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I find this hilarious. We all understand that the core reason some people might want to hurt twitter is because it is no longer going to follow the moderation p

I find this hilarious. We all understand that the core reason some people might want to hurt twitter is because it is no longer going to follow the moderation policy that they liked (namely, silencing people with different political opinions). Yet, people can't name this reason honestly, and invent some other thin weiled excuses like 'layoffs are baaaad and unethical'. Bold prediction: this influencer with 40k followers will find that ~40 of his followers have followed him to mastodon, and will be back quietly in a few months. Likely, after finding some reconciling excuse about Musk doing something good so he can be forgiven.

cloutchaser 4y ago
Neil young is back on Spotify. Nuff said.
- oktoberpaard 4y ago
  Not in my country, except for songs that appear on albums that are outside of his control. I do expect him to eventually return, though.
atoav 4y ago
For me it is much, much simpler. I invest a lot of my time in putting content and thoughts onto a platform. If I doubt the future of a platform and already find the status quo questionable, I am just not as motivated to put in the time to do something on there. I guess for many people twitter was a platform they wanted to get rid of for a while, this is just a trigger to convince the others as well.
- Taurenking 4y ago
- newaccount2021 4y ago
  > For me it is much, much simpler. I invest a lot of my time in putting content and thoughts onto a platform. Maybe you should invest your time productively instead
  - atoav 4y ago
    Maybe I phrased that wrong: I don't use "a lot" of my time in absolute terms on social media (an hour a week maybe), but I value my time so if I spend it somewhere I want it to count. And no worries, I am more productive than most people would find normal, but thanks for your "productive" comment.
- zero_shift 4y ago
  This is how I feel as well: I’ve been pretty ambivalent about twitter for a while (seems like a good machine for getting into arguments online), but network effects have kept me on it. That network effect might be now be breaking.
- Kye 4y ago
  It's the Trust Thermocline: https://mastodon.social/@garius/109279394369832433 https://mastodon.social/@garius/109279394369832433
  - simonw 4y ago
    I should have linked to that in my post, because it was very influential on my thinking. It helped me realize that my trust in Twitter had just been completely decimated.
monsecchris 4y ago
Over the last week I've favourited every single person claiming to leave Twitter. In a few weeks I intend to do some analysis and see how many stop posting. So far the answer is none out of 200, but it's early days.
- tchaffee 4y ago
  You're not even approaching what would be considered a scientific and somewhat useful study. You can move away from a platform without a complete stop. I've seen people who used to post on Facebook on a daily basis claim to leave, and then they use the platform less and less until you rarely see them. What also matters is the nature of their posts. If people who used to put effort into thoughtful engaging posts start to post trivial and unengaging content, that has a similar effect to no longer using the platform. If this happens in large numbers, it would of course impact your advertising revenue.
hristov 4y ago
Yeah, I like living in a democracy, so I appreciated when twitter silenced certain people that tried to use it to violently overthrow my democratically elected government. Donald Trump tweeted all the time, many of his tweets were of a very different political opinion than mine (when they were coherent), yet he was not silenced. Not until he tried to violently overthrow the US government.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
  This is a brilliant example of a selective memory. What you have forgotten is that long before Jan6, Twitter blocked retweets of Trump's tweets, attached various warnings to his tweets, was selectively 'fact-checking' him, how that notebook story was banned on Twitter right before the elections. If that is not silencing, then what is? Can you name some other person on Twitter that had undergone a similar treatment?
  - low_tech_love 4y ago
    The real question is, would they have done better by not acting on his antics? I think every moderation decision is a trade-off, and the final goal is always the health of the platform itself, not “society” or whatever. Yeah, some people will be hurt, but not acting would hurt too. So… I don’t know. It seems too “romantic” to me to believe that there is a handful of left-wing bigots in the company and all you need to do is get rid of them. I have a hunch the problem is more complex (and that Twitter cannot solve it, only try to survive).
    - Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
      > The real question is, would they have done better by not acting on his antics? Yes, they would have done better. Their business should be providing the platform, not telling the users that is 'true' and what is not. That everyone should decide for themselves. One thing is fighting spam, but what they were doing was Ministry of Truth stuff. And harm from that might be thousandfold greater than whatever Trump could ever do.
tchaffee 4y ago
Or the simpler answer that doesn't fit your narrative is that lots of folks don't like Musk and his actions and his approach to running businesses. Lots of people find Musk repulsive. It shouldn't be a surprise that those people want to leave.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
  - tchaffee 4y ago
    I said some people don't like him. I guess it's also true some people find him despicable. What's your point?
- dools 4y ago
  That’s why I deleted my account. Musk and the rest of the PayPal mafia are hardcore neofeudalist libertarians, a movement that has gradually infected more and more of the tech world.
  - inglor_cz 4y ago
    If Twitter becomes interoperable with other services, this is literally the opposite of tech neofeudalism. Tech neofeudalism manifests itself as walled gardens where the cost of leaving is very high for the serfs.
    - tchaffee 4y ago
      > If Twitter becomes interoperable with other services, this is literally the opposite of tech neofeudalism. It's not interoperable. It's controlled by one person. Like Facebook. When that changes we can discuss it. But until then, it's just an empty promise.
      - inglor_cz 4y ago
        It is a promise. Its value will be established sooner or later. It is too early to call any Twitter-related promise "empty". Even new governments traditionally have 100 days before it is considered fair to rip into them.
newaccount2021 4y ago
low_tech_love 4y ago
You could be right, assuming he manages to indeed keep the platform running smoothly. I think that will be the most important factor. And while I honestly can’t be bothered to care whether people are banned or not from Twitter, it just sounds to me like the idea that less moderation is always good could be an oversimplification of the problem. If I am not mistaken there were attempts to create “free speech” platforms that never went anywhere. Also, from the point of view of the survival of the platform itself, banning a few people to please many more others seems to be more reasonable than taking some kind of ideological stand (in one way or another). So, the question is, can the platform survive (smoothly) supported mainly by the happy attitude of so-called freedom fighters?
pera 4y ago
It seems that your prediction was too bold: he has accumulated ~1100 followers so far
maelito 4y ago
> this influencer with 40k followers will find that ~40 of his followers Mastodon is way more active than what you pretend, at least in France. Some 40k influencers already have thousands of followers on mastodon.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
  As someone who has maintained a personal mastodon instance since ~2017, I'm quite sceptical of your hopes that this sudden influx of users will remain active.

