"The Thrill of Discovery"

At the midAugust 2018 influx of Twitter refugees I delighted in seeing 
strange new creatures beautifying Mastodon fediverse timelines. I noted 
some patterns in the noise:

- few strange new creatures received recommendations to create an 
introduction post with hashtagged interests. They introduced themselves, 
but didn't make their passions, joys, interests searchable and 
boostable;

- some strange new creatures concocted drama about a celebrity blogger 
I'd actually not heard about so I had now a second name to put into my 
filters. I saw the blogger's profile and ratio of 2 following to 2,568 
followers and deduced none of us fediverse citizens would appeal to him;

- I started blocking accounts who made toots in which they declared "no 
h8" yet also used slurs about subpopulations I hadn't even seen on 
Twitter and engaged in 'screendunking' and 'brigading' accounts they 
charged with sympathizing with those subpopulations. I also added slur 
words to my filter as it's complicated to follow someone who's that 1 in 
40,000 sharing a rare quality yet boosts "hate toots" with those slurs;

- these aforementioned events, along with my renewed interest in gopher 
(back then, in the old days, nobody thought to use gopher as a blogging 
platform; gopher was a protocol for connecting to academic and 
scientific files) led to the epiphany that I much prefer searching or 
pulling, to pushing. 

I'm an introvert, but I also have a powerful fear of rejection. 
Candidly, repeatedly experiencing no reciprocal engagement from accounts 
tooting about my interests rots my socks, and I want to find and bond 
with aficionados who aren't so dismissive. I check my interests, seven 
to twelve of them, every week and they're so niche only my introduction 
posts show up. 

I like signal! Noise is overwhelming. This is why I write penpal 
letters, use gopher, recommend hashtags for interests in introduction 
posts so I can boost them and help people find each other.

**********
Non sequitur: My 15ml bottle of Caswell-Massey perfume "Marem" arrived 
yesterday. It is resplendent with rose and citrus, and I love the woodsy 
drydown. Caswell-Massey created the scent for Alla Nazimova in 1914, 
when she was a Broadway actress. Marem was her actual first name. The 
scent is feminine and glamourous, suitable for any time of day. "Marem" 
may already replace Estee Lauder's "Love" as my preferred regular scent, and 
ranks with Robert Piguet's "Fracas" among the "I want people to notice 
me!" scents.

Non sequitur #2: This month is my six-month Gopher anniversary! :-D