Benj Edwards

The thought of potentially leaving Twitter is sad. I’ve seen a lot of people say “None or my tweets are worth saving” for them

But for me, I have quite a legacy there…it’s a living archive of personal events, achievements, friendships, photos, and some of my best ideas. A record of my career since 2009. Very hard to leave that behind

Nov 6, 2022 at 4:04amMastodon for iOS
Show threadBenj EdwardsNov 6, 2022

It’s also sad to me to see so many people think poorly of their output on Twitter. It’s a record of your personal history, and I think that’s important

For example see comments on my article here:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/10/how-to-download-a-backup-copy-of-your-twitter-data-or-deactivate-your-account/

How to download a backup copy of your Twitter data (or deactivate your account)

If you treasure your tweets, it’s easy to get a backup copy for your own safekeeping.

Ars Technica
Show threadBenj EdwardsNov 6, 2022

For people who think their Twitter output is unimportant trash—have you ever heard of a midden heap? They are literally piles of old or ancient trash, and archeologists LOVE them because they show how people lived:

https://www.thoughtco.com/midden-an-archaeological-garbage-dump-171806

Even “trash” has value

Show threadPaolo AmorosoNov 6, 2022

@benjedwards For archival purposes it might be possible to put together some tooling to download the content of a Twitter profile and republish it as, say, a blog. Maybe via RSS or the APIs.

Someone may be willing to pay for such a service.

Show threadJustinNov 6, 2022
@amoroso @benjedwards I haven't dug to deep but I don't see any reason an archive couldn't just be hosted it is basically HTML JavaScript and JSON. If I had sometime I'd look into what it would take to "post" to an archive (naively) wondering if you could just write to new tweets JSON file.
Show threadJustinNov 6, 2022
@amoroso @benjedwards No idea if there is any utility to it but it is possible to add "tweets" to the "tweets.js" JSON and have the display in the archive. Probably would want to build a different HTML wrapper because there's a lot in the archive download that people might not just want to be "open."
Show threadJustinNov 6, 2022
@amoroso @benjedwards Like DMs, the amount of data actually in the archive is quite expanded from the last time I dug into it.
Show threadJustinNov 6, 2022
@amoroso @benjedwards Seeing some indication that the JSON is just a Twitter API output so it might be possible to "Post" to that file w/the Twitter API. Taking a gander through GITHUB to see what tools/viewers folks have already been working on.
Show threadBenj EdwardsNov 6, 2022
@btj @amoroso this is a great idea. If I could host my Twitter archive publicly on vintagecomputing.com I might do it—adding to it would be a neat bonus
Show threadJustinNov 6, 2022
@benjedwards @amoroso Yeah kind of after the same thing. My initial look through GITHUB is that the existing tools are built for earlier iterations of the Twitter Archive format which seems to have changed subtly quite recently (possibly w/the edit introduction).
Show threadarcadeshopperNov 6, 2022
@benjedwards this is the problem with making your data the property of others instead of your own. The problem lies within the technology that we have developed for all of our systems running on systems that continually publicize our data instead of allowing us control over it. The whole paradigm is rife with opportunities for abuse as well as loss of information if you are removed or leave a service as you are discussing. Sure you can download it all now but then what?..
Show threadRoxana Daneshjou, MD/PhDNov 6, 2022
@benjedwards totally agree. All the conferences I’ve livetweeted. All the papers I’ve talked about…
Show threadxcudNov 6, 2022
@benjedwards back-dating posts sounds like a reasonable feature for an import tool for #mastodon
Show threadWiredfire Nov 6, 2022

@benjedwards
It doesn’t need to be left behind, as such. It can still be there even if you are more active elsewhere.

There’s a mood of must be one of the other in some corners but it really doesn’t need to be.

We can explore new and potentially interesting spaces online without abandoning exiting ones 😊

Show threadBenj EdwardsNov 6, 2022
@wiredfire yep, great point
Show threadGiselle's very old accountNov 6, 2022
@benjedwards Have you downloaded your archive? You know, just in case.
I heard from a twitter user who got banned (he doesn't know why) and he could no longer access anything, not his archive either. It is a lot of history.
Show threadBenj EdwardsNov 6, 2022
@Giagia I did get it, thanks. I wrote an article about it too
Show threadGiselle's very old accountNov 7, 2022
@benjedwards That's a relief, glad you did.
Show threadsmays.comNov 7, 2022
@benjedwards
But that archive was never really yours, was it?