"X" Marks The Asshole

I first was "online" in college via a bulletin board. The "bitnet" or whatever political discussion basically had similar themes (including involving constitutional analysis) than you can find these days.  As recently as a few years back, I found a bit of my comments still online.  It might have been five years by now, but it wasn't that long ago.

My next thing was the Slate Fray.  Remember that?  The articles in that online publication had a discussion section and there was threading involved.  They at various times gave "stars" to frequent contributors who were deemed worthwhile.  I being a nerd loved getting one.  That ended around 2010 though doing a search, you can find a few of my comments referenced in the Slate fray wrap-up section.  

Then, there were various blogs that allowed comments. Blog after blog stopped allowing comments. A few that I check in on still do, particularly Lawyers Guns and Money.  But, I miss being able to provide comments in various other places, including Balkanization and Dorf on Law.  

Around ten years ago -- that is a long time in some sense -- I joined Twitter. It gave me a chance to express myself and check out a range of good people from a variety of fields.  There are even now still some good people there.  You can find a good thread at times about some subjects.  There is a lot of spammy stuff too.  But, the whole "life isn't Twitter" stuff is silly as if there is some special leaning for someone on Twitter.  

I started to be on Twitter a bit too much so I decided to cut back some last year.  I now cut it back to Mon-Thursday, at least commenting and doing more than just checking in on the Mets or something.  I still comment a lot on those days.  Given the number of times I comment, there are a few comments that people like.  That amuses me.  I also have engaged with some really good people there.  It is not to be dismissed.

Elon Musk decided to buy it and screw it over.  We were told for some time now that "Twitter is over."  Alternatives started to sprout.  They leave something to be desired.  Post is boring and limited.  Mastodon is confusing to even sign on to.  You need an invite (which I have yet to get) to get on Bluesky.  Threads is Facebook/Meta/Instagram and you can't even really use it on a laptop/desktop (to add content; you can view it).

Twitter remained superior in various ways.  Now Musk has decided (for now at least) to replace the famous Twitter bird (the whole source of "tweets") with "X".  The charm to have so much money that you can fuck over something like this.  I saw a reference that his real goal is to change it into a right-wing resource.  I guess.  It surely isn't a profit thing.  

I'm still on Twitter. Or whatever.  The alternatives don't work for me.  Maybe, one day, I will be able to get on Blue Sky.  Anyway, it has already had a good run -- it was running for years even before I got there.  Few read me anyway.