It’s a Friday, and I think it might be time for another Kipper Waffle (Patent Pending)!

Don’t worry, I’m not sticking my oar into whether or not we should have ladies in the ranks of Space Marines!

What I did think might be interesting is a quick discussion about hash tags and groups on Twitter. I keep hearing lots of claims about various hobby groups, and I thought it was worth addressing. And I get to waffle about my time here on Twitter, so total bonus.

One of the main tags for people playing wargames and painting little models has been the #warmongers. It dates back a fair old while now! It was set up to be a simple way of sharing hobby content and questions here on Twitter without indicating a link to any one company or game.

Tags, as everyone knows already, gives an easy way to look for types content across accounts that you don’t actively follow. Have a hobby question? Want to show off a model? Tag it with the #warmongers tag to make it easy to find.

Generally the #warmongers tag has been brilliantly successful. Once in a while you get a random political tag of some event accusing people of really being warmongers, but it’s pretty rare and hasn’t really been a problem. Masses of people use it! It’s been great!

Along with the #Warmongers tag, we used 3 other common tags. #MiniatureMonday for finished models (we really like alliteration), #WIPWednesday for stuff we’re working on, and #FollowFriday to recommend other Twitter accounts to follow.

Generally we posted actually on the day too! It always helped starting the work week with a massive hit of gorgeous pretty miniatures. Cracking stuff.

Now, let’s be clear. Anyone who posted a hobby tweet with the tag #warmongers was a fellow hobbyist. Anyone checking the tag on Twitter can reply (within the confines of individual blocks or muting, so people can still preserve their own timelines).

There’s no mechanism for anyone to control that content. There’s no way for me to stop anyone else posting their own hobby stuff up. There’s no way for me to stop people replying to other peoples posts. I can block people to stop them interacting with me.

I can’t stop anyone acting with anyone other than me. I suppose I could put a tweet up saying “don’t interact with X”. But no one has to follow that advice. No one has to listen to me at all, and I’m perpetually bewildered anyone does.

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about the “elite” of the #warmongers. How the elite don’t approve of X. How the “main” warmongers don’t interact with new hobbyists. How the “elite” warmongers only recommend each other when it comes to FollowFriday recommendations.

If I was the sort to use that annoying clap emoji, I’d use it here. It’s just a tag to share hobby content. There’s no hierarchy when you search for a tag. There’s no way to block content for others.

No one has to like your content. No one has to interact with your content. No one can stop you sharing it. No one can stop others liking it.

We all use Twitter differently. The #warmongers tag is a way to cut across that to share hobby content. That’s it.

People choose who they follow in their main timeline. Some people don’t follow many others. Some people are more or less active. I do interact more with those I’ve grown to be friends with in RL or shared online projects with. That’s natural, though I love talking to any hobbyist

But every time I check the general tag, I bypass all my normal timeline. You can’t really be “elite”. Which, given my love of the classic computer game, is a bit sad - I’m mostly harmless at best.

There are some new tags creeping into use, and that’s absolutely fine. Unsurprisingly, Games Workshop prefer using a tag to share just their own minis, games and hobby content with the #WarhammerCommunity hashtag.

If you just do GW stuff, it’s great! You might get your Warhammer minis mentioned on the Warhammer TV channels!

I find that because the GW team are so interactive, people don’t interact with each other directly with this hashtag as much as to interact with the GW community team

I’ve seen a #warmaidens tag, which is used to highlight and share content from the fantastic ladies in the mini painting community. It’s a great use of a tag. While I love checking it, it’s not really for me to use unless I’m showing off the minis my girls are painting though!

There’s a #warwardens tag which was set up as an alternative to the #warmongers tag, though I mostly see it used at the same time rather than separately. It’s for the same original goal as #warmongers, but with a smaller community right now, it can feel more immediate and vibrant

There’a a whole slew of different small communities using Twitter around Patreons or YouTube channels that use their own tags too. And they all have their own style and type of content. It’s all great!

I’m personally very excited that the hobby community is big enough on Twitter now to see some fragmentation. Ten years ago, just finding hobbyists was hard. Now there’s so many here we can feel ignored in the masses of fellow painters and gamers. Wow!

Just to finish off, I thought I’d explain my personal approach to Twitter. I use it for hobby. I keep my feed pretty much hobby focussed. If someone follows me and there’s a lot of hobby stuff in their timeline, I’ll generally follow back!

There are people who post a lot of other stuff I’m not interested in as well as some hobby. That’s where tags like #warmongers come in brilliantly. I might not follow them, as I just want to see little minis. But I can see the cracking hobby bits when I check the tags.

And though I’d like to say everything is bunnies and rainbows, there are some damn unpleasant people on Twitter who like painting minis, but hate other people based on sexuality, gender or race. In those cases, I block them so I never interact with them even through tags.

For me personally, I’m here to interact with people, so generally I don’t follow people who aren’t interested in interacting with me too, with the exception of things like official company accounts.

I’m not being elitist when I unfollow a new face. If they aren’t interested in interacting with me, I’d rather follow someone who is. I’d just rather chat with a brand new hobbyist who’s interested in what I’m doing as well, than in just seeing a golden demon winner showing off

That’s just how I choose to use Twitter. There’s no wrong way. Following a tiny number of accounts from friends and brilliant painters to see everything they do, or getting a feed from loads of enthusiastic hobbyists? Entirely a matter of taste.

But the whole point of tags is to bypass all the different styles of use and let hobbyists interact freely in a level playing field. That’s why I’ve loved the #warmongers since I was first introduced to them. It’s brilliant, and accessible.

I think this is an epic waffle, even by my standards! But I hope it helps people understand how I use Twitter, and how I see tags enhancing that experience. I think it can be fantastic, and allow so many people to interact. Hobby shared is amazing! Let’s all do more! Huzzah!

On with normal service, dribbling over minis, wishing I could get a game in, and occasionally putting a brush to mini! Huzzah!!! Hobby!!!