Notices by Abandoned America (abandonedamerica@mastodon.social)

I genuinely love a lot of people here. But I also haven't been posting much because of these two factors. In the few posts I did make, I mentioned dealing with grief over my mother's passing and someone thought that would be a good thing to make a meme about. Someone called the SS United States - which I actually care quite a bit about - a piece of garbage. Everything circles back to a Trump riff whether it has anything to do with him or not.

I'm tired folks. Make it stop.

Protip: Not every discussion on the Internet needs to be a springboard for amateur comedy freestyling, especially if the original poster is talking about something important to them. Likewise, not every post needs to inevitably turn into a platform for comments about Trump. I get it, I know it's mostly well-intentioned, but boy howdy does it make sharing my work a grind, and I need to make some decisions about whether I'm going to keep posting or just start blocking people

World's largest on-the-nose metaphor the 990-ft long abandoned ocean liner SS United States is being towed to its final resting place at the bottom of the ocean off the Florida coast after decades languishing at a port in Philadelphia.

RIP, old friend.
https://www.abandonedamerica.us/ss-united-states

The SS United States, the fastest liner ever built and the largest built on US soil, was at long last towed from Philadelphia yesterday to be sunk as an artificial reef. To see what it looked like in its final years and learn its story, visit Abandoned America https://www.abandonedamerica.us/ss-united-states

@_elena thank you, Elena. Some nights I'm better with it than others ❤️

It's really weird how someone can spend over twenty years documenting loss but yet still be so blindsided by it when it finds them.

There's no joy in watching a bunch of oligarchs bicker over how to carve up the turkey when you are the turkey.

The legendary Blue Horizon boxing arena in Philadelphia, abandoned after the decline of the sports' popularity. Despite failed efforts to turn it into a community center, it appears doomed to be demolished so a trendy hotel can be built instead.

More at https://www.abandonedamerica.us/blue-horizon-boxing-philadelphia

The abandoned Variety Theatre in Cleveland

See the rest: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/variety-theatre

The dilapidated ruins of the Chemung Mine in Masonic, CA were abandoned in 1938 when gold and silver mining ceased. See the rest: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/chemung-mine

Fall at an abandoned state hospital

More at https://www.abandonedamerica.us/revisiting-hudson-river-state-hospital

I probably don't need to explain why fake accounts and bots are bad, but I'm going to anyway: spam and scams are the biggest threat they pose.

They also make it hard to determine accurate metrics and as much as I hate to say it, metrics are important if your account is part of your business.

Thankfully, there's no algorithm here, so a bunch of bot followers aren't going to consign posts to oblivion by not interacting, but they still take the fun out of a platform really fast.

I'm just going to throw this out there: I have been getting a ton of new follows, and a lot of them appear to be bots and fake accounts.

I think we can mostly agree that bots and fake accounts are not a great thing for the majority of people in the Fediverse who aren't looking to artificially inflate follower counts - a process that really isn't beneficial to anyone who wants actual authentic engagement - and I'm concerned that this will eventually lead to the sort of spam plaguing Facebook.

The magic of the Fediverse - at least, to me - is the Olde Internet feel. It still feels authentic, not entirely polished, held together with duct tape and the combined love of a bunch of nerds who care for, maintain, and interact with it. That's not an insult, it is very much a compliment and what I love about it here. I really hope that a flood of fake accounts aren't getting into position to mess that up. Maybe I'm being alarmist. But I see what I see re: new accounts. It worries me.

A staircase in the abandoned Frankford Arsenal, one of the oldest and most significant munition production and storage facilities in the US.

Explore the rest: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/frankford-arsenal

The abandoned Pittsburgh Post-Gazatte building, which closed when production of the newspaper was cut back and shifted to the suburbs. Many workers lost their jobs in the process.

See the rest: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/the-pittsburgh-post-gazette

The remains of a Roman Catholic church in Philadelphia during demolition

See the rest at https://www.abandonedamerica.us/st-bonaventure

Fun fact: All the ghosts Luigi vacuums up in the haunted mansion are insurance executives too

I sure do love this gentle little Charlie dog

The remains of the defunct Presidents Park: a series of 20-foot tall busts of US presidents left forgotten and decaying in a field.

Read the story here: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/the-president-heads