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The character limit is the last of Twitters issue, in my opinion. I think the #1 issue is the retweet model, it leads to people just brainlessly sharing low eff

The character limit is the last of Twitters issue, in my opinion. I think the #1 issue is the retweet model, it leads to people just brainlessly sharing low effort content with a single click. It's similar to how fake news and misleading content thrive on Facebook. But notice how Instagram where it's impossible to easily re-share content (well, you can now in stories) is far less toxic.

inopinatus 6y ago
An honest UI might use the word “echo” rather than “retweet”.
- microcolonel 6y ago
  Retweet used to actually retweet things (i.e. pretend "RT" and the OP's handle), so it's like the floppy disk icon. Parler uses a megaphone.
  - bigiain 6y ago
    It's amusing to me the retweets (and hashtags) were emergent behaviour of early Twitter users, not any sort of well thought out plan for how the platform was intended to work. And then the platform owners mostly misunderstood the problem and emergent solution, and natively implemented something similar but optimised for advertising sales metrics ("engagement!") instead of what the users were actually doing. And then as the user base changed from it's early-userbase to being heavily biased to marketers (sorry, "influencers" and/or advertisers), and social media expert gurus started talking about "message amplification" - and so we end up with new contenders in the field thinking that the lack of ability to shout "brand messages" through a megaphone was the problem those early users "invented" retweeting to solve... <sigh> (And now I'm imagining a world where a St*rbucks-like cafe chain hands megaphones to everybody as they enter the store, with the implicit understanding that you shout out every interesting bit of conversation you overhear, which inevitably quickly develops into people only shouting out other people's megaphone shouts because that's all you can hear, until eventually if crescendos into a Hendrix-esque never ending earsplitting feedback wail - probably Star Spangled Banner for maximum crudeness... Has Black Mirror done this yet?)
    - stormbrew 6y ago
      God so much this. Manual retweets didn't really work like the feature Twitter implemented do and they had drastically different effects on content spread. Quote tweets (which were also emergent before rts even became a feature) are actually closer in those terms. But because the button is right there the more useful emergent version died completely off.
- bigiain 6y ago
  Perhaps "parrot", given the parent platform's choice of terminology? "I totally made the world a better place today! I , ummm, yeah. So. I just parroted an actual activist's well thought out and carefully composed tweet, instead of doing anything of substance at all myself... What am I doing with my life? <sobs>"
  - zimpenfish 6y ago
    > instead of doing anything of substance at all myself Does amplification of messages count as "nothing of substance"? "Getting the message out" is a crucial part of activism, is it not?
- deevolution 6y ago
  Retweet is more on brand.
- henriquemaia 6y ago
  And then it would be filed under a "chamber" category on your profile. Just as a friendly reminder of where you were heading...
dorkwood 6y ago
The retweet is my favourite part of twitter! It means a relatively unknown artist or developer can have their work massively amplified and shared around despite having only a small number of followers. I don't know of any other service that offers that sort of benefit.
- bigiain 6y ago
  "The retweet is my favourite part of twitter! It means a relatively unwanted company or brand can have their work massively amplified and shared around despite having only a small number of followers. I don't know of any other service that offers that sort of benefit." Said nobody ever. (I also somewhat agree with you, I have a bunch of real world friends now, who I first came to know via Twitter retweets - back in Twitter circa 2011 before the "brands" arrived. I'd totally given up by about 2018 and deleted my account.)
  - cortesoft 6y ago
    Did you just say "said nobody ever" to someone who literally just said that? There is clearly at least one person who feels that way.
    - smichel17 6y ago
      It felt tongue in cheek to me since they went on to somewhat agree that signal boosting via retweets at least used to be nice. But I agree, it was a bit weird of a response.
    - bigiain 6y ago
      I made a minor but critical small edit to what the person just said. I switched "unknown artist or developer" to "unwanted company or brand" - which to me at least, is a super accurate change in majority user base between Twitter 2010 and Twitter 2020. Now ask yourself if anybody ever said what you're responding to?
      - AnonC 6y ago
whywhywhywhy 6y ago
> But notice how Instagram where it's impossible to easily re-share content (well, you can now in stories) is far less toxic. People still re-share it, Instagram just encourages and rewards you to just steal the content and pretend it's your own and because the system doesn't support hyperlinking it's very difficult to call people out on it. It's a huge issue for any artists on the platform.

inopinatus 6y ago

An honest UI might use the word “echo” rather than “retweet”.

microcolonel 6y ago
Retweet used to actually retweet things (i.e. pretend "RT" and the OP's handle), so it's like the floppy disk icon. Parler uses a megaphone.
- bigiain 6y ago
  It's amusing to me the retweets (and hashtags) were emergent behaviour of early Twitter users, not any sort of well thought out plan for how the platform was intended to work. And then the platform owners mostly misunderstood the problem and emergent solution, and natively implemented something similar but optimised for advertising sales metrics ("engagement!") instead of what the users were actually doing. And then as the user base changed from it's early-userbase to being heavily biased to marketers (sorry, "influencers" and/or advertisers), and social media expert gurus started talking about "message amplification" - and so we end up with new contenders in the field thinking that the lack of ability to shout "brand messages" through a megaphone was the problem those early users "invented" retweeting to solve... <sigh> (And now I'm imagining a world where a St*rbucks-like cafe chain hands megaphones to everybody as they enter the store, with the implicit understanding that you shout out every interesting bit of conversation you overhear, which inevitably quickly develops into people only shouting out other people's megaphone shouts because that's all you can hear, until eventually if crescendos into a Hendrix-esque never ending earsplitting feedback wail - probably Star Spangled Banner for maximum crudeness... Has Black Mirror done this yet?)
  - stormbrew 6y ago
    God so much this. Manual retweets didn't really work like the feature Twitter implemented do and they had drastically different effects on content spread. Quote tweets (which were also emergent before rts even became a feature) are actually closer in those terms. But because the button is right there the more useful emergent version died completely off.
bigiain 6y ago
Perhaps "parrot", given the parent platform's choice of terminology? "I totally made the world a better place today! I , ummm, yeah. So. I just parroted an actual activist's well thought out and carefully composed tweet, instead of doing anything of substance at all myself... What am I doing with my life? <sobs>"
- zimpenfish 6y ago
  > instead of doing anything of substance at all myself Does amplification of messages count as "nothing of substance"? "Getting the message out" is a crucial part of activism, is it not?
deevolution 6y ago
Retweet is more on brand.
henriquemaia 6y ago
And then it would be filed under a "chamber" category on your profile. Just as a friendly reminder of where you were heading...

dorkwood 6y ago

The retweet is my favourite part of twitter! It means a relatively unknown artist or developer can have their work massively amplified and shared around despite having only a small number of followers. I don't know of any other service that offers that sort of benefit.

bigiain 6y ago
"The retweet is my favourite part of twitter! It means a relatively unwanted company or brand can have their work massively amplified and shared around despite having only a small number of followers. I don't know of any other service that offers that sort of benefit." Said nobody ever. (I also somewhat agree with you, I have a bunch of real world friends now, who I first came to know via Twitter retweets - back in Twitter circa 2011 before the "brands" arrived. I'd totally given up by about 2018 and deleted my account.)
- cortesoft 6y ago
  Did you just say "said nobody ever" to someone who literally just said that? There is clearly at least one person who feels that way.
  - smichel17 6y ago
    It felt tongue in cheek to me since they went on to somewhat agree that signal boosting via retweets at least used to be nice. But I agree, it was a bit weird of a response.
  - bigiain 6y ago
    I made a minor but critical small edit to what the person just said. I switched "unknown artist or developer" to "unwanted company or brand" - which to me at least, is a super accurate change in majority user base between Twitter 2010 and Twitter 2020. Now ask yourself if anybody ever said what you're responding to?
    - AnonC 6y ago

whywhywhywhy 6y ago

> But notice how Instagram where it's impossible to easily re-share content (well, you can now in stories) is far less toxic. People still re-share it, Instagram just encourages and rewards you to just steal the content and pretend it's your own and because the system doesn't support hyperlinking it's very difficult to call people out on it. It's a huge issue for any artists on the platform.