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The Slow Goodbye to Twitter
- smoldesu 4y ago...and the slow hello to Medium? Nobody tell them that Medium is also a publicly traded company vulnerable to hostile takeover...
- lapcat 4y agoThat's Substack, not Medium, though the same point would apply.
- jsemrau 4y agoMedium is a dead platform. There is so much long-form content created that their algorithms can't keep up with tagging, categorization, and discovery (it seems). I find it incredibly hard to get real articles on the platform that are not either (1) the same 5 "insights" about a certain topic that had been flooding LinkedIn for years prior (2) copy-paste "solutions" from StackOverflow posts. (3) corporate updates
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mackatap 4y agoOther than a bunch of people complaining about how Twitter is changing, I haven't seen any change at all.
- Allfodr 4y agoLiterally this. Any examples of what exactly has changed?
- smoldesu 4y agoThey let you browse recommended content and user profiles now without getting a fullscreen "please log in" modal covering the web client, which is nice.
- randallsquared 4y agoHaha. @realGeorgeHotz said he was gonna remove this as one of his first Twitter-intern priorities. Guess he did!
- wstuartcl 4y agobut a huge hit to acquisition AND value add targeted ad impressions (IE expensive impressions). It allows Elon to wave the "hey look at the huge traffic" flag around while self sabotaging the business model further.
- smoldesu 4y agoNot really. I didn't have a Twitter account before, and I still don't have one. The only thing that's changed is that I find myself using Twitter more...
- kzrdude 4y agoModeration seems to have changed by a lot. More gory videos stay up, nsfw pictures stay up, etc. It will slowly go out of control if this is a trend, I would guess.
- adamwk 4y agoI’m seeing a lot more nazi-era antisemitic memes
- warkanlock 4y agoI'm a heavy reader/average writer on Twitter, and I've never seen anything like that. It could be your followers that retweet/like things like that
- skinnyasianboi 4y agoI can confirm. Used it daily before and after Elon take over and haven't seen any of those. Usually it's visible why auch content is shown on your timeline
- _a9 4y agoI don't think moderation has changed at all. I'm not in the gore-y scene but I wouldn't be surprised if it has always been on Twitter, just marked as sensitive. Most social media sites have that 'dark reality' content scenes. Same goes for NSFW stuff, that stuff has been on Twitter long before Musk bought it and it will still be available just marked as sensitive (like it always has). I doubt they will go the Tumblr route and kill a giant part of the userbase.
- smitty1e 4y agoWell, my account has quit bleeding follows and my tweets "feel" as though they have more reach, although that may just be more conservatives returning to the platform.
- coldtea 4y ago>Any examples of what exactly has changed? It's not cool anymore to be in it. In fact it's cool to your aspirational peers to say you dislike it now.
- binarymax 4y agoI browsed it recently and the major change was the checkmark. So many trolls have them now. And it seems their content is boosted higher. It’s pretty bad.
- skilled 4y agoIt seems?
- binarymax 4y agoYes it seems. It’s an observation but I don’t have access to the model.
- lzooz 4y agoBefore, the checkmark was mostly held by people who work hard against my interests and the interests of my people.
- RavingGoat 4y agoOpenly admitting racism is pretty brave
- BrotherBisquick 4y ago
- lapcat 4y ago> now people are forced to (gulp) participate in the marketplace of ideas. Nobody is forced to do anything. People don't have to sign up for Twitter. Twitter users don't have to stay on Twitter. They don't have to tweet. They don't have to reply. They can still follow anyone they want, unfollow anyone they want, mute anyone they want, block anyone they want. Some people think of Twitter as high school debate club on a global scale, but other people have no interest whatsoever in that.
- wellthatsawrap1 4y ago[flagged]
- CharlesW 4y agoExcept that Elon just threw his friend Kanye off Twitter for sharing an idea.
- ThrowawayTestr 4y agoAn idea that's illegal in parts of the world.
- lzooz 4y agoNot in the US, where Twitter is located.
- CharlesW 4y agoMy ads have gone from mainstream brands to dregs, degens, and grifters. This doesn't seem great, unless Elon's intent is to replace advertising revenue with other sources.
