5 ms·

I think the problem is that social media platforms, especially Twitter downranks your post if it has a link. Therefore, recently people have been writing threa

I think the problem is that social media platforms, especially Twitter downranks your post if it has a link. Therefore, recently people have been writing threads with a link to post at end of thread. The reason simply is that platforms want people to remain on the platform for longer periods of time. Instagram doesn't even allow you to have a link in your post. Just in the profile.

kingcharles 5y ago
Same problem with TikTok. You have to tell your viewers to check your profile and then you have a single link to your home page, and they will have to go there and dig around for whatever information you want them to see. Not ideal, but I still want to drive everyone to a domain I own rather than have them live on a platform I don't. Pinterest banned my account the other day by mistake and it took me two weeks of pestering the shit out of them for them to admit it and reinstate it.
- patmorgan23 5y ago
  That's why services like LinkTree got really popular. You could do the same with your own website pretty easily.
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    Yeah, I use my own domain in my profile for the reason given in the article - it's pointless to drive someone off social media and land them straight onto another property you don't own.
icelancer 5y ago
>> I think the problem is that social media platforms, especially Twitter downranks your post if it has a link. Huh - is this true? It anecdotally felt very true to me when posting content - is there data/reports on this somewhere to view?
- chipotle_coyote 5y ago
  The problem is that it's very hard to distinguish between "posts with links get less engagement because Twitter is subtly suppressing them" and "posts with links get less engagement because people are just less likely to click 'like' and 'retweet' on them."
  - FalconSensei 5y ago
    I might be wrong, but IIRC, the 'links dont get clicked' was already a problem before they started adding algorithms to the timeline. This is about clicks and not engagement though. Also, you can see how many times a tweet was viewed and interacted with in the analytics, so you could try to do your own comparison by seeing the % of views that trigger engagement
forgotmypw17 5y ago
You're right, and I think it's a testament to how effective POSSE is. The dinosaur platforms are scared of it, which is why they are discouraging links. You described the solution yourself. You can still do POSSE, but instead of a link you can write something like, "link to original post is in the comments" or "originally published on my website, you know how to find it". It may be tricky or even impossible to automate, but isn't that how you know it's good, according to PG? :)
- jdgoesmarching 5y ago
  You are far more optimistic about this than me. The web has centralized rapidly and no platform is incentivized to allow links out. Without legislation, these platforms can build walls easier than we can build ladders. Your average user isn’t all that interested in following links in the first place, so it’s an uphill battle from every angle.
  - forgotmypw17 5y ago
    You're right, I do believe in optimism. Though it's hard for me to imagine legislation helping the situation, since regulations are usually written for/by the big incumbents to dig a deeper moat around themselves.
- FalconSensei 5y ago
  > originally published on my website, you know how to find it I don't think that works. People are already lazy to click a link, imagine having to go to the blog and then search for the actual post
  - MaxBarraclough 5y ago
    To put a different spin on that point: it would be perverse to deliberately throw out the cornerstones of the web: URLs and hyperlinks. (Not that I have a better answer to Twitter's isolationist shenanigans, mind.)
  - forgotmypw17 5y ago
echelon 5y ago
That screams antitrust. We need to tell our legislators to go after companies that disallow or downrank external links.
- FalconSensei 5y ago
  Not sure about that. Because they tell you the timeline is ordered by what they think you could like - unless you change it back to 'home' - so they can just show data that tells legislators that people don't click on links, and that they interact more with threads instead.

kingcharles 5y ago

Same problem with TikTok. You have to tell your viewers to check your profile and then you have a single link to your home page, and they will have to go there and dig around for whatever information you want them to see. Not ideal, but I still want to drive everyone to a domain I own rather than have them live on a platform I don't. Pinterest banned my account the other day by mistake and it took me two weeks of pestering the shit out of them for them to admit it and reinstate it.

patmorgan23 5y ago
That's why services like LinkTree got really popular. You could do the same with your own website pretty easily.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  Yeah, I use my own domain in my profile for the reason given in the article - it's pointless to drive someone off social media and land them straight onto another property you don't own.

icelancer 5y ago

>> I think the problem is that social media platforms, especially Twitter downranks your post if it has a link. Huh - is this true? It anecdotally felt very true to me when posting content - is there data/reports on this somewhere to view?

chipotle_coyote 5y ago
The problem is that it's very hard to distinguish between "posts with links get less engagement because Twitter is subtly suppressing them" and "posts with links get less engagement because people are just less likely to click 'like' and 'retweet' on them."
- FalconSensei 5y ago
  I might be wrong, but IIRC, the 'links dont get clicked' was already a problem before they started adding algorithms to the timeline. This is about clicks and not engagement though. Also, you can see how many times a tweet was viewed and interacted with in the analytics, so you could try to do your own comparison by seeing the % of views that trigger engagement

forgotmypw17 5y ago

You're right, and I think it's a testament to how effective POSSE is. The dinosaur platforms are scared of it, which is why they are discouraging links. You described the solution yourself. You can still do POSSE, but instead of a link you can write something like, "link to original post is in the comments" or "originally published on my website, you know how to find it". It may be tricky or even impossible to automate, but isn't that how you know it's good, according to PG? :)

jdgoesmarching 5y ago
You are far more optimistic about this than me. The web has centralized rapidly and no platform is incentivized to allow links out. Without legislation, these platforms can build walls easier than we can build ladders. Your average user isn’t all that interested in following links in the first place, so it’s an uphill battle from every angle.
- forgotmypw17 5y ago
  You're right, I do believe in optimism. Though it's hard for me to imagine legislation helping the situation, since regulations are usually written for/by the big incumbents to dig a deeper moat around themselves.
FalconSensei 5y ago
> originally published on my website, you know how to find it I don't think that works. People are already lazy to click a link, imagine having to go to the blog and then search for the actual post
- MaxBarraclough 5y ago
  To put a different spin on that point: it would be perverse to deliberately throw out the cornerstones of the web: URLs and hyperlinks. (Not that I have a better answer to Twitter's isolationist shenanigans, mind.)
- forgotmypw17 5y ago

echelon 5y ago

That screams antitrust. We need to tell our legislators to go after companies that disallow or downrank external links.

FalconSensei 5y ago
Not sure about that. Because they tell you the timeline is ordered by what they think you could like - unless you change it back to 'home' - so they can just show data that tells legislators that people don't click on links, and that they interact more with threads instead.