1/ Creating content on Twitter can be difficult. A thread on the stack of tools I use to make my life easier

Many people are stressed by social media, especially Twitter.

Here is what I do to keep my sanity:

1. Be selective who you follow. Choose uplifting people and people you enjoy talking to.

2. Mute and block liberally. “But freedom of speech”. Nonsense. You choose your friends and parties in real life. Same applies to social media. It’s not immoral to ignore people who dunk on you. This also includes the annoying “devil’s advocate” personalities.

3. Choose your online persona. I mostly use Twitter for work and for engagement with the .NET community. But I’m still a human. Don’t let others dictate what you can and cannot talk about.

4. Choose wether you use your real name or a pseudonym. Social media is about authentic and real human encounters. Your name isn’t as important has how honest you can be in your conversations. Being anonymous is totally cool if that lets you be who you are.

How to get your first 1000 followers 👇

Start by taking notice of what people in real life ask you about. Chances are that if your friends are interested in something you're doing, the internet will help you find thousands more like them.

"But what if I'm not doing anything interesting?!"

Almost everyone is. It doesn't have to be anything spectacular. You might be:

- Learning a new skill
- Doing a side hustle
- Going for a road trip
- Remodeling your home
- Studying something obscure
- Losing weight
...

- Living frugally
- Moving countries
- Moving from the city to the country
- Homeschooling your kids
- Growing your own vegetables
- Leaving your job
- Looking for a new job
- Fighting an illness
- Volunteering

And so on.

Work backwards from what people ask you about.

Now, think about the answers you give when people ask you about the thing you're doing. Then write a short blog post answering a particular question. Example:

Title: Why I chose to grow my own vegetables

Body: Explain why, in under 5 minutes.

1. I'm the CEO of a platform for females & know I have a unique insight into the single sex space debate. I see it play out in real time.

During our 1st MVP test phase, 1000s of TW onboarded & created "KILL TERF" profiles.

Are we supposed to take these seriously or not?

2. I fought to include TW on Giggle but the reality is I fought not knowing the hostility of the situation. I was shocked & devastated by the KILL TERF & other obscene profiles, but...

Is "KILL TERFS", "RAPE TERFS" & "LOOK AT MY GIRL DICK" what we can except in the real world?

3. Is it "just" something said to women online or is it something that would be done in "analogue" female spaces?

It's a really important questions to ask, because not only do women not want to read stuff like this... we don't want to physically experience it either.

4. It's important to remember, without this abhorrent behavior we'd all be having a very different debate.

This behavior has *added* to womens fear.

You can dismiss it if it doesn't suit your agenda. But if you do, no solution to ensure the safety of *everyone* will be found.

5. When I read something like this, what stands out to me is the line "a lot of the time I'll get side eye or even outright harassment." Lucky you!

Imagine getting a rape threat.

When that statement is put into the context of the admission prior to it, it's scary for women.

LRT: One of the problems with Twitter moderation - and I'm not suggesting this is an innocent cause that is accidentally enabling abuse, but rather that it's a feature, from their point of view - is that the reporting categories available for us do not match up to the rules.

Now, Twitter's actual policy is that wishes or hopes for death or harm are the same as threats. That policy has been in place for years. But there's no report category for hoping someone dies. You can only report it as a threat.

Which gives the moderator, who doesn't spend long on any individual tweet, mental leeway to go, "Well, there's no threat here." and hit the button for "no violation found".

They have a rule that says persistent misgendering or other dehumanizing language is not tolerated, but again - there is no reporting category for that. We have to report it as hate against a group.

So again, the moderator looks at that tweet, briefly in isolation, and sees what, without context, might look neutral or matter of fact. A series of tweets referring to somebody consistently by the same set of pronouns or a statement that somebody is a man or woman.