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[Thread] I'd like to celebrate the announcement of the official impeachment inquiry by pulling out the first thread I ever posted in August, 2017, and adding a few behind-the-scenes anecdotes for your entertainment. I stand by every word of that thread today
I wasn't one of the first true OG AltGov accounts like @BadHombreNPS & @RogueNASA. Several of us were vetted in August 2017 & I wound up joining along with my #AltGov Anniversarymates, @AngrierWHStaff & @DeepStateRogue
I had decided I wanted to join the growing movement, and the day I saw @AngrierWHStaff and @DeepStateRogue got added to the verified AltGov list, I reached out to them to introduce myself and ask what the process was
They referred me to the right people, and by the end of the day I had verified my identity, background checks had been run, they polled the existing AltGov members to see if they'd take me, and they'd accepted me as one of them, on a probationary basis until they got to know me
I think at that time my follower count was still in the low double digits. I asked some of the OG accounts for advice on how to start attracting followers. For the most part, the advice was "be patient"
There were a number of massive accounts, but many were in the range of 2,000 - 5,000 followers, and they said it just took time for people to find you through interaction, and to grow a follower base
Over the first couple days, some of the other AltGov accounts introduced me, and I suddenly found myself with a couple hundred followers, which was amazing to me
I wrote the introductory thread that I linked above while sitting at my fiancee's house just before going out for a nice dinner. As dinner was starting, my phone started buzzing occasionally in my pocket. After a while, I took it out and set it off to the side of the table
I left it there when I excused myself to use the restroom. When I came back, my fiancee had an odd look on her face and stared at me. "WHAT. Did. You. DO?!" I had no idea what she was talking about, then I noticed my phone. It was buzzing. And DID NOT STOP
The screen was full of "[Person] Followed You" notifications scrolling nonstop faster than we could read them. I said as innocently as I could, "I just posted a few tweets"
It didn't take me long to mute the Twitter notifications. I averaged one new follower every 3 seconds for the next 11 hours straight, and had added over 10,000 followers by that time the next day
As floored as I was, I think it caught some of my new friends by surprise just as much. Rocks greeted me the next time I popped into one of the group DMs, "What the F**K, Scales?!"
It was quite the intro to the AltGov world. Over the last couple years, it really has grown into #AltFam, and I consider many of the other AltGov accounts to be close friends. Quite a few of us meet up occasionally in person, and every single time has been an absolute blast
They all help to keep me sane(ish) & I am so thankful for their friendship. In these bizarre times, that's more important than ever. And I hope that we collectively help to give information, insight, hope, & humor to all of you. (Some Alts with more profanity & snark than others)
I know it can get overwhelming at times, and there have been a lot of difficult days. There will be more. We're a long way from any kind of resolution and real recovery. But we're taking very significant steps in that direction
Don't give up hope. We are better than what @realDonaldTrump and his #MAGA base have been showing the world. We are better as a country than that. Things will get better. That's a promise. [END]
