I’m not going to defend my late exit from twitter. My profile picture was the little blue twitter bird since the day Musk took over. I felt it was beneficial knowing the enemy and trying to remain and block every ad Elon put up. We all make our own decisions.
Too many people feel they need to be attached to Xitter (rhymes with "Shitter") because they have professional connections there—my not being a part of it has meant a number of workarounds to stay in touch with writing groups and people in the screenwriting industry.
I remember hearing Leo Laporte refer to old Twitter as "The Internet's Dial Tone", and that's how a lot of "respectable" people treated it, as if the jumping jackass would somehow magically turn into a responsible leader. It no longer is and he never wanted it to be....
I left Twitter after Musk took over and my only announcement was to those who followed me and to thank them for doing so. I’m not anyone special so I appreciated the fact that they enjoyed my scribbling. FB way before that. Don’t do Threads very much, but Instagram for family though I haven’t posted in ages.
When I left, I was part of a product management community that formed early in the rise of twitter, and I was also part of a support group for LGBTQ folks (I have a sister who is gay, so I am very supportive) that I felt bad about abandoning.
But by March 2023, it had degraded so much it was clear that its future was bleak.
I never was able to rebuild that product management here on Substack, and that makes me sad.
I agree wholeheartedly .. I left Twitter ages ago. A complete waste of energy. Being able to find camaraderie and news with like minded people is important... and cant be found on Twitter. 🙄
The Lincoln Project people, Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell, George Conway, the rest of the Bulwark (except JVL, bless his heart!), all the people who write for The Dispatch - or in other words, the most famous of the Never-Trumpers seem to be the most reluctant to cut the cord. It’s like if they stay and fight they think they’ll win. When in reality, the longer they have normal people to fight with, the longer it will be before they start turning on each other. When your entire ethos is owning the libs and the rino cucks, if those people extricate themselves to other platforms, whatcha gonna do now, morons? We have all moved to Bluesky on which one can mass block all of them with the click of a button from a list that automatically blocks them if they’re added to that list. People that finally left Twitter are realizing how pleasant it is once they figure out how to use it, of course.
I deleted the Twitter app on my phone when Elon bought the company but kept my account active until the new block rules kicked into effect a few weeks ago when I finally shut it down completely (not a brag! 🤪). Using it only through safari on my phone was a completely deferent experience from what Elon is doing within the app. I had him blocked long before he bought twitter and that never changed for me, but people I’d blocked seeing me freaked me out.
Idk maybe everyone just needs to touch some grass for a few weeks.
I think that is a big part of it. But their continued patronage of the platform directly benefits and confers an air of officialdom to the platform, when it really is just 4-chan now.
I left when Musk made the bid for it.
I had no real presence but I didn't want any info in his hands.
On alternet I believe we used to call it a "Goodbye cruel world" post.
I’m not going to defend my late exit from twitter. My profile picture was the little blue twitter bird since the day Musk took over. I felt it was beneficial knowing the enemy and trying to remain and block every ad Elon put up. We all make our own decisions.
Too many people feel they need to be attached to Xitter (rhymes with "Shitter") because they have professional connections there—my not being a part of it has meant a number of workarounds to stay in touch with writing groups and people in the screenwriting industry.
I remember hearing Leo Laporte refer to old Twitter as "The Internet's Dial Tone", and that's how a lot of "respectable" people treated it, as if the jumping jackass would somehow magically turn into a responsible leader. It no longer is and he never wanted it to be....
I left Twitter after Musk took over and my only announcement was to those who followed me and to thank them for doing so. I’m not anyone special so I appreciated the fact that they enjoyed my scribbling. FB way before that. Don’t do Threads very much, but Instagram for family though I haven’t posted in ages.
I left many months ago - I wonder and worry about those people I came to care (some very much) about.
When I left, I was part of a product management community that formed early in the rise of twitter, and I was also part of a support group for LGBTQ folks (I have a sister who is gay, so I am very supportive) that I felt bad about abandoning.
But by March 2023, it had degraded so much it was clear that its future was bleak.
I never was able to rebuild that product management here on Substack, and that makes me sad.
Just found you here — what can I do?
Not trying to virtue signal, but I couldn’t figure out Twitter from the start so I’ve never had an account. 😬 Makes it so much easier to boycott.
Same here Lena, never had a Twitter account
Ditto
Right on!
Twitter. Where all the twits are!
I agree wholeheartedly .. I left Twitter ages ago. A complete waste of energy. Being able to find camaraderie and news with like minded people is important... and cant be found on Twitter. 🙄
To be fair, Martin Niemöller did leave us a screed. Just pretend he was on Xitter:
First they came for the immigrants
And I did not speak out
Because I was not an immigrant
Then they came for LGBT citizens
And I did not speak out
Because I was not crooked, but “straight“
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then the MAGAs came for me on X
And there was no one left
To speak out for me, because all the thinking people had left X a long fucking time ago
The last line is precious
Geoff, I am probably wrong but were you aiming for "priceless" as the last word?
Not sure anything I’ve done has been referred to as “precious” except for that Gollum costume.
I embellished it and reposted it. It can no longer be considered precious however. 😬
The Lincoln Project people, Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell, George Conway, the rest of the Bulwark (except JVL, bless his heart!), all the people who write for The Dispatch - or in other words, the most famous of the Never-Trumpers seem to be the most reluctant to cut the cord. It’s like if they stay and fight they think they’ll win. When in reality, the longer they have normal people to fight with, the longer it will be before they start turning on each other. When your entire ethos is owning the libs and the rino cucks, if those people extricate themselves to other platforms, whatcha gonna do now, morons? We have all moved to Bluesky on which one can mass block all of them with the click of a button from a list that automatically blocks them if they’re added to that list. People that finally left Twitter are realizing how pleasant it is once they figure out how to use it, of course.
They love to gripe about it, but it (Twitter) is that dopamine that they so crave.
But all the legacy media reporters are there as well, and just as hesitant.
I think it is muscle memory at this point, but why the FUCK do you give Musk your credibility?
I deleted the Twitter app on my phone when Elon bought the company but kept my account active until the new block rules kicked into effect a few weeks ago when I finally shut it down completely (not a brag! 🤪). Using it only through safari on my phone was a completely deferent experience from what Elon is doing within the app. I had him blocked long before he bought twitter and that never changed for me, but people I’d blocked seeing me freaked me out.
Idk maybe everyone just needs to touch some grass for a few weeks.
Threads and Substack are my only “vices.” Left Twitter months ago and whatever Facebook calls itself years ago.
Threads is addictive but without it I wouldn’t know that budding Gestapo man-boy Nick Fuentes got doxxed.
It’s fortunate the Germans gave us schadenfreude in addition to Nazis.
Come to Bluesky!!
I don’t know why the journalists and reporters are still there. Maybe they get their dopamine fix from all their thousands of Likes.
I think that is a big part of it. But their continued patronage of the platform directly benefits and confers an air of officialdom to the platform, when it really is just 4-chan now.
Oh, and good luck avoiding Amazon, probably 2/3 of the internet has some footprint in AWS (Amazon Web Services) including Substack.
I agree, sorta. They are doing this on their new platform, not on Twitter.
That makes me think it is them trying to gain support for their decision.