This post was under construction for a few days. Now I have my X download so I will see you over on Bluesky where I am warwicklanguage.bsky.social
We all have our limits. Our red lines which cannot be crossed. Those moments when we can no longer bite our tongue or stand by without making our feelings known. This week I have reached my “no more” moment with the platform formerly known as Twitter. I joined in October 2009 and as of today I follow 8,478 people and have 7,828 followers. For the most part it has been a fruitful and positive experience. Recently the changes have become so abhorent and the ownership by Elon Musk is very much to blame. There has always been trolls on the platform, I was kicked off once thanks to some less than honest behaviour by others. At that time it was possible to raise a complaint and to see justice done. Now I doubt the same transparency would apply. I have been moving organisational use away from what is now X over the last year but remained in a personal capacity. Now we have the devastating news that Trump will return to the Whitehouse and that result was supported by Musk, who will no doubt benefit from his alliance. There’s no doubt that EM sees X as a way to exert influence and spread fake news, and I have seen way too many Blockchain/Crypto accounts springing up, all hoping to fleece the rest of us. Indeed the world’s richest man (currently EM) is also increasing his fortune on the back of sales of “authentication” by blue tick.
Of course, I am not the first to reach peak tolerance of this platform. James Plunkett shared his thoughts back in August this year and a subsequent post reflected a general move away. Today I requested my zip files from my @warwicklanguage account so I will publish this post once I have that history. I have embeds that will crash and need replacing and no doubt some moments will be lost forever. It has been 15 years. I hope that my accounts on Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn and Instagram will mean that I can continue relationships which have built up over the years. Having now retired my focus is more on open practice than on my former role teaching French but I maintain my links to EUROCALL and UNICollaboration.
https://openbadgepassport.com/app/profile/page/view/22771
I will also continue my support for the wonderful education/HE/edtech community known as #LTHEchat. Thanks to Sue Beckingham and the amazing tweeps here a community emerged which connected us all, changing lives and teaching for the better over the years. Thanks to the creation of the following lists, it will be easier than ever for those on Bluesky to find each other:
So time has come to move on, away from the billionnaires who would control and use us. Away from the trolls (they will still be there of course – just block and report). If we are to thrive we need to continue to collaborate. Oh and here’s something I read earlier on that theme!
Espace Sisyphe 