So farewell then, Twittter

 I have had a presence on Twitter since 2009.  I wrote about it here:

<pre-script>
I came late to Twitter, though late is relative (I followed Stephen Fry ...

<apologia>
Don't judge. I'm not just a star-struck celebrity-stalker. we are fellow near-contemporaries (a few years apart) at CU Footlights, and have a number of connections and interests in common.
</apologia>

...before he reached 20,000 followers and he's now at about 13 million). At the 2008 Language Show I saw a talk given by the amazing Joe Dale, and he recommended it. But I resisted until I saw him again at the 2009^PPS Language Show, and since then I've been an aficionado and a user (rather more than some might wish....) 

... 

^PPS With some regret, I have cancelled my @BobK99 account (because of Twitter's new Ts&Cs, the gist of which is "Everything you write or link to is ours to do with as we will, and we have the right to pass it on willy-nilly to third parties of our choice"), keeping my toe in the water ...

</pre-script>

That 'toe in the water' was an account called @leBobEnchaine. (Sadly, twitter tags couldn't handle diacritics.)

<aha> 
A cheap alternative to a guard dog is a chained duck, which makes a fuss when anyone comes near. 

Hence, I realized when coining this monicker, Le Canard Enchaîné (which shouted out a warning whenever poiticians did their usual thing). Maybe there was a tradition in France of using chained ducks like this, or maybe the satirical periodical just thought it would be a good idea. For Further Study...

 

 

</aha>

<aha2 type="totally irrelevant”>    
It's just struck me that the dunnock is the original 'Little Brown Job', as birders say; dun means brown and  -ock is a diminutive suffix. They don't come littler or browner than a dunnock.
</aha2>

Then along came Elon Musk, wantonly (not to say wastefully) changing the name and disturbing his neighbours' sleep patterns with a garish sign that trumpeted his wastefulness. NBC News reporrted:

Flashing 'X' sign at Twitter building is taken down

The flashing “X” sign above the San Francisco building formerly known as Twitter’s headquarters has been removed, video shows, days after it went up and caused complaints about the nighttime display.

... San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection issued a notice of violation Friday after the "X", which did not have a permit, was erected on the roof, department spokesman Patrick Hannan said.

There had been 24 complaints made about the sign over the weekend, including because its lights, he said

Not only conspicuous consumption but conspicuous waste. 'I've got money to burn and I don't care if the great unwashed can't get to sleep.'

But much worse than this was his evisceration of the staff that kept the lid on the most flagrant hate-speech, generally firing the starting pistol on a race to the bottom. This has made it less and less comfortable to be a part of the community.

Meanwhile, Newscast has for several months been espousing an extension to its community, based on an app with the unpromising (not to say unappetising) name discord; so unappetising is it that until now I have resisted Newscast's repeated invitations to sign up. I don't want discord (the abstract noun, not the app); that's what the new Twitter is about – discord and trollery and unbridled misinformation and ill-informed reflex pile-ons.

<parenthesis>
When I first met this neologism (fairly recently) I tried to make the meaning of pylon fit; and I think the term 'neologism' is justified. The verb 'pile on' has been around for over a century: Etymonline says 

'Figurative verbal phrase pile on "attack vigorously, attack en masse," is attested by 1894, American English

But this excerpt from  Collins suggests that the noun (hyphenated if you don't mind) is a much more recent coining: 21st century, I'd say.

</parenthesis>

So I'm leaving Twitter to its own devices and dipping my toe in discord (the app, not the abstract noun)

b.