@Chang31ing It's not as bad as it used to be, but I know what you mean. The design puts more of the function on the user to configure instead of relying on that centrally.
However not seeing promotion content every two posts, no ads, no endless scrolling, makes it worth it to me.
@Chang31ing I've hosted my own mastodon and will build that up. It is kinda starting over, but over time more people can use that to follow me.
Otherwise it's pretty much YouTube. I'm hopeful more sites federise so I can follow people from other sites.
@CrusaderPony What I found that makes this easier is if you take your expenses, and cut them in half. Each check will account for each half. What you will find is after the first or second half is accounted for you will have some money leftover for whatever you want.
I can give you examples.
Every time I see a promoted tweet I block it. Do it long enough and it actually clears this site up a fair amount. A little more tolerable, but we all know this site feels worse than it used to.