Jun
25

Putting Twitter on Notice

I’m becoming increasingly irritated with Twitter and Twhirl.

Yes, yes, go ahead and say you told me so. That’s all right; I can handle it. I’ve been waffling on the subject of Twitter from day one. At first, I scoffed. After caving to peer pressure, feeling the need to hang out where all cool kids were, I joined the collective of Twitterfied Borg.

I’m on the verge of dumping it.

Don’t get me wrong. Twitter had its value. It was great for making connections and getting to know people a little better. If I hadn’t have joined, I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet so many new people.

Twitter was great for networking and promoting anything we had going on. Late at night, tweets scrolling in the background kept me company in a weird sort of way.

Twitter let me do some excellent PR and gain some confidence. It made it easier for me to talk to complete strangers and land some projects – and this kind of schmoozing is usually James’ area of expertise, not mine.

I use Twhirl to access Twitter. I like the little application that gives me a real bang for my buck. But lately, both Twitter and Twhirl have been rather unreliable. Nothing hardly works right anymore.

Take tonight, for example. Twhirl worked fine until I downloaded and installed the latest upgrade. Surprise, surprise – no Twhirl.

I received a message that says, “Exceeded limit; paused 5 minutes.” What the hell is that? I just turned the damned thing on and I’ve exceeded my limit? Now that I think about it, what is the limit?

Joy.

What do we do now that Twitter has us hooked? The left-hand corner of my monitor has a big empty space where Twhirl should be, and I miss the constant chatter of tweets in the background. Will it ever be fixed? Should I even bother spending time dwelling on this minor dilemma?

The situation really shouldn’t bother me. I’ve come home to my faithful standby, Trillian. Trillian isn’t as vocal as Twitter and the instant messaging sessions are more personal and less social, but at least instant messaging works.

To all the Twitteratti who I have come to know and love, I have not abandoned you; The double duo of Twitter and Twhirl has abandoned me.

I would love to continue having conversations 140 words at a time, but I’m putting Twitter on notice. Shape up or you’re gone. Go join your buddy Entrecard over there in the corner.

How about you? Has Twitter lost its glitter?

*winces* It must be late. Maybe I should just step away from the keyboard now…