When I do an interview, or I guest on a podcast, it never feels like it’s enough of a thing to post about it in my blog. It feels like the sort of thing I should just drop into Threads.
The thing is, Threads suppresses the everlivingfuck out of almost everything I post, lately. It tells me that a little over 1.2 million accounts follow mine, but it typically only shows what I post to an average of about 3000 people. If a post is doing extremely well, it will climb up to 20,000. That’s not nothing, to be sure, but it’s a tiny fraction of the accounts that have expressed a desire to see what I post. It’s incredibly frustrating. We have given away so much of our ability to connect to each other, to communicate with each other, to these profoundly evil and destructive companies that are profiting from our dysregulation.
I wonder if anyone outside of the weird little silos the algorithms create and sort us into even see what we post? Or are we just telling other people who are already furious about the Cornell 7, the murder of Nolan Wells, the endless murders by ICE, the rampant and unchecked construction of fucking concentration camps full of children who are raped by ICE thugs things we already know. I wonder if the evil human rights abusers who sit atop these companies will ever be held accountable for their roles in all of this violence and destruction.
Like, there was real promise in decentralized communication, and we saw entire countries use it to rise up and depose the despots who had been standing on their necks for a generation. Of course it was shitty American Capitalists who saw that, recognized it as a threat to their hegemony, and put us where we are right now.
I don’t know that we will ever be able to undo this, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. And I am trying today because I realized something last night while I was very successfully not falling asleep for my second hour: there are more actual humans subscribed to my blog posts than the stupid algorithm shows my posts to on Threads. If I have something to say, something fun or cool I want to share, even if it is just a quick thing, a couple of links, a stray thought with something interesting at its end, I will just make a post here, and show it to all of you.
So, to that end, a few fun things I’ve done lately that I wanted to share:
Years ago, I spoke with John Moe for his program, The Hilarious World of Depression. At that time, I wasn’t aware of the root causes of my mental illness, so we didn’t talk about CPTSD or child abuse, or any of the things I do to work toward healing that part of my life. I’m happy to say that I recently talked with John for a follow-up. His show is now a podcast that you can get wherever you prefer. And while you are there, you can also grab an episode of Sleeping With Celebrities that I did. If you’re unfamiliar (as I was), it’s a podcast designed to help you fall asleep, a soothing conversation about something I care about a lot, delivered in a way that should help ease you to sleep. I talked all about this old TV show I love, The Prisoner.
I did an interview with The Advocate, too, talking about my experiences as an ally, and why being othered in my life pushed me to stand up for people without my privilege.
โThe only way I could be a more protected class of citizen in America is if I were an openly performative Christian nationalist. Iโm white. Iโm male. Iโm upper middle class. Iโm semi-famous. I have all kinds of privilege. And yet, Iโve been othered my entire life,” Wheaton says.
“I was othered by my parents. I was othered by people in my neighborhood. I was othered on the set,โ he adds, explaining that his Star Trek castmates were the exception.
โAnd when I see other people experiencing that, I cannot help myself. I have to throw myself between those people and the people who are hurting them,โ he says. โIโm standing up for my younger self in ways that no one ever, ever did.โ
Wheaton offers this promise to the trans community: โSometimes people who wonโt hear you will hear me, even when weโre saying the same thing. And if I can use that privilege to reach that person and make a change, thatโs one less person who fucking hassles you for existing.โ
Okay, finally, I wanted to draw your attention to last week’s episode of It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton, The Glass City by AnaMaria Curtis.
If I described for you a sailor, stranded on an island, a thousand miles of ocean in every direction, it would be easy for you to imagine that person’s sense of loneliness. If I described for you a businessman, who has been on the road for a month straight, sleeping in hotels that blur together and smear across the same lobby restaurant over and over again, some of you could probably relate to and imagine that. If I told you about someone who has been Othered, in their family or in their community, told you how they sat in their bedroom with the door closed and wished that anyone would see them, some of you will, unfortunately, understand precisely. I grew up knowing that particular flavor of loneliness all too well. Even now, as happy and surrounded by love as I am, I can remember, and I can feel it. Loneliness is such a powerful feeling, even when it fades, some part of it lingers … at least for me, lurking, waiting, on the horizon of my memory.
