Zuki

@zuki

untidy anarchist dirtwitch heap

she/they(?)

Zuki @zuki10/27/2022, 3:14 PM

Unambiguous Robin 🐦@Unambiguous-Robin

Misty @dog10/26/2022, 4:12 AM

In defense of low-effort posting

With Twitter maybe probably dying I've been thinking a lot about where social media is and where it's going. The thing that keeps rolling around in my head with trends on Instagram and a broader shift to Tiktok that it feels like we're seeing social media dividing up more between "creators" and the "audience", with most people just consuming. There's probably a lot of reasons why but one of the big ones for me is that those sites demand higher effort. Instagram photography went from normal people sharing casual photos to a predominant aesthetic of carefully staged and edited photos that require skill and professionalism; video takes more time than either text or photos to prepare in general; and Tiktok video editing takes time, skill, effort.

If a social media site's going to be a place where all its users can and do take part, it has to have a room for low-effort posting. And believe me, I'm doing my part

JP @vectorpoem10/26/2022, 5:15 PM

low-effort everything is sacred

Content Brain is widespread enough that there are now people out there who want to live 24/7 in a bubble of exclusively exclusive high-effort slickly produced corporate curated subscription-streamable-only ~whatever~ from gigantic ass media companies. low-effort posting / art / music / quake levels etc etc are acts of resistance, conscious or not, against this.

also everyone starts out at low-effort. also when your mental health is in the crapper low-effort is all you can manage, and that's Fine. also some people never progress past low-effort but still do rad shit their whole lives.

low-effort is sacred. and i shall end the thought here at risk of becoming less low-effort.

#manifesto

Viz @invis10/27/2022, 2:19 AM

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Unambiguous Robin 🐦@Unambiguous-Robin10/27/2022, 4:07 AM

One of the things I've been trying to do with my own blog is live out what I believe to be a genuine truth, which is that every creation is valuable in its own way, and accepting low-effort posts with everything else is a big part of that.

At the same time, I also came here to make friends, and I don't see how that's possible without high-effort posts. It's hard for me to expect anyone would look at my blog, see a bunch of low-effort posts, and then follow me so that they could potentially respond to my posts and have a conversation with me later.

...On the other hand, I feel like not a lot of people are doing that even with my high-effort posts, so maybe I'm doing something fundamentally wrong here.

Zuki @zuki10/27/2022, 3:14 PM

so something i'm taking away from this here is

that low-effort is punk rock

and i like that

and yeah i'm sure tha't's full of ~ * a e s t h e t i c * ~ these days

but that's what the value and beauty of quick-and-dirty is to me

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in reply to @dog's post:

midgar zoloft @ivym10/26/2022, 4:16 AM

it doesn't get lower effort than me posting a post that's just the word hey and honestly there is beauty in that

Homecoming EEPROM queen @quephird10/26/2022, 4:39 AM

I uh… I kind of feel that way about this site too. I’m intimidated by the quality of posts here and don’t feel nearly as comfortable sharing random thoughts of mine here like I do on $BIRDSITE

Misty @dog10/26/2022, 5:39 AM

Awww. Yeah, I think that's a totally valid perspective too tho!

David Smith @Catfish-Man10/26/2022, 9:31 PM

Any time you feel intimidated, remember that there's a photo of me as a dildo unicorn on this site

Homecoming EEPROM queen @quephird10/26/2022, 9:33 PM

lol... well... I uh... I have no idea how to respond to this except... I'm sorry

runs away giggling

Brody @BrodyBr10/27/2022, 3:38 PM

Funny, this is also where my head's been at! For me, it's not the quality of posts, per se, but the format's perceived expectation of length. "I don't feel that I want to write at-length on anything, therefore I won't post." Completely mental hurdle!

