12 ms·

I've been using Twitter since it was invite only. I'm not a Twitter personality, I don't have impressive follow counts or viral tweets. I do tweet but mostly on

• Mandelmus 4y ago
  >Block retweets which aren't quotes. How do you do that? I only know you can disable all retweets from a particular person you follow. I didn't know you could disable non-quote retweets from all accounts you follow.
  • zaphar 4y ago
    Tweetdeck which is basically a fancy interface to Twitters search functionality allows me to do that. I don't use the Twitter app or visit the twitter home page.
• simonebrunozzi 4y ago
  What's your @ ? In my case it's @simon, and one of my problems is that I get a TON of unwanted mentions. No idea how to solve it, after lots of thinking over the years.
  • zaphar 4y ago
    You can see my @ in my HN profile.
• colpabar 4y ago
  I think the fact that you got in early and are now a pro at using it is why you don't hate it. twitter seems like such a simple platform that should be great, but as someone who has tried it out a few times over the years, it just seems horrible. As soon as you create your account, you are bombarded with whatever outrage-inducing topics are popular that day, and the recommendation system on who to follow seems pretty biased. All of the things you listed seem like they should be the default. But they aren't, which means 99% of people do not even know they are options, and so the site is dumpster fire for most people.
  • zaphar 4y ago
    This is fair. Most of my rules amount to working to keep twitter looking like it looked when it first started. Which sort of leads you to question what value all the features twitter has introduced since really give me as a user. I like spaces and find those useful but the algorithmic feed has close to 0 value for me. I'm not sure how twitter makes money and survives as a company without it though. Can twitter succeed as a pay to use platform? I don't know.
  • Sakos 4y ago
    I started using it when the Ukraine war began. All I see is news out of the war. Nothing sensationalized or toxic or anything. You can avoid a lot of the cesspool if you put in a tiny bit of effort.
    • Karrot_Kream 4y ago
      Yeah but you can hop onto a few Telegram news channels and get the same thing? And no cesspool this time either. That's how I've been getting news from Ukranian and Russian news sources.
      • Sakos 4y ago
        You can also use Facebook or Reddit for it. What's your point?
• polynomial 4y ago
  > 5. Block retweets which aren't quotes. What's the reason for this? I didn't even realize you could do that.
  • zaphar 4y ago
    Just plain retweets tend to be viral tweets. And while some of them can be fun they also have a tendency to be low-content, high rage-factor tweets. In tweetdeck the block retweets setting blocks them. Retweet with quote isn't counted as a retweet.
    • Sakos 4y ago
      > Just plain retweets tend to be viral tweets. And while some of them can be fun they also have a tendency to be low-content, high rage-factor tweets. All the retweets I see are high quality and interesting. This heavily depends on who you're following, tbh.
• emkemp 4y ago
  Completely agree, and I'm surprised more people aren't using Tweetdeck.
  • notacoward 4y ago
    I feel like a lot of people complaining about Twitter only experience it through the twitter.com web interface. I'd hate it too if that was my only experience of it. Using Tweetdeck and/or just about any mobile client is worlds better. You don't get so much random dreck, which makes it much easier to see and engage with people you actually know or like. As far as I can tell, using any social-media site other than with a friends-only reverse-chronological feed is just going to be a bad experience for anyone who values real engagement (i.e. not influencers or wannabes and not passive disinformation consumers). Also, any social-media site without a block button and a culture encouraging people to use it is broken too.
    • lapcat 4y ago
      There are web browser extensions that are pretty good at improving the web site.
      • celdon25 4y ago
        Such as?
        • lapcat 4y ago
          I wrote one for iOS and macOS: https://underpassapp.com/tweaks/ https://underpassapp.com/tweaks/ There are some in the Chrome Web Store too, though I don't have links.
          • celdon25 4y ago
            Looks opinionated and sketchy, sorry.
• berberous 4y ago
  People shit on the algorithmic feed, but I love it. I’m too busy to wade through bad/boring tweets, and don’t want to spend all day scrolling. I can check it once or day or less and the algorithmic sorting surfaces the best content right at the top. That said, I don’t really need a smarter algorithm than “show my tweets with a lot of favorites”. Just like a prefer to have Reddit sort by best vs new.
  • fluidcruft 4y ago
    My experience is that the algorithmic feed just wants to firehose 99.9% sensationalist trending muck I don't want from people and topics I don't want to follow or read about on twitter.
    • meowface 4y ago
      For me the absolute worst of the worst is the "More Tweets" list under certain tweets. It's basically designed to be the most sensationalist, polarizing, "hot take"ist bullshit imaginable. I'm not sure I've ever read a single thing worth reading in that section. A rather meta example: scroll down to the "More Tweets" section under this recent Elon Musk tweet - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1525738556102164480 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1525738556102164480 I don't know what it might curate for each person reading this, but I'll bet you'll see what I'm talking about.
