Several weeks back I posted a poll asking where we should meet up online now that Twitter’s jumped the shark and all the good people are disappearing. Of course, stupid Mark Zuckerberg had to go and ruin the fun by announcing Threads on basically the same day and immediately registering fifteen bajillion users in thirty seconds. (Of course, most of them immediately said, “Oo wait what ick get it off get it off get it off!” and learned that if you try to delete the app, it also deletes your Instagram…)

But that’s neither here nor there. People filled out the survey (though not nearly as many as I’d hoped), and they deserve to see the results. So here we go!

First, I asked what accounts people already had:

Not much of a surprise here. Once you remove Twitter from the equation, Facebook and Instagram are the logical leaders. They’re also the oldest kids on the block. Nice to see Mastodon making a showing, though. And I’m happy to see that Tiktok is not taking over this conversation.

So, then, where would people prefer that we go?

And it’s Mastodon for the win, just edging out Bluesky!

Sure, we only got 15 votes, so that’s a difference of one vote. But nobody said this was binding 🙂

As I said at the beginning, Threads really screwed this up by just kind of saying, “Hi, we’re the elephant in the room.” Everybody’s on it, practically by default, but (a) the app’s terrible, (b) there’s no desktop support, and (c) nobody’s really on it yet. So it’s not like there’s a clear winner yet.

Where Will We End Up?

Here’s what’s going to happen over the next few days. I’m going to leave up my automatic posting of blog entries to Twitter, mostly because, why not, it doesn’t cost me anything, and it’s easy traffic. But I don’t think you’re going to be seeing any live conversation from me there anymore—no dropping quick links I found. No asking random questions I just thought of. I need to focus on building a new following on a new site.

I think we all have to give Threads a chance, whether we like it or not. They’ll change a few things in the app, and suddenly, it’ll be where everybody wants to be. So, if it’s not obvious, you can find me there at ShakespeareGeek. Does anybody know how to link that? I’m on a desktop.

But Mastodon’s the most active community, and it was the place where most people said they have an account and want to go. So it’s only logical that I go there as well. You can find me here: https://toot.community/@ShakespeareGeek I know, it’s weird how all Mastodon servers have their own host. It takes some getting used to. But it’s cool – they all talk to each other.

Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.

Romeo and Juliet Act IV Scene III

I know that not all readers of ShakespeareGeek are also followers on Twitter. But there’s a very large overlap. Most of the real-time daily discussion that happens these days is on Twitter. Don’t get me wrong; the other day, I was saying how I miss the days of flame wars inside comment threads on a blog like this one. But Twitter and the others have made it so much easier to have one place to check on and interact with all the things that you love. I get it. I’ve been on Twitter since 2008, and there are thousands of you following my hijinks.

Unfortunately, that looks like it’s ending, though, as Elon Musk systematically destroys the platform. Maybe it’ll technically remain viable, of course. I don’t think it’s going to shut down. But it’s not *fun* anymore. We used to enjoy being on Twitter, waiting for Top Trends that we could in any way turn into a Shakespeare joke or pun. When that didn’t work, we’d start our own #ShakespearePunHashtag and try to get that trending. Now it’s nothing but sports I don’t watch, reality TV I don’t watch, and godawful conservative political madness that I wish I didn’t have to watch.

So, then, let’s leave, yes? There are plenty of options. But where? Ay, there’s the rub. It’s taken me fifteen years to find those thousands of you and feel like I’m not just shouting into the void. Each new channel – Tribel, Bluesky, Mastodon, etc… – feels like starting over. I’m not going to lie. I’m not sure I’ve got the energy for that.

But then I had an idea. Why not ask? Let’s take a poll and figure out where the majority thinks we should go! Of course, nobody’s making you, but it’s better than random, right? If you’ve read this far, please take a moment to complete the following survey. It will only be useful if a large enough number of people respond. I’ll post a follow-up as soon as we get a clear winner.

Here are my quick thoughts on the subject since I know I’ve been rambling on for too long already…

• I like the blog (the site), and it’s not going anywhere. People have always been welcome to add comments and get a discussion going on any post that interests them.
• We also have a Facebook presence (https://www.facebook.com/shakespearegeekdotcom) which is a little better regarding discussion threads, but I know it’s got that reputation of being as old as blogs.
• I have an Instagram and a Tiktok, but I don’t really use them. My own personal opinion is that Shakespeare’s a words words words game, and I want to write and read words, lots of them, back and forth. Not just a few that somebody’s slapped into a picture of a sunset and turned into a meme. I get why they’re popular,
• I’d happily plug Reddit, too: https://www.reddit.com/r/shakespeare, where I am the moderator. But Reddit’s going through the same “ownership’s an asshole” growing pains that Twitter is, so I can’t promise it won’t suffer the same fate.
• I’ve got accounts on most of the services I listed below, and I’m happy to start posting on any of them if we get a majority going.

Ok, enough of that. On with the voting! Absolutely share this post (or the survey specifically) and absolutely get a discussion going in the comments for this post if you feel like I missed anything important. Let’s remind ourselves why we all do this in the first place, shall we?

Hamlet is typically seen as a study of father/son dynamics. You’ve got Hamlet avenging his father, Laertes/Polonius, Fortinbras, and his father. However, my interpretation of the play has always been more concerned with his relationship with his mother. “It’s oft been my contention that was ultimately spurs Hamlet to action is the death of his mother. “Mother, you have my father much offended,” might be my favorite line in the play. It truly captures his anguish at the position in which he finds himself. But when he tells Claudius, “Follow my mother,” what exactly is he thinking?

Follow My Mother

Recently, however, a different line caught my eye. In the final scene, when all is revealed, Hamlet knows that Claudius poisoned Gertrude. We’ll set aside for the moment the fact that Hamlet has also proven that Claudius murdered his father, too. Pouring poison down the dying king’s throat, Hamlet says, “Follow my mother.”

Here’s my question. Hamlet knows where his father is and why:

I am thy father’s spirit,
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purg’d away.

Act I Scene v

Without a chance to confess his sins and cleanse his soul, Hamlet’s father doesn’t get his ticket into heaven. This is the whole issue of why he didn’t kill Claudius when he had the chance:

Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven,
And so am I reveng’d. That would be scann’d.
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.

Act III Scene iii

Hamlet’s already made clear that he doesn’t think Claudius deserves to be sent to Heaven. So when he says, “Follow my mother,” where does Hamlet think his mother has gone? Does he believe that his mother’s sins have damned her?

Hamlet’s been concerned (some might say overly so) with Gertrude’s sinful behavior throughout the play. The word incestuous appears five times in the play (twice said by Hamlet’s father, three times by Hamlet). But when he confronts his mother in her bedroom, he still feels that there must be an opportunity for redemption because he tells her not to let the “bloat King tempt you to bed.”

Still, she’s sent to the undiscovered country with no opportunity to confess her sins, just like her first husband. Will she, too, be doomed to walk the night? Does this thought even cross Hamlet’s mind? The ghost did tell him, “Leave her to Heaven,” so she doesn’t get to escape judgment.

I don’t know if there is an answer. If I found a half dozen actors that have played Hamlet and asked them, they may never have thought of it. That’s part of the fun of Hamlet, that you can read it dozens of times and constantly find something new. Even researching this post, I found something else I’d never spotted before, which will probably become a new post on its own.