9 ms·

So I never created a Twitter account. Over the years, there are a few people that I liked to read their thoughts on Twitter, so I'd manually go to their wall an

by cronix 5y ago

So I never created a Twitter account. Over the years, there are a few people that I liked to read their thoughts on Twitter, so I'd manually go to their wall and read occasionally. They're all verified. Over time, it became cumbersome to continue doing this and I thought I'd give in and create an account (on the website) so that these people were all easy to access from a single point. So I did, and went and immediately followed the 4 or 5 people. On the last one, my account locked up and said there was "suspicious activity" and if I wanted to continue I needed to supply my phone number. What? I haven't even tweeted anything yet and only followed verified checkmarked users. And why do I have to supply a phone number to use a web site? So, I just left the account in limbo and went back to what I was doing before - just manually going to individuals walls to read because they're bookmarked. So then a few months ago, Twitter started putting up an overlay up prompting you to log in or create an account to continue after viewing x tweets. Annoying, but not a huge issue as you could just dismiss the modal and continue. As of a few weeks ago, they got rid of the ability to dismiss the modal. The page just locks and you can't scroll unless you sign in. And that was the last day I used or visited Twitter. I now see 0 ads, will never give up a phone number to join a website, and have nothing but disdain for that company. I have never encountered a more hostile website, or company for that matter, towards innocuous behavior. The juice just ain't worth the squeeze. At least I was seeing your ads before.