      • rockinghigh 4y ago
        These are tweets Twitter wants to hide because they are deemed toxic.
        • meowface 4y ago
          Sorry, to be clear I'm talking about the "More Tweets" list at the bottom. What you're referring to is the "Show more replies" link which requires a click to unroll.
      • mlindner 4y ago
• wnevets 4y ago
  > 2. Unfollow anyone who consistently pulls you into Twitter cesspools. There are certain cesspools I like checking out. For example Grady Booch dunking on cryptobros is still funny to me.
  • hermitdev 4y ago
    > Grady Booch dunking on cryptobros is still funny to me. Wait, what? Grady Booch, the UML guy? This, I need to the see.
    • wnevets 4y ago
      He is constantly getting blocked after calling them out. https://twitter.com/Grady_Booch/status/1526615686151217152 https://twitter.com/Grady_Booch/status/1526615686151217152
  • sriram_sun 4y ago
    Create lists, but don't follow those folks. You'll probably miss timely rebuttals, but only click on "politics" or whatever when you want to waste (additional) time!
    • alliao 4y ago
      real pro tip here, when you follow they can block you if you're not their cup of tea, while lists allow you to continue sleuthing as a member of a public
• Nav_Panel 4y ago
  Re (2), I always soft-block (block and then unblock) rather than unfollow, mainly because I view my twitter feed as a collection of friends, and I'd rather "terminate the relationship" than make it one-sided. If I want to preserve the relationship but find them annoying, I'll mute them.
  • zaphar 4y ago
    I do this two, but I have sort of two mental categories. The people who only occasionally pull me in. I just mute or block then unblock. Then there are the people who consistently try to pull me in and view it as their duty to do so. Those I just unfollow, it's not worth the effort to keep them in my feed.
• tmalsburg2 4y ago
  I settled on a similar approach. I used to liberally follow all sorts of accounts that seemed even remotely relevant, but signal to noise was abysmal and there was way too much drama. Several times I was on the verge of quitting, even though Twitter was quite useful for promoting my own work and that of my students. But recently I decided to try a new approach and systematically unfollowed a lot of accounts. Now I stick to the following diet and it produces a much more healthy and interesting feed: 1. No politicians 2. No journalists 3. No institutions 4. No companies 5. No entertainment 6. No anonymous accounts 7. Some notable exceptions in all the categories above 8. Mute words to taste What's left is mostly genuinely interesting people who post about things they understand and truly care about. I primarily browse the chronological timeline without retweets courtesy of a nice search function hack (you must be logged in for this to work): https://twitter.com/search?q=filter%3Afollows%20exclude%3Areplies&src=typed_query&f=live https://twitter.com/search?q=filter%3Afollows%20exclude%3Are... The algorithmic timeline has a bad reputation but it's actually useful for stuff you missed. But I only check it after looking at the chronological feed. I also like and mostly follow these suggestions for using Twitter effectively: https://twitter.com/AlanLevinovitz/status/1519464374783651841 https://twitter.com/AlanLevinovitz/status/151946437478365184...
  • walleeee 4y ago
    with 6 you miss some good accounts, anonymity is not always a bad thing
    • tom_ 4y ago
      This is covered by rule 7.
      • walleeee 4y ago
        Ah, somehow I missed that.
  • PKop 4y ago
    I don't understand the anonymous accounts rule. Some of the most interesting and insightful people on Twitter are anonymous. And we could say the same about Hacker News. Do you think this website would be better if we all had to use our real names?
• snthpy 4y ago
  Does TweetDeck still work? I mostly stopped using Twitter when TweetDeck was acquired by Twitter and they shut down the Android client. Before that I had different curated lists and then it just became a mess.
  • erk__ 4y ago
    Tweet deck works well though only in the browser now. I use it extensively for keeping a seperation between my messy feed and my lists
• MuffinFlavored 4y ago
  > you into Twitter cesspools. What % of the userbase is "Twitter cesspools" and how do you define that? What exactly is a "Twitter cesspool"? Viewpoints that don't align with yours? Radical politics? Is Twitter the platform of giving the 10-20% most fringed members of both political parties a voice? Why does what they post get "upvoted/liked/retweeted" enough to the point where it gets visibility instead of being drowned out? What kind of content are they posting exactly that is "ok" to not be removed by moderation policies, but you define it as "cesspool" material?
  • desas 4y ago
    > What exactly is a "Twitter cesspool"? Viewpoints that don't align with yours? Radical politics? This is a very presumptuous response. A more charitable interpretation might just be where discussions are happening that you're not interested in on twitter. For example, 'this person keeps getting embroiled in twitter arguments about covid', so I'm going to unfloow them because even though I agree with their opinions, I'm not interested in the inevitably heated and pointless discussions leaking into my timeline.
  • lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
    >> you into Twitter cesspools. > how do you define that? I'd imagine it's a personal definition and could be reasonably substituted with "you don't want to hear from." for the same effect.
  • zaphar 4y ago
    Threads that are full of flamewars, name calling, and outrage farming is my personal definition of cesspool. I follow many that hold opinions I don't agree with. As long as the conversation is civil I'm perfectly happy talking. But if it drags me into an internet flamewar where I am expected to pile onto someone else out of manufactured outrage then count me out.
• affectsk 4y ago
  Great tips, although I do like the algo - works great for discovery! Other than that, it really is about how you curate it. Follow the people you're interested in, engage with the content you find useful, tell Twitter you don't like something by muting/blocking/notinterestedin-ing and you're good. In that regard it's not unlike any other social media: if you don't tell it what you like, it'll show you what it things you want to see, which won't necessarily be something you'd want to see.
• Sakos 4y ago
  > I've left every other social network. No longer on Facebook. No interest in Instagram or TikTok. But Twitter I've continued to get value from. This is entirely because I'm able to curate my feed. My rules for twitter engagement are: This also worked for Facebook back when I still had an account. All the posts I saw were ones directly related to my interests and local events that I was interested in. We have a lot of control over how social media presents us with information, just most people don't bother trying to make it work for them.
  • HappyDreamer 4y ago
    > just most people don't bother trying to make it work for them Could one say that that's why TikTok is so popular? It works although people don't spend time configuring it?
    • Sakos 4y ago
      To some degree, probably. I think the video format is just very popular because it allows people to express themselves in more ways.
  • Karrot_Kream 4y ago
    > We have a lot of control over how social media presents us with information, just most people don't bother trying to make it work for them. It's just not worth it. I can hop into a Matrix room or a Subreddit and make posts about a topic I'm interested in and receive immediate interaction without seeing a firehose of emotional or inflammatory content. On those platforms you need to post/read a lot or come with a controversial mindset before you start dealing with the problems of the platform, so your initial start can be gentle and you still derive value from the interactions. This crazy amount of stewardship for Twitter is pretty nuts. I guess some people really want to be part of The Conversation and they'll do anything to do it, but I'm not that person myself. I can get a lot of value talking on Matrix right now.
    • Sakos 4y ago
      > without seeing a firehose of emotional or inflammatory content I didn't see any of this when I started using Twitter a few months ago. > This crazy amount of stewardship for Twitter is pretty nuts What are you talking about? People shared their negative impressions of Twitter. I recently tried Twitter and found that it could be useful, so I decided to share my experience. > I guess some people really want to be part of The Conversation and they'll do anything to do it I don't talk to anybody on Twitter and this is an extremely uncharitable take that isn't okay on HN.
• kinow 4y ago
  That's pretty much how I use any social media. Unfollow/block/mute. Works on reddit too.
• spike021 4y ago
  This process is basically what I’ve done for years. I don’t use tweetdeck though, I just manually curate my lists in twitter's own UI. Mostly works. Some stuff slips through the cracks but my expectations are just set such that nothing will ever be perfect.
• dominotw 4y ago
  Problem is that most people don't have the monumental willpower to not get dragged into a cesspool in a moment of weakness.
• tonguez 4y ago
  this advice from twitter users is always the same and its always so bizarre. just invest thousands of hours into cultivating your own feed through the following process: every time you get insulted by some child/idiot/bot, just select the account of that individual person then block them or mute or unfollow. do this thousands (or millions?) of times for every individual person on twitter. jesus christ i cant think of something more unappealing. the worst part of this is the more you invest into making it useable, the worse it is when big brother blocks/mutes you; the more enmeshed you are into this MCI tool for manufacturing consent. it sounds like the type of person who would be into twitter is the type of person who likes to spend a lot of time researching which credit card gives the best 2% cash back or whatever. genuinely just gross and boring to the point of being repulsive to most people on earth
  • beepbooptheory 4y ago
    How are bots insulting you? That's just impressive more than anything.
• qiskit 4y ago
  That's what social media should be. It should be a platform. Give more control to the users. Less control to journalists, moderators, political actors, etc. Let users individually curate the content they want to see instead of trying to use every social media platform as a propaganda tool.
• capybara_2020 4y ago
  One rule I have found really useful. Unfollow/nute any account that has more than 10k followers. Especially if they are social media famous.
• dayvid 4y ago
  That's what I love about Twitter. It's designed for power users by giving you a lot of controls up front on how you want to interact with the platform. It's not that rewarding if you're not actively curating your feed. You can do it on a user level and even not show posts with specific words. Imagine if you could do that on other social platforms? You could follow your family and/or friends and only see family or trip updates and no political nonsense posts.
• dynamite-ready 4y ago
  Many people say bad things about the algorithmic feed, but for me, the 'most recent' feed meant that often I missed tweets from people I'm actually interested in. So I switched back.