Let me start this off with the obvious. Most of you have no clue why I am verified. Hell, sometimes I do not even know why I am verified. But I have been verified on Twitter for close to ten years. In 2014, Twitter gave me a verification badge because I wrote a couple of viral stories and one of them went international. I had around 5000 followers at the time, and never used Twitter because I was busy with a verified Facebook page of over 100,000 followers and a blog that had around two million hits a month.
But then I got lazy online. I wanted to pursue writing, but I bought into a company instead. It was supposed to be my final destination and at the time made really good money, much more than I would have if I did writing full time. So, like most people on Twitter, I became a Trump reply guy.
Most people who are popular now hate to admit that they were Trump reply guys. They are bought by Super PAC’s now and act like they are just people who are witty and politically knowledgeable. But, I know the truth. They would wait for Trump to tweet, skim the tweet, reply as quickly as they could, and watch the likes and followers go up. Yes, I went from 5000 followers to 200000 followers quickly. I abandoned Facebook. I stopped writing. My company went under. And all I had was Twitter.
Because of this, there was a huge hatred for people with “legacy” checkmarks. I would get the '“Why are you verified?” all the time. I was known as a blue tick. And then it trickled down when Elon bought Twitter, and he decided that noteworthy people do not deserve to be recognized because people like me had a checkmark.
So anyone can buy a checkmark for eight bucks. Or is it eleven bucks? Or is it 120.99 a year? I cannot keep up. And for months, Elon has been threatening to take away all legacy checkmarks. And supposedly , on April 1st, that is exactly what is going to happen. Twitter has announced all legacy checkmarks will be gone unless you buy Twitter Blue.
Look, I am going to share an unpopular opinion, but I actually love Twitter Blue. I had it before this dumb verification shit went down. I loved the undo/edit feature. I loved the customization. I loved no ads. It was worth it.
But I refuse to be threatened every day to pay or else.
I am actually extremely happy my verification is going away. For many reasons. One, I hate having to press the blue badge to see if someone is real or full of shit. I will now know all people who have a blue badge are full of shit. I also do not feel I am a notable person. I am not saying this to insult myself. But if you go up to someone on the street and ask who Tony Posnanski is, no one does.
But what it also does is makes me realize I got lazy. For seven years I stopped writing. I took the instant gratification of posting a “MAGA BAD” tweet for like rather than spend some time researching a topic just so two hundred people could read it.
And now that my company went under, my verification is going away, and I have no where to go, I am starting over.
I am writing more and more on here. Trying to at least. I think more of my social commentary belongs here along with my weight loss updates, and baseball. I need to focus on that aspect. I should not have stopped years ago. But it is never too late to start over.
So I pray my verification goes away. I am not notable.
At least not yet. Not yet.
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I'm persuaded! I have a paid-for blue check because I, too, like the edit features, etc. But screw it! Canceling it. Fuck Twitter.
Ever since Elon bought Twitter it has genuinely not been the same. We all know that. I rarely check Twitter any more because of this.