Credit to John Scalzi, who inspired this post with his guide, also because people don’t know how to act on social media sometimes.
Hey new (and future) twitter followers over at @cypheroftyr! here’s some things you might want to think about when spending time with my tweets.
Who am I? Have a look at my About page and come back. You probably have found me via @INeedDivGms or I Need Diverse Games online. Or you possibly saw a thread of mine wandered around the birdlands. Maybe you saw me on a panel at a convention or heard my podcast, Fresh Out of Tokens.
Do I tweet a lot? Sometimes tweet quite a bit, in long chains of thought. Other times I retweet folks who are saying much smarter things than me, either the whole thread or the first tweet in a series. Either way, I can sometimes be a very high volume tweeter. A lot of times I tweet early in the morning, mid-afternoon and evening. Contrary to what some folks think I don’t spend all my time online.
What do I tweet about? A variety of things, sometimes what’s going on in the world, sometimes what I’m playing or notifications of when I plan to stream on Twitch. Sometimes I reblog cute animals or booze I’m having. I’m rarely NSFW on my public account. I also tweet about race, racism, feminism, other issues that makes some people think they can reply to me however they damn well please. Nazis get an immediate report and block.
Following back: I sometimes follow back, sometimes I don’t. If your account is nothing but selling your book/movie/game/promoting yourself and nothing about you as a person? I’ll pass. I’m not on twitter to follow brands and fall into the hype machine about whatever is the new hotness or what you’re trying to sell. If you are someone I think is doing performative allyship online, or thinks you’re just trying to be part of some in-group? Nah, still passing.
On suspect follows/after a thread gets passed around: Often when a thread of mine gets passed around I pick up follows. Here’s the thing, it’s usually people who’s TL is all one thing. Be it politics, games, what have you. Or their bio is all hash tags. Usually white people with BLM, feminism, etc. Aka newly woke white folks that want cred for being aware. Or in some cases folks who just want to learn. But they’re the ones who will well actually into a convo they’ve got no place in. It’s as they take those first steps into unknown roads, often falling down and making a mess. Problem is, I’m a person not a resource. So if you followed to be educated, or just learn. Tread lightly. I tire of people treating me as a teaching font with no feelings.
Blocking/Muting: I subscribe to a few block lists because of the climate in gaming and me trying to discuss diversity in that space. I cannot use twitter without it because, well people. If you find yourself blocked and we’ve never interacted? Probably a false positive due to block list usage. If you have a legit reason to interact with me, have someone contact me.
I sometimes mute people I like, a lot because they either tweet a lot or are going on about a thing I don’t care about or are possibly talking about a show or movie I sometimes haven’t seen. Or I might mute you because blocking would cause too much hassle as well as unfollowing. I don’t need the unnecessary shit that comes from someone flipping out at me if I block them. I also don’t track unfollows, so if you need to go, enjoy!
Contacting me: My DM’s (Direct Message’s) are not open to everyone and they never will be. @ me and if we’re mutuals then you can DM me. I’ve got a contact form on my site if you want me to write for you, or come to an event, convention or your organization.
