You have probably seen this #viral #infographic on #eu #digitalsovereignty by #reddit user u/lukakopajtic. It was viral but not very accurate 😅 recommending #bluesky and #firefox as "EU alternatives"? How? Anyway, he just updated the infographic, and it's much, much better! Most issues have been corrected. I think there is still a couple of issues I disagree with: 1) recommending #matrix instead of #jabber #xmpp 2) recommending #lineageos instead of #grapheneos (but OK, I can understand this if the focus is on self-sovereignty only), 3) recommending #droidify instead of #accrescent (but, even here, I can understand if the goal is to replace #playstore ), and 4) recommending #thunderbird as a comparison to #gmail (nothing wrong with Thunderbird, but that's an email client, not a Gmail-like suite provider, I would have rather recommended #mailfence or #mailbox ). Kudos for the initiative though, the intentions are good!
I wrote my first summary of @heiseonline@social.heise.de on #Mastodon almost two months ago: Time for an update.
One thing in advance, even if it has become noticeably quieter here in the #Fediverse, the numbers remain pretty stable: Visits via Mastodon are still slightly below that via #Twitter, but as a reminder, I can only compare visits generated via our accounts on #Mastodon with all visits over #Twitter. So the actual numbers are even closer together. (@heiseonline@social.heise.de on Twitter has 246.000 Followers, on Mastodon it's 45.500)
On the first graph I have summed up the weekly entries via Mastodon vs. Twitter since the #Mastodon account went live at the beginning of November. The steady growth is partly due to the fact that only articles shared both on Mastodon and Twitter are included, and their number has increased. Overall, more visits come via Mastodon than via #Bing or #Xing.
The engagement (#boosts plus #likes, no #comments) with posts of @heiseonline@social.heise.de stagnates, but remains significantly above that on Twitter. I find only four posts from heise-accounts on Twitter in this time that have been shared at least 50 times, on Mastodon it's a whole 125 (!). At the same time, nothing really goes #viral on #Mastodon, the upward swings of visits are significantly higher on Twitter.
A new initiative that shows noticeable effects is #Verpasstodon (something like "missed-o-don"): Under this hashtag @heiseonline@social.heise.de re-shares on weekends the most clicked articles of the past week. And they get klicked noticeably again.
There is no criticism directed at the practice, the hashtag can be muted without missing anything else.
Despite such ideas, 89% of the visits via #Mastodon come on the first two days vs. 81% over Twitter.
A few more numbers: In total, @heiseonline@social.heise.de has more than 122,000 interactions (#Boosts and #Likes, overview in the second image "Interaktionen"), per article that's an average of more than 26. About 4700 articles were shared, more than 500 of them have more than 50 interactions. More than 1000 each:
https://mastodon.social/@heiseonline/109550376533582612
https://mastodon.social/@heiseonline/109670205634915816
Follower numbers of @heiseonline@social.heise.de grow very slowly, but the speed has increased since the Twitter account has a link to the Mastodon-account. @heiseonline@social.heise.de is now the largest German-language media-account, slightly in front of @tazgetroete@mastodon.social.
In the USA, there is a larger one with @ProPublica@newsie.social, but a few regional media are particularly active (#Newstodon).
The third picture shows visits via Mastodon and Twitter over the last 80 days.
Hope this is interesting for english-speaking accounts, too:
@fediversereport@mastodon.social @fediverseobserver@fediverse.one @fediversenews@venera.social @atomicpoet@mastodon.social @mmasnick@mastodon.social @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social @Gargron@mastodon.social
I think 2024 is now one of my favourite years in pop #music. I'm gonna ramble, because I'm a nobody with barely coherent writing skills. No one will publish this blather, so here we go!
Some qualifications and considerations: I'm mostly thinking women singers in Western Anglophone pop, albums with songs that sorta went viral on social media. That last aspect usually doesn't bode well, but I think 2024 proves that what goes #viral isn't always shit.
Incidentally: I listen to lot of K-pop (hey, new Nayeon!), but this year isn't so much about new revelations, except for maybe groups like Katseye, who I ended up liking a lot even if the trainee I was rooting for wasn't picked, and also Unis, who have quite the energy, especially with "Curious."
