This blog is more personal than unusual, I’ve been on Twitter/X for 10 years now and I’m reflecting on my regular tweets. My account has finally been restored to normal, complete with blue tick, but with a General Election ahead it won’t be the same normal. A lot of people received dodgy DMs while my account was hacked, I’ve consequently lost a few followers and a couple of people blocked my account. lo que será será They couldn’t know that it was my account and I have know way to inform them. Those who matter understand and that’s good enough for me 😀✊ I was able to contact a friend who had blocked me because she follows my secondary account (which is now locked) and I was able to explain what had happened 😀👍

The announcement of a General Election following the recovery of my hacked account has given me the proverbial kick up the backside to review my recurring tweets. I’ve built up a substantial following by promoting petitions on a wide variety of subjects, several people have said that they only became aware of an issue from my tweets and think some who follow me because of my support for one cause discover another they can support. I intend to promote fewer petitions in future but there are a couple that I started myself years ago that I want to try again.

I don’t call it campaigning if I post only once without supporting material but posting petitions and articles multiple times is subject to diminishing returns. I think once a week is sufficient, for how long is something I have to decide on an individual basis. I will need to be more selective in saving new articles to share again, most of those I’m saving now will only kept for one month.

I’m gradually removing many seldom used images from my iPad – I’ve saved many on Pinterest but I’m no longer bothering to do that! I’ve developed my skills in creating memes to support petitions and articles to the point that I no longer need to preserve one that’s served its purpose – if it’s needed again I’ll create a new one that will probably be better.

Some things won’t change. My twice daily shout outs to independent lifeboats are set in stone, it takes a month to cover them all. It’s become quite automatic but it took about a year of research to establish the project. I believe it’s still the most inclusive resource although there are some umbrella organisations.

I didn’t know what #ff meant when I first read a tweet with the hashtag followed by a list of accounts, including my own. Once I realised that it was a list of accounts that the person posting it recommended following I started my own. A bare list of accounts to follow wasn’t good enough for me, I needed to provide some content to my tweets. At first it was a collage of places of personal significance for me. Here’s an early example.

I soon found that my followers preferred my Yorkshire collections and it’s become a tradition for me to post a new one every Friday. In 10 years I’ve always managed to come up with something new, I’ve never needed to repeat any but many/are worthy of being shared again so I’ve started doing that on Mondays. What more reason do I need for doing them than my friends like them and I enjoy doing them? 😀

#SocialistSunday tweets are a more recent tradition, they’re intended for comrades rather than friends although there’s a considerable overlap – those of you on both lists will understand what I mean 😊

The #SocialistSunday did help me build on what was already a sizeable following, although that was never my intent despite what our detractors say. On the contrary, I thought it incumbent on me to give a boost to comrades with fewer followers – with the proviso that they had to have been following me for at least 2 months so I could sort out the imposters who inflicted themselves on us back then. I haven’t needed to use this meme for several years, but it’s a warning of what we’re up against.

As with #ff tweets I dislike posting a list of accounts to follow without actually saying anything. I tried posting socialist quotes with which we’re all acquainted then some songs that I’m now posting separately. I’ve tried, with varying success, to use my platform to support comrades in need.

It might seem self-indulgent to those I’m now most focused on promoting my own blogs, which I’m now managing to write on average once a week (I might miss a week but write two another week). I don’t know how many who thank me for inclusion in my #SocialistSunday tweets actually read my blogs, I hope you all do. The feedback I’ve received is all positive but I still invite you to subscribe to my blog and add a comment.

Thank you all for your support 😊👍 I’m unable to actively campaign for candidates in the General Election but I’ve donated approximately £100 towards their campaigns, I’m posting a daily tweet about that. I was quite embarrassed to find that I had donated 4x the amount I intended to one candidate. I couldn’t cancel the payment and I’m not so mean spirited as to ask for a refund, so I sent an email inviting them to divide the money with three other candidates who aren’t on my list but are equally deserving. I haven’t had a reply and the decision is entirely up to them, it was my mistake and I have to accept it. On the bright side, it hasn’t actually cost me more than I was prepared to pay to support any campaign that challenges the duopoly 😀✊