judge2020 5y ago
> The juice just ain't worth the squeeze. Thus triggering the headline "missed user growth estimates".
stronglikedan 5y ago
> I have never encountered a more hostile website, or company for that matter, towards innocuous behavior. Instagram pulled that same crap a couple of years back, and I haven't visited since.
programmarchy 5y ago
Yep, same here. It’s infuriating. I’ve been using nitter to get around the modal, but who knows how long that will continue working.
PegasusProject 5y ago
I really can recommend Nitter[0], which also creates RSS feeds so you can just add them to your RSS reader of choice. [0] https://nitter.net/ https://nitter.net/
- sizzle 5y ago
  This is the solution I’ve been looking for, thanks for sharing it!
  - darkhelmet 5y ago
    There's also https://fraidyc.at/ https://fraidyc.at/ which provides a browser extension. It's an easy way to do exactly what the OP was doing and for more than just twitter.
- BugWatch 5y ago
  Is there something similar for TikTok, that would simplify the interface, give you notifications for a few channels (if that's the right word), with privacy in mind, and all without the need to register there?
asadlionpk 5y ago
Sadly, your outcome is an outlier. The conversion funnel using those hostile tactics is significantly higher than churn in short term, and that's all that matters for someone's promo packet.
onesafari 5y ago
tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
> I have never encountered a more hostile website I think Instagram and/or Pintrest often require you to log in before letting you see even the first picture you click on.
- captn3m0 5y ago
  Quora as well.
  - bogomipz 5y ago
    I don't believe Quora does this any more. They used to blur the entire page without a login but they relaxed that a couple of years ago now. I do notice that sometimes extended threads still seem to be behind a login wall but it's seems somewhat sporadic and inconsistent.
    - 1_player 5y ago
      No it still does force you to login upon loading the page, can't proceed past. I know because it just happened to me.
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      Quora even manages to break Archive Today, which is pretty good with most other sites' stupidity.
- robryan 5y ago
  The Reddit mobile website might be the worst. Every aspect of it is geared to making it as annoying as possible to use so that you are forced to download their app (or go find a better 3rd party one).
  - patentatt 5y ago
    old.reddit.com still works, and the day they disable it is the last day I am a Reddit user (which I have been since the YC days, as an original disaffected digg user)
bogomipz 5y ago
I had this exact same usage pattern and the exact same experience as what you describe. Although I refused to give them my phone number, my resolution and conclusion were also exactly the same as yours.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
teddyh 5y ago
> my account locked up and said there was "suspicious activity" and if I wanted to continue I needed to supply my phone number. I have repeatedly heard it said that Twitter does this for every single new account as a matter of course. Twitter wants your phone number, but don’t want you to bounce right at registration.
- shmatt 5y ago
  I would guess it started as a reaction to the many botnets used by companies and countries trying to maximize certain opinions On top of the phone number, they also go through purges seemingly once a year, getting rid of up to a million accounts a day. That also doesn't fair well with giving the stock market raw numbers
  - teddyh 5y ago
    > reaction to the many botnets Makes no sense. If they wanted to require a phone number to keep out bots, they would simply ask for a phone number at registration. Delaying it like this, claiming “suspicious activity” is hard to see any other way than how I described it.
    - jazzyjackson 5y ago
      bots can get phone numbers cheap, a cost of doing business. Speculation: Twitter wants your phone number so they can correlate you with existing marketing data so they can target you more effectively.
      - alexpotato 5y ago
        I would agree. Twitter has massive data on your interests but collects only minimal information about you vs, say, Facebook which has your name, birthday etc etc. I would also argue that Twitter has BETTER interest data than Facebook b/c you are constantly interacting with thousands of tweets a day across multiple dimensions. Facebook tends to be your family and a couple pages you happened to like. If they get your phone number, they get all of the available "data in the cloud" about you e.g. income, purchasing preferences etc. Cross reference the interests with that cloud data and you have a very precise target profile to sell to advertisers.
onedognight 5y ago
Same experience except I discovered that, at least on iOS, browsing in a private window still works to go to an individual user’s feed. It’s just a matter of time before they close that loophole and I too go away. FWIW, I do pay many of the people I manually follow on Twitter, but through substack or PayPal.
- sizzle 5y ago
  When you scroll on the page the full screen overlay locks you out unless you sign in, just tried on the latest iOS and safari
RoddaWallPro 5y ago
This is also how I use Twitter. FYI, it still works for me in incognito mode. If anyone reading this works at Twitter: WHY are you guys making these changes? I'm far more likely to just never use the service again out of outrage then make an account.
- saagarjha 5y ago
  It might be difficult to measure this.
andrew_ 5y ago
verified account status these days is meaningless. most of the truly interesting, unique thoughts come from accounts that are not. this is of course my own take after having been on the platform since 2010.
- donkeybeer 5y ago
  Do you know what verified means? It does not mean endorsement or "high quality user". It just means an account claiming to be a real life person is indeed actually that person.
  - andrew_ 5y ago
    Do you know that most old school (circa. 2010ish) users know that, but that new school users thinks it conveys "expert" or "authority"?
sneak 5y ago
In addition, even when fully logged in, having given a phone number, they censor the search function on the site. Not just the tweets you can post - the search - the tweets that they allow to be posted but you are not allowed to read. This is abhorrent to me and led to me deleting my account after a dozen years of use and double digit thousands of followers. If you won't let me read it, don't let it be posted. I will no longer donate my writing and attention to censorship platforms.
DyslexicAtheist 5y ago
> Twitter started putting up an overlay up prompting you to log in or create an account to continue after viewing x tweets. Annoying, but not a huge issue as you could just dismiss the modal and continue. you can no longer dismiss the modal, or in any other way bypass this as of a few days ago. (at least on mobile)
- kec 5y ago
  copying the URL into a new tab usually seems to work.
  - ThatMedicIsASpy 5y ago
    F5 and clicking close is enough
- anthk 5y ago
  Replace twitter.com from the URL with nitter.kavin.rocks or nitter.fdn.fr .
- mdoms 5y ago
heavyset_go 5y ago
It's almost impossible to sign up for an account with Twitter, Google, or Facebook without divulging your phone number with them and then confirming it. They're at the stage where their growth is scrutinized by investors and partners, and they're desperate to prove that their users have real eyeballs that can see ads. Before that, they had no problem with new accounts maybe being bots because it's good for growth numbers. Now advertisers want to know if real people are seeing their ads, or if just bots are.
ahartmetz 5y ago
>I have never encountered a more hostile website, or company for that matter, towards innocuous behavior. Pinterest images in Google image search results would like to have a word with you.
- piva00 5y ago
  Fuck. How much I hate Pinterest for basically being a huge spammer on image search... Worst part is that when Pinterest launched I even used it for a short while, it was useful for some things (e.g. collecting examples of furniture I'd be eyeing, tattoo motifs inspiration) and over time it just became a huge cluttered unusable mess. And then the spam on image search came and I simply despise Pinterest, ranting about them convinced at least 2 close friends to abandon it as well.
  - brimble 5y ago
    giphy and a couple similar sites are the ones I hate. It's so goddamn hard to get ahold of a gif that's actually a gif, these days. Why does gif search take me to a site that makes it nearly impossible to see a gif? And then doesn't include "duplicates" from other sites that would actually give me a gif.
civilized 5y ago
Easiest way to solve this is to disable cookies on twitter.com.
DangitBobby 5y ago
There is a query param in the URL, something like ?s=21. If you remove that, the login wall doesn't pop up.
i67vw3 5y ago
You can use https://nitter.net https://nitter.net, or it's another instance, https://nitter.kavin.rocks/ https://nitter.kavin.rocks/. You can view tweets normally as you do it via official twitter site. Moreover, you can have RSS feeds for twitter profiles (main timeline or timeline with replies).
zakki 5y ago
When login page is displayed I did one of these: - go to the address bar and just enter it - clear all cookies related to twitter The latter give me longer annoyance displayed. As of you account deactivation maybe twitter think you are a bot scanning an account.
userbinator 5y ago
...and to think that Twitter used to be viewable easily without even JavaScript. Once they blocked that I started using Nitter, but most recently it seems that it's been more intermittent and randomly stops showing tweets. (I've also never created an account there, and only ever used it in "read-only" mode.)
shp0ngle 5y ago
lol LinkedIn used to be famously horrible in dark patterns and auto-following everyone. And what did it get them? Billions USD from Microsoft. So dark patterns work.
weq 5y ago
SAME exact scenario here! Twitter is a pile but its doing a good job doing away with traditional media companies so i hope it doesnt collapse just yet.
gred 5y ago
I have never created an account either, and eventually added the entire Twitter domain to my uBlock Origin block list the day they booted a certain politician from their platform. Different paths, same destination.
lurker_22 5y ago

