I stopped using Twitter forever ago. (I refuse to call it by that other name.) But friends still share links, or they come up in random browsing. Sometimes you need to check a thread. So for a while now, I’ve been relying on Nitter, which was able to act as an alternative front-end, sucking data out of Twitter, and letting you see it outside the technical ecosystem of tracking and account logins and so on.

It was buggy, but it was great. As Twitter locked things down in an effort to assert ever-tighter control over the “like totally free and open Town-square vibe and stuff, my dudes,” Nitter hiccuped but found a way to chug on. Doing the real work of actually freeing information so anyone can access it without walls and obstacles.

Now it’s dead for reasons technical that I don’t care about. Something something guest accounts. Frankly, it was surprising it lasted as long as it did, so kudos to everyone who kept that going.

I won’t wax philosophical about paywalls, logins, arbitrary Terms of Service, users having no recourse or means of appeal, or any of the other myriad problems that plague the modern web. It’s more of a plea to like why does everything have to suck now? Why do we have to jump through insane countless hoops merely to access accurate, quality, up-to-date information about what’s going on today, and everything that’s gone on before us (aka history)?

It seems weird, especially bad, and fundamentally self evident at a base-bass level but worth repeating that we have monumentally fucked up by tying our collective human knowledge to the whims of a few oligarchs, to SEO gamesmanship, targeted advertising, growth-hacking to get people to sign up for your crappy platform or service, constantly asking and being asked to like, follow, subscribe and SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON!!!!!!!!

It seems weird that this incredible thing that is computing and the internet has devolved to the point where it is incumbent upon the user to install ever more complex filtering, blocking, alternative front-ends, and the rest. Just to keep all the trash and the tracking at arms length. Just to be able to think clearly and cleanly in the moment without endless distractions and manipulations. Just to search and find relevant information. Why is it all so bad?

I for one don’t accept it as a necessary fore-gone conclusion that it must be this way. I don’t think the systems or technologies themselves necessarily force us to go there. I think in many ways market logic is counter to the logic of computing, and the ability to make thoughts into things that I think it kind of deeply represents.

Anyway, blah blah blah. RIP Nitter. I’ll keep an eye out for a resurrection I suppose, but I think this just means I stop viewing Twitter threads at all anymore. Fine by me.

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