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Until not that long ago I was a pretty happy Twitter user. I curated my follows (keeping them between 150 and 200), only followed people posting interesting, cr

Until not that long ago I was a pretty happy Twitter user. I curated my follows (keeping them between 150 and 200), only followed people posting interesting, creative, or scientific things. When anyone started tweeting or retweeting low quality material, I simply unfollowed. Unfortunately, the devs at Twitter hate the way I use it. Nowadays ever 5th post or so on my timeline is from someone I do not follow, either "people you follow follow this" or "might be interesting to you" crap. It's almost always drama, politics, provocations, people screaming at each other, or a mix of those things. I can vividly imagine what the timelines of casuals users look like...and it becomes obvious why social media are such hubs for hatred and perpetual drama. There is little "to solve", because the biggest problems of social media are explicitly created by social media companies. Or as someone would call it whose business it is to manipulate you and to make you miserable (like the devs at Twitter and Facebook): "creating engagement". Allow users to properly curate their timelines. Then we can at least take the claim that social media companies actually want anything to improve serious.

lanstin 4y ago
Do you use the time based fed or the default timeline feed? I use only the time based feed, and I read on my tablet zoomed into the middle third of the screen so I don’t really see trending or whatever. I do follow a lot more people than you, but I agree when that is all you see, it is like a allow listed Reddit, pretty easy to make an interest and entertaining content feed.
- passwordoops 4y ago
  I use time based feed and the recommended crap is massively reduced compared to "Home" but they manage to sneak in recommendations once in a while
- cma 4y ago
  Use Firefox and you can install ublock origin, then zap the trending section with the element picker.
  - cpeterso 4y ago
    The Firefox add-on "Better Twitter" has options to hide promoted tweets, retweets, tweets liked by others, “Trends for you”, “Who to follow”, and more. Twitter is pretty unusable in a web browser without this add-on. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-twitter-extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-twitte...
julianeon 4y ago
I am pretty close to your usage and I've come to a similar conclusion: the algorithm is actively fighting me on an emotionally low-temperature intellectual feed. It does not that want for me and is trying to ruin it all the time.
Tenoke 4y ago
Looking at my feed it's all accounts I follow (and people they retweet). No politics except for the few politics accounts I've chosen to follow. No toxicity except when I look for it. As far as I can tell people are either exaggerating their experience or bad at curating since I doubt I'm getting a special version of their product.
- csours 4y ago
  Do you use an ad blocker or a non-default Twitter client? Those may be removing the items that everyone else sees.
- pwinnski 4y ago
  Twitter literally interrupts the normal feed with content you haven't chosen. Here, I'll load https://twitter.com https://twitter.com to see: 1. dog pic from someone I follow 2. ad ("Promoted") 3. Steve Martin playing a banjo while dressed as a penguin (I follow him) 4. a tweet from an account I don't follow, but a friend liked it 5. a tweet from an account a friend follows, but I don't 6. a tweet from an account a friend follows, but I don't 7. ad ("Promoted") 8. Section of "Who to follow" with three accounts 9. pic from someone I follow 10. a tweet from an account I don't follow, but a friend liked it 11 is an account I follow, and 12 is an ad, but that should be enough to demonstrate. Only three of the first ten items I saw were from accounts I chose to follow, so 70% of the content was supplied by twitter based on whatever they chose. 70%!
  - emkemp 4y ago
    Try tweetdeck.twitter.com.
    - firelinks 4y ago
      I currently use Tweetdeck and have been using it for a few years now. The experience is exactly the same.
  - cpeterso 4y ago
    Check out the Firefox add-on "Better Twitter". It has options to hide promoted tweets, retweets, tweets liked by others, “Trends for you”, “Who to follow”, and more. Twitter is pretty unusable in a web browser without this add-on. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-twitter-extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-twitte...
asicsp 4y ago
You can use lists to avoid all of these. You'll see tweets only from those you add to the list. No promotional tweets, etc. So, instead of (or, in addition to) follow/unfollow, you'll have to add/remove from lists.
- Herbstluft 4y ago
  Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.
justin_oaks 4y ago
Nitpick. It's not "the devs" who decide these things. It's the bosses. You can pick on the devs for choosing to work at Twitter or other social media companies, but let's be clear: the developers aren't the ones calling the shots.

lanstin 4y ago

Do you use the time based fed or the default timeline feed? I use only the time based feed, and I read on my tablet zoomed into the middle third of the screen so I don’t really see trending or whatever. I do follow a lot more people than you, but I agree when that is all you see, it is like a allow listed Reddit, pretty easy to make an interest and entertaining content feed.

passwordoops 4y ago
I use time based feed and the recommended crap is massively reduced compared to "Home" but they manage to sneak in recommendations once in a while
cma 4y ago
Use Firefox and you can install ublock origin, then zap the trending section with the element picker.
- cpeterso 4y ago
  The Firefox add-on "Better Twitter" has options to hide promoted tweets, retweets, tweets liked by others, “Trends for you”, “Who to follow”, and more. Twitter is pretty unusable in a web browser without this add-on. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-twitter-extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-twitte...

julianeon 4y ago

I am pretty close to your usage and I've come to a similar conclusion: the algorithm is actively fighting me on an emotionally low-temperature intellectual feed. It does not that want for me and is trying to ruin it all the time.

Tenoke 4y ago

Looking at my feed it's all accounts I follow (and people they retweet). No politics except for the few politics accounts I've chosen to follow. No toxicity except when I look for it. As far as I can tell people are either exaggerating their experience or bad at curating since I doubt I'm getting a special version of their product.

csours 4y ago
Do you use an ad blocker or a non-default Twitter client? Those may be removing the items that everyone else sees.
pwinnski 4y ago
Twitter literally interrupts the normal feed with content you haven't chosen. Here, I'll load https://twitter.com https://twitter.com to see: 1. dog pic from someone I follow 2. ad ("Promoted") 3. Steve Martin playing a banjo while dressed as a penguin (I follow him) 4. a tweet from an account I don't follow, but a friend liked it 5. a tweet from an account a friend follows, but I don't 6. a tweet from an account a friend follows, but I don't 7. ad ("Promoted") 8. Section of "Who to follow" with three accounts 9. pic from someone I follow 10. a tweet from an account I don't follow, but a friend liked it 11 is an account I follow, and 12 is an ad, but that should be enough to demonstrate. Only three of the first ten items I saw were from accounts I chose to follow, so 70% of the content was supplied by twitter based on whatever they chose. 70%!
- emkemp 4y ago
  Try tweetdeck.twitter.com.
  - firelinks 4y ago
    I currently use Tweetdeck and have been using it for a few years now. The experience is exactly the same.
- cpeterso 4y ago
  Check out the Firefox add-on "Better Twitter". It has options to hide promoted tweets, retweets, tweets liked by others, “Trends for you”, “Who to follow”, and more. Twitter is pretty unusable in a web browser without this add-on. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-twitter-extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-twitte...

asicsp 4y ago

You can use lists to avoid all of these. You'll see tweets only from those you add to the list. No promotional tweets, etc. So, instead of (or, in addition to) follow/unfollow, you'll have to add/remove from lists.

Herbstluft 4y ago
Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.

justin_oaks 4y ago

Nitpick. It's not "the devs" who decide these things. It's the bosses. You can pick on the devs for choosing to work at Twitter or other social media companies, but let's be clear: the developers aren't the ones calling the shots.