. Jiejie always calls you that so it just stuck. I'm Wei Wuxian. You can call me Wei Ying if you wanna make it even.

Strangely, LWJ feels no need to correct him: Lan Zhan is fine, Wei Ying.

WWX smiles so brightly, LWJ feels dizzy with it.

WWX: Now where's the little bunny himself?

A-Yuan has been clinging behind LWJ's pant leg, tilting around just enough to peek with one eye at this strange gege.

WWX: Maybe not a rabbit then, a radish who likes to hide away!

A-Yuan becomes offended: I don't like radishes!

WWX laughs: Me neither! But Qing-jie says they help us grow big and strong, so they can't be all that bad huh?

WWX is crouched in front of A-Yuan, draping both arms across his knees and resting his chin in one hand. He waits.

LWJ admires his patience. The longer WWX waits, crouched and rocking back and forth in front of A-Yuan, smile gently and welcoming, the more A-Yuan's natural curiosity gets the better of him.

Eventually, his son comes out from behind his leg to touch a black bunny on his sleeve

A-Yuan: I like this one. We only have a white bunny at home.

WWX: I like the black bunny too! What's your bunny's name?

A-Yuan: Banana, bc she tries to eat Baba's banana every morning, and you are what you eat.

He recites this with all the solemnity a 4 yo could possess

WWX's laughter echoes through the lobby: Well! You're very right, A-Yuan. Maybe you aren't a radish after all then. Tell me, what do little boys eat?

A-Yuan: I'm not little! I'm 4 and a half!

WWX: Right, right, I sincerely apologize for my mistake. What do big boys eat then?

A-Yuan purses his lips and taps his chin, pondering his question carefully: Hmm… jelly beans?

WWX looks like he wants to laugh more, but instead says: I see, I see. Thank you for your wisdom A-Yuan.

He looks up at LWJ, dark eyes dancing. LWJ's heart rabbits against his chest

WWX: If your baba is ready, we can head down to my cave if you'd like. I have a lot of cool machines I'd love to show you.

A-Yuan's eyes widen into saucers as he gasps: A cave? Wowww

They grin conspiratorially at each other, before turning bright eyes up at LWJ

LWJ feels warm and much more relaxed inside, so he nods: Mn. We may go.

A-Yuan cheers and holds WWX's hand as the head downstairs.

LWJ trails behind making small talk with WN, watching WWX and A-Yuan swing their hands and skip ahead, feeling something warm blossom in his chest.

The hallway to Wei Wuxian's lab isn't anything like Lan Wangji expects.

The rooms at Gusu are all perfectly pristine and sterile, painted white to promote serenity, rest, and healing.

For one thing, he'd raided a Halloween store at some point and hung up all sorts of decorations, mostly vampire themed. There's one that's says "I vant to suck your blood!" except suck is crossed out and replaced with "donate". Wwx and A-yuan giggle together at wwx's fake accent

It's definitely not up to Gusu General's strict standards. For one thing, there're beanbag chairs in the hall outside. Wwx says it's to feel more comfy while others wait, as he's the only phlebotomist on staff and it can take a while. A-Yuan personally tests each one.

His lab is…adequate if far too small. There's a desk that's overrun with stacks of papers and textbooks and a shelf that's filled with even more. The actual space where blood is drawn is, thankfully, sterile and clean. Though he's decorated with demons demanding blood for food

There's a temp controlled room where the blood is stored, with a red door and the words "Blood Pool" written in menacing barely legible font

Despite the…interesting decor, the room is homely and, surprisingly, welcoming. A-Yuan at least is having a very fun time getting a tour

Wwx patiently answers all of A-Yuan’s questions, even the endless why's, with utmost sincerity, even when his answers are purely nonsense.

Lwj can't stop the fond smile from lifting the corner of his lips. A-Yuan had never warmed up to a medical professional so fast.

He's pulled from his musings when A-Yuan grabs his sleeve: Baba! Blood-gege says this machine makes blood spin around!

Wwx burst out laughing: Blood-gege? I love it!

