"Twitter" and "tweet" sound very light and airy, almost musical; the theme of birds chirping lines up well with the format of seeing many short messages. "Twitt

"Twitter" and "tweet" sound very light and airy, almost musical; the theme of birds chirping lines up well with the format of seeing many short messages. "Twitter" is also largely an abstract word without much prior association. A mastodon is a massive, hairy, smelly beast. It's also an extremely well known heavy metal band. For a Twitter clone it makes absolutely no sense. "Toot" as well has some existing connotations I wouldn't think they would want to associate with...just seems like a total non-starter.