I’ve stopped posting on Twitter/X indefinitely

After many months of thinking, deliberating and soul-searching, I’ve decided to finally stop posting on my @MSliwinski account on X (formerly Twitter). If you want to follow me, feel free to do so on Mastodon or LinkedIn. Alternatively sign up for my Newsletter, which I’m sending every 2 weeks. If you’re curious how and why it came to this decision, here goes:

• Twitter launched a year before my Nozbe
• Twitter used to be my happy place…
• Elon Musk destroyed Twitter and renamed it to X
• Elon Musk supported Trump and promoted misinformation
• My policy regarding X going forward is that my account is inactive.

Twitter launched a year before my Nozbe

Twitter launched in July of 2006, so around half a year before I launched Nozbe in February of 2007. I heard about Twitter but only signed up a year later as @Nozbe and tweeted only from that account. In November of 2008 I fell in love with the platform so much that I decided to set up my personal account: @MSliwinski (formerly @MichaelNozbe).

Over the next years I was tweeting a lot grew my influence on the platform. At some point my account was also verified with a blue checkmark. I reached at peak more than 20,000 followers (now I have around 15,7K). I’ve contributed 21,1+ thousand posts. I’ve been a prolific user of Twitter.

Twitter used to be my happy place…

Despite many leadership changes and problems at Twitter over the years, my favorite people were there and I loved browsing my timeline and engaging with them. Especially since I discovered the Tweetbot app which let me ignore most of the crap of the Twitter web site.

This was by far my favorite social network.

Elon Musk destroyed Twitter and renamed it to X

When Elon Musk took over Twitter things very quickly went to shit 💩. He proved to be an awful owner of this platform:

1. He fired most of the staff that knew anything about Twitter, especially teams that took care of making it a safe place to be.
2. He re-instated blocked accounts of people who spread misinformation and fake news, including Donald Trump.
3. He suddenly blocked third-party apps so my beloved Tweetbot was gone.
4. He removed the official “verified” badge and scared most of my favorite people away!
5. He changed the name from the iconic Twitter and the verb tweeting to… X.
6. He was actively changing the algorithm to promote his own posts.

Throughout most of these changes I stayed there as some people I cared about also stayed behind and I didn’t want to let go of the thousands of followers I had on the platform.

However after deleting Tweetbot I’ve never downloaded the official Twitter app and never really liked going there anymore. I’d just browse some mentions and notifications via Safari on my iPad but nothing else.

Elon Musk supported Trump and promoted misinformation

Over the last year as the US elections were approaching, Elon Musk was increasingly engaged in spreading misinformation far and wide and using his influence as the owner of this platform to basically post lies.

Later he actually went on stage with Donald Trump on one of his rallies to cement his support for this awful person.

And now that the worst of men has become a US president, I feel like I’m done with Twitter/X.

I’m out.

Or quoting Marco Arment from the “unedited live stream” of the ATP’s 612th podcast episode (I’m an ATP member):

Who the fuck is still using X now? Like, god, what a fucking turd Elon Musk is? It just keeps getting worse. Fuck that guy and fuck everything about him and fuck every single one of his businesses.

I couldn’t agree more. Fuck. That. Guy.

My policy regarding X going forward is that my account is inactive.

My company, Nozbe will still be on X so that our customers know we exist. But I’m out. My X account will not be deleted (yet) and I might re-post some posts from my company’s accounts, but that’s it.

I won’t be posting new things, checking my mentions, my timeline, or anything of the sort.

I’m done with Twitter. I’m done with X.

I’m done with Elon Musk. 🖕

One of Nozbe values is FREEDOM and I can choose to be free of this guy and his stupid ideas.

That’s so liberating and so satisfying.

Follow me or stay in touch here.