- largepeepee 4y agoSo just like YouTube and Reddit ads then.
- _a9 4y agoI'm still getting the same tech company and video game ads. Haven't noticed a difference. I block all the accounts that are ads but even then I still get ads from mainstream companies I haven't blocked. Theres still plenty of companies advertising. I have yet to encounter anything sus apart from some rando paying to promote a meme or shitpost.
- marcinzm 4y agoMusk's drama posts if anyone you follow follows him. Stopped Twitter partially because I'm tired of reading whatever his current emotional outburst is.
- sqqqqrly 4y agoNo one forced you to read Elon.
- marcinzm 4y agoThe question is what changed which in this case Elon shows up on my feed a lot more and his posts are a lot more annoying. And as I said I stopped Twitter to not see his posts. edit: I could block him but then there's the second order posts about his drama with screenshots. Realized I don't care enough about Twitter to bother and prefer a calmer life.
- bko 4y ago> The question is what changed which in this case Elon shows up on my feed a lot more and his posts are a lot more annoying. And as I said I stopped Twitter to not see his posts. His follower count grew by ~70% so far this year (from an already high number). His engagement numbers are also very high. It would be weird if he didn't show up more on your feed. https://www.speakrj.com/audit/report/elonmusk/twitter/summary/2022-01-01/2022-12-03 https://www.speakrj.com/audit/report/elonmusk/twitter/summar... > edit: I could block him but then there's the second order posts about his drama with screenshots. Realized I don't care enough about Twitter to bother and prefer a calmer life. You can use advanced twitter mutes to block words and hashtags https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/advanced-twitter-mute-options https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/advanced-twitter-m...
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- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- squidlogic 4y agoA lot of people are complaining about Twitter … on Twitter. Pause and reflect.
- nathanaldensr 4y agoIt's a pretty deep rabbit hole!
- wstuartcl 4y agoI guess, traffic is great. I bet a big fire on a busy street leads to a bunch of gawkers too -- but maybe the restaurant next door is not getting any value from that foot traffic. In the case of twitter's business model they have lost a projected 300-400MM of ad placements for the forecasted year -- so each of those visitors is consuming cost but twitter is unable to collect the impression charges as the buys are lower than the inventory. So yeah traffic is great -- but not always profitable (especially when you insist on peeing in the pool).
- newaccount2021 4y ago
- warkanlock 4y agoTwitter is not going anywhere anytime soon; there is no replacement. Mastodon does not fit the needs of the millions of users using the platform daily. I believe that Twitter will terraform what we think of as social media, and with that, a new way of communication will emerge
- CharlesW 4y ago> Twitter is not going anywhere anytime soon; there is no replacement. Not yet. You're right that Mastodon is not ready for the masses, which makes me wonder if federated systems can ever have mainstream appeal.
- Ciantic 4y agoI don't think masses care about federation, they care about ease of use, features and community. Same reason masses register for any service really. Currently biggest problem is ease of registering: Suggested way to register is through joinmastodon.org and it's pretty complicated. If mastodon.social could handle the influx, they'd open up registration from that site which is much easier way to register.
- katbyte 4y agoThat doesn’t matter if it cannot find enough income to pay the bills?
- lapcat 4y agoThe author isn't looking for a replacement. "I'm emotionally detaching myself from social media" "I have no idea what will come next. And if I'm honest about it, I think I don't actually care. Every day that passes I seem to care less and I’m resenting more the distractions and the checking of who said what." "I do have a natural instinct to just quickly Tweet what’s on my mind. Partly I need to refrain myself from doing that" "On your death bed, will you wish you had tweeted more? Not me." "I got an invite and set up an account on Post, but honestly, I can’t be bothered. The same goes for Mastadon [sic]"
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- binarymax 4y agoI checked out from Twitter mid-summer, and have used it maybe twice or three times since. It’s so much better NOT using it! I miss some of the conversations, but I can find my connections elsewhere. HN is my only social media now.
