Twitter will delete unused accounts

colak · 2019-11-27 12:34:02

Twitter is to begin a massive ‘clean-up’ of profiles on its service, wiping away people who do not use their account.
That could include people who have died, whose profiles can be of great sentimental value to their loved ones.
the independent

Should we try to archive Dean’s account? Does anybody know how?

gaekwad · 2019-11-27 12:41:54

Last archived January 2019:

web.archive.org/web/20190105205654/https:/twitter.com/textism

colak · 2019-11-27 13:00:52

Hi Pete, the problem with the WBM is that it does not load the older posts. If you scroll to the bottom and try to load more, nothing happens.

gaekwad · 2019-11-27 13:02:19

This might be worth a spin: gist.github.com/yanofsky/5436496

colak · 2019-11-27 13:40:17

hmmm… That’ll be all greek to me but the main question for this thread was: should we as a community try to save all of Dean’s twitter timeline (which is actually not that long) and archive it in one of our (sub)domains?

bici · 2019-11-27 18:13:32

i think we need access to his account to do an archive:

First, Archive Your Tweets
On your computer, visit your Twitter Settings page.
Scroll down and select “Request Your Archive.”
When archiving is complete (it may take a while), click the “Download Now” link sent to the email address associated with your Twitter account.
Download the . zip file to your computer.

how to archive twitter

etc · 2019-11-27 19:50:35

I’ve heard Twitter has plans to archive orphan accounts, though dunno how they would do it.

phiw13 · 2019-11-27 23:21:25

So Twittwat already put their plan on “Pause” according to this BBC article

Considering how to archive a tweeter feed might still be good though, if you think it matters.

(I don’t think Dean would be overtly bothered if his tweeting days disappeared for ever; he himself removes some of his projects IIRC. I know I would not be happy if someone forced archived my things like that.)

gaekwad · 2019-11-28 16:11:36

My theory – and you should take this with a healthy pinch of tin foil – this is about advertising and engagement.

Think about it – dormant accounts are not engaging with Twitter, and although the cost to maintain might be negligible, there’s no money being made from quiet accounts. So, use the (perfectly valid) reason of agreeing to the new ToS as start, then the threat (weasel word) of deactivation if you don’t do it, this scares sufficient numbers of ‘good’ people to log in and reset that timer. Some will re-engage, having forgotten about their account, and advertisers have a bunch of eyeballs and new metrics to play with.

Agreeing to a ToS change can be done at any time the user logs in, a requirement to use the service, but it’s not time-sensitive (unless I’m missing some legislation change). It’s not GDPR-related, we hashed that out last year, so…it’s either a tone deaf attempt to boost the monthly active users for the internal reports, or more advertiser eyeballs, or something else.

What irked me, since you didn’t ask, was the number of people saying they were waiting for a certain username to become available again so they could grab it and squat it just in case, and they got grumpy when Twitter changed their mind. Entitlement to the max.

(Disclosure: I don’t like Twitter. I used to, but now I don’t.)

colak · 2019-11-28 19:00:07

Although our org is using twitter and fb, we only do it because of the outreach. I hate all social media, as they only exist to monetize their users. The issue here is not our views about social media but to discuss if we as a community, should try to archive Dean’s tweets, some of which offer a glimpse of who he was as a person.

bici · 2019-11-28 22:09:29

colak wrote #320306:

…should try to archive Dean’s tweets, some of which offer a glimpse of who he was as a person.

agreed. i have reached out to his widow to check on her wishes/objections and to see if there are credentials to the account to be had.

phiw13 · 2019-11-29 02:18:23

gaekwad wrote #320304:

[…]

Thanks for that. I haven’t followed the whole discussion at all, actually, except for an occasional article in other media. But yeah “dead bodies don’t produce much engagement with our beloved advertisers and trackers” is a more than a good explanation. And then backtracking a little – “ look, look how nice we are, listening to the users.”

was the number of people saying they were waiting for a certain username to become available again so they could grab it and squat it just in case, and they got grumpy when Twitter changed their mind. Entitlement to the max.

Really, where the precious few already on it? Confirms my opinion of them – lowly lowly (censored).

bici wrote #320308:

agreed. i have reached out to his widow to check on her wishes/objections and to see if there are credentials to the account to be had.

Yeah, that was what I was hinting. Both the legal and ethical implications, and the opinion and permissions of direct stakeholders (widow/family/…); then the technical feasibility.

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