by cronix 5y ago

judge2020 5y ago

> The juice just ain't worth the squeeze. Thus triggering the headline "missed user growth estimates".

stronglikedan 5y ago

> I have never encountered a more hostile website, or company for that matter, towards innocuous behavior. Instagram pulled that same crap a couple of years back, and I haven't visited since.

programmarchy 5y ago

Yep, same here. It’s infuriating. I’ve been using nitter to get around the modal, but who knows how long that will continue working.

PegasusProject 5y ago

I really can recommend Nitter[0], which also creates RSS feeds so you can just add them to your RSS reader of choice. [0] https://nitter.net/ https://nitter.net/

sizzle 5y ago
This is the solution I’ve been looking for, thanks for sharing it!
- darkhelmet 5y ago
  There's also https://fraidyc.at/ https://fraidyc.at/ which provides a browser extension. It's an easy way to do exactly what the OP was doing and for more than just twitter.
BugWatch 5y ago
Is there something similar for TikTok, that would simplify the interface, give you notifications for a few channels (if that's the right word), with privacy in mind, and all without the need to register there?

asadlionpk 5y ago

Sadly, your outcome is an outlier. The conversion funnel using those hostile tactics is significantly higher than churn in short term, and that's all that matters for someone's promo packet.

onesafari 5y ago

tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago

> I have never encountered a more hostile website I think Instagram and/or Pintrest often require you to log in before letting you see even the first picture you click on.

captn3m0 5y ago
Quora as well.
- bogomipz 5y ago
  I don't believe Quora does this any more. They used to blur the entire page without a login but they relaxed that a couple of years ago now. I do notice that sometimes extended threads still seem to be behind a login wall but it's seems somewhat sporadic and inconsistent.
  - 1_player 5y ago
    No it still does force you to login upon loading the page, can't proceed past. I know because it just happened to me.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    Quora even manages to break Archive Today, which is pretty good with most other sites' stupidity.
robryan 5y ago
The Reddit mobile website might be the worst. Every aspect of it is geared to making it as annoying as possible to use so that you are forced to download their app (or go find a better 3rd party one).
- patentatt 5y ago
  old.reddit.com still works, and the day they disable it is the last day I am a Reddit user (which I have been since the YC days, as an original disaffected digg user)

bogomipz 5y ago

I had this exact same usage pattern and the exact same experience as what you describe. Although I refused to give them my phone number, my resolution and conclusion were also exactly the same as yours.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

teddyh 5y ago

> my account locked up and said there was "suspicious activity" and if I wanted to continue I needed to supply my phone number. I have repeatedly heard it said that Twitter does this for every single new account as a matter of course. Twitter wants your phone number, but don’t want you to bounce right at registration.

shmatt 5y ago
I would guess it started as a reaction to the many botnets used by companies and countries trying to maximize certain opinions On top of the phone number, they also go through purges seemingly once a year, getting rid of up to a million accounts a day. That also doesn't fair well with giving the stock market raw numbers
- teddyh 5y ago
  > reaction to the many botnets Makes no sense. If they wanted to require a phone number to keep out bots, they would simply ask for a phone number at registration. Delaying it like this, claiming “suspicious activity” is hard to see any other way than how I described it.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    bots can get phone numbers cheap, a cost of doing business. Speculation: Twitter wants your phone number so they can correlate you with existing marketing data so they can target you more effectively.
    - alexpotato 5y ago
      I would agree. Twitter has massive data on your interests but collects only minimal information about you vs, say, Facebook which has your name, birthday etc etc. I would also argue that Twitter has BETTER interest data than Facebook b/c you are constantly interacting with thousands of tweets a day across multiple dimensions. Facebook tends to be your family and a couple pages you happened to like. If they get your phone number, they get all of the available "data in the cloud" about you e.g. income, purchasing preferences etc. Cross reference the interests with that cloud data and you have a very precise target profile to sell to advertisers.

onedognight 5y ago

Same experience except I discovered that, at least on iOS, browsing in a private window still works to go to an individual user’s feed. It’s just a matter of time before they close that loophole and I too go away. FWIW, I do pay many of the people I manually follow on Twitter, but through substack or PayPal.

