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My Pubstack

prinx dictionary

pubstack
noun [C]

The digital platforms utilised to publish and showcase the media of an entity.

In publishing my first (two-part) article here on Ghost, I left my trail-mix behind in a few spaces. For most modern bloggers, this choice of pubstack would raise a few eyebrows: Ghost over Substack; Mastodon over Twitter; Lemmy over Reddit; Matrix over Discord; an absence of Instagram and Tiktok. Those not acquainted with the Fediverse might think I'm trying too hard to be fringe, those acquainted with the Fediverse may relish in my opposition to the overlords who own all our data - viva la resistance numérique, indeed! Though I'm sure there's some remnants of a narcissistic teenager in me that would love to be viewed as an icon of counterculture, my choices around spaces are less to do with my world view and more to with digital intimacy.

Villages, Club Penguin, and Digital Intimacy

I grew up in small villages and over the passed couple of years I've subjected a small country to my obtuse presence. These are spaces where you'd beg for the traditional "Six Degrees of Separation": everyone either knows you, or knows of you. Gone are the days where the community acted as a backbone of support for bags of sugar when you found yourself lacking in the midst of a baking crisis. As we're now all pitted against one another in this hyper-capitalistic hellscape, to stay are the days where the village acts as sea of gossip, competition, and judgement.

In starting my YAGUI adventure, I made the decision to be pseudo-anonymous. I'd bet 0.00013185 bitcoin that if a friend or family member stumbled upon my posts, they would smell a resemblance to my musings. I'm pretty sure a passerby could place my origin and other qualities of my life by my intonation. In which case, why make the effort to undertake this project under a pseudonym? Why not try my hand at being an educational content creator or YouTube essayist?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to occupy the point in Tuber Latent Space between NakeyJakey, STRANGEÆONS, clovergirlie, and 3Blue1Brown. Just imagine this eclectic presentation of the Renaissance person: well read, well spoken, well dressed, adorned in the sharpest of eyeliner wings, and properly placed on an inflatable elastic throne - such fun! Unfortunately, I have the concentration of of a lobotomised goldfish, can't speak for 5 minutes without descending into the worst zillennial vocal fry, and studio lights make me sneeze - I think I could produce a video once a year. This is all besides the point.

From YAGUI [2] the main goal of my digital breadcrumbs is to keep a versioned history of my work. Concurrently, I will use this blog to capture my experience and milestones. Not much more is needed than that. However, a key theme of my intro was about community. True education and work is best done in some form collaboration - whether that's others recommending a book or article, providing feedback on an essay, or simply experiencing your output with a "LGTM 👍". A parasocial relationship will counteract my aim - I need symbiosis. That is, becoming an influencer will not benefit my journey. It is important that I join and create communities that can be part of my process, and can share their process back. As Gandhi famously put "Curate the vibe you wish to hold in this space".

So what are my aims for community? Similar to many people my age, I frequently find myself dreaming of my teenage years on the internet. There was a strange digital intimacy we uncovered in our adolescence - a closeness to unknown, distant digital travellers. An escape from the villages I occupied in the physical were the online twin-villages: Club Penguin, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Runescape, Habbo Hotel. Removing the scammers, the pre-griefers shouting "ur igloos ugly and ur puffles gay", and those who ought to be investigated by Chris Hansen, these villages were bustling. You'd get to know certain users, you'd share some nonsense, trade items, and surprisingly, often help each-other out.

That leads to my choice in pubstack: Ghost, Mastodon, Lemmy, and Matrix. Yes, these spaces run parallel to Substack, Twitter, Reddit, and Discord, and, yes, they have quite significantly less users. However, the users have intentionally inhabited these spaces. Writers, artists, technologists, you name it - people who often lived through the aforementioned digital villages, or similar forums and chatrooms, and carry that same nostalgia for digital intimacy. I could give my articles to all my friends and ask them to share it on all their media platforms and probably have 20 followers in a week, but throwing my work into a void filled with tenants that want to see you for your words feels more purposeful. In the fortunate event that someone sticks around, that meaningfulness shines through. The goal is, in time, through consistent contribution, conversation, and curation within these communities, there is a point where there's a group of people who could ask each other for that virtual bag of sugar.

Where to Find Me

You'll witness me starting to find my footing in a few places:

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