August 14, 2023: Your Account Has Been Locked!

Yesterday morning, I woke up to the news that my twitter account had been locked.  I experienced a trifecta of emotions in rapid succession: disbelief, anger, then relief.  Disbelief because my twitter feed is relatively benign – unless you happen to be a politician.  Anger at the thought of the 12+ years of tweeting history that would disappear.  And then, ultimately, relief at the prospect that destiny had decided my fate and that I would no longer have to spend hours seeking out enlightening material for daily tweets like #THISDAYINSUPERVILLAINHISTORY, #UNUSUAL DEATHS, #ARCHAICINSULTOFTHEDAY, rhe Test Your Spaceship IQ thread (that is now roughly 450 spaceships deep) and, of course, the weird culinary Yes?No.  I figured with my twitter gone, I would probably delete facebook (which I rarely use) and instagram (which I only use to cross-post Stargate-related clips).  Eventually, whenever that Stargate reboot happens, reddit as well.  However, in terms of time and effort, twitter has been a big investment and losing access to it would free things up.  On the one hand, there’s nothing better for immediate access and interaction with fandom, and it’s a great, instant source of information.  On the other hand, it just sucks up so much of my day.  So, in the end, it was a bittersweet acceptance.

Until I read on an realized it was only temporarily locked.

When I first saw the notification, I immediately assumed it was the Germans.  But, no, it wasn’t the Germans.  It was a copyright strike against me for a k-pop video clip I posted sometime last year.  I was directed to the strike notice and then, presuming I’d been sufficiently chastised, TPTB restored access to my account.

The copyright strike is weird.  I feature a portion of a song (often considerably less than an iTunes sampling) and always offer links back to the original Music Video as well as links to purchase or stream the song.  I, perhaps incorrectly, assumed it would be a great way for the artists to get a little exposure in a new market.

Stranger still, the song that was copyright was for a group that is now defunct.

Anyway, all this to say…carry on.

Today’s Yes/No…