The Sherlockian social network

 As we watch another billionaire with a questionable agenda alter the status quo -- have a feeling this is the new norm -- those of us that had fun with Twitter are, quite naturally, looking for the next thing while monitoring the melting ice beneath us on the old thing.

The early adopters jumped on Mastodon soon enough, but Sherlockiana has not always been known for early adopters with a notable exception or two. Those who never even made it to Twitter are probably in all their Facebook glory these days, if the algorithm is letting them. But who knows? (That is the best motto for a lot of things these days: "Who knows?")

In any case, having lived in the pre-internet Sherlockian world, I have a certain faith in our connections. We all have enough e-mail and physical addresses of enough other Sherlockians who have e-mail and physical addresses that should all social media fall, we will find each other again. It might take a little more active participation in the process, but the connections are there.

Because Sherlockiana has always been a social network.

If Twitter does completely fall apart, we probably won't know who we've lost until they're gone, so hopefully everyone has made a few other connections since we've been playing on that site. And things never die quite as quickly as we expect them to . . . there could be a long, painful decline. And maybe a glorious alternative will come together, once all the ex-Twitter folks and investors come together. We shall see.

But we've still got Sherlockiana or Holmesiana or Watsoniana and all the connections we've made with whatever channel is available. And that's not going anywhere.