6 ms·

Twitter is the odd one out. While others built walled gardens, twitter kept the gate open. We now have a general catalog of human discourse for the last decade

Twitter is the odd one out. While others built walled gardens, twitter kept the gate open. We now have a general catalog of human discourse for the last decade. Record of great tragedy, revolutions, elections past and future. It would be shame if this was bought and locked up by some gardeners.

JonnieCache 10y ago
>general catalog of human discourse I would contest this. Twitter represents a very narrow sector of society.
- JBReefer 10y ago
  People that hold OPs opinion tend to be on twitter, and this blind to the size of the outgroup
- ZanyProgrammer 10y ago
  A good recent example is the Democratic Primary-Twitter massively magnified Sanders' supporters, and a lot were genuinely surprised that Twitter does not in fact represent the will of the Democratic Primary.
  - pessimizer 10y ago
    That's not a great example; because Sanders had far greater non-Democratic Party support than the other primary candidate, Twitter was reflecting the opinions of a more general population than the primary would. To say it another way - Democratic primary voters reflect a narrower sector of society than Twitter does.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - adevine 10y ago
      I'd challenge that interpretation. Lots of Hillary's disproportionate support came from people much less likely to use Twitter (e.g. older black voters), while Sanders' strength with younger voters would be much more likely to show up on Twitter.
      - pessimizer 10y ago
        I'd agree with both points, but only 32% of voters are registered Democrats. Sanders polled far better than Clinton within the other 68%, although amongst registered Democrats, Clinton stayed 15-25% ahead during the entire primary IIRC. On Twitter, in addition to Democrats, there were also Republicans, Independents, Argentinians, and others commenting on the primary. That's the definition of a wider sample.
        conanbatt 10y ago
        Argentinians? How did that make a dent :)
  - enraged_camel 10y ago
    >>and a lot were genuinely surprised that Twitter does not in fact represent the will of the Democratic Primary. Yep, we found out that a small group of DNC insiders do, by controlling the media narrative and conspiring with party insiders to sabotage the campaign of the non-favored candidate. I mean, let's get real: there is a reason the DNC chairwoman Debbie Schultz resigned. re: downvotes... everything I've said is factually accurate: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/us/politics/debbie-wasserman-schultz-dnc-wikileaks-emails.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/us/politics/debbie-wasserm...
    - treehau5_ 10y ago
      The silicon valley bleeding hearts don't like to hear the truth when it doesn't fit their narrative or look good through their valley, rose colored, horn rimmed glasses. Even Mountain View coordinated with her campaign. As much as a self serving narcissist Trump is, I find it equally appalling that she gets so much support. The entire Wallstreet transcript scandal once again got buried by Trump-mania. This will be the most openly corrupt candidate we have ever seen in the history of this country. Presidents have resigned for far less in the past. Democracy is a farce in this country.
      - ZanyProgrammer 10y ago
        Its hard to tell if such sentiment comes from disappointed people on the far left, or pro Trump trolls concern trolling that Hitlery is the pro corporatist NEOLIB sell out.
        sukilot 10y ago
        "rose-colored horn-rimmed" glasses should give you a hint.
        treehau5_ 10y ago
        I was adamantly for Sanders, and Democrats in general until I learned that they play even dirtier thank Republicans. They kneecapped one of the most honest person I have ever seen run for president before his campaign even had a chance to get started. Honestly, the threads underneath my original post give me more insight into how people can stomach voting for her, so it's eye opening at the very least. "Aw comon! She's not that bad!" basically echos the sentiment my family has, as well, and it's why the status quo will never change. Next time you convince yourself that Hillary is a great candidate, just know two things: 1. The only reason she even looks appealing as a candidate is because she is literally running against a walking dumpster fire. She is the second most disliked candidate in modern history, next to guess who? Donald Trump. Congrats. 2. Despite all of Trumps scandelous comments and bigotry, she still might actually lose. The polls don't mean anything this election, and 538 has even come out and said that, and even so, he's only down a couple points. Truly remarkable candidate ya got there, DNC. It took underminding democracy, and the literal biggest turd nugget to run against her for to even have a shot.
- Karunamon 10y ago
  What sector would that be? 313M active users per month does not seem very "narrow". That's more than half the population of North America!
  - Avshalom 10y ago
    on the other hand it's ~5 of the global population and significant number of those 313m are corporate accounts and automated broadcasters.
- contravariant 10y ago
  >Twitter represents a very narrow sector of society. As does most written text.
Angostura 10y ago
> Twitter kept the gate open. Apart from RSS
- drcode 10y ago
  And starving off third party clients.
mtgx 10y ago
Not quite. Have we already forgotten how Twitter closed-off most third-party clients a few years ago, that were innovating on top of Twitter? http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/9/3135406/twitter-api-open-closed-facebook-walled-garden http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/9/3135406/twitter-api-open-cl...
- azinman2 10y ago
  More importantly twitter profiles are public by default. That's not true for most social media.
  - onli 10y ago
    In my opinion that's not more important. Also because they contains almost no information.
  - meira 10y ago
    More importantly to who? To me and all developers that I know, this isn't the most important. A good and reliable API is.
    - pessimizer 10y ago
      More important to everyone but developers?
      - azinman2 10y ago
        Or even developers if you like data.
  - chimeracoder 10y ago
    > More importantly twitter profiles are public by default. That's not true for most social media. Maybe, but now logged-out users (or users without an account) cannot see more than the last few tweets on an account. Twitter is a lot less open than it was two or three years ago, and while it's more public-by-default than Facebook, it's less public-by-default than Blogger was.
awinder 10y ago
Some would argue that twitters early open stance actually helped catapult popularity of the service, and allowed twitter to become a big deal in the first place. They're also definitely not that company anymore
wott 10y ago
I wish Twitter's walls were higher, so that they keep the shit they produce inside and it does not contaminate the worlds of journalism, politics and even real life.
meerita 10y ago
Twitter closed it's garden. If you want to make a client for Twitter you're very limited.

