Update, October 21, 2024: I’ve revised this post a number of times since I first added it to OOA in November 2022. It started out with concern about what was happening to Twitter, and through the months and events that followed descended through the normal stages of loss-processing to where I am now: a kind of dull, annoyed resignation at the train-crash spectacle of a mostly enjoyable and useful thing ruined—reduced to a spoiled sulky child’s intricate toy that must be twisted out of a perfectly functional shape as he forces it to do things it shouldn’t be doing.
The Twitter that seemed worth loving is pretty much gone, and the people who made it that way are in full diaspora status now, scattering in search of new online homes. So, heading onward and outward, I join them.
Right now my immediate concern is not accidentally adding value to something that has become less and less valuable, with shocking speed, in recent months. So with immediate effect I’ll be protecting my tweets to keep them away from the attention of those on whom blocking no longer works, along with various others. I won’t be canceling my account, as that would leave my old Twitter handle free to be co-opted by somebody else. But—lacking some unforeseeable miraculous turnaround—my days of active participation there are over.
Over time I will be stripping my tweets out of that account, to make sure they can’t be exploited for use in training LLMs or abused by other forms of AI which the present owner of the platform may become enamored of. Eventually it will be left an empty shell, but that’ll take a while, as I’ve been there since 2008.
My secondary concern is making all the necessary notes of where my many previously-Twitter-based friends can be found online, and letting them know where they can find me.
I’ve long had a fairly wide spread of online hangouts.  Some of them haven’t been used much, or at least not lately.. Some are brand new. Some I was preparing to withdraw from, until this mess started to worsen and it became plain they were still likely to be of use.Â
None of them, of course, perfectly replicate the unique structure and conditions of Twitter, which contributed so much to making it a great place for writers and publishing people to find one another, teach one another, and support one another. I hate the prospect of having to leave a place that’s come to mean so much to me—especially because of the many friendships and warm acquaintanceships based there. I intend to hang on there as long as I can (though I refuse to pay for a now-valueless blue check when I came by my original one honestly, to keep a convicted identity thief from making further attempts to pretend to be me). And I still live in hope that Twitter will somehow be rescued or reclaimed from the drain-circling phase it’s in now. I remain, plainly, a hopeless addict to happy endings, even when they’re most unlikely.
Anyway, here’s where to look for me. (I also have a LinkTr.ee account, still in the process of being filled in.)
Newest and most useful:
…But frankly I’m finding Bluesky most congenial, so look for me first there.
A bit less recently established:
Tumblr (since 2008) is probably my most frequent daily resort besides Twitter: dduane.tumblr.com.
Older than that, but used only occasionally:
More in this vein as matters progress.
1 comment
I’m on the bird hellsite for some people (including you), but I’m also on Tumblr (as heymerle) and Mastodon.
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