The Way of Things

I thought I was going to make it all the way through Festivus and Christmas, maybe even so far as into the next year, without a serious grievance.  Silly me.  Looks like I have a grievance to air after all.  Have you heard of Twitter?  Oh, good.

Out in the virtual world of social media, I've made a habit of mentioning users with whom I've enjoyed conversing or whom I've felt were otherwise worth recommending that people follow.  From what I have observed, it's a routine practice.  It seems as though it's part of being social: passing information about interesting content between users.  The people behind the curtain running Twitter say that's not what Twitter is for and that for me to continue such abuse of their system will result in the permanent suspension of my account.  I've been engaged in the practice for quite a while and really had no idea it was a bother.  I still don't see a problem with it, having received a multitude of grateful responses from other users who seemed to enjoy being a part of the whole networking aspect of the process.

Well, what do we know?

Apparently, that's not what Twitter is for.

I suppose it's still OK to retweet things.  "Retweet" made it into the dictionary, so I'd guess they don't want to torpedo that one.  "Mentioning" was in the dictionary long before even Twitter, so they'd have a hard time claiming that one.  That may be why they don't have the same feeling of attachment to it.

So...if you're a fellow twit, retweeting content is OK, just don't tell anyone who you've been talking with about it.  If you're with the NSA or any other part of the government's alphabet soup, you already know who we've all been talking with and don't care how we feel about you knowing so long as we don't tell anyone else what we all already know about what you've been doing because you want us to pretend it's a secret that we don't know so you can follow what we're up to without us knowing you're there.  It's OK, really.  We're posting in a public media forum.  We're sharing freely.  Hell, they used to be called "bulletin boards".  Sometimes we still call them "community forums".

They're about sharing.  I'm pretty sure that's what we're there to do.

Shows what I know.

One other thing I do know is that bitching about a problem is easy.  It doesn't accomplish as much as doing something about the problem.  So, since I prefer lighting candles to cursing darkness, below are the Twitter handles I'll no longer be sharing on Twitter, but still encourage people to follow if they're so inclined.  Some are writers, others are artists, and some are just people who like to chat or share things you might like to read.  None have been arranged in any particular order, nor have they done anything else special to be added to the list.

@amberrisme @Princess_Nadian @RahimaWarren @DARREN_POOLE @badredheadmedia @sue_whitehouse

@MichelleHughes_ @RachelintheOC @Toonopolis @Pseudohumanist

@ApiarySociety @YogaChikk @Sexxiimanda @KathleenHagburg @KatherynLane @dkkauwe

@Georg_Grey @Literarygrrrl @torque10 @TGLong @RayneHall @Murphyverse @WriterCath

@Frecklesmiley @Kendallgrey1 @TheNeedsofMany @BlakeBooks @Hyphend @juttaheitland @SapphicPixie

@deann_native @littlecinnamon @KnightTrilogy @smreine @AuthorGuy @daezarkian @ToxZak

@K_Einsel @TameTheDrew @SJtheWordsmith @MrsDenAsaan @JulieALindsey @writerredux @aniaahlborn

@LukeRomyn @Lesism @seams16 @kaitnolan @TheNerdyBird @Superherologist @pat_preston @Lillith_Black

@borderfox116 @linesbylyons @LettersbyLisa @AndyHolloman @AllanDouglasDgn @KimberlyKinrade

@AmberWest @louise3anne @EvilVulcanChick @Buck_Fachmann @CMCCreations @Macdougall4

@CassidyJonesAdv @CorinneOFlynn @2r3al2real @brackenonline @CeiCeiH @Killpandakill @MichWritesBooks

@KarenCousineau @almahoffmann @DaddyBookins @leo_g18 @KeeraMcKinney @Ambertarian @Jarrett

@Janice_Hardy @KravensQueen @JROrtiz59 @paultlowe @SandraBunino @mpax1

@djkazoosa @TX_Lisa @DashaBabenko @wilkravitz @SherAHart @sharleenj @Rob__Shepherd

@THESEXXIIMANDA @MonicaInGearMag @lkblackburne @seedpearls @markaleshin @TiredFairy

@MeMyselfandI444 @Asperger_Mom @Kelsye @CuttingRoomMRB @HarveyBurgess

@wanderingstarz1 @DetFrankFrank @DESIRE3795 @dontkillkenny19 @kcrhoads1 @LZMarieAuthor

@gingergander @markfromkent @omaraburtot @chanelle1977 @cheryl_777 @chessmaster34

@natolifreelance @djkazoosa @tattooeddeadgrl @nittni3 @bonusmum @troisfeuilles 

@Clive_SJohnson @NathanTarantla @rpdahlke @MaxChina3 @MondayBlogs @Lilo_Abernathy