Ha! Yeah, the question of whether we're "social media" or not is one of those ones I keep arguing with myself about. We literally predate the term! When LiveJournal was created (1999), the term was "social network"; "social media" didn't really exist until 2005-ish and didn't take off until 2010 or so. So it's a little bit glib for me to say "yeah, I've been working in social media since before it was social media", but it's true: I started at LJ in 2002, well before anyone was calling it that, and barring that six months or so from mid-2007 to early 2008 while I was having a nervous breakdown after I quit LiveJournal (and that is not me being glib; I am not shy, by now at least, about saying how acrimonious the working relationship was by the end, mostly due to the dipshit CEO of the company that bought LJ from Brad, the originator, and then sold it to Alexander fucking Mamut who sold it to the fucking state bank of Russia, oh god the stories I have to tell) I've been working on it since. I swore after I left LJ that I was never working in social ever again! And then LJ pulled another dipshit move, and a friend of mine said "I think we're all just waiting for you to start your own journal site", and I said "oh, ha ha ha very funny ... oh goddammit" and messaged Mark and said "so, hear me out".
(It's really interesting having been here for all of it, but having gotten out of working at even moderate scale before the explosion of smartphones, let me tell you. Having heard plenty of horror stories from my Trust & Safety colleagues, I am adamant that I do not ever want to go back. I love our sleepy, chill corner of the internet! I almost never have to watch beheading videos or look at the most horrifying images in the world anymore, it's awesome! Last year I was browsing social media and I came across a video of someone being graphically murdered and I actually caught myself flinching slightly at it and thinking "huh, that's unpleasant"! People who have never worked in Trust and Safety look blankly at me when I say this; people who have worked T&S go "oh my god, how long did it take you to stop being desensitized to it all?" and I say "oh, about fifteen years", and they nod sadly. That job fucks you up; I tell people now that I get a handful of reports a month and the reaction is almost universally "are you hiring? ....no, with that volume, you wouldn't be, would you.")
But yeah, as you have discovered, when I have the time I love talking about this kind of thing. "Having the time" is sometimes the hard part, but I will talk anybody's ear off about this stuff. It's deeply fascinating!
Re: ex choster here
(It's really interesting having been here for all of it, but having gotten out of working at even moderate scale before the explosion of smartphones, let me tell you. Having heard plenty of horror stories from my Trust & Safety colleagues, I am adamant that I do not ever want to go back. I love our sleepy, chill corner of the internet! I almost never have to watch beheading videos or look at the most horrifying images in the world anymore, it's awesome! Last year I was browsing social media and I came across a video of someone being graphically murdered and I actually caught myself flinching slightly at it and thinking "huh, that's unpleasant"! People who have never worked in Trust and Safety look blankly at me when I say this; people who have worked T&S go "oh my god, how long did it take you to stop being desensitized to it all?" and I say "oh, about fifteen years", and they nod sadly. That job fucks you up; I tell people now that I get a handful of reports a month and the reaction is almost universally "are you hiring? ....no, with that volume, you wouldn't be, would you.")
But yeah, as you have discovered, when I have the time I love talking about this kind of thing. "Having the time" is sometimes the hard part, but I will talk anybody's ear off about this stuff. It's deeply fascinating!