SO there you go. Leaving this place and going to another one is a pain - I'm not pretending it's cost-free. But within a couple of months you're back to where you were before. I don't judge people who have decided to stay here. But you should know what The Other Place is like.

The advantages of The Other Place.- you don't have an overbearing algo that dictates the tone of the discourse.- is the tone "kinder"? Maybe. I didn't use to have a huge problem on X. It wasn't my reason for moving.- No terrible ads.🧵.

The downsides of the other place.- you are missing some of the conservative voices who don't want to leave X (I consider this a minus).- you have to recreate a list of followers, which takes time.- News orgs are a bit less present, and tend to post all their articles at once 🧵.

One thing I noticed on X is the algo got so overbearing that even if you use the "Following" tab, it just screws up the tone of the discourse. The Other Place doesn't have that problem. No overbearing ads. No losers who bought blue ticks & whose stuff you have to wade through🧵.

The first surprise is how many people you used to follow are posting on The Other Place. Literally the people you signed up to Twitter for, they are now posting there. I'd say 3 months ago it *was* noticeably quieter. Now I see no difference between my timeline here or there.🧵.

I've had several posts at The Other Place gather 100s or more retweets and likes, probably as many as when I was on here. A big advantage - and one of the reasons I left X - is that they don't throttle (or outright ban) posts with links to news or other platforms 🧵

Three months into my time on the other place, I'm at about 1/4 of my X following, and still growing. Given my X following contained many bots and dead accounts (who signed up in 2010 and never logged in), I figure it's pretty equivalent in terms of real humans 🧵.

I went to The Other Place about 3 months ago. Yes, giving up 50k followers is hard. But this new version of X is not what I had signed up for. When you sign up for the other place, you will start at 0 followers but can expect to get to 10% of your current total instantly. 🧵.

I am rejoining X for one thread to give people insights into what it is like in The Other Place (because of the algos, I can't even mention it by name). I get that people hesitate to do the jump. But for those thinking about it, this is what you can expect. It's worth it.🧵

After a month away I've decided not to come back to X. I will keep this account open to ensure it doesn't get cloned. The transformation of this platform into a megaphone for one person (never mind his views, which I do mind) is a step too far. Find me on BSky!. Thanks & bye.

Going to do another week on BlueSky only. Most of the people I have enjoyed interacting with over the years are now over there. I am on @spignal.bsky.social.

And my handle on Bluesky is the same: @spignal.

I'll be off Twitter for the coming week. I want to give the other place (BS) a shot. It does seem like many of the people I've enjoyed interacting with over the years are already there.

European "strategic autonomy" is fortune cookies in 4 different languages

RT @DariusRochebin: « Musk vient de Mars et l’Europe de Vénus. » . La formule de @TheEconomist sur l’effet du pouvoir décuplé de Musk sur l….

RT @HenryJFoy: Commission's legal team fighting the Pfizergate text case in the ECJ this morning is trying to argue that they both don't ha….

RT @spignal: Has Elon Musk now become Too Big To Regulate, at least for the EU?. Europe already relies on Musk to fight in Ukraine, launch….

Has Elon Musk now become Too Big To Regulate, at least for the EU?. Europe already relies on Musk to fight in Ukraine, launch satellites and decarbonise. Now he is also Trump's right-hand tech bro. Can Europe still take him on?. My Charlemagne this week.

There is now one administrator for every student at Stanford. Whhhhhhaaaaat??. Startling chart from @lugaricano and @pietergaricano's newsletter.

How the Democrats can win next time. if the answer isn't "Biden 2028", I'm not interested.