This week’s Storytime is a beautiful, surreal meditation on loneliness from Ana Maria Curtis, who you may remember as the author of The Coffin Maker, a wonderful story I told you about a year ago. (If you haven’t heard it, it’s in the archive.) I’m thrilled and honored to speak her words again, and so grateful that you are choosing to hear them. I’m going to go ahead, and when you’re ready, come and meet me. I’ll be waiting for you, at The Glass City.
I just really loved this story, and I thought I did especially good work telling it. If you have some time to spend, I hope you’ll consider spending it with me.
That’s all for now. Until next time, maybe it will happen today.
Hi, I’m Wil Wheaton and I write this blog (among other things). I’m glad you are here. If you’d like to get my posts delivered to your inbox, here’s the thingy:
Discover more from WIL WHEATON dot NET
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Love hearing anything you have to chat about, even if itโs just a small note or something youโre excited about! Thatโs why weโre here ๐
The frustration of posting to a platform that shows your work to a tiny fraction of the people who asked to follow you is painfully familiar โ Threads suppressing reach while counting a million followers is a bleak little irony. Bringing podcast and interview notes back onto your own site feels like reclaiming the hallway conversation. I run Voxalike, a guide site for a free browser dubbing party game, and we try to keep the fun on pages we actually control for the same reason.
FYI, I follow you on tumblr, not here, and had no problem seeing your post that linked over here. So at least thatโs in the โworking properlyโ column.
Absolutely post the short things here that you think belong on Threads or Bluesky. Getting 4 or 5 sentences in my inbox, which specifically tells me there’s something in it from someone I specifically said I want to hear from, is a delight
Hey, yes to your blog, yes to RSS feeds (how I follow your blog), yes to remembering that the internet is actually the links between sites and that the corporate walled gardens of social media that try to keep us trapped on their platforms by any means necessary (damn the psychological and social consequences) are places designed to trick us into thinking they are the internet and THEY. ARE. NOT. The internet is a wide open place and we donโt have to restrict ourselves to only four giant websites featuring screenshots of the other three.
Hey, yes to your blog, yes to RSS feeds (how I follow your blog), yes to remembering that the internet is actually the links between sites and that the corporate walled gardens of social media that try to keep us trapped on their platforms by any means necessary (damn the psychological and social consequences) are places designed to trick us into thinking they are the internet and THEY. ARE. NOT. The internet is a wide open place and we donโt have to restrict ourselves to only four giant websites featuring screenshots of the other three.
Yes to all of this. I’m glad to know there are people who get it (and of course I’d find them in comments from RSS feeds). sigh. We are not alone (but definitely we’re a minority)
There are dozens of us! I am actually really encouraged by the recent expansion of the indie web/small web/smol web/web 1.5 movement. The Wonders of Web Weaving Podcast is an absolute delight if you’re looking for both inspiration and people/places outside of corporate social media to check out.
Hooray for RSS feeds. Wil, since I bailed on social media years ago for my own mental health, this is where I can keep up with you!
There are paragraphs and essays and even more that is unwritten and unwritable behind these two words, but for now I just wanted to say “Thank you!”
Hi Wil, I’m teaching my intro students about the concept of privilege (for a college first-year course “Speaking about Diversity” – could I share this post (with attribution) for my students? As someone with a different set of privileges than you have, it might be nice to hear it from someone like you. Thanks!
Of course! And thank you for being a teacher!
I am one of the hundreds of thousands that don’t see your posts anymore, but I DO read my email daily and I always read what you send out.
Thanks for you continued allyship, for you truth speaking and vulnerability, and you general disdain for all things right wing and shitty.
Stay pink Wil!
With love and appreciation from Canada
I am one of the hundreds of thousands that don’t see your posts anymore, but I DO read my email daily and I always read what you send out.
Thanks for you continued allyship, for you truth speaking and vulnerability, and you general disdain for all things right wing and shitty.
Stay pink Wil!
