I tried. I really tried to make it work having an author profile over at BlueSky. I even linked my account to my allensteadham.com website address. I posted about my Christian fiction books, stories, and works-in-progress. I connected with a few friends and a few other people in the community. And in fairness, initially there was a little bit of engagement.

But my word, there was so much derangement on that platform! Death threats towards a certain prominent political figure and related personalities, disturbingly angry people of a particular ideology, and a kind of one-way group think that I just can't understand.

I attempted a moderated approach. I blocked certain keywords and blocked a lot of accounts who only had one or two things to scream or complain about. On one person's advice, I tapped into a feed for Christian fiction. And finally, I deleted the Discover function.

For a couple of weeks, I was happy with photography accounts and one or two authors and creatives who just did their thing.

But now, there was ZERO engagement.

So, I was left with a choice:

1. Open things back up and deal with the sheer unpleasantness and madness; or

2. Deactivate my BlueSky account.

I chose to deactivate my account because I'm not getting anything positive from BlueSky anymore. It's 90% echo chamber for mostly unhappy people who don't seem interested in what I have to offer. And that's fine. My work isn't going to be a great fit for everybody or every environment.

Don't get me wrong: there are some genuinely nice people on BlueSky. But they're not in the majority. And that's unfortunate.

I'll keep pressing forward. Social media platforms change and they come and go. I don't regret setting up the account, and if things eventually improve, I may come back. But the way it is right now, it's not for me.