I believe ‘shilling’ may be a more accurate term than ‘selling’ in this instance… 💸

‘The Impossible Climb’; to be fair, there is a small risk of that if it ends up becoming two books deep!

Probably a risk worth taking. 😌

Absolutely! I think you’ve captured perfectly what’s happening elsewhere in this thread.

I think a true love for books means being happy for them to be enjoyed, in any format, though that doesn’t mean having to forgo a favourite kind.

Gatekeeping is exhausting to witness: cult is the right word!

That is such an excellent question.

I’m a bibliophile. I’ve spent years of my life sequestered away in libraries poring over old tomes, enjoying their physicality, but that doesn’t suddenly invalidate other ways of engaging with that information. I can also access them on EBBO/ECCO… on my phone. 📱

They seem to fall into two camps: either people being overly literal about definitions (understandable, if a bit tedious), or people needlessly gatekeeping for reasons I cannot fathom.

As you say, it’s not a contest, everyone’s enjoying the same content; so why should it matter about the format? 📚🎧

I don’t envy them trying to contend with that balancing act; the two giants feel pretty incompatible given Trump’s recent sabre rattling.

I feel like we miss the boat with most things at the moment, and are left hopelessly behind; though your seeing that as a growth opportunity was uplifting! 📈

Incredible that she can decry her treatment and position herself as a victim, whilst in the same breath sabre-rattling and threatening to topple the Barnier government.

Cognitive dissonance has nothing on the Le Pen dynasty… they’re utterly immune to it. 🙄

It’s been a similar story in higher education, though the signals coming out of Downing Street have been encouraging for our sector.

How is it with technology? I’ve seen a disappointing reversal with the initial enthusiasm for nuclear power, but not a whole lot about wider tech investment.

Firstly, I’m talking to you, aren’t I?

Secondly, no, I just don’t want a platform where someone’s first instinct on interaction is to throw around insults: please see your first reply to me.

Echo chambers can be very bad, but Twitter became one in the opposite direction.

Is this platform left-wing? Absolutely.

This may surprise you, but lots of us aren’t here to debate politics. If it were exclusively for discussing politics, you’d have a point, but it isn’t. That’d be exhausting.

You’re not offering ‘alternative views’, you’re merely throwing around precisely the same insults as before.

If you think insulting people’s intelligence is a good way of getting people to listen to you, then I’m afraid you’ve badly misunderstood human interaction. They’re playground bully tactics.

You see, throwing insults around the very second someone replies to you is the reason people migrated. Civilised conversation doesn’t need to include accusations of ‘mental weakness’. The fact you respond aggressively says it all.

People won’t engage with you here; insults don’t work.

Why are you here, then? Most of us migrated specifically because Twitter has deteriorated so dramatically; if you feel it hasn’t, why bother making a new social media account when the old one already serves your needs?

You’re obviously intimating that this platform is ‘fascist’, so why support it?

Fabulous, it’s so much nicer here already! 🌤️

That said, might we petition for bookmarks and to see which starter packs/lists we’ve been added to? Little quality of life additions which would help enhance this platform further! 🎉

The X-odus continues apace! Musk’s platform is now just his glorified plaything, and the more traffic we can pull from there, the better.

The comments beneath your reporting had ceased to be engaging there, they were cesspits populated by bots trying to agitate for Reform. Here should be better! 🌤️

Thank you! 🙏🏻

If the other platform demonstrated anything, it’s that facts, figures, and expertise will be summarily dismissed.

It was shocking to watch the anti-intellectual sentiment grow, so I can’t imagine how in four years’ time, even if the contrast in figures is stark, they’ll do anything but reject them.

May I request inclusion, please? I’m partnered with Northumbria University in the medical humanities, specialising in the eighteenth century. Mainly focused on literary portrayals of women’s domestic medical practice. 🌿 I’m also new to the platform today!

Thank you! ☺️