Scottish GENES is now also on Mastodon!

So there's been a bit of a 'thing' about Twitter in the last few days! And as a consequence of that 'thing', there's something of an avian migration beginning to take place by users from that platform to a new platform, with somewhat nicer credentials, called Mastodon. 

I'll be continuting on Twitter for a while yet, until the point where it may seem a bit too mad to stick with it, but I have also now set up a new presence on Mastodon at @ScottishGENES@mastodon.scot.

Mastodon looks and feels very much like Twitter, but allows you to post up to 500 characters in a 'toot' (a non-avian 'tweet'!). It is set up very differently however, in that you can join one of various local servers serving a particular community. In my case, I've joined the mastodon.scot server, but once you have created a profile, you can follow anyone from any server community.  If you have already signed up on Mastodon's .Scot community, simply look for @ScottishGENES, but if on another Mastodon server, use the full address to find me, i.e. @ScottishGENES@mastodon.scot.

It sounds complicated, but it really isn't - the net effect is that once you have signed up, it works practically the same way as Twitter, give or take a few week minor differences. You can follow folk, share your news or other people's posts, respond to posts and also direct message. And it is free.

It may or may not take off, it may buckle under the weight of new interest, or it may simply be that th scented one begins to wise up, but either way, God loves a trier, and Mastodon deserves a go!

You'll find more about Mastodon in this BBC news story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63534240.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.