5 ms·

Twitter Threads are the absolute worst! Just write a blog post already! But I guess for better or worse, the Twitter Threads get people more internet points!

tiborsaas 5y ago
Twitter played well in the impulse control game and unfortunately won over many people. Crafting a blog post takes way more effort compared to a rant like loosely connected stream of tweets.
- mh_ 5y ago
  I wrote this about 13 years ago (a little tongue in cheek) but it held up: https://sensepost.com/blog/2009/twitter-killed-the-infosec-blogging-star/ https://sensepost.com/blog/2009/twitter-killed-the-infosec-b... -snip- There’s something liberating about saying “here’s a link”, as opposed to taking the time to formulate your thoughts into a full blown posting. We were curious if this twitter-effect was real, imaginary or only applicable to lazy people like us.. Thanks to python-twitter and a few lines of script we can look at the the blogging habits of some info-sec superstars (and maybe confuse correlation and causation to jump to conclusions while we at it). -snip-
btgeekboy 5y ago
I've never come to understand the disdain for tweet threads. Sure, a blog would be nice, but as a reader I have no idea if it's going to render correctly on mobile or be inundated with terrible ads. At minimum there'll be a braindead cookie banner taking up 1/3 of the screen. Meanwhile, the author now has to go set up a blog somewhere, link to it, moderate comments on two forums, etc. All because people can't read with a faint horizontal line between coherent thoughts? Or is there something I'm missing?
- tadzik_ 5y ago
  > but as a reader I have no idea if it's going to render correctly on mobile (...). At minimum there'll be a braindead cookie banner taking up 1/3 of the screen This is the reality of reading twitter on mobile if you aren't logged in/using their app though.
- whyoh 5y ago
  >All because people can't read with a faint horizontal line between coherent thoughts? Or is there something I'm missing? It's more than just a horizontal line. There are icons and buttons in every post, that is, every couple of sentences. Hover-over popups that obfuscate content. Distractions and irrelevant click-bait content on the side and on the bottom. Embedded media (images, videos) behave poorly. Obfuscated external links. Cookie/sign-in banners that take more space than on other websites. I could probably go on if I took another look, but seeing how Twitter is now forcing me to log-in, I can't. And I think just about every remotely popular blogging platform works properly on mobile, it's not 2005 anymore. Ads might be a problem on some, I'm not sure. But I bet even with ads it's not as bad as Twitter overall. For testing I opened a Blogspot link now with no adblock and there was just one unobtrusive ad on the side, way better than Twitter in terms of readability.
- alpaca128 5y ago
  > I have no idea if it's going to render correctly This is actually my problem with that website and the main reason I hate Twitter threads. Twitter doesn't let me open anything in a new tab properly, sometimes (like last week) opening images in posts doesn't work for days, and I stopped using the site because after about a month the notifications stopped showing anything new, I literally had to scroll through my own profile and manually look for answers to my posts! In the best case this is an unreadable mess where everything has to be unfolded like a messy origami; and sometimes this reloads the site, sometimes it doesn't, either way it comes with at least a second of loading time. I'd like those threads if they were as readable as comments here on HN. But Twitter seems to test how inaccessible they can make their main content without people leaving.
moontear 5y ago
I don't have any problems with Twitter threads. Why don't you like them? I can consume them easily on mobile and on my desktop. On the other hand I think apps that unroll threads are the worst. All the spammy answers just saying "@threadreaderapp" or something like that - THAT is the worst in my eyes. Nothing against blog posts, I'd also prefer a blog post over a Twitter thread.
- dewey 5y ago
  > All the spammy answers just saying "@threadreaderapp" or something like that - THAT is the worst in my eyes Agreed, I wish Twitter would just crack down on that and ban bots like that.
  - tadzik_ 5y ago
    I'd prefer if twitter just made its interface not terrible so that there'd be no need for threadreaderapp.
    - dewey 5y ago
      I'm not a fan of Twitter threads but the interface got a lot better since they added proper threading. Adding x/x identifiers isn't really necessary any more and reading is a much better experience than it used to be. I'm almost convinced that people just post the @threadreaderapp unroll for engagement.
      - tadzik_ 5y ago
        Better than it used to be is not a very high bar to clear. As a reader, I actively seek the threadreaderapp posters and follow these links to improve the reading experience. Or just go to nitter since I discovered that it's a thing.
ColinWright 5y ago
You're shouting at the wrong people. The problem isn't HN users posting their insights to Twitter and then submitting those links. The problem is other people, often some with useful or valuable insights, post to Twitter, and then HN people find that information. What to do? We can copy that information to our own site and post a link to that, but the guidelines ask us to post original sources. We can ignore it,but that means ignoring a possible source of useful and insightful information. Or we can post a link to the tweet, and rely on HN users to find a way to read it, such has been suggested elsewhere in this discussion. But telling HN readers to post on their own blog is a bit pointless.
oxplot 5y ago
> Twitter Threads are the absolute worst! It really depends on what corner of Twitter you live in. I follow a dozen or so people and see nothing but high quality content.

