So it looks like I've managed to free myself from eXtwitter.

So it looks like I've managed to free myself from eXtwitter.

From their point of view, I suppose, I've managed to get my self in eXtwitter jail.

Some joker was handing out a lot of inane insults to anyone who disagreed with him, and his "friend" congratulated him. And he bragged that it was "fish in a barrel".

Really inane insults. Like 

We say it's so, and we are always right, so you're dumb!!!!

level inane. And worse.

Just to remind anyone who reads this, "fish in a barrel" is short for something along the lines of 

It's as easy as for me as shooting fish in a barrel.

 So I responded with 

So you think it's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, do you?

Well, you just shot yourself in the face.

Good thing your ammunition was only paintballs.

Except I abbreviated a bit:

"fish in a barrel".

Shot yourself in the face.

Good thing it was a "paintball"

Even in full grammar, yeah, it's pretty savage criticism. I acknowledge that. But a breech of rules? Abusive? Violent? Compared to the usual insult fest?

And apparently eXTwitter has some automatic bad language recognizer that can't parse English tenses and (not surprisingly) can't parse metaphors, and flagged it, automatically freezing my account. Said it was violent and abusive.

What?

If I had said

Go shoot yourself in the face!

that would be violent and abusive. But you have to be unable to parse past tense to read it that way.

I suppose the very topic of "shooting" is a dangerous topic, but, if that's the case, how is "fish in a barrel" allowed? Unless the bot is so illiterate as to not know where the expression "fish in a barrel" comes from. Maybe it associates the phrase with fesikh, or maybe with kingyo sukui. Or maybe it just has no semantic linkage for phrases at all.

Then it sent me an automated email telling me that, if I wanted to be a good little eXtwitterer and get my account back, I could delete the offending post.

Or I could appeal, but the language style (I fun my computer in Japanese.) indicated that appeals are frowned upon.

So I tried an appeal, but the whole process was in Japanese, leaving me unclear as to whether to use English or Japanese, and the appeal itself is length-limited like eXtwitter is, and whatever human examined my appeal apparently had just as much problem parsing English grammar and metagrammar as the automated gadget, or maybe just decided she (or he) didn't like my point of view.

So my first appeal was rejected.

Now, I will acknowledge, when people make inane comments at the level I am describing here, it's probably wisest to assume they can't parse abbreviated grammar, can't deal with strong metaphors, etc.

And since eXtwitter conversations tend to descend quickly to that level of inanity, I should not use abbreviated grammar, and I should choose less strong metaphors, unabbreviated, like 

You just shot yourself in the foot.

Although I'm not sure I want to hope eXtwitter's auto-nanny 'bot is capable of recognizing that's a metaphor, either. How do you teach a 'bot what metaphors mean?

But, as a metaphor, the problem with this hypothetically easy target game is 

• one, it destroys barrels of fish;
• two, salt water and fish fragments and possibly barrel fragments tend to splash back at the wielder of the gun;
• and, three, if there's enough water, the fish are swimming and the water gets in the way. You're not really guaranteed to hit the fish unless they are dead and packed fairly tightly, and, if they are packed tightly, fish fragments really splash all over.

And fish fragments turn smelly really quickly.

So, you get wet, covered with fish guts, and quite possibly injure yourself from barrel flack. 

And your face is the part of you that is most likely to get the splashback.

So,if you make a habit of shooting fish in a barrel, you're quite likely to shoot yourself in the face.

And if you make a habit of confusing paintballs with bullets -- or with fish, well, ...

Anyway, ...

Yeah, if I value my eXtwitter account, I would swallow my pride and say, all the above is not a reason to have to have my account frozen. 

Even if it amounts to giving in to the eXtwitter nannies and letting them continue believe they don't really have to think to do their jobs.

But, you see, it's been about a week, they haven't replied to my second appeal, and my account is still frozen, and ...

I've been significantly more productive and happier with life over this past week.

No useless arguing with people who aren't interested so much in arguing as asserting that they, themselves, are the rightest of the right. Or the baddest of the bad or whatever. It would allow me much more effective use of my time, and much less need to be exasperated with how so many people seem to be satisfied with living uninspired and uninspiring lives.

I'm not sure I want back on eXtwitter.

If I do, though, I need to commit myself to a different approach. Telling people how wrong they are is a fool's game.

[JMR202410040632 addendum:] 

I'm inclined to delete the post, and get back on just long enough post the above as my final post, and turn my back to eXtwitter permanently.

Microblogging really isn't appropriate for anything but headlines and vanity. 

People try to use it for 'blogging, dialog, and such, but the format is too short, and the threading is too opaque. 

You really can't have a conversation, much less follow it. The most you can do is pretend to argue, but since it's about making short vanity pronouncements. It's all one-way.

And the moderation is the same -- their way or the highway. That's the archetype of abusive relationships.

It's not unreasonable to assert that eXtwitter is one of the root causes of the current fractious and tendentious political climate.

Could Elon fix eXtwitter? Could he make it a medium of actual eXchange?

Hard to say. Make microblogging an index to other services? 

Maybe have it offer to switch to a full blogging platform (WordPress?) when a reply starts exceeding the microblogging limit? 

Maybe let it index out to a dialog platform (something like slashdot) when the thread gets longer than five replies?

Definitely get the moderators to learn how to parse and communicate in English and the language they are supposed to be supporting. Arrange for on-the-job training, if necessary. Management probably needs to have the same kind of training, though, is my guess.

in it's present form, it just needs to go away. 

[JMR202410040632 addendum  end.]

 [JMR202411052002(JCST) addendum:]

Let's see if I can steer clear of the factionalism this time.

I feel like I'm being forced to "admit" the post was somehow against their rules. 

But they have not responded to my requests for a review. Been more than a month, and I need to update my profile.

Or maybe just delete the account and really get myself free of the twits. . Something to think about.

[JMR202411052002(JCST) addendum end.]