The big release is Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department, a record I was predisposed to like (I've been a fan for a dozen years and also have a degree in creative writing where I specialised in lyric poetry), and I do like it. It's very likeable. Not sure about the timing though with the Eras Tour still ongoing and stuff. In fact, I feel I would be happier if TTPD came out some other time and we got Reputation Taylor's Version instead.
#Beyonce is someone who seems to me incapable of releasing a bad record, and Cowboy Carter wasn't just a good record but a great one. I'm not sure whether I prefer it to Renaissance (and maybe it doesn't matter), but Cowboy Carter isn't just Beyonce doing country music well but doing the album format, too. TTPD has good songs, but I feel it doesn't quite cohere, unlike previous Taylor Swift albums.
The third artist I'm thinking of who belongs in this category of pop singers who deliver consistently good records is #Charlixcx, but I was totally surprised by brat becoming the pop culture phenomenon it became. I was already getting ready to once again defend her, because it feels like so many people just write her off online, like what happened with Crash. I was so shocked to not have to defend her new record. Really beautiful moment there.
This leads me to the surprise I got from singers I've never listened to before, but who were all over social media. All three turned up with very different-sounding records, but each one was so addictive and went on heavy rotation:
#ChappellRoan came out of nowhere (for me), and I wasn't sure how her music sounded, but when I heard it, she blew my socks off. And I know--being a straight dude--that I'm not supposed to listen to her, but I do I do sincerely love her music and personality.
I haven't listened to the new Normani yet, but just when I was about to, I got recs for #Tinashe, so I listened to the latter instead. Oh, she sang "Nasty," I realised, and then was awestruck by all the other songs on Quantum Baby. That led me backwards to her discography, and I like them all. It's R&B but just so weird in all the right ways. I think of her as an American FKA Twigs. She's so likeable too in interviews and a really confident performer.
And then there's #SabrinaCarpenter. "Espresso" was all over social media, and I liked it a great deal (and initially wondered if it was--hilariously--Camilla Cabello). Sabrina Carpenter is such a familiar name, I thought, and then--OH, it's the older girl referenced in Olivia Rodrigo's "drivers license"! I never bothered listening to her before, because Olivia was probably the last time before this year when a new pop singer wowed me, and I thought Sabrina Carpenter was just an actress, so I just didn't pay attention whatsoever. I didn't realise how many records Carpenter already has, but okay, this new one? It's so good! "Espresso" works even better in an album rather than a hook on social media videos. It's also a hilarious album, and I sometimes think she reminds of REDACTED if REDACTED was actually funny and not annoying. I get it now. Sorry it took me so long, Sabrina Carpenter.
Finally, here are the others. #Beabadoobee surprised me with the remarkably "quieter" record This is How Tomorrow Moves. It'll take some getting used to, but I do like these songs. It sort of reminds me of how I felt with #StVincent's Daddy's Home. And I think that, as much as I like Daddy's Home, I love All Born Screaming even more, and if Beabadoobee comes back with another rock record, I would welcome it with open arms.
(Forgive me, but both Beabadoobee and St. Vincent--in very different ways--straddle rock and pop.) I love Beabadoobee a great deal, especially when she's cranking up guitars. Same with St. Vincent.
Hit Me Hard and Soft by #BillieEilish album needs to grow on me more than her previous records, for some reason I can't quite articulate, but again, it's also very likeable. I think repeated listening will reveal more of its delights, just like with Beabadoobee but--unfortunately--maybe not with TTPD. (I did listen to TTPD for weeks after its release.)
I'm out of the loop and don't know what other records are coming out this year, but there are still several 2024 releases I haven't listened to. #Normani's Dopamine, for one. #DuaLipa's Radical Optimism I would like to listen to, but Future Nostalgia was so strong that I'm worried the new one may be a letdown. Finally, I find it shocking to realise I've never listened to an #ArianaGrande record before, so maybe now it's time.
p.s. #Clairo and #GracieAbrams --while not dance-pop like most of the ones I mentioned here--also have records this year I need to listen to. And #KaceyMusgraves too. (Oh, there's a Musgraves and Carpenter performance of "This Boots are Made for Walking"!)
@music