tiborsaas 5y ago

Twitter played well in the impulse control game and unfortunately won over many people. Crafting a blog post takes way more effort compared to a rant like loosely connected stream of tweets.

mh_ 5y ago
I wrote this about 13 years ago (a little tongue in cheek) but it held up: https://sensepost.com/blog/2009/twitter-killed-the-infosec-blogging-star/ https://sensepost.com/blog/2009/twitter-killed-the-infosec-b... -snip- There’s something liberating about saying “here’s a link”, as opposed to taking the time to formulate your thoughts into a full blown posting. We were curious if this twitter-effect was real, imaginary or only applicable to lazy people like us.. Thanks to python-twitter and a few lines of script we can look at the the blogging habits of some info-sec superstars (and maybe confuse correlation and causation to jump to conclusions while we at it). -snip-

btgeekboy 5y ago

I've never come to understand the disdain for tweet threads. Sure, a blog would be nice, but as a reader I have no idea if it's going to render correctly on mobile or be inundated with terrible ads. At minimum there'll be a braindead cookie banner taking up 1/3 of the screen. Meanwhile, the author now has to go set up a blog somewhere, link to it, moderate comments on two forums, etc. All because people can't read with a faint horizontal line between coherent thoughts? Or is there something I'm missing?

tadzik_ 5y ago
> but as a reader I have no idea if it's going to render correctly on mobile (...). At minimum there'll be a braindead cookie banner taking up 1/3 of the screen This is the reality of reading twitter on mobile if you aren't logged in/using their app though.
whyoh 5y ago
>All because people can't read with a faint horizontal line between coherent thoughts? Or is there something I'm missing? It's more than just a horizontal line. There are icons and buttons in every post, that is, every couple of sentences. Hover-over popups that obfuscate content. Distractions and irrelevant click-bait content on the side and on the bottom. Embedded media (images, videos) behave poorly. Obfuscated external links. Cookie/sign-in banners that take more space than on other websites. I could probably go on if I took another look, but seeing how Twitter is now forcing me to log-in, I can't. And I think just about every remotely popular blogging platform works properly on mobile, it's not 2005 anymore. Ads might be a problem on some, I'm not sure. But I bet even with ads it's not as bad as Twitter overall. For testing I opened a Blogspot link now with no adblock and there was just one unobtrusive ad on the side, way better than Twitter in terms of readability.
alpaca128 5y ago
> I have no idea if it's going to render correctly This is actually my problem with that website and the main reason I hate Twitter threads. Twitter doesn't let me open anything in a new tab properly, sometimes (like last week) opening images in posts doesn't work for days, and I stopped using the site because after about a month the notifications stopped showing anything new, I literally had to scroll through my own profile and manually look for answers to my posts! In the best case this is an unreadable mess where everything has to be unfolded like a messy origami; and sometimes this reloads the site, sometimes it doesn't, either way it comes with at least a second of loading time. I'd like those threads if they were as readable as comments here on HN. But Twitter seems to test how inaccessible they can make their main content without people leaving.

moontear 5y ago

I don't have any problems with Twitter threads. Why don't you like them? I can consume them easily on mobile and on my desktop. On the other hand I think apps that unroll threads are the worst. All the spammy answers just saying "@threadreaderapp" or something like that - THAT is the worst in my eyes. Nothing against blog posts, I'd also prefer a blog post over a Twitter thread.

dewey 5y ago
> All the spammy answers just saying "@threadreaderapp" or something like that - THAT is the worst in my eyes Agreed, I wish Twitter would just crack down on that and ban bots like that.
- tadzik_ 5y ago
  I'd prefer if twitter just made its interface not terrible so that there'd be no need for threadreaderapp.
  - dewey 5y ago
    I'm not a fan of Twitter threads but the interface got a lot better since they added proper threading. Adding x/x identifiers isn't really necessary any more and reading is a much better experience than it used to be. I'm almost convinced that people just post the @threadreaderapp unroll for engagement.
    - tadzik_ 5y ago
      Better than it used to be is not a very high bar to clear. As a reader, I actively seek the threadreaderapp posters and follow these links to improve the reading experience. Or just go to nitter since I discovered that it's a thing.

ColinWright 5y ago

You're shouting at the wrong people. The problem isn't HN users posting their insights to Twitter and then submitting those links. The problem is other people, often some with useful or valuable insights, post to Twitter, and then HN people find that information. What to do? We can copy that information to our own site and post a link to that, but the guidelines ask us to post original sources. We can ignore it,but that means ignoring a possible source of useful and insightful information. Or we can post a link to the tweet, and rely on HN users to find a way to read it, such has been suggested elsewhere in this discussion. But telling HN readers to post on their own blog is a bit pointless.

oxplot 5y ago

> Twitter Threads are the absolute worst! It really depends on what corner of Twitter you live in. I follow a dozen or so people and see nothing but high quality content.