It’s times like right now, when Twitter is once again struggling with absurdly bad performance issues and showing me posts from Neville Hobson (or @Jangles) on Twitter) wishing all his followers a “happy Sunday morning” — when it’s actually a little after midnight on Tuesday morning — on my most “recent” page of tweets that I ask myself just how longer we’ll have to wait for a system that’s “99.99 percent reliable,” which Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says is the site’s No. 1 goal this year.

When Twitter works - and to be fair, the site has much more stable in 2008 than it was in most or all of 2007 - it is my No. 1 social media/social networking tool for growing and strengthening my online (and oftentimes, offline) social network, for getting quick answers to questions that I’m researching or struggling with, and for staying on top of the latest news/commentary thanks to the output of the hundreds of smart people I follow.

But when Twitter’s completely buggered, as it has been for the last couple of days, you do have to wonder if it will ever completely rid itself of these major technical stuff-ups.

My friend Jack Hodgson is convinced that Twitter’s death is coming, and that we should start preparing for it now. It’s nights like tonight that I really think he’s onto something.

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