4 ms·

I use it everyday, its great, it also has 2 billion revenue (?). I don't understand the hate for them.

mrweasel 10y ago
I'm often rather hard on Twitter, but it's not the company as such that I hate. I hate that they are perceived as a valuable and successful Internet company, when they are clearly neither of those things. At this point Twitter should be the shinning example of the fact that users don't always translate into profit. At this point Twitter is, as the original comment states, a mature company, but they aren't behaving like one. There is very little reason that Twitter hasn't gone bankrupt. A 2 billion dollar revenue, no profit and no plan for the future. My best guess is that the people who invest in Twitter are all using it so heavily that they have become blind to the fact that it is a failing company/product.
lmm 10y ago
There are lots of subtle and not-so-subtle design aspects that mean Twitter nudges people into arguments and bullying (not by accident per se, but rather as a result of optimising for "engagement" and not thinking about what that translates into). I don't mind there being sites out there on the Internet that are not for me, but twitter is contributing to the polarisation of society, especially when politicians start taking it seriously.
- nimchimpsky 9y ago
  > twitter is contributing to the polarisation of society seems a bit harsh, polarisation how ?
  - lmm 9y ago
    In the sense of politics shifting towards the extremes and people having less productive discussion but getting more polemical.
    - anovikov 9y ago
      What could be a productive discussion in today's political situation? There is no 'common good' answer to conservative vs liberal choice. It depends - good for who? Conservative is good for passive majority (remember Luddites - you could laugh at them now, but they never recovered to pre-mechanisation living standards. it took 4 generations to do so, until post-WWI times). Liberal is good for active minority. There can't be agreement - it is either us, or them win. That's a polarization, and Twitter can't make it better, or much worse.

I'm often rather hard on Twitter, but it's not the company as such that I hate. I hate that they are perceived as a valuable and successful Internet company, when they are clearly neither of those things. At this point Twitter should be the shinning example of the fact that users don't always translate into profit. At this point Twitter is, as the original comment states, a mature company, but they aren't behaving like one. There is very little reason that Twitter hasn't gone bankrupt. A 2 billion dollar revenue, no profit and no plan for the future. My best guess is that the people who invest in Twitter are all using it so heavily that they have become blind to the fact that it is a failing company/product.

lmm 10y ago

There are lots of subtle and not-so-subtle design aspects that mean Twitter nudges people into arguments and bullying (not by accident per se, but rather as a result of optimising for "engagement" and not thinking about what that translates into). I don't mind there being sites out there on the Internet that are not for me, but twitter is contributing to the polarisation of society, especially when politicians start taking it seriously.

nimchimpsky 9y ago
> twitter is contributing to the polarisation of society seems a bit harsh, polarisation how ?
- lmm 9y ago
  In the sense of politics shifting towards the extremes and people having less productive discussion but getting more polemical.
  - anovikov 9y ago
    What could be a productive discussion in today's political situation? There is no 'common good' answer to conservative vs liberal choice. It depends - good for who? Conservative is good for passive majority (remember Luddites - you could laugh at them now, but they never recovered to pre-mechanisation living standards. it took 4 generations to do so, until post-WWI times). Liberal is good for active minority. There can't be agreement - it is either us, or them win. That's a polarization, and Twitter can't make it better, or much worse.