With love and appreciation from Canada
This is why I deleted Threads. I kept missing your content even as a follower. Keep these blgo posts coming!
I’ve been giving people the following advice when it comes to social media: post once, share everywhere. For you, Wil, focus on your blog. It emails out to everyone of us who subscribe. Share the posts on Threads, Mastadon, Bluesky, what-have-you, but point everyone back to your site. And to subscribing. Only then are you free from the algorithm’s capricious tyranny.
Yes, please. Share any old thing. Don’t feel pressure to polish up “content” – just… Talk to the people who’ve gathered in this space you’ve made. It helps me feel less alone too. It helps more than I can say to see reminders that other people are out there just getting one foot in front of the other each day, whatever that means for them. I appreciate the insights into your daily “walk”. When I get to read that others are having similar thoughts, and share my values (Trans rights! F*ck ICE!!) it feels like we get to walk together. Way less lonely.
I don’t even use Threads because it’s a part of Meta. No need to give that guy any more money or attention than he already has.
Seconding (thirding? is that a thing?) the request to keep on posting, even the small stuff. Especially the small stuff. The world would be a much poorer place if we all waited until we had something earth-shattering to say.
I enjoy reading your words (short or long) as much as I enjoy hearing you read others words. To heck with the algorithm- power to the people
Thank you Will. From another other. I will not stop
Believing that we will win back what has been stolen from us by people too rich to care.
Deleted my long comment before posting. Why do I treat others’ comment sections as if they’re my personal blog? Why do I so easily let the spark of another’s words trigger a disproportionate torrent of my own? Bleh.
“Trigger” may be the key word here. Wil, your words aren’t just a “Me too!” moment of shared introspection, but are also a “So THAT’S how you say it!” realization. Clarification. A needle of words that pops my unsaid balloon, releasing its content.
Thanks! Thanks for sharing, and for doing it so effectively and, at times, evocatively!
I really dislike people – both the general people described in your writing here and many of the individual people i come into contact with. But you are truly a gem, and a far away from ‘people’ as it gets. You’re just lovely. I feel incredibly glad and privileged that I found you and get to listen to your brain. Thank you for giving hope.
Iโm much more likely to read you here. Keep posting!
Shared over on Bluesky. I needed to hear it today.
Blogs are the way! RSS forever!
I second that. Trying to get my friends to drop freaking social media and go back to e-mail…. so far, zero success, but I let them know where I am if they want to say something (oh, and actual phone calls are great as well).
I did this five years ago when I left social media. Told all the people there how to find my blog, waited five days and deleted all my accounts. A few people followed me. I can’t get anyone currently to sign up for email notifications on my blog. It doesn’t matter because I am a writer, so I write, even if it’s only the void (and my 57 subscribers) listening.
I’ve been following will here via RSS since way back when his website was using typepad. I know I miss stuff he writes about on social media platforms, but I despise them too much to make an exception for Wil.
I thought I was the only one introduced to The Prisoner at an impressionable young age and being completely entranced by it, despite not entirely understand it back then (and, arguably, now). Clearly that’s not the case.
I see your posts via email far before Fookbase decides to show me them.
Slap that Like button! ๐
Have you looked into Mastodon, Wil? I know everyone talks about Bluesky and Threads, but they are part of the problem to me. Owned by big companies, with their boards and algorithms. On Masto, the people are the algorithm. Someone like you would be super visible there.
Thank you for speaking about being โotheredโ it made me feel seen and validated. I donโt see your posts on social media anymore but I read everything in your emails. When I get an email from you, I know itโs going to be a good day, a thoughtful day, one that makes me feel connected and valid. Thank you, always. You posts are one of mine glimmers.
Oh, I love that I gave you a glimmer!
It’s funny that your posts are being throttled, because a lot of what I see in my feed is only there because you commented on it.
I’m always happy to hear from you. I’ll ever go back to social media of any kind. Not in it’s current form.
The people I’d like to hear from, like you, know where to find me.
Wil: can you please send your emails in a larger font? I’m 73 and can barely read them.
Tap the title of the blog post in the email, so that it takes you to the website. You can set the font size to what you need using your browser. Safari for example has something called โreader viewโ, which uses bold white text on a black background.
