I finally quit Twitter since it is filled with crap
Try “Elongated Musketoon”! (Updated 2023/09/21)
The good news is that I’m starting to draw art and manga again! The bad news is Twitter (currently rebranding to and later known as X) went to crap as I saw people leaving Twitter, not just big names alone. I will still have my portfolio powered by Adobe Portfolio and a webcomic site (as a mirror from Tapas) powered by WordPress using Toocheke Premium. I’m not going to pay $8 USD/month for X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue). Elon Musk did say he’s moving to require everyone to pay a monthly fee to use Twitter/X. I’m not paying for that crap.
Twitter has increasingly become a platform that is filled with crap: rampant hate speech, conservative crap, directly harming many of those who are in the LGBTQ+ community, amplifying misogyny and racist crap, propagates the spread of misinformation (not just the misinformation of COVID-19), AI art crap, and NFT crap. I’m a straight ally, and I’m extremely liberal about what they want to do with their lives. As a respected freelance illustrator, manga artist, and character designer who has been away from the public eye for months because I had to hold the ladder for my father between mid-March and early April, it’s not worth it for everyone on Twitter to risk misinformation, restoring conservative voices, misogyny and racism, hate speech, fake news, AI-generated art, and pro-NFTs. I used Twitter a lot since I created my account back in 2007 but I had to go to school and do other things until graduation in 2011. I draw stuff for seriousness rather than fun since many millennials and Zoomers quit their day jobs (including retail jobs), and no one seems to be manning the ship. I used to have a DeviantArt account but not anymore.
Enter Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky
People have jumped ship for Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky. Threads and Bluesky are still smartphone-only, and Bluesky is still invite-only. The Twitter/Elon saga is becoming a “SpaceX Crime Family” of some sort. Twitter was never the largest social network as Parag Agrawal banned conservative voices on Twitter until Mr. Musk fired him. He wants to charge money for verified checkmarks for $8/USD a month, which people will not stand for. If you have a Mastodon, you own your data and Mr. Musk will have a hard time finding you. Mr. Musk owns your data on Twitter (tweets, DMs, replies…), and it’s set to lose 32 million users and would double the amount. I use and draw with proprietary software as I use Clip Studio Paint a lot. I’m on a proprietary operating system such as Windows before I moved to macOS exclusively, and I don’t use Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (though I did in the past). I don’t want my artwork to be used to generate AI images as it can give them nightmares unless we need a plan to take the Facebook AI art groups and Discord AI art communities offline permanently.
I can’t allow the cesspool of hatred, NFT crap, and AI art crap to continue. They still won’t remove harmful tweets or users after reporting them as the email will say “After reviewing the available information, we want to let you know [name or alias goes here] hasn’t broken our safety policies.” All future posts on Shinkansen Retrogamer will be shared on Facebook and Spoutible. What I still have is Instagram (which I will be very active), as well as Tumblr (art blog), Behance (also very active), ArtStation, Twitch, TikTok, and Facebook. I have my own Discord server. I rather live in urban Japan rather than in rural Japan. I’m still planning to subscribe to Creative Cloud and purchase more commercial fonts from the MyFonts website.
In the end, it’s time to say goodbye to Twitter, and I’m outta here! Zuck isn’t dumb. Zuck is fantastic and he’ll kick your (GR)ASS!
Update 2023/08/18: I now have a Mastodon account (@samuraicory@mstdn.social)!
Please note that this post is not a call to pressure any individuals or projects to follow my decision. I’ll never blame anyone for using free and open-source art programs such as GIMP, Inkscape, or Krita (though I don’t use free and open-source programs at all, and I don’t use Linux or Ubuntu).
