Notes for August 21, 2026

Subscriber rot

Subscriber rot is the idea that while you may have been interesting enough for someone to follow you at one point, they stop being a real set of eyeballs who might see your stuff when you post something. Maybe they muted you, maybe they don't read every single thing and your stuff falls through the cracks, or maybe they just don't use the service at all anymore.

I think about this a lot. I have a little over 3000 followers on Bluesky, but I suspect only 500 - 1000 are actual people who regularly hang out there. I know at least some of them are bots because I look at the profile of almost everyone who follows me and I'll get a handful of obviously fake/bot/spam accounts every couple of weeks.

I have 4,000 followers, but it doesn't feel like I do. Engagement on my posts is fine, but it seems focused on a smaller number of people. Interestingly, Mastodon has a page in settings where you can see all the accounts you follow and that follow you, and you can filter for a few things. There's a "dormant" account status that seems to trigger when someone does not use Mastodon for over 30 days. I enabled that filter and it returned 2,914 dormant accounts. Of those, 2,244 haven't been active in over a year.

I'd LOVE to see a feature like this on Bluesky. Even if I'm not going to unfollow every dormant account, it at least gives you some idea of your subscriber rot status.

I do like to keep following people even when I realize they haven't posted in months or even years sometimes. I do the same thing with my RSS feeds — sometimes a blog will go into hibernation for years and then one day you suddenly start seeing posts from them again. I've been known to deactivate my Bluesky account for weeks at a time every now and then, so I get it. Sometimes you just need to take a break. Or with blogs, there's always the possibility that you get burned out and simply stop indefinitely, like Forrest Gump when he was done running.

All the Things My New Meat Glasses Can Do

I’m so excited my new Meat Glasses have arrived in the mail. I unwrap them and turn them over. Wow, they’ve really done it. You can’t see the camera under the ground beef at all. In fact, they look like high-fashion glasses made of raw, Grade A ground sirloin. Still, Meat Glasses are so much more than that.

Sons of Anarchy Cast Reunites for Very Meta FX Limited Series Starring/Created by Charlie Hunnam

I watched this show religiously. I'm stoked to see a revival coming, but it's not what you would probably expect:

According to the official description, “When the cast of Sons of Anarchy reunites at a fan convention after more than a decade, the line between life and art blurs as the fractured brotherhood finds itself up against a real-world threat more dangerous than anything they ever faced in their show.

This is so on par for modern life. Big burly biker dudes aren't scary. They're just a bunch of hairy middle-aged guys being a menace to the flow of traffic with "Save a life! Watch out for bikers!" stickers on all of their other vehicles. And maybe they do some crime every now and again, but that's only scary if you're a rival gang motorcycle club member. I can only assume right now, but if you ask me, real-life terror comes in the form of delusional, ravenous fans who larp as MC members. Trust me. I lived in backwoods Ohio when Sons of Anarchy was still on the air and every dipshit weekend warrior with a pension, a fully paid-off mortgage, and a Hog had a SoA hoodie from Walmart and thought they were tough as nails. Still a solid upgrade from the standard "if you're reading this, the bitch fell off" tee.

Turnstile Recruit Elton John, Slayyyter, and Panda Bear for Never Enough Remake

Turnstile have “reimagined” last year’s Never Enough with an incredible array of guests, ranging from Elton John to Slayyyter and Panda Bear. Never Enough: Versions, out next Friday, August 28, also features a genre-spanning cadre of producers, singer-songwriters, rappers, and assorted pop and alternative powerhouses such as Four Tet, Oklou, Alex G, Hayley Williams, A. G. Cook, Blood Orange, Nourished by Time, Julien Baker, Floating Points, and Mustafa.

Dude FUCK yeah! This is like a mini The Wall: Live in Berlin moment for Turnstile. They have the soul of a 70s rock band while pioneering their own FX-heavy brand of hardcore music. The first time I ever saw these guys was at the Blink-182 reunion tour after Tom came back. I'd heard a couple of their songs from an old friend back in the day but I never got into them until I saw them live. You really gotta see it live to get it .

For real though. Instantly became one of my top five bands. Brendan's energy is fucking wild on stage, doing spin kicks and crowd surfing while cutting between screaming and spacey clean vocals... it's the most catchy hardcore band you'll ever hear. Just the fact that they were on a legend like Elton John's radar at all says enough about them, but actually recruiting him on the new re-imagining of their latest record is bonkers. Super stoked to hear it.

Watching TikTok and Instagram Reels Videos Deactivates the Brain’s Cognitive Control Network, Study Finds

Millions of people finish short video after short video every day; a new brain-scan study shows that the very act of finishing a clip they like temporarily quiets the brain regions that normally help them stay focused and weigh longer-term goals.

Everyone knows TikTok is bad for you. That's why I prefer text-based media over shortform videos 😎