Twitter, Mastodon and The Parable of rasengan

Published on , 419 words, 2 minutes to read

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 is coffee
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 is hacker
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.

Facts and circumstances may have changed since publication. Please contact me before jumping to conclusions if something seems wrong or unclear.

Tags: twitter, reaction