4 ms·

140 characters or less was never a river.

by jstewartmobile 8y ago

eesmith 8y ago
You broke your own analogy - 140 characters isn't a sewer, either.
- jstewartmobile 8y ago
  140 chars is ideal MTU for shitposting. OC was also an example. Getting that kind of payload from pt A to pt B sure sounds like a sewer to me.
  - eesmith 8y ago
    A river is an ideal way to get rid of shit, yes. The river volume doesn't really matter - humans produce a lot of shit. Some rivers have been turned into sewer lines, like the River Fleet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Fleet ). Even huge rivers can have problems, like the Yellow River (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River#Pollution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River#Pollution ). Twitter after the 2007 SXSWi was not considered a sewer, even with 140 characters. The River Fleet, in Roman times, was not a sewer. Most assuredly Twitter did not build their system as a sewer. Twitter doubled its limit, so by your definition is no longer 'ideal'. The shitposting doesn't seem to be affected. Even if 140 is ideal, why should I think that unlimited length would somehow prevent problems? I prefer to think you didn't think through the metaphor of your 'Executive Summary' well enough.
    - jstewartmobile 8y ago
      Only brought up Twitter because of original article. If you ask me, that entire industry--Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc--is a sewer, and always has been a sewer. Whether it's social media, online games, or something entirely new, when there is a) real-time feedback, b) a profit motive, and c) a large enough user base to conduct experiments on, it is only a matter of time before someone gets the bright idea of hiring a few data scientists to optimize the rube-fleecing. Then it becomes Pavlov's human. The whole awful business is the crack-pipe of our upper-middle class, and the guys who made those crack pipes knew exactly what they were doing. If a bunch of alt-right shitposters shoved Wil Wheaton off of the pipe, they unintentionally did him a favor. And as far as original analogy went, sewers were designed for sewage. Rivers weren't. It is not that complicated.
      - eesmith 8y ago
        Wheaton did not refer to early Twitter as a sewer. That's why my comment points out that your "executive summary" is a misnomer. It is your interpretation. It may even be a correct interpretation. But it is not an accurate summary of what Wheaton wrote.

140 characters or less was never a river.

eesmith 8y ago

You broke your own analogy - 140 characters isn't a sewer, either.

jstewartmobile 8y ago
140 chars is ideal MTU for shitposting. OC was also an example. Getting that kind of payload from pt A to pt B sure sounds like a sewer to me.
- eesmith 8y ago
  A river is an ideal way to get rid of shit, yes. The river volume doesn't really matter - humans produce a lot of shit. Some rivers have been turned into sewer lines, like the River Fleet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Fleet ). Even huge rivers can have problems, like the Yellow River (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River#Pollution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River#Pollution ). Twitter after the 2007 SXSWi was not considered a sewer, even with 140 characters. The River Fleet, in Roman times, was not a sewer. Most assuredly Twitter did not build their system as a sewer. Twitter doubled its limit, so by your definition is no longer 'ideal'. The shitposting doesn't seem to be affected. Even if 140 is ideal, why should I think that unlimited length would somehow prevent problems? I prefer to think you didn't think through the metaphor of your 'Executive Summary' well enough.
  - jstewartmobile 8y ago
    Only brought up Twitter because of original article. If you ask me, that entire industry--Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc--is a sewer, and always has been a sewer. Whether it's social media, online games, or something entirely new, when there is a) real-time feedback, b) a profit motive, and c) a large enough user base to conduct experiments on, it is only a matter of time before someone gets the bright idea of hiring a few data scientists to optimize the rube-fleecing. Then it becomes Pavlov's human. The whole awful business is the crack-pipe of our upper-middle class, and the guys who made those crack pipes knew exactly what they were doing. If a bunch of alt-right shitposters shoved Wil Wheaton off of the pipe, they unintentionally did him a favor. And as far as original analogy went, sewers were designed for sewage. Rivers weren't. It is not that complicated.
    - eesmith 8y ago
      Wheaton did not refer to early Twitter as a sewer. That's why my comment points out that your "executive summary" is a misnomer. It is your interpretation. It may even be a correct interpretation. But it is not an accurate summary of what Wheaton wrote.