If you took a relaxing weekend away from social media, then count yourself lucky: you missed the chaos that is a Twitter design change.
On Friday, Twitter rid its network of the iconic egg profile pictures — and people weren’t ecstatic.
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The change comes largely because “Twitter eggs” have become synonymous with trolls — users who are so obsessed with harassment that they don’t even have time to upload a Pepe icon.
This reputation is something Twitter doesn’t want — for itself or its users. It says that some innocents who don’t know how to change their profile picture were getting caught in the crossfire of bad reputations.
“These regular users would be using a troll’s clothing in some ways, not realizing that they probably should be changing that,” senior manager of product design Bryan Haggerty tells Fast Company.
Twitter eggs have become synonymous with harassment on the social network
And now the egg, which symbolised the beginning of life for new tweeters, has met its demise.
In an announcement, Twitter admitted that it chose the egg because it was “playful, fun, and unique.” This unfortunately led to too many users holding on to the image, so the new profile picture is intentionally “generic, serious and unbranded.”
The result is a grey, genderless blob that is meant to scream “temporary” and “not a nazi.”
And true to form, Twitter users did not welcome this change.
EGGS??? REALLY???? TWITTER YOU TOOK BACK THE STAR, THE @ AND NOW THE EGGS??? WHAT’S NEXT????
— Luna
(@nyanmore) March 31, 2017
EVERYONE: we do not like the “twitter eggs” who yell at us. please do something
TWITTER: got it. change the icon pic.twitter.com/RoHkD82tVq— gabagool420@juno.com (@jimpjorps) March 31, 2017
bring back the twitter eggs
— Redza (@RedzaMusic) April 2, 2017
The new Twitter eggs are a bit of an eyesore imo pic.twitter.com/l3YB7EfY6Q
— Joe Nelson
(@joe___nelson) March 31, 2017
I mean that was a serious headache for twitter engineers, dealing with the haters & trolls parading as eggs. Top notch engineering solution!
— Jodsclass (@jodsclass) April 3, 2017
The point of Twitter is for it to be birds. The timeline is a bird house, the new icons are eggs.
Twitter, will you explain the new icon ??
— ❀ ʀɪɴɪ (@plutodere) April 1, 2017
looks like twitter eggs got fertilized pic.twitter.com/VPCxWDoI7a
— Typical Girl (@SoDamnTrue) March 31, 2017
Whether you love it or hate it, there is one response that you may never unsee.
computer zoom out pic.twitter.com/MvKIv0UeOu
— k e e t
(@KeetPotato) April 1, 2017
You’re welcome.
