- Access to product announcements, most of which I track because they are part of my workflows (Examples: Glass, Unsplash, Substack, Opal, Readwise, and 90 more). This could be hard to replace, not all websites support RSS feeds.
- Access to some public services status messages like special events or some type of alerts.
- Two of my Brews on Mailbrew that are entirely based on Twitter content will need to be deleted.
- Interaction with people following me who won’t leave Twitter to go elsewhere. I rarely get replies, though. Not a big loss.
- According to [my Plausible page](https://plausible.io/numericcitizen.micro.blog), 50% of visitors coming from non-direct sources are coming from Twitter. One way to mitigate this is by enabling RSS feeds and letting people no in advance other ways to get in touch.
- Quite a few of my published articles or blog posts refer to my tweets as links or embed. They won’t show up anymore when I turnoff public access to my tweets. That's not cool.
Message to Those (Still) on Twitter
After seeing this post by Chris Hannah:
It’s incredible to see the effect of the various recent changes on how the “blue checkmarks” are given out and what they seemingly represent to different demographics of people.
Here’s my take on this. It’s straightforward: you don’t need to be verified by Twitter (or any of these centralizing platforms) to feel that you exist, are relevant and be fabulous! Just be. If you’re uncomfortable with recently introduced changes at Twitter, move on elsewhere. That is all.
I’m fed up with these stories about Twitter removing previously verified check marks! This is stupid. It was bound to bound to fail from the start. Now, here we are. It failed. Look ahead.
If Twitter is broken, it might be a fix here and there, actually. Just saying.
If I had enough time on hand, I would build a one-pager website comparing all Mastodon clients. Then, I would update it as new app releases come out. I can see the feature-by-feature comparison table with an overall score at the bottom. I think it could be helpful for new Mastodon users and developers to better understand their app’s position in the client landscape.
I’m no longer spreading Twitter content. Today is a cleanup day in my bookmarks collection, acting as a repository for future editions of my monthly newsletter: Numeric Citizen Introspection. Each bookmark is stored in one of the six “buckets” in Craft, as shown in this screenshot. What is noteworthy today is the fact that many of those bookmarks were links to tweets. They were all deleted. Quitting Twitter also means stopping spreading references to the platform’s content.
So, the only way to set a profile image in IFTTT is to use one of the following services?? Not possible to upload a picture. My profile image is now blank because I deleted my connection to Twitter. Weird.
Gruber is whining about and calling out Twitter. Fine. I did too. I still do. And probably keeping doing it for a little while. But I left. I moved on. My actions followed my words. Will he do the same? 🧐
It’s a matter of credibility somehow.
There’s no sense in clinging to the personal whims of a clown leading a shit show. Especially when his circus will end up being a $44 billion version of MySpace. Source: The Shit Show • furbo.org
Priceless.
🇺🇦 There is one thing that I’m finding hard to replace from Twitter: all Twitter accounts I was following reporting about the war in Ukraine, from people on the front or close to it. This is critical information that goes beyond what the general media is saying. But things are starting to move in the right direction, as I have found many tweeps who are now on Mastodon. Yeah! 🙂
While on Twitter, I was a fan of Tweetbot. Now that I'm on Mastodon (I have an account but don't plan to be very active for now), I feel at home with Ivory, their new client, still in beta. I wish they were doing a Micro.blog client. I would pay more to get it than I paid for Tweetbot.
cc ivory@tapbots.social
👉🏻 Well, that was fast: @numericcitizen@techhub.social 😎
Reasons why I joined this Mastodon instance. 1) I like the name “techhub.social”. 2) It’s operated by a Canadian. 3) He speaks french and has a Ukrainian flag on his profile.. 4) I’ll be able to see the interaction between Micro.blog and a Mastodon instance.
Micro.blog will stay my home, but I’ll experiment with Mastodon, even though I said and wrote that I would focus this year. Damn.
And now Twitter suspends third-party app? Really? Another good reason to GTF of this platform. I’m so happy to be Twitter free now. Even though I find Tapbots a bit lazy in updating its apps (the macOS app hasn’t been updated for quite a while the last time I checked), they are great ones.
Today is the day I turned my Twitter accounts (apple_observer & numericcitizen) into private mode. It’s the last step before disabling them altogether.
It’s funny how I’m rediscovering people on Mastodon (via MB) who I first met on Twitter in 2009, 2010 or 2011. People moved away from one platform to go elsewhere.
Any Mastodon experts in the room? One quick question: how do I proceed to “reserve” my content creator name “numericcitizen” in the Mastodon world? I understand that I need to select a Mastondon server first where the account would be created, am I right? Then, what else?
Comparing Elon Musk at Twitter to Steve Jobs at Pixar
When I read articles like this one from The Washington Post about Elon Musk’s current tenure at Twitter, I think about Steve Jobs's tenure at Pixar. Both are quite different leaders, but I think Steve Jobs had a much more positive impact on Pixar than Musk on Twitter. My comparison comes from the belief that Steve could be seen as a jerk or be very hard on people. Elon is certainly seen and behaves like a real jerk. His leadership image is being tarnished every single day.
Just posted on my Twitter account.
"This account is being phased out. I no longer believe in Twitter as a viable and valuable social platform. I don’t share any values with Twitter’s owner. Hence my decision to leave soon. You’ll be able to find me elsewhere as documented here: https://www.craft.do/s/9ILVvNnwHVAmJk"
As you can see, my plan to exit Twitter is well underway. I think I could turn this shit off by January 1, 2023. It was much faster than I initially thought. This to-do list gives you an idea of how deeply Twitter was embedded in my digital life. Well, no more.
The Digital Cleanup Continues
This morning, I visited IFTTT and Zapier to turn off ten applets which were using Twitter. My About page was updated to remove references to my Twitter accounts. While at it, I removed all references to Medium and GetRevue since they are no longer used.
I still have to figure out how I will follow people on Twitter who are valuable (there are a few) but refuse to move elsewhere. I might use News Explorer to follow them, cutting the noise because I refrain from using a Twitter client. It’s not a perfect solution because I would get all their replies which makes things noisy. Speaking of Twitter clients (Twitter & Tweetbot), these were removed from my devices too.
It is one of the most comprehensive digital cleanups I ever did since 2007. For the upcoming year: I’ll focus on the open web services and tools for publishing most of my content. There are a few exceptions: YouTube and WordPress.com.
I may sound a bit extremist.
If you don’t have a website, a blog or a newsletter and only exist on Twitter, then I give up. You’re not worth it. Thought of the night.
Digital cleanup night. Medium Partner Program: Cancelled. Buffer: Cancelled. WP for Buffer Plug-in: Cancelled. Typefully subscription: Cancelled.
Feels much better now.
Twitter: you’re the next.
After Closing Twitter, Medium Will Be Next
The next victim of my "digital cleanup" will be my Medium account. Even though I stopped writing original content there a while ago, I currently get a few cents a month of revenue, maybe a few dollars when I’m lucky. It’s tough to expand the readership over there. My revenue used to be enough to pay for my Partner Program annual membership, but not anymore. All in all, the time has come to move on.
More is Indeed Better on Micro.blog
I receive more user feedback or interactions in a day here on Micro.blog than in an entire month on Twitter. On top of that, the quality is 100x higher too.
Think about that for a second.
Thank you guys!
Starting from now: I no longer cross-post my original Micro.blog posts to Twitter. Curious to see how bad it will be for my visitors analytics.
What I'll Lose By Leaving Twitter
As per my current analysis and preparation for leaving Twitter, here’s what I’m going to lose.