– To find out how to do this if you donโt know, use the AI Gemini (google) search to help you.
Ask something like,
โHow do I make the font on my web browser easier to read? Is there a YouTube video that clearly demonstrates the steps needed?โ
I got so sick and tired of META earlier this year I closed my IGs and kept my FB only so I could continue modding a local group. Am still on TT for the time being but it’s easy to catch community violations for absolutely nothing. If I didn’t need it for my BPD community I’d be gone from there as well.
We miss you on BlueSky
Come to the Fediverse (Mastodon), we don’t have algorithms.
The Fediverse has made it crystal clear that I am unwelcome there.
I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware of that. And having just looked into it, I apologise for bringing it up.
Thanks, Wil. Your voice (literal and figurative) is one of my faves.
Wil, I’ve been following you here since a few months after you started this website. I don’t comment often, but I read your posts. I get notified via RSS and I know you post things here we all need to know. I’ll take this site over social media every day of the week.
Thanks for all you do and your support of everyone. Keep posting and I’ll keep reading.
Hi Will , thank you so much for writing always !
I have you in my RSS feed but I often forget it exists, so I usually see your posts on Tumblr. As for social sites, I will take the weird queer theater kid site over the aggrieved techie ‘now WE get to be the bullies!’ site any day of the week.
Yaahhh, I never got on threads and the only reason I am still on fb or Ig is because thats where my people are. I can barely get people to use Signal for texting. I got excited about substack but now f them for having no spine re: ws and yahtzees. I have been looking back to my days of WordPress and looking at how you do the bloggy thing. I look forward to these emails! Inspiring for me and I know others. Xoxo
Hi Wil, I want you to know I see nearly everything you post through my RSS reader. I’m not even on Therads.
I was fortunate enough to grow up at the end of analog age, where we still had tv antennas, vinyl records and AM only radios in cars. When I look at what a mess weโve made of the world since I would give anything to go back to the freedom of being anonymous, to Walter Cronkiteโs voice on the evening news, and politicians talking about the issues. But no time is ever perfect where people are involved. My time of innocence was anotherโs repression, sexism, racism and so on. To be honest, these days being shipped wrecked with a 1,000 miles of ocean between me and the next person sounds safe and oddly comforting.
Maybe today itโll happen
I love that you are going to just be posting here. I think that is part of the madness. They convince us that the only way to reach people is through their platforms. I recently left social media altogether, and I’ve been considering taking down my website. It is scraped constantly. I have interviewed several authors, and when I see their interviews being used as LLM food, it makes me rather ill.
I read all of your posts and enjoy them all, so my thanks to you is long overdue. Love your stories, humor, vulnerability, strength, courage, integrity, and talent. As both writer and actor. You are appreciated.
I appreciate your candor about mental health and the struggle to reach a target audience. I took a break for several years for my own mental health journey and I find it difficult to share my joy online when I have frequently experienced targeted attacks and hatred. I switched from making โgeekโ content and focused on American child marriage laws. Did you know the minimum age for marriage in Cali is zero?
Ab1267 would change the minimum age for marriage to 18 with no exceptions, but Gavin Newsome hasnโt signed it yet. ๐คข
Sometimes it feels overwhelming to think about how long the fight or struggle against some barbaric American norm has been, but I know we find the people who help us advocate for broader societal changes and eventually we win. Thanks for being loud about being you and helping so many find the courage to do the same. ๐ซ
Your episode of Sleeping with Celebrities was excellent. It did what the best eps of that podcast do – had me very interested in subject but also kept putting me to sleep (it took me 5 nights to get through it). And now I want to watch The Prisoner.
Iโm so glad youโre writing more here! Thank you for being you
Thank goodness for no-algorithm emails.
