SNAFU/FUBAR

Imagine tweet here from rschooley here:

So I guess we’re at the “What’s broken on Twitter today?” Portion of our user experience. 

I don't usually bitch about Twitter malfunctioning, because I don't use Twitter.  I embed tweets because it's easy, pictorial (I started decorating these posts years ago.  The really old ones look naked, to me.  A shameful sight.), and it was hard to embed links on my phone (still is but I figured it out, finally.  Tweets are still easier.)

I've been embedding tweets since early this morning.  But as of just a few minutes ago, all attempts to embed a tweet return an error message which is long, in typescript, runs on to the limits of the screen, and is absolute gobbledygook.  I'm sure Elmo would post it with a sage response like "Indeed" or "Obviously." And have no more clue what it means than I do.

The irony is I wanted to post schooley's tweet recognizing that "Houston, we have a problem."  Which reassured me it's not just me, and confirmed to me Twitter is in meltdown again (most of the time I don't notice because, as I say, I only use it to embed tweets).

Or course, I can't even embed his tweet (ever have that experience when you lose power and you go the darkened room and flick the light switch automatically and uselessly?  Or decide to turn on the TV to find out what's going on?  Yeah, it was that experience.)

Wait: Bart Gellman, via Josh Marshall, has  the same error message:

Elon broke something else. This is what I’m getting today when I tap links in the Twitter iOS app:

{"errors":[{"message":"Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint, please see https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api… for more information","code":467}]} 

Again, I'd post the tweet proper, but....

The first time I read it, I thought maybe it was because I won't pony up for "Verified Twitter."  Clearly it's not just me, though.  I'm also guessing it doesn't affect people retweeting people...then again, I have no idea how to do that.  I'm curious because Josh managed to embed Gellman's tweet, but his tweet and several otheres now have large blank colored spaces in them, where obviously something was meant to be.  A picture or another tweet, though, I can't tell which.  Aaron Rupar has posted two tweets in the past 20 minutes with video that won't even load a still shot.  I think the Titanic finally hit that iceberg everyone was talking about.

DeSantis steals a phrase from Musk, says the left has "woke mind virus."

Aaron's latest tweet.  One wonders:  what mind virus, pray tell, does Twitter have? 

emptywheel has thoughts (which I can only quote):

Elmo broke Twitter again.

He's punishing us bc 40% of Tweeps left when the Nazis showed up.

Who knows, from hour to hour, whether their Tesla or their space rocket will just stop working all of a sudden because the billionaire overlord can't figure out how to make Nazis profitable?

f I could link I would link to that Beeb article saying things would start to break like this, especially the things designed to keep children safe from exploitation. So consider your inability to follow a link one of the LESS damaging things that might be going on rn.

Let us now thank Elmo for saving Twitter.

Twitter support urges us all to remain calm:

Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.

Something about the road to hell and good intentions comes to mind. Even Twitter support can't manage to post the image of the halpless technician tangled in the wires that TV stations used to default to in times like these.  Progress!