The ACH is leaving Twitter: we’re locking our Twitter account, and will no longer post, read, nor reply there. ACH members and the broader digital humanities community can find us on Bluesky (bsky.app/profile/ach.bsky.social), Mastodon (hcommons.social/@ach), our website (ach.org); and for ACH members, our newsletter (members.ach.org/join).
Why we’re leaving Twitter
We leave Twitter because of its rapidly increasing harms—both policies that are explicitly racist, sexist, transphobic, and harmful in many additional ways; and policy (non)implementation and culture that make the space harmful or impossible for many to use. This is in keeping with the ACH’s mission, which states:
“ACH recognizes that this work is inherently and inextricably sociopolitical, and thus advocates for social change through the use of computers and related technologies in the study of humanistic subjects.”
We recognize this is not a decision everyone can make—for example, unemployed and precarious community members can’t afford to miss anywhere jobs might be posted. If we don’t put opportunities and other info on Twitter, people don’t have to expose themselves to the most blatant harms to get that info. We leave Twitter to contribute toward ending that lock-in. Please let the organizations you’re part of know, if their moving off Twitter would help you be able to leave too. If you’re an organization or individual who can safely do so, we encourage you to help everyone leave Twitter by leaving yourself.
A proactive approach
The ACH is delighted to announce our support of a newly convened ACH Working Group: (Re)connecting DH on Social Media! Watch this blog for a future post on its plans for proactively improving and (re)connecting DH social media community. (You can also read more about, and consider proposing, ACH Working Groups on other topics yourself.)
We want to not only help folks get off Twitter—we’re planning to actively support other platforms becoming safer and better, and support DH community in participating and finding community there. See below for info on how to move off Twitter, and options for where you can go.
How do I use other platforms & rebuild my networks?
- Choosing a platform
- ACH is active on both Mastodon and Bluesky. There are other options we’re not currently active on, including Meta’s Instagram and Threads; see the “Where can I find DH community online?” section below for a list of platforms as well as ways to find DH within platforms (e.g. servers, feeds, hashtags).
- Bluesky is closest to the Twitter experience, so may be an easier switch. You currently need an invite code, but luckily there’s a quick way for DHers to receive one.
- Mastodon has some differences from Twitter that give it a learning curve, but it also gives you more control over your content ownership and the politics/policies impacting what you post. You do not need an invite code to get started.
- Moving to Bluesky
- Fill out Quinn Dombrowski and Brandon Walsh’s quick form to get a Bluesky invite code sooner than through the official waitlist. Thanks to Quinn and Brandon for running this effort, and to all the folks who have contributed invite codes to help colleagues make the move to Bluesky!
- See Amanda Visconti’s DH Bluesky Guide to quickly get started, followed by friendly in-depth discussion of more advanced Bluesky use (when/if you’re ready for it)..
- Follow Mark Sample’s DH Community Feed.
- Moving to Mastodon
- See Quinn Dombrowski and David Weisley’s Notes on Switching to Mastodon to learn how to start. Many communities are listed here. You can interact across communities unless the community of users decides not to connect.
- As ACH joined hcommons.social, we recommend you become part of the community to be connected to other humanities scholars and DH practitioners.
- To learn more about Mastodon, Quinn Dombrowski’s essays are useful: “A Week with Mastodon” and “A Second Week with Mastodon.” You can find additional guides here.
- More easy steps to getting started on Mastodon
- Ping the ACH to say you’ve made the move to Mastodon and/or Bluesky, and we’ll follow you there!
Where can I find DH community online?
If you know of a platform, hashtag, feed, or other place DHy folks are gathering online (or using to find one another on large platforms), please let us know so we can add it to our list by visiting this quick form (or resharing the link with others: https://forms.gle/yxa9W1cmdPezXc7x7). Below are communities we’re aware of, and we’ll be adding more as we hear suggestions.
- Bluesky
- Mark Sample’s DH Community Feed
- the “For You” feed (algorithm that will expose you to new folks/posts that are similar to the communities you interact with on Bluesky)
- Feed: Lit/Culture Studies
- Feed: Skybrarians (librarians)
- Feed: GLAMS (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums)
- Feed: Academic Sky
- Feed: Team Rhetoric (rhet/comp folks)
- Feed: medievalists
- #DHmakes (DHy folks doing crafting and makerspace projects, DH-related or not)
- Feed: #DHmakes posts containing media
- Feed: All #DHmakes posts
- Mastodon
- Hcommons.social server (HT @gonzalo@hcommons.social!)
- #DHmakes (DHy folks doing crafting and makerspace projects, DH-related or not)
- List of accounts at frederik-elwert.github.io/Mastodon-Digital-Humanists
- #digitalhumanities hashtag
- fedihum.org
- The glammr.us server (HT @sbecker@glammr.us!)
- One digital humanist suggested the platform Threads: “interaction not too lively—but a decent alternative for the tech news that is still better-represented on X than bsky”
- Discord
- Latent Reading Discord Server (comp lit studies centered discord community): HT Artjoms Šeļa on Bluesky (who might be able to point you how to join?)
- [We’ll add other places here, as we hear of them! Last updated 2/12/2024.]