4 ms·

Twitter’s problems aren’t confusing: fix the abuse problem and add an edit button.

icelancer 8y ago
> fix the abuse problem This has been a problem for about 30 years online, so good luck with all that. > add an edit button User tweets out something nice. 10k retweets. Then changes it to something political.
- xref 8y ago
  HN both has an edit button and is not susceptible to your hypothetical. these are solvable problems.
  - icelancer 8y ago
    HN is, how should I say, not Twitter in any sense of the platform. At all.
  - zapzupnz 8y ago
    HN also has a stricter set of community guidelines (which aren't in themselves all that strict to start with), more heavily moderated, and a generally well-educated, mature-minded user base that is generally appreciative of these two elements.
    - dgellow 8y ago
      And way less users.
      - zapzupnz 8y ago
        Yep, way fewer users. And what spam accounts exist get squashed pretty quickly. If HN ever releases statistics on the number of users, I'm sure they have more dignity than to include spam and bot accounts — which is, I'm sure, the majority of Twitter accounts.
- tsomctl 8y ago
  Make it so that you can only change one or two characters, and make every edited tweet have a prominent button to see the original tweet. Maybe make it so that you can’t change links, images, or other media.
  - smelendez 8y ago
    You're still inviting trolls. "What an amazing pitch!" becomes "what an amazing witch!" (or worse). Well-known users would hate it because they'd be mocked for stepping into the troll trap.
rconti 8y ago
Twitter is a fundamentally 'narrow' product. A global chatroom for the 'in' crowd, no matter which in crowd that is. Yes, it's searchable, and historical, but fundamentally 99.9% of Twitter's functionality only exists if you're on it today, constantly. I don't see how you can ever make it valuable in its current form to people who don't need to see this tweet or this thread before anyone else does. Hashtags are fundamentally, unalterably, different from usenet groups or message boards or even facebook groups. Content is less permanent, but not in an arguably "good" way as Snapchat's is.
eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
I’ve tried Twitter numerous times and I’ve never felt good about using it. The abuse is simply too pervasive.

> fix the abuse problem This has been a problem for about 30 years online, so good luck with all that. > add an edit button User tweets out something nice. 10k retweets. Then changes it to something political.

xref 8y ago
HN both has an edit button and is not susceptible to your hypothetical. these are solvable problems.
- icelancer 8y ago
  HN is, how should I say, not Twitter in any sense of the platform. At all.
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  HN also has a stricter set of community guidelines (which aren't in themselves all that strict to start with), more heavily moderated, and a generally well-educated, mature-minded user base that is generally appreciative of these two elements.
  - dgellow 8y ago
    And way less users.
    - zapzupnz 8y ago
      Yep, way fewer users. And what spam accounts exist get squashed pretty quickly. If HN ever releases statistics on the number of users, I'm sure they have more dignity than to include spam and bot accounts — which is, I'm sure, the majority of Twitter accounts.
tsomctl 8y ago
Make it so that you can only change one or two characters, and make every edited tweet have a prominent button to see the original tweet. Maybe make it so that you can’t change links, images, or other media.
- smelendez 8y ago
  You're still inviting trolls. "What an amazing pitch!" becomes "what an amazing witch!" (or worse). Well-known users would hate it because they'd be mocked for stepping into the troll trap.

rconti 8y ago

Twitter is a fundamentally 'narrow' product. A global chatroom for the 'in' crowd, no matter which in crowd that is. Yes, it's searchable, and historical, but fundamentally 99.9% of Twitter's functionality only exists if you're on it today, constantly. I don't see how you can ever make it valuable in its current form to people who don't need to see this tweet or this thread before anyone else does. Hashtags are fundamentally, unalterably, different from usenet groups or message boards or even facebook groups. Content is less permanent, but not in an arguably "good" way as Snapchat's is.

eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago

I’ve tried Twitter numerous times and I’ve never felt good about using it. The abuse is simply too pervasive.