Like so many other, I loved Wordle. Loved it. It was a fun quick word puzzle to do each day. Some were easier than others, but every day at midnight I waited for the new puzzle and did whatever I could to get it. Failure was not an option because I wanted to keep my Wordle streak going.
And I did. Keep in mind I am not a word puzzle guy at all. I do not do crosswords or play Scrabble. This was it for me. But the streak had me going. And I remember I was at 257 days.
The next day I played and my stats said I missed a game. My streak was at 1. I checked if I might have posted in another browser but I did not. I flipped out. Yes, I was angry about my Wordle streak that no one cared about but me. I tried to contact the New York Times, but never heard back.
After the streak, I did not play Wordle that same. Some days I played and others I did not. If I lost, then I lost. It is not that I did not care, because I wanted to solve the puzzle. But after breaking the streak, I had no desire to try again and just played for fun without caring about my stats.
So as you know, Twitter took away the verifications. They took them away and then replaced some large accounts with free Twitter Blue badges, which most spent hours explaining that did not subscribe. It was the first time in eight years my “Tony Posnanski” on Twitter was naked without wearing a shiny blue badge,
At first when I saw it I was a little sad. I can’t lie. I worked for that badge. I was proud to be verified. Did it define me? No. That is not the point.
But I realized that the badge means nothing. It really never did. Okay, so someone cannot impersonate me. But other than that, I am the talent. Not the badge.
I did not understand this until I saw those who bought a checkmark commenting. How bad and unfunny and not witty at all their comments were. I am not bashing those who buy a checkmark. Hey, you do you. I am saying it is meaningless. And I realized it always was.
People say you do not realize how good something is until it is gone. This is the opposite. I realize how I never needed one. No one really does. Not the talented ones at least.
Now, I am still verified on Post and Spoutible. And Twitter so so bad now I truly try to focus more on the other sites. It is hard to do because I am so used to Twitter and posting my art and cards. I took a massive hit with all of this, but it will be worth it in the end. I know that.
I guess for the first time in a while I am at peace with everything. No wondering what if they take my checkmark and ban me and blah blah blah.
And I am happy. Something I have not said for some time.
Thank you so much for reading. I will be posting more and more so please subscribe and consider a paid subscription with extra goodies coming soon. Also if you ever wanted to tip or support me, you can check me out here. Thanks again!
Yeah, I’m like that too, my momentum and interest can be gone in a poof, (fortunately not with people though). But I do think the disappointments take the shine off and then you’re just playing with the glued together toy..It’s a universal desire to leave Twitter, but it seems like the strangeness is that everyone isn’t moving on en masse like they did from MySpace to Facebook, there’s no one new platform that’s the safe place to land.