At the time they suggested using Twitter or Facebook. And while I had a twitter account, I rarely used it. Over the period of the course, I managed to cultivate a nice community out of a largely unused account, and connected with like minded individuals on programming and, due to the course’s target audience, teachers.
The course then taught you to analyze the social media posts using the Twitter API. Turtles all the way down. It was the best MOOC I ever participated in.
So this experience has become my prototype for blogging and publicity—blog+social media.
I’ve not continued the blogging (the class was in 2010?), but I have tried to cultivate, for example, on BlueSky a community of _only_ my personal and professional interests (not unlike HN content), but politics, entertainment and sports keep muddying the waters.
It’s impossible to control your feeds these days, so I don’t know if Blog+Social is a pattern that works _today_ with the current crop of social. Not sure if people who are NOT _in it for the money_ can achieve the personal engagement necessary to carry on.
Small aside, during COVID NYC Python community met on online. It continued for over a year and then fizzled out. But oh what a glorious year of weekly online meetups. And every one had the good taste to keep it to Python and their ruddy projects. Hehe.