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I have finally stopped answering comments on FB, which is much better for my health. Of course, it leaves me with no social interaction at all, but also of course, interacting with jackasses is bad for the blood pressure. Also depression: it's hard to believe anti-maskers are a minority when there's so many of them and they talk so very loud. This is why I should wean me off FB entirely, especially as FB likes to hide posts from the people I actually want to read.

Taking a break from Nero Wolfe with Dorothy Gilman. Horndog Archie is getting on my nerves. Maybe I *should* reread some Brust. Vlad ma be an assassin but he's a nicer person than either Nero or Archie.

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I’ve been having a Melissa Scott binge lately… speaking of Brust, have you read his The Baron of Magister Valley? Direct homage to Monte Cristo.

I'm tempted to binge Astreiant, actually. Such a nice genial world.

Hadn't even heard of it. Is it pastiche as well? The fact that he wrote five Paarfis suggests that the ornate style was something of a relief from the wise-acre idiom of Vlad.

Yes, definitely Dumas pastiche. I’m not quite as fond of the characters as I am of the Khaavren/Paarfi ones, but still very enjoyable.

I follow Melissa Scott on Patreon too, and she regularly posts Astreiant short pieces there, which keeps me going while I wait for the next Point book.

Well, Monte Cristo is less cheerful a book than 3 Musketeers.

I'm hoping Scott will publish her Astreiant snippets in a collection some day. I keep them in an email folder that's getting a bit full. Not to mention ease of finding and rereading individual items.

The way you get FB to show you posts from the people you actually want to read is to comment on their posts.

That's the way the FB algorithm is set up.

So a simple 'like' doesn't work?

Someone who works at FB actually explained this to me once. 😀

As I recall, FB's algorithm works through engagement. Thus an angry emoticon—😡—signals more engagement than a "like," and a comment signals more engagement than an emoticon.

FB will show you posts from the people with whom you engage the most.

Except it won't show me posts from people I want to engage with. Oh well. Go through my friends list and find those posts, I guess. Then maybe...

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