The news that Twitter may just fade away is troubling. Starting on Friday, October 29, when the buyout ultimately happens, when the buyout went through the results could be disastrous. Letting Trump back on is just the tip of the iceberg. A 75% staff cut would trigger service cuts, reliability issues, moderation problems, and increased spam and troll activity.
I’ve come to rely on Twitter for breaking news. Of course, not everything I see on it is going to be true. Much is speculation and rumor. But it’s a good starting point because important events often show up there first. I’ll use this post to try and track changes as I see them in real time.
The sample list of 27 accounts is below, newer updates are up top.
December 16
I notice that the “Tweet of God” account hasn’t been deleted, but the Almighty announced that he’s not tweeting anymore, and has moved to –>
Now that’s actually a Mastodon link. Which I guess from Twitter’s POV is unsafe. For business.
Hey, if God wanted to smite my browser with spyware he’d just do it.
I’m moving over here, to Mastodon.
December 14
One of the 27 accounts has folded. Somehow I now have 115 followers, but I’ll wager most of them are spammy.
November 13
Still tracking, My followers have gone down by one, to 110. I never put much stock in followers as something meaningful in any kind of real-life absolute number way, since they have a tendency to be pornbots. However if they go up or down that’s an indication of something. I know that just in the last few days my wife has cancelled her account, so that would account for the one. My next door neighbor (whom I don’t think I was following, because all his good stuff goes onto Facebook) cancelled also.
November 8
I can’t even think about this. One, I’ve got COVID; but also some personal friends have left Twitter. Folks are talking about other platforms, such as Mastodon. But do I really need Twitter kind of functionality when I’ve got an actual blog with 16 years’ of posts?
But I’m down to 111 followers. All of my 27 examples are still active, but today is election day — we’ll see what happens tomorrow.
Twitter has been an important news source, as I mentioned. Trust-and-verify and all that, but it’s a good place to star when you see a blue checkbox. If a blue checkbox really and truly means somebody paid $8 for the privilege, I’m definitely outtahere.
November 2
Reports of followers and followees mysteriously vanishing. Spam, racisms, disinfo. The accounts I follow are down by 1, to 292. I still have 113 followers, but I’m small potatoes so it will be a while before I see a bump there.
November 1
Charlie Warzel has a great piece on The Atlantic Monthly’s Galaxy Brain, “Welcome to Geriatric Social Media.” Maybe I’m naive, but I hope he’s right in that social media has hit an endpoint. I’m glad I’ve kept this blog going throughout the era, and you know…I should be putting more stuff up here more regularly.
The follower/followed numbers are unchanged. My 27 example accounts are all active.
October 31
Twitterers are talking about drop in the number of their followers. Not that I’ve got a lot, but here are my numbers as of now: Following: 293; Followed by: 113.
All of my 27 samples below are still live. Marina Sirtis is gone.
October 28
It happened, and the main news so far is that Musk fired three top execs, and backed away from his fire-75%-of-everybody threat.
Some Twitterers are pledging to stay, like Mary Trump. Marina Sirtis plans to leave.
I swear I’m seeing Tweets disappear from my page as I look at them. One person, Jamie something, said “I’m leaving…” then the Tweet vanished. Is that what happens? Be sure to get screen caps of anything you think is notable.
October 27
Here are 27 of the accounts I look forward to hearing from. Let’s see what happens to them.
Stephen King, Josh Marshall, Teri Kanefield, Matt Yglesias, Kevin Kruse, Lawrence Tribe, Steven Beschloss, Jen Taub, Rick Wilson, Steve Landry, Stephanie Ruhle, Mueller She Wrote, Empty Wheel, New York Times Pitchbot, Eric Swalwell, The Auschwitz Museum, The Onion, James Garfield NHS, David Hogg, Greg Doucette, I Am The Warax, David Corn, Monica Lewinsky, Popehat, Neal Katyal, Mitt Romney, and God.