Lwj is enchanted, head repeating those last 3 words again and again as wwx fondly ruffles A-Yuan's fluffy hair

Wwx: alright, now that you're familiar with my beauty Chenqing (referring to his bloody spinny machine lwj does not want to think about), shall we get down to business?

He says this with his bright dark eyes glittering at LWJ. Right. The blood donating part.

Lwj gulps, nodding. A prisoner walking up to the gallows.

TBC

(If you're interested, I'm probably going to continue at least up to the end of the first part before i just make it into one long fic! You can follow it on my twitter!)

[statelibraryqueensland]

Twitter refugees naively admiring the fifth sparsely furnished blog of federicalovejoygarcia059 to follow them that morning, 2023. 

(Original caption: Children enthralled by a giant robot at the Ekka in Brisbane, Queensland. LINK)

[kihaku-gato]

The internet / social media really is getting super exhausting and really is just making everyone more stressed and angrier and angrier huh

[in-sufficientdata]

It's a little-known fact that Moses only looked radiant when he came down from the mountain because he learned how to contour while he was up there

Good thing God knew the best moisturizing routine for Moses's skin type

[cozylittleartblog]

also for a direct link here it is. i've only been using it for a day but i like it so far

[marquisguyun]

So I'm back on my bullshit bluesky if anyone wants to drop their @ in the notes

I'm just marquisguyun over there as well

[aethersea]

hi I hope i don't seem rude but what do you mean by "prev has been outlawed by staff"? hope you've a good day!

(in reference to this post)

so when you look at a post on your dashboard, or perhaps in the like blog-specific view that looks like the dashboard, there's that bit at the top that says current-blog [reblog symbol] other-blog, where other-blog is the one that current-blog (the one you're looking at) reblogged the post from. and it USED TO BE that when you clicked on the url other-blog, it would take you to this specific post on that other blog.

but no longer. staff recently pushed a change so that now when you click on the url of other-blog, it'll just take you to the top of other-blog, not to this specific post at all.

personally this pissed me off, because I like to follow reblog chains sometimes, especially of my own posts – it's neat to see what mutual spread the post so far and wide! or sometimes I come across a post reblogged from a friend, and I want to see what my friend said! or when someone reblogs something off my blog from a while ago, sometimes I wonder what it was I said on that post, so very long ago, and I want to go back and see what my tags were! but no, now we can't do that anymore.

apparently there's an xkit fix for this! I've been busy but I'm going to install xkit this weekend and give it a try, fingers crossed bc this has been really annoying. I'll report back once I've done it

and in case you're new here, explanation of what 'prev tags' means: a little while ago a trend arose of tagging a reblog 'prev tags' to mean "I liked the tags of the person I reblogged this from", instead of copying those tags onto the reblog itself. anyone who wanted to see those tags you liked would just click back in the reblog chain. only now you can't do that, bc staff took out that functionality.

it may surprise you to know I really disliked the prev tags trend :P tumblr blogs disappear or change urls all the time, or sometimes people delete posts, and then poof! the previous tags are gone! can't find them, can't see them, they'll forever be a mystery! plus I don't want to be constantly following reblog chains, I want to follow them when I'm actually interested. there's no need for this prev tags business, just copy the tags onto the reblog if you like them! (or into your own tags, which is also perfectly fine and friendly so long as you indicate that's what you're doing.) that's what we do here!

I say 'disliked' past tense bc I did see a few people say "prev tags isn't for ppl reading my blog, it's for the person I reblogged from, I am sending them a little kiss" and you know what I respect that. that's a conversation between two people, that's you two hanging out, that's chill. so these days I assume, for my own happiness, that that's what everyone intends when they say 'prev tags'. it's possible they don't always mean that, but I am assuming it, for me.

and I have had a good day, thank you! you're not coming off rude at all, don't worry about it, you're doing great <3 I hope you're having a good day too!

[liyazaki]

you're right, Brenda- I'm so sorry I didn't provide a 5K source-cited page for my two-sentence post on something fun & silly & clearly opinion-based.

I will hand deliver it to you post haste & pray in time you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

[57-dayo]

wow… I reach 800 followers here thank you fiddy nation…….. :3

[hellwrites]