Marie at 1 Write Way

Technical Difficulties, or Why Won’t Musk Just Go Away Already. A brief rant.

After months of berating myself for falling behind in blogging—both writing and reading—this afternoon I made a concerted effort to “catch up.” Usually I work on my main computer, a laptop hooked to a 20-inch monitor. The large monitor allows more flexibility than working off my iPad, and I prefer to type rather than hunt and peck with my index finger. Yes, I have a separate keyboard but it’s old and finicky. (Excuses, excuses, I’ve got a million of them.)

But this afternoon I decided to do things differently.

My main computer is an excuse to procrastinate; as in, “I don’t feel like turning my computer on and having to sit properly, as if I were at work.” You see, during my last year of paid employment, I worked from home and, even though that was over two years ago, I still experience some traumatic memories. That’s not my rant, though.

My rant is this: I’ve been unable to share any of the WordPress posts I read this afternoon to Twitter. Not a one! Now, I know my posts no longer automatically go to Twitter when I publish. But, at least on my main computer, I could easily share posts to Twitter.

Maybe it’s not important whether I share on Twitter what I read on WordPress. Goodness knows I’ve muted more people than follow me on that platform. But I’m a creature of habit. I don’t like it when I can’t follow my regular routine. So, who’s to blame. WordPress or Twitter?

I blame Musk for mucking things up to begin with. Never have I seen anyone who so acts like he wants to destroy a company.

Well, if it’s an app problem, then it is what it is. If it’s a Musk problem, then … life will go on.

Thanks for listening. Your reward is a photo of my brother-in-law’s newish dog, Bailey. No, she was not named after me. Bailey was my sister’s maiden name, and it’s a fine name for a dog, too. Only 4 months old and already pushing 40 pounds, she’s an energetic and lovable pup.

Bailey, taken June 23, 2023, by Marie A Bailey

Marie A Bailey

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34 responses to “Technical Difficulties, or Why Won’t Musk Just Go Away Already. A brief rant.”

  2. I just did a quick test, sharing one of my blog posts to Twitter using the Twitter button at the bottom. It worked fine. Then I did another blogger’s post and it worked fine too.

    Tre puzzling!

    Liked by 1 person

    • You know, I’m a cat person, not a dog person, but I love Bailey ❤️ Re: Twitter. I’m thinking the problem is with how I was trying to share. I wasn’t using the buttons at the bottom of posts. I’ll try that next time around 🙂

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  4. Twitter mismanagement aside, I don’t think it would be a bad thing if friend Musk just evaporated one day. I know just what you mean by experiencing tech glitches that disrupt one’s daily routine. Throws me completely out of whack.

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  5. That is a way cute dog and that’s where I’d put my attention. If that doesn’t work, blame Musk. I don’t even like Twitter and even I think he’s set out to destroy it – but why?

    Liked by 1 person

    • Good question, Zazzy. People like Musk think that simply because they are rich they are always right. Well, they’re wrong … obviously 😉 Bailey is truly way cute. She’s a lot for my brother-in-law to handle (he’s 79), but he loves her ❤️

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  6. I bet Musk made it harder for people to share on Twitter just to be a butthead. And I can call him a butthead because I don’t have to worry about him banning me from Twitter. I was sad to leave when he took over, but I am glad I did. Good for you sharing here on good old WordPress :0)

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  8. I haven’t had any issues sharing posts to Twitter, but I can agree with you and most sane people that EM is trying to destroy Twitter. It seems like every move he makes is to that end. I’m on it mainly for the poetry.

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    • The problem appears to be how posts appear in WordPress’s Reader on my iPad. The social media buttons aren’t included as part of the post. Anyway, I’m over it. LOL. Now I’m miffed at IG because I set up to share my posts automatically over there and, of course, only part of my post is visible. Readers will have to copy and paste my blog’s URL into their browser if they want to read more, and you know they won’t (I mean, I wouldn’t so why should anyone else?). Ugh. I am so over it.

      I read this morning that Tucker Carlson interviewed Andrew Tate on Twitter. My first thought was, well, I guess I should ditch my account for good. And yet, I didn’t. I still enjoy seeing tweets from real, good people. And I want to be there if and when Twitter implodes. Musk is desperate and doing all the wrong things. The worst-case scenario is Twitter is taken down, and people will have to regroup somewhere else. Meanwhile, I like to think that I’m part of Musk’s problem because I’m still on Twitter, hanging out with people I like and ignoring the rest … and all that without a blue check ;-)

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      • WP seems to work differently on every platform! I don’t use the Reader much, and I don’t have an iPad. . .

        I pretty much only post photos on IG, and I only share them automatically with FB, not Twitter.

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        • You know I was telling someone recently about a series we started to watch on Hulu, called Devs. We’ve only watched one episode and won’t be watching the rest. One of the things that bugged me about it was how smoothly technology worked in this apparently futuristic Silicon Valley-like place. As if ;-)

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          • That’s so funny. Well, we don’t have Hulu, so I won’t worry about this one.
            Usually, technology on shows and in movies only fails when it furthers the plot. If they show is good, it’s not a problem. People can also get about in big cities in record time in fiction. 😉

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  9. A number of months ago, I lost the ability for my blog posts to automatically share to Twitter. I complained about it and somebody said it was Musk. I looked into it and it turns out that Musk dramatically increased the costs to other websites/social media platforms to integrate with Twitter. So, instead of paying the increased cost, a lot of places ditched the automatic share option.

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    • Oh, I knew about that. This is more technical, I think, a problem with either the Jetpack app on my iPad or maybe just my iPad. When I read posts through the WP Reader on my iPad, the format doesn’t show any social media buttons like Twitter or Facebook, so I was trying to share by clicking the Up arrow and then selecting Twitter. Because everyone else says they haven’t had any problems, I experimented by pulling a blog post up through the WP Reader, then “visiting” the website so I could access the Twitter button. Well, that works, but it means I have to log into Twitter and have two or more windows open on my iPad and the whole point of using my iPad was to make my life easier. It’s all about me sharing other people’s writing. As for sharing my own posts, I set up an Instagram Business account so I can automatically share to IG. Well, as you probably know, hyperlinks don’t work on IG. While part of my post is shared on IG, readers would have to copy and paste the link to read the whole post. And you know no one on IG wants to do that. Good grief. I really don’t understand why Zuck can’t have IG and FB function the same. It’s like these billionaire social media moguls want to drive us crazy … which I think they really do ;-)

      Liked by 1 person

  10. I identified with the “as if I were at work” part of this so much. I gave up writing at a desk for the same reason. Of course, my poor posture is paying the price. But for me desk = work, so out it went. Now if we could just dump Musk as easily. :)

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    • Yeah, every so often I break down and work at my desk. It is more convenient, but it’s also in the same room where I sleep ;-) But I do have a very nice view of our back yard where I sit and can be distracted by the occasional hummingbird so that’s a plus :-)

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  11. I like to use Twitter to promote my blog posts and I have had uneven experiences since Musk started messing with Twitter. Sometimes the schedule function works, sometimes not. I expect little from Twitter now and to my knowledge there isn’t a way to post directly to Threads from WP. I’m not into being hassled when it comes to blogging, just want it to all be fast and easy.

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    • My feelings as well. The consumers want things fast and easy, but the social media moguls want us stuck in a rut … that’s my impression. If Zuck really wants to compete, he will make sharing across platforms easy-peasy, but I’m not holding my breath ;-)

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  12. I feel your pain, Marie. I received a message that WP would no longer upload through the Publishing tool. So we have to do it manually. Sometimes I forget to do it.

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