Twitter Twubbles

As many of you who read this may know (I read the referral reports, after all), I have a Twitter account.  I use this account (I have others) specifically to communicate with other WoW players, ask for and share advice, cheer people on when they accomplish something awesome, RP a bit when the mood strikes me, share a joke or two, or pretty much just shoot the breeze.

I love the opportunity for communication that Twitter provides.

I hate Twitter.

The frequent down time, limited interface, large amount of spam accounts, and steady progression of features being turned off all serve to annoy me.  Their user base seems to be growing exponentially, but with limited revenue and server capacity they just can’t be all things to all people.  Any one of these would be reason enough for me to leave Twitter, and leave it I have.  More than once, in fact.

Over time I’ve played around with Jaiku, Pownce, Plurk, and ShoutEM.  Some I liked better than others, all I liked better than Twitter.  Unfortunately, I’d have to leave all my Twitter friends behind.

They won’t leave, because their friends won’t leave.  Those friends of friends won’t leave, because … well, you get the idea.  We’re not so much a single encapsulated community as we are a giant web of interconnected personalities – or in some cases, a series of somewhat overlapping circles in a giant Venn Diagram.  If a strong enough personality declared an exodus to another service and convinced enough people who themselves were strong personalities with lots of followers, well then that would be something.

Me, I’m following less than 40 people (and being followed by less than 50) and I like it like that because it makes it easier for me to follow conversations.  I’m a far cry from anyone who would be able to lead a mass revolt, throw off the shackles of our Twitter overlords, flee the fail whale, and resettle our fledgling WoW community on a smaller, more full featured, and more stable service.

But someone out there is, I hope.

[EDIT: I've created an account on Plurk.  Join and follow me, if you dare!  Also, here's a great article by someone I know and respect explaining why Plurk is so cool.]

[RE-EDIT: Anea of Holy Discipline and Brigwyn of The Hunting Lodge, amongst others, have created Plurk accounts already.  Join us!  Joooooin uuuuuuuuus!]

Editorial Splat likes to complain, twitter