I Used to Like Twitter

I was a fairly early Twitter adopter.  I had a Twitter account long before I had a Facebook account.  I think as someone who did a personal blog the micro-blogging aspect of Twitter was appealing to me.  I never really worried about how many followers I had, it was just fun to be able to bring my particular brand of snark to the masses.  As a sarcastic curmudgeon the quip is one of my strong suits.  Twitter very much played to my strengths.

There used to be this service called LoudTwitter that would aggregate one day's worth of Twitter posts and post them to a blog.  This was something that seemed tailor made for me and lead first to the "Shorties" posts on this blog - right up until the service disappeared.  Later it supported the "140 Characters or Less..." posts when the service returned - right up until the service disappeared again.  I keep wondering if there's some way to recreate this functionality myself using IFTTT and Google Sheets.  I wonder about it a lot, but not enough to try to solve it.  I should look to see if IFTTT has a community where you can suggest recipes for someone else to write.

I used to have my Twitter feed linked to my Facebook feed so that whenever I posted to Twitter it echoed the post to Facebook.  Recently as part of tightening their privacy and security setup Facebook disabled this functionality.  It looks like they've disabled any third party posting functionality.

A significant amount of my tweeting used to be about work.  Each time after class I would tweet out what we'd done that day, things like "Technical Direction 3 - Transportation Protection."  I liked doing that primarily as alumni outreach on Facebook.  The tweet would crosspost to Facebook and then occasionally former students would have something to say about that day's content.  I'm not sure why, but without the crossposting element I've found that I've stopped putting the content on Twitter.  Beyond that, I could just put that content directly on Facebook, but I don't want to.  I have no idea why not.  It almost feels petulant, like I am refusing to adapt to the new landscape purely out of stubborness.  (Even stupider, Twitter allows third party posting such that I could easily implement an IFTTT recipe to crosspost a Facebook entry to Twitter.  But I'm not gonna.  Can't make me.)

As a result of the changes my Twitter activity has dropped to almost zero and my Facebook activity has been reduced to mostly posting web articles from Feedly.  I'm really in a position where I could, probably, just drop both services and not miss them much.  Maybe I should.

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• 21:44 Watching Green Hornet movie. Not the best film I've seen. #
• 12:08 Furniture repairs can be professional grade, props grade, scenery grade or DIY. I think today I only rose to scenery grade. #
• 14:34 @andreashock order of quality, yes #
• 14:36 3rd & 10, 3rd & 10, 3rd & 10... Tough to get anything done that way. #
• 15:42 Going to a march or a rally yesterday can't be the end. Stay vocal, stay involved. Anyone that runs anything is hoping you disappear: DON'T #
< li>17:13 Enjoying the music of Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich and the CMU Junior MTs along with my PDAC peeps #
• 17:13 Worlds collide #
• 19:08 If you can't seat us together do me a solid and go for obstructed line of sight #

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• 01:13 Watching Inception again. I think the top falls. #
• 12:39 Pittsburgh Children's Museum. Maker Orientation. #
• 19:53 @aerdin I know a few candidates for that last one #

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• 21:08 oops, didn't ask for enough money #
• 11:20 Studiocraft CAD - coordinates. How many times have I done this? t.co/fmuWNzgH #
• 15:30 That thing I said I would do Tuesday - just getting to it #
• 17:38 who is playing on the cut? #
• 17:40 because it sounds like Melissa Etheridge #
• 18:24 Iliked it better when facebook sent you to the birthday person's wall #

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• 12:07 Does your shop have a table saw? You need to see this: t.co/gmzllhbP @stagedirections @backstagejobs #2amt #
• 12:14 Does your shop have a table saw? You need to see this: t.co/gmzllhbP @BlueToolCrew @JamieNoTweet @donttrythis #
• 14:41 Technical Direction 3 - Maker Faire prep #
• 15:17 @giantspatula learning anything? #
• 16:15 PTM Pro Practice - Website Design #

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• 10:12 @naavon just dial 9-9-9 #
• 10:13 @thespophile biz-arre #
• 10:15 Not my best start #
• 10:28 Idea for today. Stop buying bottled water. #
• 11:04 Technical Direction 1 - Shop Survey #
• 11:52 Democrats should be having monthly televised policy debates as counterprogramming #
• 12:07 Sometimes he's not completely wrong about everything: t.co/tWJVUiFD Sometimes. #

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• 00:34 sad. "@GreatDismal: 39-percenter t.co/dO3cMiLB" #
• 11:45 @ellenjuhlin good job. #
• 14:45 Technical Direction 3 - Arduino Wrap Up #
• 18:45 Nice dinner with the folks from Flyspace #
• 18:46 Anyone using Tweetdeck? Anyone getting a weird "updating Tweetdeck" window? #
• 19:14 Greenpage Weekly Top Five: t.co/nBmqgAFm #
• 19:24 Can always tell from my Twitter stream when there' s a Republican debate on #
• 19:33 @bethsemler at least you have a pen #
• 19:56 photocopier, dead, of course. #

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• 23:12 Occupy Pittsburgh? It's a thought. #
• 23:24 Own a home, save 4 retirement, insure your family, provide education 4 kids. Maybe Mitt is middle class. Thought I was too. Maybe not. #
• 23:59 @naavon have now moved all the cats and still no clamps. #
• 10:22 Stair Porn t.co/7uYIgXhU is somewhat less exciting to me now that I am more familiar with our local building codes. #
• 10:23 @iSparkle_Bee what track? #< /li>
• 12:16 Check out my friend Mark on the Today show: t.co/NibYLVou #
• 13:17 @jhuntington the xmas machine can't be stopped. #
• 13:23 What are they doing by the fence. #
• 16:43 @euromandy what show? #
• 16:50 Technical Direction 3 -Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire Dinohack production meeting @pghmakerfaire #
• 17:03 We could do a dozen dinos, couldn't we? I think so. #strangeclassassignments #
• 19:13 Seagull Black #rejectedpaintcolors #2amt #

