WordPress.com discontinuing Twitter Auto-Share

While I was scheduling a post for RealityFragments.com I noticed that the auto-tweet functionality was no longer being done by WordPress.com.

Of course I looked into it, not because I’m a fan of Twitter – I wasn’t before Musk took it over and began breaking everything – but because it is an avenue that at least some people I interact with check in at. The auto-share was often a way to let people know I was still alive.

Why is the auto-share being turned off on WordPress.com? Costs, of course.

“In early April, we experienced an unexpected suspension of our Twitter API access. This access is what powers Jetpack Social, which in turn helps you automatically share your blog posts to Twitter. Though the service was restored that same day, it turns out that there were bigger changes looming on the horizon. 

Twitter recently notified Automattic that it was dramatically changing the terms and pricing of the Twitter API. The cost increase is prohibitive for us to absorb without passing a significant price increase along to you, and we don’t see that as an option. We have attempted to negotiate a path forward, but haven’t been able to reach an agreement in time for Twitter’s May 1 cutoff. 

Given that, we have decided to discontinue using the Twitter API.”

Why Twitter Auto-Sharing Is Coming to an End“, WordPress.com Blog, accessed on April 19th, 2023.

It went on to suggest checking out Tumblr, so I dusted off the old Tumblr account – and content from both RealityFragments.com and KnowProSE.com should be showing up here now.

Having never really used Tumblr, I expect there will be a learning curve involved, so please pardon me while I break things.

If You Boost Content.

Brick-Moji Thinking face by Ochre Jelly on Flickr - public domain Aug 4 2022Out of the blue last week, someone I knew said they knew a way that I could get the site to make $500 a  month if I simply continued thrashing out content like a mad monkey.

Well, that’s not exactly what he said, but that’s how I read it. Of course, he wanted to schedule a meeting to talk about how this could be done and… well, I’m a person who reads and evaluates, not talks and evaluates. Something of worth in my mind sells itself and meetings are… well, let’s be honest. Meetings aren’t very exciting and I avoid them unless absolutely necessary.
This leads to things I have been considering over the past month or so as I wrote a lot but published nothing on the web. I have this idea I’m fleshing out and I don’t want to jump the gun on it – and oddly enough it started off as a post I was writing for RealityFragments.com.

I’m more focused on the reading and writing now than the publishing and monetization. There’s also this pressure on the Internet to write frequently when I’d rather take my time and be happy with what I put out for a variety of reasons. When something comes with money, it generally asks for a bias and I’d rather the bias be mine or the readers, or a combination of the two. Money can easily change that when someone wants to pay you. This isn’t my first rodeo.

What also happens with such things is that for lack of something to write, you end up rewriting, and if I have written about something I generally don’t revisit it until something has changed. I don’t write reviews of technology because you only really know how good a technology is until years later. Hype, as it is, is overhyped.

However, what I was pointing out was how silly it is that, being in Trinidad and Tobago, I would have to start a company in the United States to get paid by Stripe for WordPress, etc. And that’s a problem I think that can and perhaps should be avoided. I am slowly working on some solution(s) on that.