Follow Friday - With Reasons

10 Recommended Follows for Mastodon

I opened my Mastodon account in January of 2024, initially on Mastodon.social but quickly moved to the dazzling community on OMG.LOL, incorporating my Micro.blog follows along the way. In a short five months I've posted over 2000 times, about half the total my Twitter account accumulated in 15 years. A great many of these posts have been actual interactions with people and not just shouting into the void of the Fediverse. I've been lucky to meet some funny, smart, profane and irreverent Netizens, as we used to call each other in the olden times. I'd like to give some of my favorites a shout out and let this post serve as a long form version of #FollowFriday.

The Peter Pan of Nerdery™ @dhry@mastodon.social

Not for the faint of heart, my man is an Aussie transplant living in the US. He has so many hard drives on his PC that he's almost out of drive letters. Very knowledgable about Windows software and very opinionated about everything it's a case of opposites attract for us since he is #NeverMac (but rocking a jailbroken iPhone nonetheless). He has an interesting tech blog (including ramen reviews) at https://blog.allthingstech.social/author/dhry/

Alexandra @alexandra@social.lol

Continuing my predilection for internationalism, Alexandra is a veteran of the Royal Air Force currently living in Quebec. She maintains several blogs and writes about books, TV and online culture. She blogs on Micro.blog https://marginalia.micro.blog

JK @jasonekratz@social.lol

Pivoting to Chicagoland, Jason is an astute observer of the tech space and funny AF. I enjoy his take on most things. He's not afraid to call things out for what they are and just as quick to levy praise. If I ever open a satellite office in the great state of Illinois, I'd send the recruiters in his direction. Blogging at https://jasonkratz.me

Brandon @brandonwrites@social.lol

My fellow North Carolinian and military brat, Brandon is a pop-culture go to. You know, the guy who used to work in a video store and knows the best horror movies, how to get tickets to next Comic-con and which current iteration of Conan the Barbarian is the biggest pleasure to read. He is a very prolific blogger and writes with admirable honesty and heart. I'm a faithful reader. https://brandons-journal.com

Barry @barrysampson@social.lol

Across the pond we go to the south of England to find Barry, a digital learning consultant, Dad, guitar player and all around nice guy. I love having friends in other places because it really drives home that people are people where ever we live even if those places are thousands of miles apart. Barry has a hand-built blog made with Kirby. https://barrysampson.net

David Nelson @dmnelson@mastodon.social

David lives all the way across the country from me in the beautiful PNW. a region he often posts amazing pictures of. He's a K-12 sysadmin, a career from which I retired in 2020. Our interests in vintage tech and social responsibility match quite nicely. If I discover the fountain of youth and have to go back to work in public education, I'm moving to Washington to go to work for him. He blogs sporadically at https://davidnelson.net

Greg Newman @greg@gregnewman.io

Another North Carolinian and military brat who amazingly enough attended the same high school I did (at a different time), Greg is a multi-faceted guy, a developer, ultra-runner and talented artist. The other day he heard there were tornados in my part of the state and sent me a message on Mastodon to make sure we were OK. Nobody on Twitter ever did that.  https://gregnewman.io/

JCProbably @jedda@social.lol

Back to the west coast we go, to Bay Area Jedda, one of my favorite daily reads during Weblog PoMo2024. She just has a way of being very relatable. The few times when I've left comments or sent her a message about a post she's been most gracious in her responses. Sometimes the IndieWeb can be like the Truman Show in that we get to see people live their lives in an honest and open way. Jedda blogs in text and photos at https://blog.jeddacp.com/

Darren Hester @dhester@social.lol

Down to beautiful Macon, GA we go, the home of retired IT guy, Darren Hester who is also a great photographer (and I mean seriously good) artist and writer. I've enjoyed every interaction with Darren. Like me he is a very early riser and 4am conversations are not unheard of. Darren has a blog on Scribbles at https://notes.darrenhester.com

Nicola Losito @koolinus@toot.community

I'd been corresponding with Nicola for a while when I read something in one of his posts about his daily hospital routine. I had no idea the prolific blogger and newsletter publisher was doing all that while recovering from a heart transplant! He's an Apple expert with an encyclopedic knowledge of older tech and a friendly, helpful disposition. He has an English language Scribbles blog at https://scribbles.page/nicola