dealing with twitter
 

when twitter asks for a phone number on an account set up with an email address (still valid) why would twitter always ask for a phone number? how do i tell twitter that i don't have a phone?

I doubt that would do any good. The requests are likely automated and they probably wouldn't believe you in any event.

Here's what Twitter has to say about why it wants your phone number: https://help.twitter.com/en/managing...ne-number-faqs

Aside: I don't use Twitter. I heard an interview with one of the founders of Twitter on NPR 15 or so years ago (so I don't remember which one it was), where he nattered on about how Twitter would enhance the discourse and contribute to the polity.

Yeah.

Right.

You probably have to hop through a lot of hoops, if it is even possible. Keep in mind that Twitter and its ilk are about mass manipulation of public opinion and that works easiest when they can associate every post with a unique individual.

One recommendation, albeit from a guy who sells phones is to use the cheapest phone possible (you can get them for a few dollars new) with a separate SIM card and a pre-paid plan, and use a unique phone+SIM combination for each major account. He's got a few other interesting tips too though his presentation style is always a bit ranty.

There may also be phone programs (not Google Voice, but similar) which might be able to provide you with a spare phone number. But some of those are going to be tied to a credit card. :/ Again, it's about being able to track and politically manipulate public opinion at a mass scale.

2FA

And as the previous responses have pointed out, it also makes it more difficult for a single person to create a lot of accounts.

Both of these are good things.

how many is "a lot". i have 10 accounts. is that "too many", IYO? the Twitter policy said it allows multiple accounts, though it did not say anything about how many is too many. I have use these to split up my follows into categories. one of the is my nickname here. another one follows politicians (they don't follow me). another follows my family (they do follow me).

completely separate accounts may be easier for them than supporting multiple names within i single account. i would have built a system more like the latter.

it's the phone number policy of too many of these companies that is so egregious to people like me. but i managed to reach support by email and got my account activated on Amazon without a phone. they wanted to do a voiced activation code phone call which would not work for me (i am deaf and live alone).

after resetting my password on that account 3 times, and flushing browser cookies 2 times, it finally let me login without asking for my phone number. i logged out and logged back in to be sure, and it still let me in. i changed my password and did the same and it still let me in. i think it's good, now.

one odd thing i noticed is that Firefox never tried to save the password. it didn't even create a host entry for twitter.com. maybe twitter has a non-standard password scheme. it did save some cookies. i access twitter using a separate profile for each account. the password host list in each of these profiles only has twitter.com.

this forum can't do [SOLVED].

And you use Twitter why?

I’ve never(!) used Facebook, Twitter, Instagram nor any other form of “social media.” Heck, even when it was still “IRC = Internet Relay Chat,” which BTW a former colleague and mentor of mine actually helped to develop, I very quickly lost interest.

I don’t care what your opinions are anyway, because “I’m right” and therefore “you’re wrong.” :)

it looked interesting. and now i can see sports info from my old high school (when they are not doing virtual).

i've only used twitter and usenet. well, OK, i have used IRC since back in the days when it only had numbers for channels until a few years ago.

you should make www.i-am-always-right.com and spread the word. it would have just one page saying "if you came here, you are clearly always wrong!"

When did IRC stop meaning Internet Relay Chat? Pretty sure that hasn't changed....

@skaparen: If I actually did try to register that domain name … assuming that someone else hasn’t beaten me to the punch … it’s kinda unsettling to consider how popular it might be. Everyone is entitled to their fifteen minutes, I suppose.