- arlcode 4y agoI only read tweets from (self) currated lists of science / institutional Twitter accounts that provided great content or ideas (random examples: ESA, Ken Sheriff, Brian Krebs, Blender etc). The fundamental change was switching over to the "latest" feed instead of "top". This skips all the inflamatory and political drama-lama stuff that is (almost) never relevant in the long term (and if it is, it will be reported elsewhere in long form). In fact whenever I feel "enganged" by Twitter it's usually because they, once again, switched my timeline mode back. I wish there was a way to get a "topical feed" that allows me to discover without the obvious attempts to inject unreleated content (in particular anything from the mind of Elon Musk)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- wernercd 4y ago[flagged]
- lapcat 4y ago> Twitter is Dead! This is not what the author was saying. The subtitle of "The slow goodbye to Twitter" is "I'm emotionally detaching myself from social media". It wasn't an article about the future of Twitter, it was an article about the future of the author. "On your death bed, will you wish you had tweeted more? Not me."
- rchaud 4y agoI think more people are realizing, finally, that social media has been completely hollowed out by corporate interests. Actually seeing organic content and conversations in one's timeline seems accidental these days. What point is there in continuing to post when it's clear Twitter will give preferential treatment to paid accounts? FB/IG are no better, they'd prefer you not post text+images at all, but pivot to video so they can throw ads in between and make their Christmas bonus. The author has the right idea: instead of wasting your attention on these dumpster fires, focus on the non-corporate communities where your voice is valued. I am trying to do this by hanging out in the forums of software products I use, and commenting on topics there. Unfortunately, even that is not a given these days, as many software makers insist on a Discord for tech support and discussion. I've spoken about this as well on a blog post [0] about the death of old message boards and the unique cultures they had: [0] https://fuzzcrush.xyz/blog/dead-forums-extinct-communities-and-a-loss-of-shared-niche-cultures/ https://fuzzcrush.xyz/blog/dead-forums-extinct-communities-a...
- warkanlock 4y agoGood article, but the author doesn't mention how to find those communities (or if they even still exist) I used to be a fan of the BB systems, which were a fantastic joy to be part of and contribute messages or even readings and watch other community members grow. I wish I could go back in time to relive those days because it was the most fun and also the most insightful experience for me on the Internet. Nowadays, everyone is trying to sell you something
- rapind 4y ago> insist on a Discord for tech support and discussion Communities moving to discord or slack is really dumb. You lose so much discoverability in favour of real time conversation about a subject that almost always prefers asynchronous communication. Is it just hipster influence run amok? (shakes fist)
- thefz 4y agoGood "old" forums were the best.
- the-printer 4y agoGood for the author. Let’s start working on the successor to the “Big Web” and the competitor of the “small web” called the “The Hole”. #Holesarenotwebs.
- robomartin 4y agoWhat I find interesting about Twitter hatred is that it is all related to the platform slowly shifting towards not engaging in politically one-sided censorship and cancellation. That's it. Nothing else. Call it freedom of speech if you must. This continues to expose the holes in an ideology that purports to be for A and it is nearly always for B in almost everything they say. Pick any area A, listen to what they claim and then watch B is what they actually do. In this case, it is about such topics as open-mindedness, inclusion, tolerance, acceptance, objectivity, seeking truth, balance, unity, representing everyone, etc. What they actually do is almost always the opposite to these and other concepts. If Twitter/Musk came out on Monday, proclaimed to revese course and go all-in on one sided moderation in favor of that ideology, the company and Musk would be hailed as heroes by every single person, politician and entity currently at war with them. That, right there, should make everyone take pause and think. Why? All you have to do is imagine a world where the opposite ideology controls all media and thought drivers. That would be just as much of a nightmare as what we have managed to walk into today. We do not want either ideology to hold a monopoly of control over what messages are allowed and who can speak. That is precisely what happens in nations we all agree are, at a minimum, oppressive and abusive to their population. Sadly, we have veered more and more in that direction over the last couple of decades. There are people out there who's entire careers have been destroyed just for having opposing thoughts. That isn't supposed to happen in the western world. That is not supposed to happen in the US. Yet, it has. And we have to fix it. Equilibrium in social and traditional media exists when both ideological camps have about the same number of things to not be happy about. It also happens when no particular "tribe" can exercise overwhelming control over thought, media and messaging. Good, bad or ugly, that is the best formula for progress. Stomping and cancelling opposing viewpoints has never delivered positive results in the long term. Here on HN, downvoting and flagging are sometimes used this way. It is my opinion these tools have to go away or have to have a very serious algorithmic change in order to prevent their use as means to silence that with which one disagrees. Yes, this is a difficult issue online forums have had to contend with since the days of USENET. Not easy at all. A long time ago one of my mentors explained he liked the idea of "If you can't say anything good about someone, don't speak". While not a hard-set rule, the way I personally try to use that concept on HN is that I never downvote or flag any post. In the years I have been here I may have done so a handful of times. I always welcome intelligent opposition to anything I say. That's how we learn. I never downvote. If a conversation gets derailed, I might try to get it back on track a few times. If I fail, I just leave. I see downvoting as a cheap-shot attempt to silence that with which you disagree, rather than a control for quality. Same with flagging.
