Or maybe you're so used to posting on a platform that's bad to hold a conversation on you don't notice when you're part of one on a platform that is good at being conversational on.
If you stick to the apps that are indicated as being well supported it's good. The main reason I use it is because I'm part of a team that includes people not comfortable with the command line so having a web interface to manage a server means not everything falls on my shoulders.
The blog style format (post + threaded comments) is a lot more inviting to a conversational style than microblogging. Some Masto instances have very open post character counts but some are much more limiting - as are Bluesky and Xitter. If you're not able to explain your point clearly it hampers the ability to have a decent conversation about it.
The only way the US could return to a viable closed economy is if the world jumped into a time machine and went back to the 80s.
Over here in the UK, whilst Brexit is an absolute clusterfuck and was always going to be, it was never the plan of even the most Faragian of people to enact a closed economy.
I don't think any Westernised economy could successfully run a completely enclosed economy anymore.
I fully support the autonomous right of all people to make informed decisions about their own lives and on paper the idea is a no-brainer.
But unless the legislation surrounding it is very, very tight it could easily be misused or abused. We already live in societies where people with disabilities - particularly learning based disabilities - are seen as having less value. I have overheard conversations where people pass comment on people with disabilities such as "Can't be much of a life", "would've been better for them if they'd died at birth" etc etc.
Amongst the first group of people the Nazi's targeted were people with disabilities that they referred to as 'useless eaters' and subhuman.
I'm not suggesting that laws allowing self-euthanasia are akin to fascism so don't Godwin me. All I'm saying is that without very strong legislation and a lot of checks, laws like this can be used to justify a lot of things.
What I'd really like is LibreWolf level privacy protection whilst the browser is running but that allows me to retain cache, history etc but also encrypts everything locally when the browser is closed and is password protected and only decrypts everything when the password is entered.
a list of the people I subscribe to, to quickly view their content
One of the left side (on a desktop browser) menu headings is 'Lists'. Click that, create a new one called whatever you like. You can then add people to that list.
Not quite the same thing but close - and more discerning maybe. There's also a 'following' header which is literally exactly what you're after.
The people leaving Twitter right now want Twitter minus Elon. That's Bluesky. They've heard a couple of their Twitter follows mention it and they've gone to their app store where they find an app called Bluesky, install it and easily join and start using it. Once they do they are finding it pretty straightforward to find people they used to follow on Twitter.
Yeah, we broke away from TST in around 2018. Too centralised, too controlling, with concerning owners. We also have a couple of US Orders these days (Steel City in Pittsburgh and House of Heretics in Seattle).
A mug on a plate is not interchangeable, conceptually, with a teacup and saucer. Even ones decorated in a rather fetching Wedgewood-esque style.