After 4397 + 1 tweets @livibetter, I decided to have a new Twitter account @lyjl.

I want to have a shorter username, livibetter has 10 letters, too long, lyjl only has 4 letters, much better!

I created a new account instead of changing the username, my reasons are:

  • Search Engines or some Twitter related websites store your tweets URIs, if you just change username, then 404 will be seen. Twitter doesn’t redirect for you. Keep them untouched is a better for me.
  • Even some websites are smarter to use API, they use your numerical Twitter ID and grab latest username, then generate a tweet URI dynamically. What if they have http://example.com/user/livibetter, that would be stored by Search Engines, then again, 404 will be seen.
  • Another benefit from creating new account is you don’t have to change your Twitter username in other websites’ profile page in hurry. You just leave a last message on old account, people can still reach you if they do read.

The only drawback is tweet won’t go with you to new account, they stay where they are. And your former followers may never follow your new account, because they don’t read really or just happen to miss your last tweet on old account. But it’s good time to know who reads your tweets seriously.

If you don’t care about 404 issues, then just change your username.