cloutchaser 4y ago

Neil young is back on Spotify. Nuff said.

oktoberpaard 4y ago
Not in my country, except for songs that appear on albums that are outside of his control. I do expect him to eventually return, though.

atoav 4y ago

For me it is much, much simpler. I invest a lot of my time in putting content and thoughts onto a platform. If I doubt the future of a platform and already find the status quo questionable, I am just not as motivated to put in the time to do something on there. I guess for many people twitter was a platform they wanted to get rid of for a while, this is just a trigger to convince the others as well.

Taurenking 4y ago
newaccount2021 4y ago
> For me it is much, much simpler. I invest a lot of my time in putting content and thoughts onto a platform. Maybe you should invest your time productively instead
- atoav 4y ago
  Maybe I phrased that wrong: I don't use "a lot" of my time in absolute terms on social media (an hour a week maybe), but I value my time so if I spend it somewhere I want it to count. And no worries, I am more productive than most people would find normal, but thanks for your "productive" comment.
zero_shift 4y ago
This is how I feel as well: I’ve been pretty ambivalent about twitter for a while (seems like a good machine for getting into arguments online), but network effects have kept me on it. That network effect might be now be breaking.
Kye 4y ago
It's the Trust Thermocline: https://mastodon.social/@garius/109279394369832433 https://mastodon.social/@garius/109279394369832433
- simonw 4y ago
  I should have linked to that in my post, because it was very influential on my thinking. It helped me realize that my trust in Twitter had just been completely decimated.

monsecchris 4y ago

Over the last week I've favourited every single person claiming to leave Twitter. In a few weeks I intend to do some analysis and see how many stop posting. So far the answer is none out of 200, but it's early days.

tchaffee 4y ago
You're not even approaching what would be considered a scientific and somewhat useful study. You can move away from a platform without a complete stop. I've seen people who used to post on Facebook on a daily basis claim to leave, and then they use the platform less and less until you rarely see them. What also matters is the nature of their posts. If people who used to put effort into thoughtful engaging posts start to post trivial and unengaging content, that has a similar effect to no longer using the platform. If this happens in large numbers, it would of course impact your advertising revenue.

hristov 4y ago

Yeah, I like living in a democracy, so I appreciated when twitter silenced certain people that tried to use it to violently overthrow my democratically elected government. Donald Trump tweeted all the time, many of his tweets were of a very different political opinion than mine (when they were coherent), yet he was not silenced. Not until he tried to violently overthrow the US government.

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
This is a brilliant example of a selective memory. What you have forgotten is that long before Jan6, Twitter blocked retweets of Trump's tweets, attached various warnings to his tweets, was selectively 'fact-checking' him, how that notebook story was banned on Twitter right before the elections. If that is not silencing, then what is? Can you name some other person on Twitter that had undergone a similar treatment?
- low_tech_love 4y ago
  The real question is, would they have done better by not acting on his antics? I think every moderation decision is a trade-off, and the final goal is always the health of the platform itself, not “society” or whatever. Yeah, some people will be hurt, but not acting would hurt too. So… I don’t know. It seems too “romantic” to me to believe that there is a handful of left-wing bigots in the company and all you need to do is get rid of them. I have a hunch the problem is more complex (and that Twitter cannot solve it, only try to survive).
  - Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
    > The real question is, would they have done better by not acting on his antics? Yes, they would have done better. Their business should be providing the platform, not telling the users that is 'true' and what is not. That everyone should decide for themselves. One thing is fighting spam, but what they were doing was Ministry of Truth stuff. And harm from that might be thousandfold greater than whatever Trump could ever do.

tchaffee 4y ago

Or the simpler answer that doesn't fit your narrative is that lots of folks don't like Musk and his actions and his approach to running businesses. Lots of people find Musk repulsive. It shouldn't be a surprise that those people want to leave.

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
- tchaffee 4y ago
  I said some people don't like him. I guess it's also true some people find him despicable. What's your point?
dools 4y ago
That’s why I deleted my account. Musk and the rest of the PayPal mafia are hardcore neofeudalist libertarians, a movement that has gradually infected more and more of the tech world.
- inglor_cz 4y ago
  If Twitter becomes interoperable with other services, this is literally the opposite of tech neofeudalism. Tech neofeudalism manifests itself as walled gardens where the cost of leaving is very high for the serfs.
  - tchaffee 4y ago
    > If Twitter becomes interoperable with other services, this is literally the opposite of tech neofeudalism. It's not interoperable. It's controlled by one person. Like Facebook. When that changes we can discuss it. But until then, it's just an empty promise.
    - inglor_cz 4y ago
      It is a promise. Its value will be established sooner or later. It is too early to call any Twitter-related promise "empty". Even new governments traditionally have 100 days before it is considered fair to rip into them.

newaccount2021 4y ago

low_tech_love 4y ago

You could be right, assuming he manages to indeed keep the platform running smoothly. I think that will be the most important factor. And while I honestly can’t be bothered to care whether people are banned or not from Twitter, it just sounds to me like the idea that less moderation is always good could be an oversimplification of the problem. If I am not mistaken there were attempts to create “free speech” platforms that never went anywhere. Also, from the point of view of the survival of the platform itself, banning a few people to please many more others seems to be more reasonable than taking some kind of ideological stand (in one way or another). So, the question is, can the platform survive (smoothly) supported mainly by the happy attitude of so-called freedom fighters?

pera 4y ago

It seems that your prediction was too bold: he has accumulated ~1100 followers so far

maelito 4y ago

> this influencer with 40k followers will find that ~40 of his followers Mastodon is way more active than what you pretend, at least in France. Some 40k influencers already have thousands of followers on mastodon.

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
As someone who has maintained a personal mastodon instance since ~2017, I'm quite sceptical of your hopes that this sudden influx of users will remain active.