I am sick and tired of posts that are just Twitter links.

[Emrys]

36. Sorry, that's nonsense. It took a decade or so for the networks on Twitter to be built up.

That's why a number of us who're very familiar with Twitter, shortcomings and all (it was never perfect even before Musk came along - people seem to forget how slow it was to take action on racism, bullying, Trump etc. while in Jack Dorsey's hands), get pissed off when those who don't know much if anything about it dismiss it out of hand - and by extension those of us who use it and find daily worth in it, some of which we take the time and trouble to share on DU.

Nothing currently available could take its place. Anything that might would take a long time to get established, and there's no concensus on what platform that might be, so fragmentation is a serious issue. Some of the writers etc. I read regularly have taken the precaution of setting up Mastodon accounts, but it's quite an alien environment without the broad scope that typifies Twitter, which is actually deceptively sophisticated, and it's not a change they'd relish.

Most of them - and me - are intent on sticking it out while Twitter's basic functions aren't yet too compromised to make it useable. So far, apart from too much chatter about Musk's antics, I'm seeing no difference in the way the site behaves, but then I'm not a typical Twitter user and don't rely on its homepage and timeline features etc.

People invested a great deal of time and effort building the communities that populate Twitter, and if there's some solace in the current situation, it's the fact that Twitter's the best place on the web to see Musk ridiculed and humiliated on a daily basis.

It may not be a vain hope that his current focus on fixing things that didn't need fixed and breaking things that worked OK will peter out or implode spectacularly, not least because of the financial pressures. What happens then is anyone's guess, but I seriously doubt Twitter will just disappear.