I loved imageboards for their anonymity and ephemerality: pure focus on content, no identities, no permanent traces. Threads emerge, live briefly, and disappear again.Today, imageboards are dead: almost all users have moved to X. It offers the greatest variety, highest quality, and the best algorithms that filter out the junk. In an endless flood of content, good algorithms are the solution, not the problem.But I don’t want the typical social media downsides (self-presentation, followers, digital footprints). That’s why I use X in a way that simulates a modern, high-quality imageboard experience:
1. I follow no one.
Only the For You tab decides what I see, everything stays random and content-focused.
2. I delete every one of my posts after a maximum of 24 hours.
My profile stays empty, posts are only temporarily visible, like a thread that gets bumped down.
3. I block everyone who follows me.
Systematically and immediately, so no followers or parasocial connections can form.
This way, I get anonymity and ephemerality on the objectively best content platform. I consume and post comments without ever building an “identity.” This method does not violate X’s terms of service. Nevertheless, from the platform’s perspective it is harmful: I maximally exploit the algorithm and infrastructure but provide no lasting value or network effects, essentially parasitic.That’s exactly why I do it this way.
X is too good to avoid entirely, but I don’t want to be a classic social media user. With this approach, I get the best of both worlds.
13 posts and 1 image reply omitted.>>32084Well twitter used to be an RSS feed site. The premise being you could text something to twitter (hence the character limit) and it would post that, which RSS readers would catch and notify.
Now that twitter doesn't even have RSS feeds or the ability to post from SMS it's having an identity crisis.
>>32075you post on youtube?
>>32070>It offers the greatest variety, highest quality, and the best algorithms that filter out the junk<completely smooth, frictionless neoliberal subject consumer experience that filters out humanityOP is shoveling shit in their mouth and making "Mmm!" sounds while looking around at every other liberal in the Starbucks
>provide no lasting value or network effects, essentially parasiticcool story, now talk about your online habits!
>>32073>all platforms are dictatorships,college kid who has read Foucault but isn't class conscious
>I have to self-censor"When you take responsibility, great power will come" - the utopian communist film Madame Web
>with the right approach you can minimize the disadvantages and maximize the benefits"I'm a rebelling from the system by hacking it" - neoliberal subjects who are in fact the perfect expression of capitalist logic, making rational choices to navigate the free marketplace of ideas
Post too long. Click here to view the full text. >>32133Okay, and what's your solution? Which platforms do you think I should use?
I'm at least trying to make the best out of the current situation.
You can be glad that X hasn't completely taken over my internet usage and that there are still incentives for me to use leftypol.
The question is, how much longer…