Twitter has locked me out of my account, as of January 31; I cannot log in or even view it from the chromebook I used to be perma-logged in from.
It also offers no way to contact anyone to ask about getting the account unlocked, so it may well be it stays dormant and locked for a while, then it’s permanently nuked after whatever the new “you have to log in every however many days” period passes.
I am of two minds about this, frankly. On the one hand, Twitter is now truly a cesspool of bots and Nazis, from the toxic owner on down to every paying blue check.
On the other hand, I don’t want to lose the history there, and I don’t want to lose the remnants of community that are still there. I also would love to be still there if and when Felon the fucker moves on; the flicker of optimism in my withered soul secretly hopes for a renewal and revival of the platform.
* * * *
Back in October 2023, I spent far too many hours of my life chatting with amazon customer service, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with their review approval system. I eventually got things supposedly cleared up, and for a couple of months all my reviews were approved soon after I posted them. However, as I mentioned at the end of this post, I was unnerved by the lack of clarity from amazon about the whole thing, and about the mention of plagiarism.
Turns out I was right to be concerned. On December 21st, I got an email from amazon thanking me for reporting a review–then I got seven more identical emails within two minutes of each other. I got on to customer service chat again, trying to explain that I had not reported any reviews, and asking someone to look into why I was getting those emails. Just like in previous occasions, I went around and around with several bots/people who didn’t seem to understand me. Finally, someone supposedly in charge said that they would make sure to reach out to community help and that someone would contact me.
Unbeknownst to me, as I was chatting with customer service, amazon sent me another email, saying that I had “repeatedly violated community guidelines” and that my ability to post reviews or comments had been revoked–and they deleted over twenty years of reviews from my account. They also told me that I could email them back if I had any questions.
It’s been six weeks, I have sent a half dozen emails, I have gotten one response–which is identical to the one from December 21.
I am not sure how long I’ll keep trying–after all, stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
All of which is a reminder that so long as we use someone else’s platform, we are subject to their whims. (She types, as she ponders WordPress…)
* * * *
(This next bit is fairly personal and frankly depressing, so feel free to skip and/or not comment on it; I appreciate the sentiment behind supportive comments, while still feeling uncomfortable being on the receiving end. I am weird and contain adversarial multitudes.)
* * * *
Work is…well, I’m grateful I’m still employed, but the existential dread the day job engenders is real; it’s become clear that the corporation is looking to eliminate my work unit entirely, certainly by the end of 2024. We are being forced to set up processes that eliminate our own positions, while still covering for the 22% of staff laid off in the last quarter of 2023, and therefore already overworked. Morale, as you can imagine, is non-existent.
So I need to start figuring out how to get a job, preferably one I can do from home, because COVID is still a thing, and LongCOVID terrifies me.
Unfortunately, the search is not looking good; my resume is pretty sad, starting with “has no college degree” and continuing with “food service was the job before the current very niche job”.
And a potential alternative that looked good at the end of 2023 has essentially vanished, so I’m feeling extra discouraged.
Having been so sick a couple of weeks ago, and with my sleep cycle still screwed up from that–I’m writing this at four am, after a three hour nap yesterday afternoon, so–my anxiety over the future is really high right now–and that’s even before thinking about the political situation in the U.S. and the world, or climate change, or, or, or.
* * * *
I am trying to continue to read; the last time things got so dark I stopped reading, there were other outlets that kept me from feeling totally isolated; twitter was a big help to me during some very dark years. Now that’s essentially gone (whether I get access to my account back or not), and the online community I once knew is too fragmented to be considered one. Reading saw me through a lot of lonely crap and various crisis over the decades, and I hope it does so now. But if it comes to pass that I’m less consistent, well, these are some of the reasons why.
* * * *
My apologies for the mostly depressing post, but as time passes in fits and stars, and I lose track of what happens when, and so on, I want some place I can look back to and know where I was at at the beginning of February 2024, so here you are.
Her Hands, My Hands 
I’d insert a sad, sympathetic emoji here if I had one. That does all sound very, very stressful. I hope a better job does appear for you. I can’t think of any helpful suggestions, other than that I have a BlueSky code if that would be of interest, since quite a lot of Romancelandia people are there. I thought you were already there, but maybe I’m confusing it with Mastodon.
❤
Many hugs, especially for the job problems. I’m very familiar with the existential dread; I quit a job at age 60 because it was killing me.
As for the Site-formerly-known-as-Twitter and the go-fund-me for Jeff Bezos’ flying penis: As a professional software developer for 40+ years, I despair at the amount of truly crappy software there is.
Thank you, my friend (and I hope life is better for you now–my eldest sibling took early retirement, with the corresponding cut on pension, for the same reason: the job was killing him).
Software: I am always stumped at how, given the sheer size of their budget, the biggest corporations have the shittiest “solutions” (often for problems they made up, so it fouls up the whole thing for vanity)
I truly feel this and am so sad you have to face this insecurity again. I swear, when it rains there’s a shitstorm coming.
::hug::
(To be precise, we’ve been on the chopping block for at least oh, five or six years; corporate has been just tightening the screws faster with every year, and now it’s full on stomping.)
I’m so sorry, my dear, to hear about the day job and I sympathize. It’s such a horrible place to be in, the uncertainty, the questions, the unknown. I am up for early retirement too, at a reduced pension and I just can’t afford it. I’m sending every good and positive thought your way that I can muster.
Thank you, Kay.
Sending all positive energy back at you (I hope you can hold on, and that things improve on the pension angle soonest)
Four years, I need to hold on for four years!
All fingers crossed, all good thoughts and energy going your way.
Hello… I’m very sad that you are feeling this way and I know very well how your brain must be now, constantly sending you all kinds of thoughts…
It’s certainly not easy to find a new job unless you have the right connections. It’s depressing to think someone else goes on about their life and doesn’t know/care others depend on his or her actions. We also have roots, whether we see them as such or not, and to radically move to search for something somewhere else cannot be that simple.
I hope something good happens, that somehow someone makes a decision that can make things better. Or that someone can be a true friend and help you even if only by praising you.
What can I say… one day at a time…
❤
Thank you.
I’m grossly behind on my blog reading, so by now I hope things are starting to look up ❤
Gentle hugs to you.
❤