31 Comments

Perhaps there should be a category called "Have never used Twitter", so you can tell whether people have dropped it.

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That would include me.

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Charles, I really enjoy your mind. I always learn from your articles and you stimulate new ideas. I have subjects for articles that I'd like to discuss with you. Would you send me a message with your phone number to my B.E.A.C.H.E.S. email account at execdir@beachesfoundation.org BTW, I've never used Twitter and rarely use Facebook. I just don't have the time for chit chat. I do enjoy learning from intelligent podcasts by naturists and others on different subjects.

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Shirley, the email address you provided was undeliverable because it was "blocked". If you have another email address that will work, I suggest sending it to me via message on Facebook (we're "friends"), or I could just respond directly on FB,

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That’s weird. Try my EXDIRBEACHES@aol.com.

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Sent again to AOL. Appears to have worked.

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I deleted Twitter from my phone shortly after it was acquired by Musk. I read very occasionally there. The atmosphere there has before toxic.

Agreed with your assessment on Meta. Meta is also full of creeps who too often get away with behavuour even in closed groups. I find Reddit to be hit and miss. I don't have an opinion on the fediverse at this time. Threads usage has continued to decline.

Substack has been a bright light in all of this. It's nice to see the different vibes and how people support each other.

Somebody should likely make a journey map and points of optimizing for different naturist needs. ie "new and learning", "seeking connections", "activist", etc. Different tools for different purposes.

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That "journey map" idea sounds interesting. What, concretely, would it involve? Something online that people could contribute personal stories or advice to?

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I used to hang out on Twitter/X for a few minutes every day just to what what my friends were up to. I'd link to my posts from there. Now I hardly go. Not even bookmarked. It has nothing to do with Musk's eccentricities or the influx of QANON and MAGA crazies. I don't deal with those people and don't bother with their content. It is just not an interesting platform.

I use FB for close friends and family and a half dozen low post-rate groups. I don't Insta or Ticktok or any of those short form social media. There is so little of interest compared to tons of drek, it is boring. Of all the social media I spend most of the time on YouTube. Some channels consistently crank out superior stuff. Naturist stuff sometimes gets demonetized or kicked off just for the topic, even if no nudity is shown. So I don't use it for that purpose. I use Vimeo instead. Example:

https://vimeo.com/839931176

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One issue with Twitter is 'shadow ban'. Even a widely respected naturist as Linda Weber is shadow banned by X.

And it is impossible to find out why certain accounts are banned.

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One more reason, of many, to find better online places for naturists to get together. We should try to find the best places - and make sure other naturist know about and use them. It would be a big help if national organizations (AANR and TNSF in the U.S.) regularly provided information about the best online places to discuss naturism with others.

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I think with NaturistHub.com AANR has taken a good step. There is only not a lot of activity on that site (in my opinion).

What makes Twitter interesting for people like me is to educate people outside our bubble about what naturism is.

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Yes they have.

Almost two years after our account was been "shadow ban" we still don´t get previous visualizations.

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I've had a few Twitter accounts - 5, I think - because Twitter is so toxic I keep leaving. I was a very open naturist with 2 of them, but quit because of gay guys commenting or contacting me. All my Facebook friends who pay attention know that I'm a naturist because I talk about it openly and post photos every now and then that show me obviously but not blatantly naked - except when I'm in a lake or waterfall when it's blatant. It's interesting that skinnydipping is so widely accepted but other activities aren't - in my case, wilderness hiking is my passion. I only follow one naturist group on Facebook (NTL), and now one on the Twitter account I just opened a couple of weeks ago (you).

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I think the best kinds of naturist photography are people enjoying typical naturist activities - swimming, hiking, conversing with each other, etc. However, standing or posing naked for the camera may give non-naturists the wrong impression: that naturism is just about showing off naked bodies. Naturism is about being "natural" and that's what depictions of nudity should involve.

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Indeed - so many photos show exhibitionists, not naturists or even nudists.

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Since Elon took over Twitter I have been off it. He is hostile to humanity in general. I tend to use Mewe, active on the SXM site (Saint Maarten = SXM), which sprang from the SXM Site on Facebook. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances there, go there occasionally and have stayed at Rersidence Adam & Eve, Sailed nude with Cap'n Alan and his Lovely Wife (And First Rate First Mate) Caroline. Lot's of awesome people there. https://mewe.com/richardedwards/posts for MEWE......https://appalachianudist.tumblr.com/ on Tumblr

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Excellent article

In fact, Twitter is the most friendly social network for naturism.

Of course, you need to filter a lot, but in a short time you can follow interesting publications.

On the other hand, we cannot forget that photography is the most powerful tool for promoting naturism.

And open to everyone, only Twitter allows you to promote naturists without censorship.

We use an independent blog on our server, but care and censorship is still necessary to avoid being classified as content for adults.

