Playing a poor hand, well

“Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.” – Jack London

I have thought long and hard since, what, just yesterday (?) when the news rolled out about Facebook no longer fact checking. I mean, you could argue they were doing a shitty job of it, anyway… if I’m scrolling through one of my town’s Word of Mouth boards trying to find out why I see heavy smoke in the distance, and see one more “that old derelict restaurant on the corner was taken down because The Libs are gonna build an alien homing device there” post I’m going to get even more of an eye twitch than I have now. BUT I DIGRESS.

So, FB is no longer checking facts, and hate speech is OK. Well, big change from the rest of the United States. NOT. And I see a lot of people saying they’re going to leave, and I see a lot of people explaining why they are not going to leave. I feel both those reasons. I mean, I deleted my Twitter accounts (work and personal) the day after Musk bought the site, because I knew what it was going to become. I don’t feel that was the wrong decision for me… but also, Twitter wasn’t a very effective means of communication for me.

Facebook, as much of a joke as it is, is kind of an effective means of communication for me. Last year, Facebook was HaldeCraft’s number one referrer for people who completed sales. I’m a one-person craft business who works at home and does everything herself… I can’t afford to lose that revenue. Not until I find another source of revenue that’s going to be just as effective. Which means not leaving Facebook cold turkey until there’s some sort of proven alternative. And by proven, I mean that I have spent at least six months using it and can compare HaldeCraft revenue to the same six months in the other places I advertise. I consider “advertising” to mean, in this case, posts that I do which subtly or outright ask someone to buy something – not necessarily placing or spending money on an advertisement in the traditional sense of the word.

Let’s be clear – I am 100% extremely not cool with this:

Absolutely not cool. This is a shittastic decision and it hurts me in my heart and it scares me for what those of us of sound mind and body are going to have to put up with. How much I think this is wrong is about another thousand word post I could do just on this topic.

But if I don’t sell the stuff I make, I can’t afford to keep my lights on.

So when is it OK to stay? Well, until five minutes after there’s a viable alternative. Do I want to quit them (Facebook/Insta/Threads) immediately, in protest? Of course. But I also have to eat. So… fuck. What a capitalistic hellscape.

So.

I’ll be following my friends on other social media sites as they jump ship. (Side note: it’s not always the worst people who leave first. Often, it’s the BEST people, because they’re people who see the ship is about to sink and they get the fuck in that lifeboat and row for shore.)

I’ll be posting more here, on Snarkland, where I pay for hosting (Laughing Squid is a great blog host, and I haven’t seen them mention anything about condoning hate speech.)

I mean, I even spent the morning reviewing BBS plugins for WordPress, wondering if I wanted to start a Bulletin Board/Community Board thing here, for my friends and family. As if I have time to oversee one more thing?!

ANYWAY.

Here’s where you can find me, and I’ll add to this if any new sites come up that I decide to try out (sadly, especially if I can shill my wares there) (sorry to sound so mercenary).

Lorena/HaldeCraft Linktree if you prefer a link rather than QR code.

Thanks, y’all. I don’t want to lose any of you. Community, I feel, is what’s going to hold us up and keep us strong, in the next few years.