I was lucky enough to be raised by the most loving dad and grandma, but as someone who was a fat kid growing up, I definitely know the feeling of being othered. One night I went to a local gay bar that filled up with gay-friendly former theater kids on karaoke night because they had an amazing K-Jay and sound system. While I was talking to some people I had met, a trans woman came up looking pale and frightened. She had been outside having a cigarette and a guy started coming on to her, not taking no for an answer. She was terrified because she had walked to the bar since she lived a few blocks away and thought he might follow her home. I immediately offered her a ride home. I was a stranger, too, but I am a 5’2″ women, so far less scary than what might have been waiting outside alone.
It’s a really good idea for you to write your posts here as well instead of just putting them on Threads, but you still need to drop the posts on social media because it’s the easiest way for people to find you; here are the ones who already follow you, but on social media new people discover you every day.
Regarding your support as an ally, I wanted to tell you that precisely what you saidโabout how maybe they wouldn’t listen to them, but they would listen to youโis not just your thought, it’s 100% REAL… in fact, I used to discriminate a lot against the community until I read you, and I started seeing everything from another perspective, from the reality of what they were living, which wasn’t very different from what I’ve lived my whole life for being different from others.
In fact, I’ve been seeing a guy who is bisexual (something I never thought would happen), and he likes you, he says you’re very attractive! ๐ฅ
Reading you so deeply is what made me a better person, Wil, that’s why I pay attention to every single word you say, because you have the gift of being able to understand other people’s suffering and you support them as much as you can, and that is admirable. ๐๏ธ
About the Threads algorithm and all that, I left it right there on your Threads thread, I try to comment on everything to boost interactions, but I’m also scared of being annoying haha it’s a very complicated dilemma with myself! ๐
I loved The Glass City, I left my comments on Patreon as usual, I just didn’t comment on the interview, although maybe I should, AnaMaria did a wonderful job, and maybe it’s a good idea to congratulate her too! ๐
๐หหณยทห ึดึถึธ โ๐ทอโ ึดึถึธหยทหณห๐ ึดึถึธ
I ran into the same problem with Meta platforms (albeit on a much smaller scale than you ๐ ): far fewer interactions than there were followers. Even friends who followed my author’s page often said they didn’t even realize I’d posted on there, because Facebook never brought it up on their feed or notifications. Same with Instagram, and both have only gotten worse about that since I shut down my public pages. I miss just seeing a feed full of everything I followed with an occasional ad, instead of this mess of fifty suggested items and MAYBE one or two persons I’m actually following.
Funny that you mention realizing that blogging may be a better venue, because over the past couple months, I’ve been dipping back into the blogosphere and finding that I enjoy it more than Meta’s platforms, or even BlueSky (though that’s loads better than Meta). Once upon a time, I thought blogging was a dead art and only crusty holdouts like me were keeping it breathing, but no. Blogging is still very much alive, and there’s still a thriving community out there!
Maybe it’s time for a blogging renaissance? A…err, blogaissance? No, no, that’s rubbish, I’m never using that term again… But seriously, at least right now, it seems like a better way to connect to people.
RSS feed for the win. The rare times I am on Facebook, half of the things in my timeline have nothing to do with me. They are from some random company, person, or organization I don’t know. The hundreds of people and dozens of orgs I do follow? Crickets.
I just read your ADVOCATE interview and watched Frakes and Spiner’s podcast interview with you.
Each time I read or watch an interview, it remind this gay man with a disability why you are one of my favorite people ever. You’re a genuinely kind, sweet, fun, and down to earth guy. You have helped so many people in so many ways. You being open about going to therapy helped me not be afraid of seeking therapy when I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD (thanks a lot, adoptive family!). As a kid, you and the rest of the TNG cast were a part of my weekly escape. When I met you at a con a few years ago here in LA (I think it was LA COMIC CON), I had to hold back from bursting into tears of joy.
I do follow you and Anne on IG and Threads. I do see your posts. I enjoy reading them and Anne has even replied back to me a few times.
Thank you for continuing an ally of the LGBTQ+ community! Your allyship means a lot to us. If anyone needs an example of what a true ally should be, they should follow your example.
Oh, and, yes, you were one of my first celebrity crushes. I just don’t have the abs or look like a dad. And, speaking of dads, tell Frakes that many of us have a crush on him, too. ๐
Can’t beat good old RSS. I hear you here Wil