Nire Bryce @NireBryce10/27/2022, 3:49 PM

FWIW if anything it's lower stakes to post random things on here in my experience -- people are way less entitled here so far

not to dismiss your concerns, more to go "if you haven't tried yet, it might not be as bad as you fear"

Nire Bryce @NireBryce4/6/2023, 10:58 PM

also for every high effort post those people post like 30 random things and comments

Vincent Kinian @Video-Game-King10/27/2022, 7:59 PM

By contrast, I feel that kind of pressure on Bird Site itself. I think the way to resolve this is Twitter's leadership wants it both ways: they want the stakes to feel high enough that you feel COMPELLED to post on every little thing, but also insignificant enough for you to let your guard down and tweet out every unmediated thought of yours on a regular basis. In other words, it's definitely a cultural/platform-related phenomenon...except I'm not completely sure how you'd go about generalizing any of this? Where does Tumblr - quirky Twitter, to extend what I just said - fit into all this? Or Cohost (Tumblr for people who understand CSS), or Mastodon (Twitter for people who understand SQL? Hell if I know)?

Then again, I'm feeling that pressure as I write this post, so some of it is absolutely personal.

Homecoming EEPROM queen @quephird10/27/2022, 8:05 PM

Yeah, I feel ya... there are indeed times when I don't feel smart or popular enough to post on $BIRDSITE either. I think simply by virtue of my being there for... jeez... 13 years now... that I feel way more comfortable there. I hope I can get over my fears here! :3

🌊@wave4/1/2023, 5:19 PM

ganbatte!

bcj @bcj10/26/2022, 4:48 AM

thank you for your service

graham @graham10/26/2022, 4:54 AM

Css posts are the early version of how people will become cohost influencers

Misty @dog10/26/2022, 5:40 AM

We'll murder all cohost influencers before their time

Nire Bryce @NireBryce10/27/2022, 3:51 PM

this post sponsored by Killshare

Scampir @Scampir10/26/2022, 6:15 AM

First, I want to say that I agree that social media is shifting into establishing creators and audiences on their platforms. This is pretty clear as websites have shifted into platforms where audiences are built around content and then the creator can use that audience as a customer base (merch, advertisements, endorsements etc). However (and I'm not taking this up with you or this post specifically, I'd just like to leave it in a comment) I've seen this arms race of content quality as going hand in hand with people building a brand, rather than being tied with people putting in effort. I can put time and effort into posts, but that doesn't mean that they're going to be good or connect with anyone.

Cay @caymanwent10/26/2022, 9:15 AM

This has been my issue with Cohost; there is little room for that. It's heavily webdev and tech focused, with the "low effort posts" being in-jokes for people in that arena. It hasn't been a great place for the rest of us to be ourselves and expend that low effort in any way meaningful.

Misty @dog10/26/2022, 5:40 PM

It's interesting, you have a very different cohost experience from me but I think that's also valid!

Personally I feel like the "tech person" contingent was more concentrated back when CSS posting was at its height, but at this point my timeline is quite a bit more diverse.

hailee @milktea10/26/2022, 3:44 PM

I agree with this and honestly have not really found anywhere that offers me what I really want which is like twitter/instagram/tumblr from from 5+ years ago. I love seeing mostly unstaged photos of people's day to day or the trips that they're on, shit posts, updates, goofy thoughts, etc. Right now my life is high effort enough I'm not logging on to put in the work but just to feel connected and chill out.

I don't really see this kind of stuff anywhere anymore and things just feel kind of cold and lonely. I sense that things are becoming more private (discords, group chats) and moving faster (instagram stories) but I really miss a slow, low key social feed.

Twilight Sparkle @ConfuSomu10/28/2022, 4:00 AM

yes! i fully agree and also like seeing low-effort and unstaged posts of people's lives.

meadow @drone10/28/2022, 9:36 AM

this is me! it's also why I'm really enjoying this site while it's still relatively small, but hopefully it can keep a similar feel as the site grows if I keep a small enough number of nice mutuals

Michael Klamerus @Michael-Klamerus10/26/2022, 5:20 PM

A big reason why I don't use tiktok at all is because I don't want to do a big production just to post a thing. I'd like to think my posting here and mastodon is pretty low effort and that's probably partially why I like them.

