interviewing flirb's owner - "aloha, bitches!"

 hi people! i hope that you, whoever you might be, are doing well. before i show y'all my interview with Flirb's owner, here's some song recommendations!

Lorde - Man Of The Year

 it's just... wow. LE'TS HEAR IT FOR THE MAAAAN OF THE YEAR. 

Kikuo - Rainborn Menoko

 

the interview ₍ ᐢ.ˬ.ᐢ₎˚୨୧

BLUEPUFFIN — hi, I'm BluePuffin, and today i'm here with Vega, Flirb's owner and founder. Flirb is a revival of old Twitter, which has been gathering users over the course of time. firstly, what led you to create Flirb?

VEGA — hi! thanks for having me, wow okay um, to be fully honest i was kinda just sipping a red bull and got bored and looked at my old iphone 4 and thought "fuck i wish i could use twitter on this bitch" and i randomly decided to start working on a social media that replicated twitter's old 1.0 api, after that it evolved into me also doing 1.1 and then a web version for it, that's pretty much it

BLUEPUFFIN — wow, i expected anything but what you answered, lol! thank you for your efforts. by the way, people using iPhones sold nowadays can't use the Flirb app, because apks aren't downloadable. do you have any suggestion or workaround for iPhone users who would like to join Flirb?

 

VEGA — flirb has a web version optimized for old mobile devices which you can find at https://m.flirb.net, obviously this isn't really the most optimal way to use flirb on a modern iphone but sadly i can't really do anything about that, if you can jailbreak your iphone, do it honestly, it's really worth it and you probably won't regret it

BLUEPUFFIN — thank you for your advice! in my case, i tend to use https://web.flirb.net/ on my iPhone and it works well, but it isn't optimized for phones, it's just a way i find to use it. 
anyways, i'd like to say that Flirb is cool! but there's still room for improvement, of course. for example, replies and posts are mixed in the user's profile, and in the home feed. to make Flirb even better and user-friendly, what are features you plan to implement in Flirb in the future?

 

VEGA — honestly i am not quite sure what i could implement on flirb at this point, i'm open to user suggestions though, last night i implemented gifs using tenor links which was something that had been requested a lot

 

BLUEPUFFIN — i'm glad you're open to suggestions from users! after all, who knows more about what features there must be than the users themselves, right? 
okay, simple question: someone who posts on Youtube is a Youtuber, someone who posts on a blog is a blogger. someone who posts on Flirb is a?

 

VEGA — i guess flirber? i'm not sure honestly LOLL never really thought about it, posts are called flirbs so i guess users being called flirbers would make sense also 

 

BLUEPUFFIN — lol, alright! now, a bit more serious: people tend to get addicted to social media pretty easily. for a while, i was also a "victim" of social media addiction, being addicted to scrolling on TikTok and Instagram Reels. how do you believe Flirb should be used in a healthy way?

 

VEGA — definitely never overshare on flirb, as i feel like that's how you become really attached to a social media and become addicted to it, and also try to limit yourself to using it for only a certain time a day, i'll admit when it comes to social media i'm a bit of an addict myself, i love scrolling on tiktok before going to bed and stuff, so clearly even i am not immune to social media addiction, i do believe however that it's a good thing to limit yourself and make sure to never share really personal things, that's what personal diaries are for :)

 

BLUEPUFFIN — thank you! i'll also share that advice with myself. my blog tends to be really personal, but i must never let it be as personal and private as my physical personal diary, as there are limits. 
perhaps being unable to write anything anywhere is just something i hate, but there are people who hate on people for whatever reason, everywhere. Twitter, also known as X, has turned to be known as a safe haven for hate, racism and stuff of that kind ever since Elon Musk acquired it. do you believe Flirb could go down that road? as the owner of Flirb, at what point does the user expressing their thoughts go beyond what we call "freedom of speech"?

 

VEGA — violent behavior and hate speech is not allowed on flirb and it will never be allowed, freedom of speech comes with a compromise, and that compromise is your speech should never be violent to a minority such as the black community or the LGBT community, unless ownership changes and the new owner is a total dickhead, flirb will never allow such behavior, if you wanna go more in depth about what we consider to be "too far", i suggest you read the very short and simple guidelines at https://web.flirb.net/help/guidelines.php

 

BLUEPUFFIN — i read it now, and it seems to be perfect! I'm relieved that the barrier between free speech and hate is clear. random question, but nonetheless interesting: how would a hashtag enter the list "Trending Hashtags"?

 

VEGA — for a hashtag to become trending, 3 distinct users must post it in the span of 24 hours

 

BLUEPUFFIN — wow! i thought it was way harder! but, well, i guess it probably leaves the list after lack of use for a certain period of time, because then it would not be trending anymore.
to close it off, someone besides me and you is probably reading this right now. what do you have to say to them? you can invite them to Flirb, you can share a famous quote, you can send random letters: it's your choice!

 

VEGA — the only thing i have to say is, use flirb, that's all, aloha bitches

 

BLUEPUFFIN — Erm awkward silence i know i myself said "to close it off", but i actually have just one question more: do you have any plan for if you ever become unable to mantain Flirb?

 

VEGA — i'll probably beg for donations like a staff member from a certain msn revival honestly (ifykyk) but i guess if it really becomes bad i'll look for someone to fund the server or just give the project off to someone else completely

  

BLUEPUFFIN — LMAOAOAOAO
anyways, thank you for spending a bit of your valuable time being interviewed, and, really, for realiving old Twitter and for giving a new life to old phones! keep on going with your silly dreams, bye!

 

VEGA — you're welcome! thank you for interviewing me :)

 

 

i loved interviewing him!! it's nice to know people are keeping the "old web" alive, being creative, and everything. we must not lose our hope and creativity. may human art be loved for its passion, look and effort.
 
 by the way, do you remember reading "i'll probably beg for donations like a staff member from a certain msn revival" just now? well, the revival is called Escargot, and here is a testimony from one of their former staff: here. Escargot is fishy.
 
 bye y'all! love yourselves!! may empathy free us all <3