Abused By An Internet Service. And I keep Taking It.

Some weeks ago I was introduced to Twitter, which is billed as a "micro-blogging" web service. When I first saw it about a year ago I really didn't quite get what it was all about. Later I learned that many of the photographers I talked to on Flickr were into Twitter as well, so I thought I'd try it out.

It didn't take long until I was addicted. Twitter is essentially a cross between instant messaging and blogging. It's like instant messaging with an RSS feed. You don't normally select who you want to send your instant message to, but the people who are interested in what you have to say will subscribe to your twitter feed. This means that anything you say can be read by anyone else if they are so inclined.

Soon I found I was being followed by such people as Abbie Lundburg, chief editor for C.I.O. magazine and Guy Kawasaki, one of the original founders of Apple.

That's when the problems started...

Twitter is built on Ruby on Rails, which in my mind just screams way too much overhead. Twitter has grown so fast they've hit a point that they can't manage their current traffic, much less any more growth. Some days there's an 80% chance that you'll get an error page from Twitter rather than anything usable.

And I just can't figure out how to leave the service. I've got too much emotionally invested in Twitter to jump to another service. I mean, what chance would I ever have of Guy Kawasaki actually seeing something I wrote anywhere else?