Terry Whitehead has deleted seven years of tweets and vowed to only use the social media tool for positive news.

And in doing so, he's deleted years of online debates and arguments that were frequently forceful, antagonistic and combative.

I was trying to be constructive but I wouldn't back down on positions. - Coun. Terry Whitehead

He's threatened to sue people on Twitter, challenged another to a debate and taunted his refusal to agree to one. The issues he's sparred about most were usually related to urbanist pushes around such things as complete streets, bike lanes and LRT.

And there was no shortage of quarrelsome tweeters willing and eager to take him on online. But no more, says Whitehead.

Whitehead said he experimented with Twitter as a place to debate with people, but it hasn't worked out.

"I tried to use it as an engagement tool. I was trying to be constructive but I wouldn't back down on positions."

Now he said he's only going to stick to positive messages, such as ward announcements.

The new Terry Whitehead Twitter account thanks dissenters for inviting him to talk to them, and includes photos of him with people around the ward.

He said his staff told him Twitter was distracting him. He resisted changing at first, but after discussions with staff and his wife, he decided to back off.

Whitehead saying he wouldn't back down from a Twitter fight is putting it mildly, said local activist Matt Jelly, who frequently takes jabs at Whitehead.

The councilllor used his Twitter account over the years to "vigorously argue political issues," said Jelly.

"However, in some cases, the councillor has used his account to threaten residents with legal action, goaded residents with taunts to debate him on talk radio, or even to compete with him in a public IQ test."

Jelly said he's filed a Freedom of Information Act request for Whitehead's disappeared tweets, which the councillor presumably made on a city-owned Blackberry.

Whitehead calls that mischief. "You can't say I'm trying to hide something when it was all done in public."

Whitehead's Twitter antics gave a new look into what happens when a Hamilton city councillor takes on social media.

Whitehead and Matthew Green, Ward 3 councillor, are the most active city councillors on social media. Others use Twitter and Facebook to share announcements and bits of their personal lives.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger's Twitter and Facebook feeds, for example, are heavy with city announcements and photos of the mayor at events he's attended. But debates with residents rarely go more than two or three tweets deep.

Green sees social media as part of his job.

"The job of a councillor is to engage their constituents in a meaningful way," he said. "Communication has changed."

You should only say what you'd say to someone's face

"There are times when people feel that being behind a keyboard means that you can engage with someone in a way that is a different than if you were to bump into them at a park or a café," he said.

But "for me, if I can successfully connect our neighbours and residents to the process of government in a way that is meaningful, be it through Facebook or Twitter, then that's a win."

'Potentially dangerous'

Local politicians using social media is "complicated," said Peter Graefe, a McMaster University political science professor.

"It's potentially dangerous in that things you say can be retrieved and brought back in a very visual form," he said.

"Any politician who hasn't thought through how they're going to use it shouldn't be using it."

Whitehead knows how he wants to use it now.

"It's not for engagement. I've had a lot of councillors tell me that," he said.

"To have a discussion in 140 characters knowing everyone wants to take a shot at you and take you down, clearly it's not a good environment for a political leader to be in."

Here's an example of the new Twitter approach: