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Unfortunately, I don’t think this is really an issue that can be fixed technically. People go to Twitter to yell at each other; that’s basically the point of th

Unfortunately, I don’t think this is really an issue that can be fixed technically. People go to Twitter to yell at each other; that’s basically the point of the platform. A Twitter where people don’t yell at each other is basically Mastodon, which is a lovely network that basically nobody uses.

Qwertystop 7y ago
It seems to work well enough for the people who are on it -- and that's enough, really. One-place-for-everyone isn't the goal. "Basically nobody" compared to Twitter can still be pretty sizable.
Uhhrrr 7y ago
I think they go on Twitter to react, and post things which get reactions. Yelling is "only" about 40%.
ergl 7y ago
People don't yell at each other in Mastodon precisely because so few people use it (besides, I've already seen Twitter-like behavior there, mainly on the mastodon.social instance). If mastodon had the same amount of users it would be the same, if not worse, because there's no centralized moderation to lean on. Mastodon seems fixated on emulating Twitter without questioning if there's anything worth keeping.
- Kye 7y ago
  This is why the instance I'm on mutes mastodon.social. Interaction quality spiked after that. It works with small numbers and good communities. I have several small instances on my personal mute list because the admins brought all the worst Twitter behavior over. That sets a negative tone and ensures only negative people get invited in.
erikpukinskis 7y ago
> I don’t think this is really an issue that can be fixed technically. It’s really easy to bet that something is impossible. It sounds smart, because all of history confirms your theory. But history is also chock full of people doing things that didn’t seem possible, so personally I think you’re making a very bad bet. And I wonder why you are even doing it? What’s gained by trying to convince people that there are zero viable interventions in a specific corner of the solution space? Especially such a big corner as “all technical interventions”?
egypturnash 7y ago
A few years ago I went to Twitter to see what my friends were doing, and to talk to them. There wasn’t much yelling. Then Gamergate happened and people started yelling about it, and then that grew into the alt-right and that got more yelling, and then Trump got elected and it’s just been so much yelling. And now here I am mostly on Mastodon, where there’s next to no celebrities, brands, or other things to yell at, and it’s pretty nice.
izzydata 7y ago
As soon as everyone leaves Twitter for Mastodon then that becomes the place where people go to yell at eachother.
standardUser 7y ago
Yes, there are many platforms where "yelling at each other" is only the 3rd or 4th most common use case. Reddit, Quora, Instagram. People are on Twitter for the inane arguing, same as the people in the comment sections of political sites.
derefr 7y ago
There really is a sub-network within Twitter of people who only ever have nice, productive conversations with one-another. This sub-network seems to have a lot of overlap with the set of people who use their Twitter handle as a substitute for an email address—i.e. the people who want you to tweet at them if you want to collaborate with them on something. Which itself is vaguely overlapping the set of people who are "famous", but not celebrities—i.e. people who are well-known names in their own industries or hobbies.
- kashprime 7y ago
  Very true, especially in the emergency medicine and critical care world where entire conferences and movements are organized around hashtags (like #foamed or #medtwitter). It's too bad Twitter doesn't give it's users tools to screen out bad actors and accentuate the positive.

Qwertystop 7y ago

It seems to work well enough for the people who are on it -- and that's enough, really. One-place-for-everyone isn't the goal. "Basically nobody" compared to Twitter can still be pretty sizable.

Uhhrrr 7y ago

I think they go on Twitter to react, and post things which get reactions. Yelling is "only" about 40%.

ergl 7y ago

People don't yell at each other in Mastodon precisely because so few people use it (besides, I've already seen Twitter-like behavior there, mainly on the mastodon.social instance). If mastodon had the same amount of users it would be the same, if not worse, because there's no centralized moderation to lean on. Mastodon seems fixated on emulating Twitter without questioning if there's anything worth keeping.

Kye 7y ago
This is why the instance I'm on mutes mastodon.social. Interaction quality spiked after that. It works with small numbers and good communities. I have several small instances on my personal mute list because the admins brought all the worst Twitter behavior over. That sets a negative tone and ensures only negative people get invited in.

erikpukinskis 7y ago

> I don’t think this is really an issue that can be fixed technically. It’s really easy to bet that something is impossible. It sounds smart, because all of history confirms your theory. But history is also chock full of people doing things that didn’t seem possible, so personally I think you’re making a very bad bet. And I wonder why you are even doing it? What’s gained by trying to convince people that there are zero viable interventions in a specific corner of the solution space? Especially such a big corner as “all technical interventions”?

egypturnash 7y ago

A few years ago I went to Twitter to see what my friends were doing, and to talk to them. There wasn’t much yelling. Then Gamergate happened and people started yelling about it, and then that grew into the alt-right and that got more yelling, and then Trump got elected and it’s just been so much yelling. And now here I am mostly on Mastodon, where there’s next to no celebrities, brands, or other things to yell at, and it’s pretty nice.

izzydata 7y ago

As soon as everyone leaves Twitter for Mastodon then that becomes the place where people go to yell at eachother.

standardUser 7y ago

Yes, there are many platforms where "yelling at each other" is only the 3rd or 4th most common use case. Reddit, Quora, Instagram. People are on Twitter for the inane arguing, same as the people in the comment sections of political sites.

derefr 7y ago

There really is a sub-network within Twitter of people who only ever have nice, productive conversations with one-another. This sub-network seems to have a lot of overlap with the set of people who use their Twitter handle as a substitute for an email address—i.e. the people who want you to tweet at them if you want to collaborate with them on something. Which itself is vaguely overlapping the set of people who are "famous", but not celebrities—i.e. people who are well-known names in their own industries or hobbies.

kashprime 7y ago
Very true, especially in the emergency medicine and critical care world where entire conferences and movements are organized around hashtags (like #foamed or #medtwitter). It's too bad Twitter doesn't give it's users tools to screen out bad actors and accentuate the positive.