Where's Jeff?
It's a great question, really. I mean, what are we even calling this moment in time? Is it the collapse of Twitter? The end of Facebook? The beginning of the end of the social media era? Just another Thursday online? It's hard to say. But considering there are a number of places where I've laid down some stakes and some of the old, mainstream stakes seem a bit shakier than they have in years, there's been a real uptick in questions about this sort of thing. Where am I, online? So here is your answer.
When it comes to my "work" "stuff," meaning the podcast and streams and all that, the best places to stay up to date are this here Patreon that you're looking at and the Discord server that you get access to when supporting this Patreon. Generally speaking, the news channel on Discord is the first place I'm going to relay stream info or schedule changes or whatever else of that nature.
But I'm also posting around on various other services. This list may change, it may grow, it may shrink, and some services are probably seeing more updates than others. But here's the list and some background on each one.
Cohost:
https://cohost.org/jeffgerstmann
Cohost is an alternative… social media-like… blogging… platform? It's very Tumblr-esque, but as its a smaller operation with administrators who are being very open and human with the detail they give on building and running this sort of thing, it's got a very different feel. Cohost is new and I like the vibe on it quite a bit, there are interesting people sharing interesting things there, and that's more or less what I look for when I'm looking for a platform that involves following and being followed. They have a subscription option that I signed up for, mostly because I believe there needs to be more small-ish (it's growing as of late, as you might imagine) spots for people to just kinda be… people? If that makes sense?
Mastodon:
https://mastodon.social/@jeffgerstmann
Mastodon is the most Twitter-like platform out there, at least in terms of basic features and concepts. It's what we used to call a "micro-blogging" platform, back when Twitter was new. You can post stuff, repost other stuff, follow people, use hashtags, read your timeline in chronological order, and so on. As it is designed to be an alternative to the rat race of Twitter, there's a cadre of "old-timers" who really frown on any kind of commercial content on Mastodon. But, honestly, it's a decentralized platform that lets all kinds of people run all kinds of different servers and they all sort of talk to each other to form something that resembles Twitter. Between the decentralized structure of it and the influx of users they're getting as people start to jump ship from Twitter (or at least make sure they have a landing spot planned in case Twitter goes even further south), it'll be curious to see what sort of shape the culture takes there, long-term.
I like the idea of Mastodon, but I haven't had much reason to use it. I suppose I could repost all of my twitter things there? But I think my least favorite thing is to be following someone in two places and to see the same stuff over and over again, so I try not to do that. Inefficient, I know!
Tumblr:
https://jeffgerstmann.tumblr.com
My use of Tumblr grew out of various question-answering platforms, all of which have long since disappeared off the internet. It's still the only platform that seems to be actually decent at taking anonymous questions. That said, most of the questions I get these days aren't worth looking at. Understandable, really. Tumblr, like Cohost, is more of a blogging platform than a pure "social" "media" "network" and it's been through the ringer with multiple owners coming in and doing extremely dumb things to the user experience in the name of revenue goals. These days it's kinda nice, like the people who are left there have seen it all before. Also I think they just started allowing nudity again, undoing one of the previous "in the name of the revenue" changes I referenced above. I mostly follow people posting photos or screen captures of old stuff.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/friendsofjeffg/
This is my public-facing Facebook page, which I mostly forgot I had. I really don't know what to do with this, Facebook has kinda been long-hated by y'all, as far as I can tell. I don't really use it anymore, though while writing this I logged in and looked to see that I have friend requests that have been sitting there for like eight years. This is one of those purely numbers-driven things: if people were to interact with this page in a way that drove them to the things I'm producing online, I'd probably use it more? But they aren't, so I doubt I'll do much with it.
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jeffgerstmann/
I don't like when people use Instagram for text-y things, so I mostly just post occasional photos with no caption. In a world where Twitter goes non-viable, I'd probably reassess how I use IG and maybe make it more of a regular thing? I mean I wish I was a little more "organic" and "human" about how I use these services but let's not beat around the bush: there are services I'm using because I like them and there are services I'd use for business reasons.
TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@freddurst2000
Despite it almost certainly being even more of a privacy nightmare than the average social network-type thing, I really like TikTok. I guess it feels like the ultimate realization of Vine? It's also a real nightmare that shows just how fast memes and viral stuff—songs, dances, whatever—cycles in and out of the public consciousness. Like Tumblr, it's also a service where I'm largely following people that I don't know and will almost certainly never know. There are some genuinely funny people making really dumb videos on TikTok, and that's pretty great for me, a person who watches said videos. I occasionally make a video or two, but it's usually just tossed-off dumb stuff. I think if I ever hit 10,000 followers there I would occasionally do a simultaneous livestream there? I don't know. I'm technically also @jeffgerstmann on TikTok but I chose to not use that one and now I'm living with that choice. Hmm.
Xbox Live: Gleemonex
Kinda cool to get reunited with this gamertag after all these years. It's what I used on the original Xbox, but when the Xbox 360 and achievements rolled around, I decided it'd be better if the company gamertag seemed to have a lot of activity on it, so I took that one over and started going after achievements there. You'd think after the way 2007 went down I would've learned my lesson and not had a gamertag with a company name in it, but hey, I screwed that up a second time. And now I'm back to this, with all my hot achievements still intact. Xbox Live isn't strictly a social network, and I'll tell you now that I don't really read messages on Xbox Live or PSN, but since they moved to a "followers" model here, I guess I'll include it?
