It used to be the place I wanted to hang out. It looked like a utopia and promised so much – but unfortunately, it isn’t, and it has offered me very little. So, my micro.blog account is no more.

This is the second time I have deleted everything; the first time was to start again and work out a way to host my blog on the platform. However, as time has moved on, the blogging on micro.blog has dissolved into more ‘status updates’ and long threads (which are not threaded at all) or talking.

I wasn’t looking for another Twitter; I was looking for short microblogs and others that loved the things I did. The blog posts are still there and written by some fascinating people, but they are hidden under mountains of photos, and videos, and podcasts, and it is impossible to navigate the noise.

I can only presume others find the same because my interactions fell away to almost zero and micro.blog as a referee to blog posts dropped at an equal rate to completely zero. Could be my face doesn’t fit, could be a million different reasons but another network to try and carve out space in – no thank you.

There is also a real echo chamber on the platform; it is predominantly US-centric. I am not sure of the location of registered accounts, but the feeds and noise always appear very skewed towards American issues. However, this could be linked to discoverability, as it’s impossible to find people to follow without putting in real work – but enough about the negatives.

There are a few positive I have taken away from my year or more on the platform. Where I place my blog in my life is different now. I am more open to publishing my thoughts and less bothered about the length of my posts than I was.

So don’t look for gr36.micro.blog any longer – you won’t find it.