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• 00:16 Now wondering if next season Ellen will represent High Star against Patty. #damages #
• 12:33 Anyone seen my quick grip clamps? #
• 12:34 @pegele03 ouch. Don't do that. #
• 12:36 @giantspatula I am currently rewatching all of X-men #
• 13:33 I knew I should've played Garcon #
• 15:00 And that's that. #
• 17:30 @AskDocG you're most welcome! #
• 17:32 Install complete! #

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• 21:53 I'm not sure the center of that story was supposed to be "Good people die." #
• 08:37 And now part two. #
• 19:54 Fabrication complete. Install tomorrow. #

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• 22:47 @pegele03 clearly I am spacing something #
• 23:56 Bummer @donttrythis , really would have liked to have seen that cradle go. #
• 09:13 @giantspatula yes #
• 09:19 @giantspatula I think they do that to try to help convey period #
• 09:27 @KendraSerra what's most striking to me there is all the health problems, if it's a representative sample we are a very unhealthy country #
• 10:49 StudioCraftCAD - more basics. Tired students. Slow CAD installation. #
• 11:55 Doesn't "Record corporate profits" also mean "record available corporate capital"? #
• 12:54 THE MAN took my dollar changer off the soda machine. #
• 12:54 @CBPittsburgh woohoo - thx! #
• 13:03 #youmightbegandalfif your bumper sticker reads "my other car is Shadowfax" #

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• 22:31 Moneyball. Two thumbs up. #
• 15:46 Hard to score points without a pocket. #

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• 20:35 @narcosislabs should have followed my own initiative #
• 20:37 @bethsemler sure, judge away. No comic-sans. #
• 13:12 Seen this? t.co/44cIClIY you should. Make sure your representatives do too. #

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• 10:20 Left services without an ambulance #itsthelittlethings #
• 12:55 GOP hopefuls, since you keep telling seniors not to worry about your social security plans, at what age should voters worry? #
• 14:03 Budget meeting. #
• 14:59 I get this magazine "Practical Welding" The more I think about it, the more I think I'd enjoy "Impractical Welding" more. #
• 16:27 @kernelbrooklyn I can't tell #
• 16:28 @PghDramats looks like it #
• 16:28 @fiatluxs4 thx! #
• 16:28 @RobertJF I've worked with people from there, but not with them. I'll check it out. Thx! #
• 16:35 @kernelbrooklyn definitely has potential to be working, also cold #
• 19:03 enough #

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• 21:20 @VintageVickyy I am CMU faculty, so I have a high opinion. What do you want to study? #
• 21:22 @caryatiddreams stress much? You'll probably do a few more shows #
• 15:47 3 classes back to back to back is a lot #
• 16:31 Design Forum - I can't tell you what to cut #
• 16:49 @stagedirections what about STAC? #
• 16:56 Technical Direction III - Company Biography Draft #
• 16:58 @andreashock yeh, guess I need to make some #
• 17:03 To whom it may concern, if you do allow telemarketers to call cell phones with bots I will just never answer my phone again. KTHXBI #
• 17:18 @andreashock there is a website, but there isn't much info there. #
• 17:18 PTM Pro Practice - Liability Insurance #

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• 21:05 @matt_dollinger I dvr'd it. Worth watching? #
• 23:08 One hour of Archer off the DVR. Like me some Archer. #
• 09:19 Facebook has gotten my friends to enter info I wasn't going to enter. Now if I don't confirm I look antisocial. Well played Zuck. #
• 12:04 Technical Direction 1 - Put to Detail, Spitballing & Why I Hate Zebras #
• 12:06 Like Firefly? t.co/qfUPFhpt #
• 16:34 @Vintage Vickyy whatcha want to know? #
• 16:49 Looking for Scene Shops again. Know about a shop I should know? Let me know. If you've got a list email me! #2am #
• 17:07 effin Yale #

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• 20:47 Haven't I seen "kids trapped in a car with dinosaurs outside" before? #
• 14:19 @keeboch don't touch... #
• 14:19 Technical Direction 3 - more enormous cove molding #
• 17:08 Greenpage weekly Top 5: t.co/Dg3WXSX0 #
• 18:18 Wanted: 1999 Tech Expo Catalog. Hook me up? #

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• 20:05 That looks like Steeler football #
• 20:38 First down Brown #
• 20:39 @euromandy we have HBO and I'm not watching it either #
• 20:54 @matt_dollinger rrrrrrrrrrr #
• 20:54 @euromandy um, I live in Pittsburgh #
• 15:47 I am 106 years old and have a zit on my eye. Any of you out there hoping acne just stops at some magical age, I have bad news for you. #
• 16:20 Tech Direction 1 - Saying "no" #
• 17:52 @AskDocG the other day I got one from Leon Panetta #
• 17:52 @aerdin landlocked? #
• 17:56 If possible I think I'll have a do over #
• 19:49 @AskDocG I was worried I'd spelled it incorrectly #

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• 21:49 Swell evening out with great people #
• 22:53 TwitCleaner said I was awesome! Check yourself here: t.co/Je28LK3e #
• 09:34 @narcosislabs I used their thing, thought they deserved a shout. (would have been more useful if it had screened my followers) #
• 18:48 And it's a wrap. Thanks for coming everyone. #
• 18:50 @aerdin @mboevers thanks for coming #

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• 11:57 @aerdin be thankful you don't live in Las Vegas #barsneverclose #
• 16:35 sometimes you post something and you just KNOW that's where the comments will be: t.co/t4OZuBqs #

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