I’ve had a Twitter account (sorry, I refuse to call it X) since 2007 (though my first tweet was in January 2008). I was never super prolific, but I enjoyed using it even as it started going downhill with noise, trolls and advertising. Its sale in 2022 was the beginning of the end. In October 2024 I posted my last tweet (#5,051!). I have mostly dropped out of social media, but now I have a Bluesky account. Although Bluesky has also seem some growing pains, it still reminds me a lot of Twitter in the early days, in which community and interaction was more important than marketing and provocation.

(image courtesy of @davis.social)

My Twitter account is now protected, but I decided to keep a local archive of my tweets, to which the Twitter icon in the header/footer in my website now points. I used the excellent tweetback to create this archive. It’s a great tool and very easy to use, and I love the look of the archive. Check it out?

Why protect my account instead of deleting it? Glad you asked:

• Protecting my account makes my tweets visible only to approved followers. I can still control who sees them, without erasing my history.
• Deleting my account would surrender control entirely — once it’s gone, I wouldn’t be able to reclaim the same account name. Worse - someone could reuse it! Leaving my account in place prevents it.
• Who knows - Twitter may recover. It may become again a platform worth using. Not placing a lot of hope on this, but if it ever happens, I could easily reactivate my account.