People change. Now and then, it’s best to tell someone you really care about that it’s time to move on. Goodbye, Twitter.
Dear Twitter,
We’ve had some good times over the past couple years, haven’t we? The long, rambling, late night chats. The little in-jokes. The reflexive tendency to address our friends with an @ symbol.
But things have changed. I know you feel it, too. You’ve grown — a lot, really — and so have I. We’ve come to lead very different lives, and I think it’s time we both moved on.
Before you say anything, I want you to know this has nothing to do with your recent problems. I’ve always taken those in stride. After all, I’m not the most consistent person in the world, either. I’ve gone days without saying anything to you, and when I do manage 140 characters or so, it’s usually something trivial. You deserve so much better.
Maybe this is just a midlife crisis. I don’t know. But I’m not getting any younger, and I really only have time to nurture the quality relationships in my life. It’s something I’ll have to work out.
I know you’ve heard I’ve been seen with FriendFeed. It’s true. We started seeing each other about the same time I thought you were no longer there for me, and things took their natural course. That being said, FriendFeed can never be you. And I wouldn’t want it to be.
You’ll be fine. I know you’re seeing some folks who will help you get yourself together, and I’m sure you have a wonderful future ahead.
I’ll think of you as you were right after SXSW 2007: so young and full of promise. We’ll always have our memories of Frozen Pea Fridays, the Color Wars, TweetJeebus, and that silly whale error message. You know, I may miss the whale most of all.
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Chris – Almost wrote this 3 times in the last three weeks. Not sure it's over yet. Twitter still has a huge embedded and loyal following. The fact that Friendfeed imports it (and even lets you hide it and 'peek') helps give it time to re-build. By the way, really nice, clean blog lay-out!
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Oh, I'm more optimistic than most about Twitter's future. As you point out, they have a broad and tremendously devoted user base — plus a growing 3PD community. They also have exactly what they need to fix their scaling problems: great lumpy bags pf American cash. Far from hopeless.
But it's time for me to do other things. I'm as much a willing victim of social media fragmentation as anyone else, and there comes a point where you have to decide what to let go. For me, it's Twitter. Your mileage will vary, especially if you're using one of those fancy synthetic engine oils.
Thanks for the kind words on the spanking-new layout. I was hoping a fresh look would motivate me to post here on occasion. And now that I have a tiny portion of my day back …
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Hilarious post. A Dear John letter in the new world of social media. Good stuff
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Ah Chris Baskind, you will be missed. You were the first person I had a real back-and-forth Twit with. Remeber, the February 19 primary? Ah, so many memories. You'll be missed on Twitter, but we'll follow you wherever you go… Glad to see you got your blog rolling again.
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Hilarious post, Chris. Will miss your tweets, but know that I can still find you via FF and RSS…
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Dear Chris, At my age 72 years old I know the pain of ending an affair ! Maybe Twitter will return your Love when they realize it takes two to tango ! Move onward and upward no tear's, just dance,eat ,drink and be merry with your new partner Friendfeed, in time you will find a true love who you can communicate with !
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Too bad. You were one of the reasons I have been using Twitter. I thought it was crap a year ago. When I tried it again, I noticed there were a few people using the service as more than a way of telling us they had just farted or just ate a large pizza. You were one of those people. It lead me to your EcoTech blog, this blog, your FriendFeed, etc. Your post about getting on Alltop lead me to Alltop, which, in turn, got my blog onto Alltop. I think you are missing an opportunity here.
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I'm leaving my Twitter account intact. But, especially for the next few months, I'm going to concentrate on content development. With the Lighter Footstep relaunch just a couple weeks off, there aren't enough hours in the day. After that, we'll see.
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You say goodbye to Twitter when I just joined, isn't life funny? LOL. And you are using FriendFeed – where I will probably never meet you, because I prefer Secondbrain… and you use Disqus comments… which are still raising question marks in my book… (One day I'll see here a “goodbye disqus” – maybe the day I join disqus – he he!)
Yes, I loved, loved the article! Thumbs up!
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Aw. I just started using Twitter, and you're one of the follows I like best.
Happily, I'll see you on FriendFeed. 
i've spent a lot less time in twitter lately..possibly because i havent been feeling well..but there's just a lack of lust there anymore..
besides you and jonathon have progressively sucked me into friendfeed!
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Stinkin' hilarious post. I agree that Twitter has been less-than-desirable lately in the sense of letting it occupy my productivity time, but I have to say that I still love jumping in and rolling through my friends' micro-posts. Maybe it's because I'm in a metro area, but it's great that when I do jump in, i see a lot of friends making plans, tweeting about where they are, etc. love that. Even when i can't make it out, i can keep a pulse and stay connected.
The stand-alone clients have been put to rest, though. They're just too distracting. Except for Hahlo when I'm on my commute.
Friendfeed is taking a place for more practical purposes. It's becoming more of a news source as more netizens plug in their feeds. Friendfeed itself is terribly unusable – or atleast too difficult – so it's going to require third-parties to develop the most useful tools. That concerns me because it's more links in the chain.
Nice design and content, btw. Subscribed!
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You're not really leaving are you? That would be major suckage… just take time off and show back up whenever you feel like it!
(((hug)))
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Is this like those melodramatic posts that bloggers write, claiming they're quitting blogging and announcing how they're done, waiting for everyone to beg them to stay, and then they write another post the next day like nothing ever happened?
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Cindy Klaus is really going to be ticked over this.
Residual benefits: I'll likely read your blog(s) even more now. TweetJeebus we hope you return to the whale one day. Don't be a stranger.
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Stupid twitter. …sob sob sob
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Money just *snap of the fingers* fixes stuff? I don't think that is an absolute.
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“It's not you, it's me”
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If you didn't really care it wouldn't really matter to you … and apparently it does … so you really care.
Since you really care then it seems kinda cold the stay away.
–bentrem
p.s. see you tonight on TalkShoe
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I should add as a postscript a couple of things:
First, while I — like thousands of other users — was deeply frustrated by Twitter's difficulties around the time this article was written, people took it far too seriously.
Second, I was deeply impressed by Twitter's utility this hurricane season. i live on the Gulf Coast, and it has been a busy year for storms. To me, Twitter proved its usefulness by allowing people both to communicate with the outside world on mobile devices once utilities began failing, and also receive a variety of well-managed, useful emergency information streams. Twitter was a lifeline for a lot of people. I'm glad it was there.
Twitter has made some real strides in recent months. They've listened to their users' concerns, beefed up their infrastructure, and seem to be committed to improvement. There no way I can take issue with this.
While I haven't yet resurrected my personal Twitter account, i've begun using the service again via Lighter Footstep:
http://twitter.com/LighterFootstep
Hats off to Twitter for listening, improving, and allowing me back.
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