So my old pal Sam (@svdodge) tweeted about an annoying feature of Twitter…
Now, Sam’s a smart guy, but I wondered if at what level this “feature” annoyed him… He may have been joking, but he did offer to pay (a small amount) to have this “feature” removed.
When I come across something I don’t like, I want to change it. I want to fix it, I want to make it not annoy me.
Luckily, with the web… this is possible. It’s possible due to the work others have done who felt the same way, who felt that users should be in control of their experience.
So I followed up with the following, suggesting a Greasemonkey or Stylish solution:
But that wasn’t enough for me.. so in the tradition of Let me google that for you I headed over to userscripts.org, found a script, installed it, tested it, and tweeted again:
I hope it works for you Sam!
Now, as for the reason I did this? It wasn’t just to help a friend, and it wasn’t to show off how damn smart I am (I mean, that’s questionable, right?) The reason I did it was because I believe in keeping the web free and open. I believe in building a better Internet, and helping people take control.
These ideas align with those of Mozilla, btw… and it’s one more reason I’m sticking with Firefox as my browser (and Mozilla) instead of abandoning it for Chrome or Safari, or another browser created by a for-profit company interested in controlling my browsing experience. Mozilla was there for us, they saved us from the big bad IE Monster, and helped keep the web open and free, and they’re still doing that, and I want to help them… If you want to join me, get in touch.