I think that's actually better on Twitter because the reply button sends a public tweet back, so their followers would be able to see them treating you like crap, and that's how Phil Fish got flak for talking crap at people on twitter. You can only send private messages when you and that person mutually follow each other, too. And since it's not that famous person's little fan forum community and they don't moderate it, if you say something that they don't like they can't remove your tweet, the best they can do is block your account so you can't see their tweets while logged into it.

I don't use any "social media", and don't really consider Reddit to be a part of that group. It's more like the largest forum on the web. And while the things described in the quote do happen, they happen mostly where there's a huge concentration of people - subreddits with millions of subscribers. So here's what you do: you ignore all of that default shit. Instead you find subreddits that you're actually interested in: there's plenty of small(er), non-toxic, well-moderated communities over there. There's exceptions to this rule: I wouldn't suggest you spend time in various fighting game subreddits, for example, but that's not due to Reddit, it's due to how they're everywhere.

Since I seem to recall you're an indie game developer, you'll probably be interested in /r/indiegames (and /r/indiegaming) and /r/gamedev and various other gamedev subreddits, all of which are fairly clean and pleasant. On the other hand, if you want to die a little inside, visit /r/gaming - it's about as you'd expect from a subreddit with over seven million subscribers. It's basically the difference between GOG and Steam - one is (relatively) small and mostly nice, the other is huge and mostly a cesspool.

tl;dr Avoid people.

The ability to directly interact with people you normally wouldn't (or couldn't) definitely seems to be interesting. But in my experience communications seems to follow hierarchy, with the big-shots discussing only between themselves, and the lesser people discussing what the former have said.

I've had my account for 7 years and still love it, but I tend to discuss travel, BBQ, and mountain climbing. I'd imagine that ANY platform that you use for your gamergate activities is going to turn out this way, fyi...

I do get a kick out of Mean Tweets on Jimmy Kimmel Live. So there's that.

Terry Pratchett once wrote that the IQ of a crowd is the IQ of the most stupid person in that crowd divided by the number of people in that crowd. That's pretty much all social media- a global crowd. Do the math.

I dunno, twitter is kinda confusing to me. It might be that I rarely use it and I created my account quite recently but it seemes like people post random shit there like every five seconds and there's no topic search or something to make it more organized so it's just a big pile of mess, at least for people who check it only once a day or less often.

I'm not involved with gamergate. Haven't been for months and months now.

The battle is likely mostly already won in that case. Step 2 - unfollow every account you currently follow. Step 3 - follow scientists, chefs, Bruce Sterling, landscape photographers, a vineyard or two, news feeds from a far off peaceful place, and some accounts that tweet cat photos. And revel in your new experience. :)

Never had twitter, if I did Piers would get an ear bashing. did have facebook for a few months back in 2012, not for me. I deleted it

I don't hear much about facebook, it's all twitter these days. hope anyone didn't buy shares in facebook ^^

Close enough. But come to think of it -- a 140-character limit would make politicians a lot more tolerable.

That joke would have worked with a million things but for some reason Congress was the first thing that popped into my head. Well IRC did but they totally admit that's all they are and do.

A wise man, indeed.

To OP: If you're still looking for alternatives, why don't you stick to game developer community sites? You're still going to run into some assholes ( eww ) but at least they'll be assholes who share the same interests, and smaller communities are generally much nicer.

A bi of a rant be warned =)

Twitter - most boring site for me.

I do not care what you had for breakfast, did at the gym, lost your job, drank and screwed before the walk of shame.

Nor do I care what you feel the world needs to know. Really. I can do without seeing that Kanye West is going to make Paul McCartney's career.

OMG you like tots love that new song. Wonderful...

Your mom only got a Iphone 6 and not a Iphone 6 plus for your birthfay! Wow that bitch...

And then you have the whole celebrity stalker twitter:

Why would I care that some women who is famous for being famous felt upset today. Yeah life sucks I know..

Oh thats lovely you get paid to tweet about what you like to drink or at least need people to think you like it Fan - Flipping- Tastic

Lovely you are on vacation in some island I have never heard of. Working is hard isn't it..


To the everyday twitter person Get a dog. Tell it to the dog. The dog will actually like you if you feed it. It may even fill the hole you have to feel wanted.

Ah but I am being a bit of a bitch tonight. Sorry long day. But it is true Twitter is about as fun as going to the dentist when they ran out of Novocain.

Oh and now you got these sites. AKA mycoke that now you not only have to put the codes in from the tops, now you also have to be rated and to raise to the ranks and be able to use the codes for the better (I use that word very lightly) shit, you have to tweet what coke wants you to and you get points. Really. Really. No Ill spend the money for my 3 months free of pogo before I stoop to twitting hashtag OMG love coke.

In my day (Im 32) Hash we smoked and tag was on my shirt.