5 ms·

Your Twitter experience is going to be what you make of it. It's based on the people you chose to follow. Nothing more. Nothing less. The author in this case se

Your Twitter experience is going to be what you make of it. It's based on the people you chose to follow. Nothing more. Nothing less. The author in this case seems to be politically motivated in his decision to leave Twitter. That's his right. But he definitely seems to be mixing politics with the beauty of Twitter and I'm not sure I agree with that.

somedude895 4y ago
I guess it depends on how you use it. I just follow accounts that I like and stick to that feed ordered by newest. I have all notifications deactivated and clicked Show Less Often on all recommended posts. Now I see only posts by the users I follow. But there's probably more people who check trending topics and then latch onto whatever the newest outrage is?
INTPenis 4y ago
That's exactly where you're wrong. Your twitter experience is going to be what Twitter wants it to be. Because twitter has user engagement metrics and it is in their financial interest to keep you hooked on the site's content. This is something I've had to repeat countless times during the last 2 weeks, when Twitter users end up in the fediverse confused about how to find content. There is no financial interest to keep you on a fediverse instance. You have to make an effort yourself.
- dkrich 4y ago
  The problem for Twitter though is that they are very bad at hooking people. They desperately want to be like Instagram and tiktok in that regard but just will never have those types of numbers. I suspect the reason they can’t boils down to two things- poor engineering and just a lack of content. There just isn’t enough interesting content on the site to suck people in.
simonw 4y ago
> It's based on the people you chose to follow. Nothing more. Nothing less. My dog has a Twitter account. She keeps getting push notifications from people she doesn't follow, usually rage bait. She had to block Jordan Peterson!
- jfoster 4y ago
  This is from prior to Musk, though, and he's previously indicated ("open source the algorithm") a desire to change it.
- nailer 4y ago
  Jordan Peterson’s content is fairly tame videos admit ethics and self improvement - are you describing it as rage bait?
  - simonw 4y ago
    Yes.
  - somedude895 4y ago
    I can imagine it to be rage-inducing for people who don't like hearing opinions from outside their bubble.
    - mpweiher 4y ago
      Particularly uncomfortable opinions that are usually (not always) thought through carefully and hard to dismiss.
  - mhoad 4y ago
    Ummm.. that was maybe true a few years ago but hasn’t been the case for a while now. It’s now very heavily in the angry old man yelling about the degeneracy of society with a heavy political leaning that is a LONG way outside his actual area of professional expertise.
  - rsynnott 4y ago
    Peterson got banned from Twitter for attacking a public figure and libelling a doctor. After having recently been temp-banned for attacking another public figure. I mean, while it's not a description I'd use myself (I'd be going more for "Peterson is an arsehole with poor self-control") it doesn't seem that unreasonable.
MiguelX413 4y ago
That's not true AT ALL. I tried to use Twitter for my friends and their posts. I always got recommended stupid political, inflammatory, and inciteful content. It's clearly what Twitter needs to recommend because it's what drives their engagement. I can't blame Twitter because that's literally it's business model. But to deny this is absurd. For that same reason, I never could become a Twitter user.
Herbstluft 4y ago
This simply isn't true anymore. It was the case in the past, but nowadays you can no longer avoid Twitter shoving low quality rage- and clickbait content down your throat. These past months my Twitter timeline contained almost as much spam from people I don't follow (and would never follow) as it did content I sought out (people I was following). Twitter is all about that "engagement" nowadays, and I as a user am only ~50% in charge of what my Twitter experience is going to be.
rsynnott 4y ago
That is how Twitter worked a decade ago. It is _very much_ not how Twitter works now.

somedude895 4y ago

I guess it depends on how you use it. I just follow accounts that I like and stick to that feed ordered by newest. I have all notifications deactivated and clicked Show Less Often on all recommended posts. Now I see only posts by the users I follow. But there's probably more people who check trending topics and then latch onto whatever the newest outrage is?

INTPenis 4y ago

That's exactly where you're wrong. Your twitter experience is going to be what Twitter wants it to be. Because twitter has user engagement metrics and it is in their financial interest to keep you hooked on the site's content. This is something I've had to repeat countless times during the last 2 weeks, when Twitter users end up in the fediverse confused about how to find content. There is no financial interest to keep you on a fediverse instance. You have to make an effort yourself.

dkrich 4y ago
The problem for Twitter though is that they are very bad at hooking people. They desperately want to be like Instagram and tiktok in that regard but just will never have those types of numbers. I suspect the reason they can’t boils down to two things- poor engineering and just a lack of content. There just isn’t enough interesting content on the site to suck people in.

simonw 4y ago

> It's based on the people you chose to follow. Nothing more. Nothing less. My dog has a Twitter account. She keeps getting push notifications from people she doesn't follow, usually rage bait. She had to block Jordan Peterson!

jfoster 4y ago
This is from prior to Musk, though, and he's previously indicated ("open source the algorithm") a desire to change it.
nailer 4y ago
Jordan Peterson’s content is fairly tame videos admit ethics and self improvement - are you describing it as rage bait?
- simonw 4y ago
  Yes.
- somedude895 4y ago
  I can imagine it to be rage-inducing for people who don't like hearing opinions from outside their bubble.
  - mpweiher 4y ago
    Particularly uncomfortable opinions that are usually (not always) thought through carefully and hard to dismiss.
- mhoad 4y ago
  Ummm.. that was maybe true a few years ago but hasn’t been the case for a while now. It’s now very heavily in the angry old man yelling about the degeneracy of society with a heavy political leaning that is a LONG way outside his actual area of professional expertise.
- rsynnott 4y ago
  Peterson got banned from Twitter for attacking a public figure and libelling a doctor. After having recently been temp-banned for attacking another public figure. I mean, while it's not a description I'd use myself (I'd be going more for "Peterson is an arsehole with poor self-control") it doesn't seem that unreasonable.

MiguelX413 4y ago

That's not true AT ALL. I tried to use Twitter for my friends and their posts. I always got recommended stupid political, inflammatory, and inciteful content. It's clearly what Twitter needs to recommend because it's what drives their engagement. I can't blame Twitter because that's literally it's business model. But to deny this is absurd. For that same reason, I never could become a Twitter user.

Herbstluft 4y ago

This simply isn't true anymore. It was the case in the past, but nowadays you can no longer avoid Twitter shoving low quality rage- and clickbait content down your throat. These past months my Twitter timeline contained almost as much spam from people I don't follow (and would never follow) as it did content I sought out (people I was following). Twitter is all about that "engagement" nowadays, and I as a user am only ~50% in charge of what my Twitter experience is going to be.

rsynnott 4y ago

That is how Twitter worked a decade ago. It is _very much_ not how Twitter works now.