I’ve been having the weirdest sense of deja vu these past several months, what with the waves of new BlueSky users showing up every time Elon does something stupid, but I just couldn’t put my finger on what it reminded me of. It just hit me. It’s SEPTEMBER. - ThreadSky

kathryntewson.bsky.social • 239 days ago

I’ve been having the weirdest sense of deja vu these past several months, what with the waves of new BlueSky users showing up every time Elon does something stupid, but I just couldn’t put my finger on what it reminded me of.

It just hit me.

It’s SEPTEMBER.

Comments

bootsmcgoot.bsky.social•239 days ago

I was thinking about this in the context of alt text image descriptions. They suddenly dropped off a cliff, because we haven't had time to socialise the new lot.

pf3.bsky.social•239 days ago

Can you add the alt text after you post?

bootsmcgoot.bsky.social•239 days ago

i don't think so, no

pf3.bsky.social•239 days ago

Lame. I keep forgetting until right after I post.

bootsmcgoot.bsky.social•239 days ago

there's something in settings you can toggle so the post won't go through unless you've added it! smart feature, i wouldn't have remembered without it but now it's a habit 😊

pf3.bsky.social•239 days ago

That works! I won't forget again. I kinda like writing the descriptions, because it's an opportunity to point out what might not be obvious to everyone.

word-geek.bsky.social•239 days ago

I still find it weird that when I first heard of alt text, it was in the context of techies who used text-only browsers getting pissy if you didn't cater to people who lacked the bandwidth to download photos

bootsmcgoot.bsky.social•239 days ago

i remember being taught how to use it when i picked up html coding as a hobby. i think it's the drop-kerb effect - designed for disability accessibility, but useful to almost everyone!

word-geek.bsky.social•239 days ago

Yep. I really like the way they are done here and it now feels really odd to go to a site that doesn't do it

rmd1023.bsky.social•239 days ago

… hadn’t occurred to me but yeah, absolutely.

rine.bsky.social•239 days ago

Ahh, Eternal September, but for Bluesky likely very soon.

xipha.bsky.social•239 days ago

Some kind of celestial body is in retrograde again I see.

misanthropesq.bsky.social•239 days ago

This may be a niche reply, but “glass flows!”

kathryntewson.bsky.social•239 days ago

Many of you youthful sprites will have no idea what I’m talking about, but the real GenXers, with the scar on the right knee and the taste of hose water on the tongue — y’all know, don’t you? Every year, in September, the internet got kind of … naive and awkward.

madamehardy.bsky.social•239 days ago

Kids today don't skin their knees?

ilisabat.bsky.social•239 days ago

The Eternal September has birthed its own Septembers. We're in a new cluster of the trichiliocosm.

Also, far more importantly, we drank from hoses in the 90s. And I've got a scar on my knee from a skateboard accident!

ilisabat.bsky.social•239 days ago

(I am admittedly too young for the September phenomenon but I made great study of the elder days in my youth)

haroldfeld.bsky.social•239 days ago

Because we're old now. We watch Matlock! Again! And can remember when that joke first appeared on Simpsons back when Simpsons was funny.

goldman60.nclf.net•239 days ago

This persisted at least up through the younger millennial generation. Phenomenon really died in the 2010s (though its still somewhat evident in smaller communities).

goldman60.nclf.net•239 days ago

(though the cause switched to kids having internet access in school but not at home)

kathryntewson.bsky.social•239 days ago

Because, you see, in those days, you had internet through school and basically only through school. So every year, a brand new crop of freshmen would show up at college, get online for the first time, and then it was just chain letters and ASCII art until Thanksgiving.

kathryntewson.bsky.social•239 days ago

Of course, unlike college freshmen, Twitter escapees are jejune, nihilistic, and and exhausted. But there’s that same sense of a whole bunch of people being simultaneously exposed to a New Thing and taking a minute to acclimate.

kathryntewson.bsky.social•239 days ago

So, to our new friends who have just enrolled here at BlueSky U, welcome! There’s beer in the fridge, the laundry machines cost a quarter, and if there’s a sock on the doorknob, you, uh… REALLY don’t want to open that door unless you are entirely prepared for what lies beyond.

joegordon.bsky.social•239 days ago

Yes and I love how out of date our references are. Imagining it’s: weed gummies in the bowl are leftover but if you didn’t buy it don’t vape it, laundry you pay for by swiping or tapping, earbuds in while streaming in public areas unless everyone’s ok with it

kathryntewson.bsky.social•239 days ago

Well I was also specifically referencing college in the 90s