Long time, no post, eh? I have some ideas for what I can do with this site now that my content is passed along to the day job (follow along with that at Canada Sports Betting, by the way), but for now, it mostly just sits here as a placeholder.
Anyway, if you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ll know that the richest man in the world decided to pretend to buy Twitter as a publicity stunt, got stuck actually having to buy Twitter, and because net worth isn’t a strong reflection of intelligence or emotional maturity, has quickly shifted “Free Speech Absolutism” into “whatever helps me, personally, become the beloved main character”.
On December 18th, this led to a Twitter rule which now bars you from linking to certain other social media platforms via Twitter, to prevent “free promotion”. This is a combination of the new owner not wanting people to see publicly-available information about his airplane (as Hockey Twitter knows, I’ve used similar systems for news before), and him not wanting people sick of the new changes being able to easily find each other on other platforms. Nothing currently stops us from linking to websites which then link you to the next sites, though. So, with that in mind, here are some links to places I have social media profiles.
Twitter: @JeffVeillette. As long as the tire fire is still burning, I’ll probably still be around for a bit. Yeah, I go in and out with my frequency of tweeting, depending on whether or not the tides of harassment are in are out, and how busy I am in the real world. But a lot of my friends are still there and I’m chronically online. Until I’ve got little to no choice, you’ll probably still see me there.
Facebook: I’ve technically got a Facebook profile still, and even a Facebook page, but I don’t really use either. Once in a while I’ll scroll through my profile to see what my family is up to, but as most of you have probably noticed, it’s a pretty washed platform unless you’re trading in conspiracy. I’ll update this if I ever bother to get my page going again.
YouTube: My first big social platform, I don’t use it anymore but you can find my profile here if you want to find a glorious archive of late-2000s hockey footage. When I was 15, my trusty capture card made me one of the first “big” hockey YouTubers, but I fell behind when everyone else got high definition and by the time I could afford a better setup, the NHL got it’s shit together and weird nerds like me weren’t necessary.
Instagram: Probably the only platform I log into daily besides Twitter, though I don’t really participate in much. I’ve been in a nine-year argument with myself as to whether I should focus it personally or mix in some hockey content, and it’s led to me mostly doing nothing with it but seeing what my friends and family are up to. I’ll occasionally post a real-world update. You should follow while I figure my shit out there.
TikTok: Oddly enough, TikTok is one of the platforms that isn’t banned for sharing on Twitter. Is it because a prominent ally of the new boss relies on it for branding? Is it because he wants keep being able to sell EV’s in China? Either way, I don’t have an account there. It’s not some sort of protest, I’m just in that age pocket where I’m not quite old, but definitely am washed, so I’ve mostly skipped this pocket of the social media era. That, and you can find reposts of the best stuff on Twitter and Instagram anyway. Just including it here so you know that if you see me on there, it’s not me.
Snapchat: I technically have an account. I haven’t used it since about 2014. If you see me on there, it’s probably not actually me.
Mastodon: I’m going to be honest, I don’t have faith in Mastodon being the replacement ground for Twitter. It’s too decentralized, cumbersome to work with, and if it’s going to happen, it’ll be years down the road thanks to the decisions of others giving everyone no choice, instead of their own wise decisions (basically, how Reddit grew out of the collapse of Digg, except I think this one will require more than what Twitter is doing at the moment). Either way, I’ve got a profile on the main server, just in case I have no choice but to start up there.
LinkedIn: I probably have to do a significant pruning of my profile before I even consider using this on an active basis again. You can send me a connection request if you want but I really don’t do much. At time of linking to this, I haven’t even included my last three or four job descriptions. I should, uhh, fix that.
Reddit: I don’t use my me-branded Reddit account anymore. Once in a blue moon you might see me drop a comment, but we’re talking like once or twice a year. If you see an account besides /u/Jeffler claiming to be me, or even talking about me in any way, it’s not me. I do have an account where I participate in topics I enjoy, and a sleuth could probably find me and ruin the anonymity, but I keep myself out of anything involving myself – it’s my one spot where I can just shoot the shit without having my name attached. I find that conversations get a much more positive reaction by virtue of just not having my name on it and while that can be a blow to the ol’ ego, I’ll live.
If you just want to message me and don’t care about the apps involved, my email is jeff@veillette.me.
Anyway, I hope this helps you find me online if the bird app goes away. Who knows, maybe this list will include me being back on here at some point in the future!