Izvy Raspberry @Izvy10/26/2022, 8:52 PM

i think the trend is only beginning and the division between "high effort" internet and "low effort" internet is a good thing. the way i see it, its more of a divide between "i have something worth sharing with the entire world" and "i have something worth sharing to my friends or family" and apps like bereal show a demand for the lowest possible effort posting but that kind of content is only valued by people that already really know you.

I personally like the feeling of browsing through a social media feed like a hunt for a good meme to drop in the groupchat/discord for my immediate social group to actually interact with.

I want my friends to send me "hey look at this grilled cheese i made" at 3am and its taken with phone flash.

I want ~influencers~ to show me polished thoughts and products that are worth the time i have to give to strangers to see them.

Now, that said, cohost just needs CONTENT right now in general so go fucking nuts.

jckarter @jckarter10/27/2022, 3:31 AM

What if the post button had “small post” and “large post” segments, like a toilet flush

Zuki @zuki10/27/2022, 3:29 PM

this is a strangely compelling thought except ironically a 'shitpost' is a large flush but a small post

dixego @dixego10/27/2022, 6:15 PM

didn't tumblr use to have separate long post and short post buttons?

Coko the Schnoot @cokotheschnoot10/27/2022, 7:49 PM

There is no little heart to click on, so I am instead writing words to express the same degree of sentiment.

@ojai10/28/2022, 5:23 AM

this comment in particular makes me wish cohost had a way to re-share comments as top-level posts.

partly to help build inertia behind a thread of particularly interesting discussion (high effort), but also partly because i want more people to see toilet jokes (low effort?)

2 mello @MelloMakes10/27/2022, 5:32 PM

Social media sites really overstepped their bounds in their relationship with creators when they started demanding content specifically in their format and suiting their algorithms--which of course change often--just to let us promote. Technically they were always doing it, but it started to feel way more grimy recently. Like each one was a separate job if you wanted to succeed. Personally can't wait for the current lineup to croak

in reply to @vectorpoem's post:

@utati10/27/2022, 2:06 PM

I'm tired and read this as "Content Brian" and I already hate him

Karel P Kerezman @GreyDuck10/27/2022, 8:45 PM

Yeah, as soon as it starts feeling like Work I'm pretty much out at this point. I already have a full time job!

in reply to @Unambiguous-Robin's post:

Zuki @zuki10/27/2022, 3:13 PM

wild low-effort talking-off-the-top-of-my-head-reponse:

high-effort replies.. I make friends when I engage with people way more than when I throw art out into the ether. i have a preposterous-to-me number of people that follow me around here and it is 100% because I 1. shitpost and 2. blitz people who made neat things with my best "i made a quality commen ton your a03 fic" replies and comments.

Unambiguous Robin 🐦@Unambiguous-Robin10/27/2022, 4:51 PM

That's fair. And now that you're pointing it out, it feels obvious from a "treat others how you'd like to be treated" aspect. I just have some bad personal complexes from growing up distant from others.

It does make me think that there's posts on here that I've liked, but don't know how to engage with. But that might just mean seeking out posts I do know how to engage with. And I guess the primary way of doing that right now is... tags?? And I'm not sure what to look for there.

Anyway, since I've been having a complex about this stuff lately, thank you for taking the time to respond to me <3

Zuki @zuki10/27/2022, 7:34 PM

as someone who has significant amounts of highly specific social anxiety please accept my sympathies about personal complexes.

'seeking out posts i do know how to engage with' is an interesting way to frame the strategy I hadn't considered! I like that one.

I enjoy 'treasure-hunting' and poking around in tags and a few times I"ve made sure to make a post and ask for or state something that I'd like to see and, at minimum, put it in a tag I think other people will want to look for. Some of that stuff isn't there yet! but I hope it can be. other people looking for the tag will know it is desired.