I have left Twitter today

Warning this is a considerably large rant (over 140 characters) and I am most likely to edit it down to twitterwordiness as time goes on. Basically I just figured out I didn't want to go through another really bad customer service experience right now or at least another one in the foreseeable decade. My mind is blitzed. Twitter people are lovely and I'll miss them, I am subscribed to most of their blogs.

There is a program in Twitterville called Twitalyzer. It was really teaching me how to use Twitter more valuably. Things like don't be so generous with the retweets and links.

Twitalyzer has been unavailable to me for almost three weeks because Twitter was not updating me in their twitter search. So sayeth Twitalyzer and the link it provided for possible Twitter search on my @trendygoodnight work-no-longer-in-progress. I found that friends of mine were being updated every few hours. What's up with that? Oh about 1,300, 13x as much users than they had is what's up (I learned to write that way from Mr. Tweet).

Customer support means you support your customer

I wrote to Twitter support. A second after I submitted my request I realized I had critical errors in my request. I had to submit another request; the crucial difference from "I am being updated" to "I am not being updated."

Twitter support wrote me the following order:

"PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT MULTIPLE REQUESTS FOR THE SAME ISSUE. DUPLICATE REQUESTS WILL BE DELETED AND YOUR ORIGINAL REQUEST WILL BE PUSHED TO THE END OF THE QUEUE."

I mean, who can work with that. Like where do you go, that means possibly weeks of misunderstanding and no understanding. Its like blogger and citibank all over again. Who needs it? I don't.

I felt like twitter opened me up to some things I just wasn't looking for and at the Twitterous moment thought I needed.

Then I look at all of it in hindsight and see its really a time waster for a person in my impoverished circumstances. Its built around getting somewhere I don't want to be or I would not be able to go. There is nothing I want or can want there.

I deleted the 'trendygoodnight' account with a twinfluence #388 (99%) and High social capital 99%. Several weeks ago at twitalyzer I had 99.8% signal to noise ratio and 99.8% generosity. My clout and infuence were evolving at 3%. 1410 follow / followers. Trust me I was not reaching or aggressively reaching for numbers. I was reaching for people that I could have conversations with.

Solemn contemplation of the decision of untwittering

Leaving Twitter is not just on a tear. I've been comtemplating my leave from the moment I set up an account on a friend's invite last May 2008, no picture, no name, no profile (later, I thought). I didn't use it even once. About five weeks ago I started to use Twitter because my mentor said it was good for my blog, sorry but it wasn't. He said SocialToo was good, sorry but it wasn't. SocialToo auto followed people who followed me with the promise that it would prevent spam, ain't so. Well I probably have about 50 people in those thousands that I wouldn't have accepted myself. So few, yeah I was racing to beat the service all the time. I finally figured out some time that I could go back and turn it off or end it. I am most certain I had clicked off autofollow in the beginning, hmm? I would advise people now, if a third party app asks for your password and account name, oh, do think more than 3xs and click your heels before you do that.

The Ick Factor

It was the ick factor at twitter that made me want to leave and continued ick factor perpetuated by the customer service that concluded my awkwardly awesome participation in Twitterville. Ick Factor? = suggest follows? Who wants to follow people who don't care what you say, meaning follow back? I always kept my Follow / Follower ratio at 1.0, equal standing equals conversation.

I leave knowing I've had the complete twitter experience.

If the social network you are in doesn't have respect for the small things, consider yourself clued in to your future there. I went to tweetwasters recently and they reported that I had twittered away 2.2 hours. Darn!

Now Twitter might be for you, you might not share customer support burnout syndrome, and if that's the case I have to share with you that @GuyKawasawki @ChrisPirello @ChrisBrogan would be awesome first choices for someone starting out on the Twitter Road. If they twig where you are coming from they'll @ reply you back.

Really Twitter get with good customer support at the minimum. Because for me at burnout stage, leaving is not such sweet sorrow its a relief.

Oh yeah, so what if I wake up tomorrow and get Twitter withdrawal pains? Nah I already found more appropriate substitutes for today and possibly through the rest of this decade. I'll be alright. Hey thanks for caring :#