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I knew this was going to be challenged, and you're not wrong. But Twitter still feels closest to the original incarnation of 'here be a (roughly) reverse-chrono

by niftich 10y ago

I knew this was going to be challenged, and you're not wrong. But Twitter still feels closest to the original incarnation of 'here be a (roughly) reverse-chronological list of text-message length posts'. They had the timeline, the "friend feed" first, and most enhancements affected only the payload of their messages. Moments was a big innovation, and it's presented as a separate offering on their website. Whereas Facebook's primary function went from a carefully-curated yearbook-style personal and interest page to an... algorithmic timeline of friend's status updates and tumble-blog reposts. Snapchat went from an app that sends disappearing photos to a general-purpose multimedia messaging app that happens to still put a timer on photos. Instagram went from a photo and selfie-sharing app to a general-purpose social network with an algorithmic timeline, sponsored posts, and private messaging.

udkl 10y ago
Why are we putting a premium on 'retaining it's original features' ? This looks like a logical fallacy.
- coldtea 10y ago
  Because a lot of radical changeovers in other services are not user needs driven and look more like bait and switch.
sneak 10y ago
> (roughly) reverse-chronological list of text-message length posts'. Twitter went algorithmic timeline not too long ago, sadly. Fortunately, it can still be turned off - but is on by default.
- te_chris 10y ago
  You can turn it off??? This is the best news I've heard in ages.
  - macintux 10y ago
    FWIW, as far as I know it hasn't infected 3rd party clients, or at least Tweetbot is still unaffected.
  - denzil_correa 10y ago
    Of course, you can. https://support.twitter.com/articles/164083#settings https://support.twitter.com/articles/164083#settings
- majewsky 10y ago
  > it can still be turned off Where? I unchecked every setting that I found, but I still get that "While you were away" and "#something is currently trending" bullshit.
  - denzil_correa 10y ago
    Here is how you do it. https://support.twitter.com/articles/164083#settings https://support.twitter.com/articles/164083#settings
  - coldpie 10y ago
    You can't get rid of the dumb "while you were away" thing, but you can block it. With ublock origin, add this to your "My Filters" settings: twitter.com##has-recap
krisdol 10y ago
Twitter switching away from a chronological see-everything timeline was a massive departure from its original idea, on the same scale as many of your other examples. To me that was a core feature and not having it just makes Twitter much less interesting to open.

by niftich 10y ago

udkl 10y ago

Why are we putting a premium on 'retaining it's original features' ? This looks like a logical fallacy.

coldtea 10y ago
Because a lot of radical changeovers in other services are not user needs driven and look more like bait and switch.

sneak 10y ago

> (roughly) reverse-chronological list of text-message length posts'. Twitter went algorithmic timeline not too long ago, sadly. Fortunately, it can still be turned off - but is on by default.

te_chris 10y ago
You can turn it off??? This is the best news I've heard in ages.
- macintux 10y ago
  FWIW, as far as I know it hasn't infected 3rd party clients, or at least Tweetbot is still unaffected.
- denzil_correa 10y ago
  Of course, you can. https://support.twitter.com/articles/164083#settings https://support.twitter.com/articles/164083#settings
majewsky 10y ago
> it can still be turned off Where? I unchecked every setting that I found, but I still get that "While you were away" and "#something is currently trending" bullshit.
- denzil_correa 10y ago
  Here is how you do it. https://support.twitter.com/articles/164083#settings https://support.twitter.com/articles/164083#settings
- coldpie 10y ago
  You can't get rid of the dumb "while you were away" thing, but you can block it. With ublock origin, add this to your "My Filters" settings: twitter.com##has-recap

krisdol 10y ago

Twitter switching away from a chronological see-everything timeline was a massive departure from its original idea, on the same scale as many of your other examples. To me that was a core feature and not having it just makes Twitter much less interesting to open.