Well, it looks like the time has come to call it quits on Twitter for me and thousands of others affected by this latest glitch of epic proportions.  Although still referring to these supreme failures as simply ‘glitches’ is comical.  Absurd even.

Yesterday, via their status update blog (that ironically resides on Tumblr), the Twitter ‘technical’ crew informed users to expect inconsistencies in their relationship counts but stressed that this issue was only related to the count and not to the actual relationships.

Co-founder, Evan Williams, even tweeted that just the ‘count’ was off, only to rescind that statement a few tweets later with an ‘OK, so it isn’t just the counts but don’t panic.’

Don’t panic?  Is attempting to cajole your users with a glib ‘we’ve got it under control’ attitude really the way to go at this point, Twitter?

We [the users] are way beyond panic, having run the gamut of emotions from annoyed and frustrated to aggravated and outraged.  There was even a hearty dose of humor along the way as the Fail Whale became an endearing mascot of sorts.  But we could laugh off the bajillion errors because our relationships were in tact.

Up until this point, all of the outages and Fail Whale sightings were an inconvenience at most, where we could seek refuge at sites like FriendFeed or identi.ca, or catch up on work free of Twitter distractions, until the service was retored, returning safely to our network of friends and followers.

But now that our connections have been lost, it’s a dealbreaker.

I’ve been a diehard loyalist to Twitter despite their failings because of the value I placed on the relationships I’ve built there.  And I have contended that the reason the masses endure all the ongoing abuse is because of those relationships. 

Because of the community. 

Because of the friendships and the conversations.

Because it’s too arduous a process to try and re-create such a sizable network from scratch on a whole new microblogging platform. 

Plus, we’d hoped that if we stayed the course, Twitter would finally get its act together.

But they’ve made the decision for us.  By cutting my followers/followees in more than half, I see no reason to stay — especially given the fact that even if I were to undergo the daunting task of rebuilding my network, I have no assurance that it wouldn’t happen again. 

And again. 

And AGAIN.

If past is prelude, Twitter is doomed to fail.

No amount of money or technical ‘expertise’ thrown at the problem seems to help.  Any logical, semi-intelligent lifeform would draw the conclusion that Twitter is a flawed system beyond repair and to just cut your losses.

And it looks like that’s what thousands upon thousands will be doing.

Including me.

But where will the exodus lead us?

Identi.ca most resembles Twitter of all the clones out there, and uses an open source platform, but is still in its infancy with its own set of issues — like the inability to ‘unfollow’ spammers and a clunky, manual subscription process.

FriendFeed is great for long discussions and debates — and as an aggregator for the content and articles you bookmark across the web – but it can be very overwhelming with the sheer volume of information and text heavy posts. 

Jaiku just never seemed to catch on (on top of which it appears to be in eternal beta) and Pownce, while an outstanding and user-friendly product, still hasn’t garnered significant market penetration.  At least not among my network, and therein lies the key to this whole conundrum.

People will go where their community is.

Up until now, even though users moonlighted on FriendFeed or Plurk or Pownce during outages, Twitter has held the lion’s share of just about everyone’s network.  Now with the data loss and communities crumbling under crashing databases, poorly designed infrastructure, and the ineptitude of the Twitter tech team, the market is wide open for a new microblogging leader.

YouAre is supposed to the answer to everyone’s prayers, but is still in private beta so it won’t be moving the needle anytime soon.

No matter where the Twitter casualties end up, I think the microblogging contenders — and future service providers — need to take note of the following:

1. Function over Form. No exceptions. - Having a sound, functional architecture in place is more important than a glitzy design.  No amount of bells and whistles can make up for the lack of it.

2. Build with the User in Mind – If you’re creating a service, you need to build it based on how your users will interact with it — and how they can get the maximum value from it. A cool graphical timeline, for example, may seem like a cutting-edge idea, but for users with substantial amounts of followers, it’s just not useful.

3. Respect your Community - You need to care about what your users care about, and strive to protect the things that are most important to them.  When a user signs on to a new service, there is some level of trust that is imparted.  They place their trust in you for things like their personal info will not be shared, their data is safe and that the site is accessible.  You need to honor that trust by delivering on your brand promise, maintaining open communication and consistent service.

4. Be Honest. At all Costs. - Don’t just sweep problems or issues under the rug or give users a false sense of security when the walls are crashing down.  Technical issues happen, but when they do, inform users, take all necessary actions to rectify it as quickly — and seamlessly — as possible and keep users updated along the way.  If you’ve embodied rules 1 through 3, any brief disruptions in service shouldn’t adversely affect your user base, and will keep your community in tact.

I don’t know where I’ll land yet, but one thing’s for certain, wherever I go, I won’t be needing a Twitter import feature!