sizzle 5y ago
When you scroll on the page the full screen overlay locks you out unless you sign in, just tried on the latest iOS and safari

RoddaWallPro 5y ago

This is also how I use Twitter. FYI, it still works for me in incognito mode. If anyone reading this works at Twitter: WHY are you guys making these changes? I'm far more likely to just never use the service again out of outrage then make an account.

saagarjha 5y ago
It might be difficult to measure this.

andrew_ 5y ago

verified account status these days is meaningless. most of the truly interesting, unique thoughts come from accounts that are not. this is of course my own take after having been on the platform since 2010.

donkeybeer 5y ago
Do you know what verified means? It does not mean endorsement or "high quality user". It just means an account claiming to be a real life person is indeed actually that person.
- andrew_ 5y ago
  Do you know that most old school (circa. 2010ish) users know that, but that new school users thinks it conveys "expert" or "authority"?

sneak 5y ago

In addition, even when fully logged in, having given a phone number, they censor the search function on the site. Not just the tweets you can post - the search - the tweets that they allow to be posted but you are not allowed to read. This is abhorrent to me and led to me deleting my account after a dozen years of use and double digit thousands of followers. If you won't let me read it, don't let it be posted. I will no longer donate my writing and attention to censorship platforms.

DyslexicAtheist 5y ago

> Twitter started putting up an overlay up prompting you to log in or create an account to continue after viewing x tweets. Annoying, but not a huge issue as you could just dismiss the modal and continue. you can no longer dismiss the modal, or in any other way bypass this as of a few days ago. (at least on mobile)

kec 5y ago
copying the URL into a new tab usually seems to work.
- ThatMedicIsASpy 5y ago
  F5 and clicking close is enough
anthk 5y ago
Replace twitter.com from the URL with nitter.kavin.rocks or nitter.fdn.fr .
mdoms 5y ago

heavyset_go 5y ago

It's almost impossible to sign up for an account with Twitter, Google, or Facebook without divulging your phone number with them and then confirming it. They're at the stage where their growth is scrutinized by investors and partners, and they're desperate to prove that their users have real eyeballs that can see ads. Before that, they had no problem with new accounts maybe being bots because it's good for growth numbers. Now advertisers want to know if real people are seeing their ads, or if just bots are.

ahartmetz 5y ago

>I have never encountered a more hostile website, or company for that matter, towards innocuous behavior. Pinterest images in Google image search results would like to have a word with you.

piva00 5y ago
Fuck. How much I hate Pinterest for basically being a huge spammer on image search... Worst part is that when Pinterest launched I even used it for a short while, it was useful for some things (e.g. collecting examples of furniture I'd be eyeing, tattoo motifs inspiration) and over time it just became a huge cluttered unusable mess. And then the spam on image search came and I simply despise Pinterest, ranting about them convinced at least 2 close friends to abandon it as well.
- brimble 5y ago
  giphy and a couple similar sites are the ones I hate. It's so goddamn hard to get ahold of a gif that's actually a gif, these days. Why does gif search take me to a site that makes it nearly impossible to see a gif? And then doesn't include "duplicates" from other sites that would actually give me a gif.

civilized 5y ago

Easiest way to solve this is to disable cookies on twitter.com.

DangitBobby 5y ago

There is a query param in the URL, something like ?s=21. If you remove that, the login wall doesn't pop up.

i67vw3 5y ago

You can use https://nitter.net https://nitter.net, or it's another instance, https://nitter.kavin.rocks/ https://nitter.kavin.rocks/. You can view tweets normally as you do it via official twitter site. Moreover, you can have RSS feeds for twitter profiles (main timeline or timeline with replies).

zakki 5y ago

When login page is displayed I did one of these: - go to the address bar and just enter it - clear all cookies related to twitter The latter give me longer annoyance displayed. As of you account deactivation maybe twitter think you are a bot scanning an account.

userbinator 5y ago

...and to think that Twitter used to be viewable easily without even JavaScript. Once they blocked that I started using Nitter, but most recently it seems that it's been more intermittent and randomly stops showing tweets. (I've also never created an account there, and only ever used it in "read-only" mode.)

shp0ngle 5y ago

lol LinkedIn used to be famously horrible in dark patterns and auto-following everyone. And what did it get them? Billions USD from Microsoft. So dark patterns work.

weq 5y ago

SAME exact scenario here! Twitter is a pile but its doing a good job doing away with traditional media companies so i hope it doesnt collapse just yet.

gred 5y ago

I have never created an account either, and eventually added the entire Twitter domain to my uBlock Origin block list the day they booted a certain politician from their platform. Different paths, same destination.

lurker_22 5y ago