JonnieCache 10y ago

>general catalog of human discourse I would contest this. Twitter represents a very narrow sector of society.

JBReefer 10y ago
People that hold OPs opinion tend to be on twitter, and this blind to the size of the outgroup
ZanyProgrammer 10y ago
A good recent example is the Democratic Primary-Twitter massively magnified Sanders' supporters, and a lot were genuinely surprised that Twitter does not in fact represent the will of the Democratic Primary.
- pessimizer 10y ago
  That's not a great example; because Sanders had far greater non-Democratic Party support than the other primary candidate, Twitter was reflecting the opinions of a more general population than the primary would. To say it another way - Democratic primary voters reflect a narrower sector of society than Twitter does.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - adevine 10y ago
    I'd challenge that interpretation. Lots of Hillary's disproportionate support came from people much less likely to use Twitter (e.g. older black voters), while Sanders' strength with younger voters would be much more likely to show up on Twitter.
    - pessimizer 10y ago
      I'd agree with both points, but only 32% of voters are registered Democrats. Sanders polled far better than Clinton within the other 68%, although amongst registered Democrats, Clinton stayed 15-25% ahead during the entire primary IIRC. On Twitter, in addition to Democrats, there were also Republicans, Independents, Argentinians, and others commenting on the primary. That's the definition of a wider sample.
      - conanbatt 10y ago
        Argentinians? How did that make a dent :)
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  >>and a lot were genuinely surprised that Twitter does not in fact represent the will of the Democratic Primary. Yep, we found out that a small group of DNC insiders do, by controlling the media narrative and conspiring with party insiders to sabotage the campaign of the non-favored candidate. I mean, let's get real: there is a reason the DNC chairwoman Debbie Schultz resigned. re: downvotes... everything I've said is factually accurate: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/us/politics/debbie-wasserman-schultz-dnc-wikileaks-emails.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/us/politics/debbie-wasserm...
  - treehau5_ 10y ago
    The silicon valley bleeding hearts don't like to hear the truth when it doesn't fit their narrative or look good through their valley, rose colored, horn rimmed glasses. Even Mountain View coordinated with her campaign. As much as a self serving narcissist Trump is, I find it equally appalling that she gets so much support. The entire Wallstreet transcript scandal once again got buried by Trump-mania. This will be the most openly corrupt candidate we have ever seen in the history of this country. Presidents have resigned for far less in the past. Democracy is a farce in this country.
    - ZanyProgrammer 10y ago
      Its hard to tell if such sentiment comes from disappointed people on the far left, or pro Trump trolls concern trolling that Hitlery is the pro corporatist NEOLIB sell out.
      - sukilot 10y ago
        "rose-colored horn-rimmed" glasses should give you a hint.
        treehau5_ 10y ago
        I was adamantly for Sanders, and Democrats in general until I learned that they play even dirtier thank Republicans. They kneecapped one of the most honest person I have ever seen run for president before his campaign even had a chance to get started. Honestly, the threads underneath my original post give me more insight into how people can stomach voting for her, so it's eye opening at the very least. "Aw comon! She's not that bad!" basically echos the sentiment my family has, as well, and it's why the status quo will never change. Next time you convince yourself that Hillary is a great candidate, just know two things: 1. The only reason she even looks appealing as a candidate is because she is literally running against a walking dumpster fire. She is the second most disliked candidate in modern history, next to guess who? Donald Trump. Congrats. 2. Despite all of Trumps scandelous comments and bigotry, she still might actually lose. The polls don't mean anything this election, and 538 has even come out and said that, and even so, he's only down a couple points. Truly remarkable candidate ya got there, DNC. It took underminding democracy, and the literal biggest turd nugget to run against her for to even have a shot.
Karunamon 10y ago
What sector would that be? 313M active users per month does not seem very "narrow". That's more than half the population of North America!
- Avshalom 10y ago
  on the other hand it's ~5 of the global population and significant number of those 313m are corporate accounts and automated broadcasters.
contravariant 10y ago
>Twitter represents a very narrow sector of society. As does most written text.

Angostura 10y ago

> Twitter kept the gate open. Apart from RSS

drcode 10y ago
And starving off third party clients.

mtgx 10y ago

Not quite. Have we already forgotten how Twitter closed-off most third-party clients a few years ago, that were innovating on top of Twitter? http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/9/3135406/twitter-api-open-closed-facebook-walled-garden http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/9/3135406/twitter-api-open-cl...

azinman2 10y ago
More importantly twitter profiles are public by default. That's not true for most social media.
- onli 10y ago
  In my opinion that's not more important. Also because they contains almost no information.
- meira 10y ago
  More importantly to who? To me and all developers that I know, this isn't the most important. A good and reliable API is.
  - pessimizer 10y ago
    More important to everyone but developers?
    - azinman2 10y ago
      Or even developers if you like data.
- chimeracoder 10y ago
  > More importantly twitter profiles are public by default. That's not true for most social media. Maybe, but now logged-out users (or users without an account) cannot see more than the last few tweets on an account. Twitter is a lot less open than it was two or three years ago, and while it's more public-by-default than Facebook, it's less public-by-default than Blogger was.

awinder 10y ago

Some would argue that twitters early open stance actually helped catapult popularity of the service, and allowed twitter to become a big deal in the first place. They're also definitely not that company anymore

wott 10y ago

I wish Twitter's walls were higher, so that they keep the shit they produce inside and it does not contaminate the worlds of journalism, politics and even real life.

meerita 10y ago

Twitter closed it's garden. If you want to make a client for Twitter you're very limited.