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I joined Twitter (my first and only social medium, I've never been on Facebook, Instagram or any others) in 2017 for breaking news purposes, not even thinking about naturism. I was astounded by the quantity and quality of naturist content I stumbled upon by accident as the months went by. Twitter (I'm not ready to call it X yet) became an invaluable naturism resource for me. I have learned so much from accounts like @nakedwanderings, @OurNaturistLife, @nakedfreestyler, @TrueBlueNude and @_free_to_be_me (Holly, I think my first naturist follow), just to name five of many. For example, I didn't even know naked hiking was a thing until I read about it on Twitter. I'm among the many who wish Twitter had never been sold to Elon Musk but I really hope people can stick with it a while longer because there really is no alternative medium that has the reach Twitter has. If it fails, I will miss it terribly.

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While the current owner of Twitter is a big problem, the site is still valuable for naturists. The accounts you mention are very good. Apparently there's lots of rants and misinformation now, but I guess I don't see them because the algorithms mostly show me naturist stuff.

I am wondering how a naturist new to the site would find the good accounts like you did. How did you find them? Anyhow, I think it's still valuable for naturism... since the alternatives mostly have problems of their own - just because they're much less known.

Looks like you're enjoying Twitter a lot, and that's fine.

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Have committed our social media to the Fediverse and will lock and suspend or delete our accounts on the platform formally known as Twitter (it used to be the preferred platform) as it has become a cesspool of hate and fake nudist accounts there only for the opportunity to share and collect naked photos.Naturism is so much more than that.

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Life's just a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff. Naturism's the wheat in this case. It's probably too soon to give up on Twitter completely.

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"Twitter in general has changed for the worse in the past year."

If you mean Twitter is no longer censored by government (FBI) to eliminate posts from conservative opinions that provide alternatives perspectives from the "official" leftist narrative, then you are right. Free speech and freedom from government (FBI) censorship is much BETTER in my opinion. Twitter, now X, is a much more robust and open forum than Meta or any other social media. And, X allows nudity.

I read X every day, re-post or share posts of nudists, and post my own nude selfies every day to promote nudity as a common human condition. Nudist groups on Facebook (Meta) have mostly been censored and deleted from the forum by censorship.

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What's the evidence for the FBI "censoring" Twitter?

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Elon Musk acquired the Twitter employees and records when he bought the company. Elon Musk has published the records and provided evidence to Congress. The FBI has frequently been publicly chastised in Congressional hearings.

That has become common knowledge outside of the heavily censored (bubble) media.

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"If usage of Twitter continues to decline,"

Total usage of X is way UP since it no longer censors and bans half of Americans. Some of the live feeds have exceeded their user capacity. Freedom of speech is beneficial for everyone except, perhaps, those who prefer to live in a bubble.

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"Bans half or Americans"? Such as who?

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Such as myself, President Trump, and everyone who posted anything that disagreed with the leftist/Democrat narrative.

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Like many, I got rid of Twitter over a year ago. Simply put, it just got too weird. What was simply a content vehicle, became controversial in its own right. Plus, I felt like the content got worse and worse. I had to lock down my account to avoid the incessant porn bots. Unfortunately, locked accounts are often times viewed with skepticism. So, there’s that. Also, many of the accounts I liked posted less and less. The ones I was less fond of seemed to post more, but increasingly in an effort to get me to join some kind of a pay site. It just ended up being work. I just don’t need that in my life. So, I said adios Twitter. Haven’t missed it at all.

Substack is all I have now as far as naturist accounts, and that’s more than fine with me. I find the subscription accounts tedious. Any post labeled “preview” is a guarantee skip for me. Fortunately, there are some good open/free accounts out there, plus some blogs. Other than that, social media and naturism don’t connect much for me anymore.

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For some reason or other, I've not experienced porn bots here, but perhaps I just didn't recognize any that came along. The increasingly fewer interesting naturists posting here was the basic point of this article. "Where have all the flowers gone? Long time ago"

I think that newsletters about naturism that expect readers to pay to read them are missing the point. Many newsletters other than naturist ones actually have useful news and information, or sometimes worthwhile opinions. It's reasonable that writers who put a lot of effort into producing that sort of content deserve to get paid.

But there are actually very few naturist newsletters on Substack. And the purpose of some of them - including this one - is to discuss ways to promote naturism and brainstorm new and effective ways to do that. Charging readers for reading defeats the whole purpose. Why shoot ourselves in the foot? Personally, I need there to be more naturist places and naturists to socialize with instead of having a little extra income.

I mean, when one goes to a nude beach or naturist park, does it make any sense to be paid for doing that? Of course not. The reward isn't money. It's instead the experience of interacting with other naturists, and learning more about them and naturism itself. Same thing when the interaction is in cyberspace.

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I no longer use X, formally known as Twitter.

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