Some days, it seems like the least objectionable things you say are the most likely to get you blocked on Twitter. Tell someone their mother was a hamster, and their father smelled of elderberries, and all you get is a pause, usually followed by an LOL. Yeah, you’re right, man.

But tell someone the sky is blue or the grass is green… and the Twitterverse will rise up against you.

I started this morning by being blocked.

For suggesting that writers in television and movies are really not all that powerful.

I had no idea there was any tiny corner of the universe where this was not an accepted fact, but there you have it.

Well, I suppose I can count myself lucky I didn’t get to the part where replacing the “original” writers after a show becomes successful is common practice.

Since I’m in no way qualified to offer “tips” we’ll call these observations.

1.) Follow back, but not immediately. I lag a couple of days behind. It gives the people who were just following me to get me to follow them the opportunity to unfollow me, before I wind up with a feed full of advertisements.

2.) Lists. I have a couple. Lists for people I know from other places. People who have Patreons. These are named in such a way that people know why they’re on the list. How do I use them? Well, when I’m thinking of it, they make it easier to communicate with those people, even if I’m not generally on line at the same time they are. The Patreon list? Well… I’m observing. What are people doing? What works, and what doesn’t?

3.) Conversation: Talk to people. Some of them are relatively non-scary. The internet is the largest gathering of writers (or any other special interest group) in the world. It’s worth it.

4.) Blocking and Muting (users). Go ahead and block or mute whoever you want. Even me, if **sob** you feel like it. You should absolutely do what makes your experience one you want to have. But there is a difference. Blocking hides your tweets from them, and their tweets from you. It also forces both of you to unfollow the other. Muting is a less extreme option. It keeps their tweets out of your timeline, and they never know. I tend to block people who are abusive to me or others, and mute people who are annoying, or tend to advertise more than they interact.

The flip side of this is not to worry about it too much, when someone blocks you. (You won’t know about it, if they just mute you.) (If everyone is suddenly blocking you, make sure your account hasn’t been hacked, and change your password.)

5.) Muting (Conversations.) You can also mute a conversation rather than a user. Because sometimes, conversations get just too big to follow, and you’ve already faded out of them, anyway.

6.) Reporting a user/tweet From time to time, you run into someone who may be a danger to themselves or others, and you are not equipped to handle this. (You may not know real names, much less locations.) There is a report function. Use it.

I may have more to say later, but for now… that’s all.