Cameo:
https://www.cameo.com/jeffgerstmann
Also technically not a social network, but after talking with one Dan Ryckert about it back in June, I decided to sign up for Cameo. It's been fun to do these, but also sort of stressful because I feel like people should get some kind of "value" out of it. The app notifications for Cameo use language like "spend 30 seconds making someone's day!!!" but honestly, if I recorded a 30-second thing I would feel pretty bad. So when people pay for these I find myself rambling for a few minutes. It's weird! But it's also been neat to do, people seem to dig it.
Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/jeffgerstmann
It is likely that you are already aware of this one. I've been spending a bit more time checking out various people on Twitch and finding some good, weird stuff on there. I think there's an energy and a power to live content that you just don't get in stuff that was edited down… that said, I wish I had more time to edit down some of the stuff I stream live on Twitch so that people who don't have three hours to kill could still get some use out of what I'm doing. Someday!
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheJeffGerstmannShow
This is the YouTube channel, where the video version of the podcast gets posted each week along with various archives from the other streams I'm doing. I've spent a lot of time over the last four or five years staring at YouTube numbers and figuring out what works and what doesn't and the answer is: hell, I don't know. I mean, there are corners you could cut and optimization you could do around goofy thumbnails and controversial video titles and so on, but that's kinda not my thing? That said, the thing I've said for years is that if you're not going to play the game the way YouTube likes it to be played, then why do it at all? The answer, of course, is that these video archives would be expensive to host anywhere else and everyone is comfortable with watching videos on YouTube.
Also YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC89FXj8-A_RW1n-IAM1EEsg
This is the second YouTube channel for The Gerstmann Archives. Basically, some of the videos get chopped up into bits for the main channel, and in those cases, some of the good stuff at the front and back gets cut off. The idea is that full stream archives can live here. The reality is that I don't have a good workflow down for this stuff yet so there are only a few things there right now.
Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/user/jeffgerstmann
I don't really like Reddit. There's something about its vibe, the sense of humor, and the lingo that just pushes me away from it. That said, it's often incredibly informative. I just wish that I could read the Steam Deck subreddit and get something out of it… but it's mostly just people asking the same six questions over and over again along with some very bad memes. Also, while we're talking about it, the term "Cake Day" sucks. But yeah… sometimes it can be very informative and moves quickly, so it's not the worst place to read, say, breaking news about backstage fights in the world of wrestling.
last.fm:
https://www.last.fm/user/gleex
I'm still scrobbling. Back when I worked for a game website that was owned by the same company that owned
last.fm I really wanted to do some kind of unified profile that would let you see which games and what music a particular user is into. I actually pitched a whole idea for a social network back in like 2003 that was based around us having this sort of data and using it as a basis to help people find like-minded individuals. The person I had to pitch it to more or less ignored it, which sucked. Maybe it's because half of my mockups were screenshots of the T-Mobile Sidekick, because I had a feeling mobile devices would really play into this whole "social network" thing someday. Crazy talk, I know.
SpaceHey:
https://spacehey.com/jeffg
SpaceHey is a solid bit. I, like a lot of people, was an avid myspace users back when that was a thing you could be. That and Friendster, it all felt so new and exciting. I was meeting singles in my area in a way that didn't feel insane and creepy! I learned about which bars were down to stay open after-hours! It was a weird disaster in a lot of ways, and it's probably for the best that myspace died when it did. SpaceHey is a loving homage to that website, but things are different now. People are different now. You kinda can't go back. I'm verified on SpaceHey, too, which is very funny.
Mixlr:
https://jeff.mixlr.com/
When I am live on Mixlr, this is the URL that will get you there. This is a live audio platform that allows one to broadcast from one's phone. I've been known to do this from the car, which is probably ill-advised on multiple levels. I'm… I pay a subscription fee to use Mixlr? I'm grandfathered in on an old, good plan and I'm afraid to cancel now.
RateYourMusic:
https://rateyourmusic.com/~DeliciousFist
I really can't decide what I think about RYM. I probably missed the site's heyday by, I don't know, a decade or something? But as someone who has, at times, been involved with big databases and user reviews and all this sort of stuff, I've been checking it out a bit lately. They have a sister site that does the same for games, but it feels like that site has been in beta for a zillion years. If you would like to see correct ratings for 100 or so albums, this is where to find that.
Letterboxd:
https://letterboxd.com/jeffgerstmann/
See above, but movies instead of music.
As for Twitter, well, I don't really see any immediate reason to, like,
flee the site or whatever. Every piece I read about the decision-making process and the stuff that seems to be the immediate, desperate priority over there seems to be further and further away from what made Twitter useful in the first place, though, so at some point all that flailing is going to start impacting more and more parts of the service. Twitter was always fine, the whole "ugh, hellsite am I right, guh" thing never really fit, even if their rules and enforcement of said rules has sometimes been bad over the years. Now, with all the talk of "anyone who isn't paying for a subscription is going to be buried," it just kinda feels like no one calling shots at Twitter actually understands the value of Twitter. That's the sort of talk that makes it feel like the entire service could become worthless overnight, hence why I'm writing this now. In the end, we might be better off without it, though I'm sure it'll end up getting sold off yet again and keep limping along rather than simply shutting down. Like hey, yeah, I'd lose some avenue that I use to try to reach new people and bring them into the fold over here at Gerstmann Corp. or whatever, but… OK. Fair trade, I suppose. I guess we'll see.
