Thanks for all your emails and comments. You’ve all been really nice and overwhelmingly supportive of my decision to leave Twitter. When I say “all”, I’m obviously not including @misterdevans, whose comments on the subject have marked him out as the kind of twisted shitbag I’ll be very glad to see the back of. Not that people like this don’t exist in real life but social networks do tend to amplify them, which is unfortunate.
I didn’t quit Twitter because it was nasty or because I didn’t like the people or because Stephen Fry said he was going to(!). I left purely and simply because I have a heap of deadlines coming up between now and Christmas and I needed to get rid of as many distractions as possible. I like Twitter, maybe too much, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist spending time on there if the option still existed.
I hope everyone understands and that no one feels slighted or abandoned. I was one of millions of people on Twitter. I had 1500 followers and I followed about 150 people. I’m sure the loss won’t be felt too badly. As I’ve said previously, I’ll still be talking to people via email and in person – it’s not as if I fucking died, people! If you want to get hold of me but don’t have an e-mail address, just leave a comment on here – they come straight through to my email account so I will see them.
Now, pull yourselves together. There’ll be no more blubbing and wailing and renting of clothes; there’s coffee to be drunk, cigarettes to be smoked and words to be written…
Begone.
There was blubbing and wailing and renting of clothes. Damn it I knew I forgot something. I will be right back.
I am truly sorry to see you go. I will miss your tweets very much. In case I never get the chance to talk to you again I will just say that I wish you all the best and support you totally.
You kick ass.
Thanks so much. I’m not saying never. And I’ll be on this site for the foreseeable future so stick around
Merry Christmas.
@maybeitwasutah is the one who misses you the most. Word.
I can definitely understand why you left, my dear Sir. I occasionally consider it myself. It might sound a bit high-falutin’ to some – especially people who think writers spend most of our time doing bugger all – but we need pockets of quality thinking time. These days, there are more and more Twitter-style distractions with which to fill those vital pockets. I salute you for taking those pockets back.
..sheesh was out of touch with twitter for 5 days, come back and you’ve gone, SJP seems to have gone and every other tweet is someone begging Stephen Fry NOT to go. Totally understand your PoV. maybe we could coffee sometime – I am about 3 miles north of you I think.
should identify myself more… er..PPMW on Twitter
Like I said on the previous blog entry – fire in the hole! CoD Modern Warfare 2 Nov10.
Sounds as though you’ve made a sane and grown-up decision there (boring!! … but necessary). I will miss your Twitter presence. Bon courage in channelling your thinking/writing energy into something more pointful.
I’ve only just learnt of your Twitterish demise. A sad, but understandable loss of both you and Miss Pinborough from the community. I look forward to following your work in the future.
Jana just told me about your cold turkeyness! The balance of the twitter force has now become unstable, I may need to start giving @lucekd some abuse!
Anyhoo, hopefully on my next visit to the big smoke I might be able to buy you a real life beer? Oh and sometime we should finish off ‘Tom Thumb’ 
The only thing I was disappointed about with your leaving Twitter was that there wasn’t a set of pithy/sweary posts before the departure (Well, no more than usual, anyway)
Totally understand your reasons though – it’s *way* too easy to get distracted by it.
You’ll be missed, but I’ll read here instead.
I wondered where you had gone – suddenly my tweet-stream was curiously bereft of vulgarity and blunt opinions. I’ll just have to subscribe to your rss feed now…
“Twisted shitbag”? Is that the best I get? I am sorely disappointed at your restraint in assessing my character. Everyone knows I am far worse than that. Shame on you for your timidity!!
PS… why don’t you just buy your clothes instead of renting them? It’s more cost effective.