- aschearer 4y agoAll these people saying "social media is bad" -- are doing so on social media... Is it so hard to imagine for some Twitter may have filled a role similar to Hacker News? Personally, I got lots of value from Twitter, following people in the game development community. Now that's moving into various silos that are hard to find, disconnected from one another. I'll miss how it was just like I miss TIGSource and how I'll miss Hacker News when it eventually succumbs to the fuddy duddies.
- lapcat 4y ago> All these people saying "social media is bad" -- are doing so on social media The link is to a blog post, not to social media.
- aschearer 4y agoI'm referring to our fellow HN'ers in this thread.
- nickthegreek 4y agoYou consider HN social media? I guess in a very liberal interpretation… but not by the mainstream definition.
- aschearer 4y agoDoesn't seem all that different from a subreddit. I consider Reddit social media. You don't?
- ghusto 4y agoI _started_ using again Twitter after 6 years, when all this drama started (don't ask why, I don't have an answer). Here's what I've noticed has changed: 1) It's fun again! Not at all in the same way as back in the first year, but in a commercial way, like TV or something 2) It's best enjoyed if you just go ahead and smash that block button whenever you encounter someone pushing an agenda. I have certain political leanings, but I'm happy to bring out my block-gun even for people who lean with me. I simply don't want that kind of heaviness trying to be discussed in a mob-ruled short message format. Many reasonable views are also unpopular or unfashionable 3) It's no longer about hearing from your friends or people you picked. Guess this is a result of point (1), but what you see seems to be _only_ what the algorithm knows you want to see, which is a real shame
- rvz 4y agoTwitter always has been a rage factory before the Musk takeover and I already created and closed my account on the same day after trying it before many years ago. It is still an outrage machine. It is not just Twitter that is the problem, it is the entirety of social networks that are outrage machines, and the solution is not replacing it or joining one that is worse than Twitter. > If a good thing comes out of this whole Twitter chaos, I hope that people return to smaller communities. This is the reason why Twitter, etc isn't going anywhere due to its central ease of discovery, no matter how bad the outrage machine is on there. This is what the author fails to realise and the journalists still can't stop using it and linking Tweets, since their audience is still there. > stop caring so much about building an audience and learn to connect authentically again. Yet in order for the author and other journalists to monetize their articles and get more eyeballs, they need an audience, hence the reason why many of them need to use Twitter to advertise and grift their Substack newsletter(s). [0] The immediate collapse of Twitter has been greatly exaggerated by the past few weeks by a very small subset of angry screeching voices and doomsters. [0] https://twitter.com/rosiesherry/status/1599063645320671232 https://twitter.com/rosiesherry/status/1599063645320671232
- lapcat 4y ago> This is what the author fails to realise The author made no predictions about the future of Twitter. Literally: "I have no idea what will come next." Also: "I’m not closing my accounts(s) down, but I definitely care less and will be posting less. even if that habit is hard to break."
- Markoff 4y agoAgreed, I don't like participating in social media not controlled by my preferred political party. /s