Twitter, Mastodon and The Parable of rasengan

So a lot of things happened today. The threat that Elon Musk made to buy Twitter seems to have been true. As I write this, my current understanding is that the Twitter board of directors is in the process of accepting the offer that Elon Musk to buy the company.

<Cadey> This was not on my bingo card for 2022. I'm starting to think that I got a dud bingo card. I was hoping that "Alien Invasion" would win out but it looks like that won't be the case yet. Damn.

I genuinely have no idea how I should be reacting to this news. I spend a lot of time on Twitter. It's a lot of how I talk with people, network in the tech community and generally shitpost. I do so much idle shitposting on Twitter that it would probably count for a lot of the non-work written word I produce on a weekly basis.

I'm really not sure what I feel about this, but the feelings that I am getting remind me of what happened to freenode. A while ago someone I follow on Twitter made a tweet that said something like:

Elon Musk is to Twitter as rasengan is to freenode

<Mara> For context: rasengan is the person that single-handedly destroyed freenode by apparently buying a worthless holding company and then inciting a lot of drama. For more information, check out the book Closed Projects.

I have made my book Closed Projects free for the next week. This contains my moods, reactions and emotions as I was processing everything falling apart around me. I feel this may help you understand the emotions that you get watching this shitshow unfold with Twitter.

For a direct link to the sale page, click here. I will donate proceeds from this sale to charity. If you choose to send me a couple bucks for my book, I will donate them to the Orca Conservancy.

I am also on Mastodon at @cadey@pony.social. Should something happen to Twitter such that I can't participate there anymore, I will be on Mastodon. If Twitter really starts falling apart, I will probably be a lot more active on Mastodon. And probably writing a lot more.

Let's hope things turn out well.