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> Twitter's over, my dudes! Is Twitter really over, though? I wish people wouldn't try to make Twitter over by self-prophecy. It feels disingenuous. If it we

by sshine 4y ago

> Twitter's over, my dudes! Is Twitter really over, though? I wish people wouldn't try to make Twitter over by self-prophecy. It feels disingenuous. If it were over, where are the stats? Twitter seemed to be in decline 3 years ago [1], but its revenue seems to have been somewhat stable since 2020 [2]. Maybe declaring Twitter dead will never go out of fashion, and we just come up with different reasons. Maybe "Twitter is dead." is the kind of statement that ultimately keeps Twitter alive, because you need platforms like Twitter to keep fake news alive. [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/04/23/a-fading-twitter-changes-its-user-metrics-once-again/?sh=5b520c7a31eb https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/04/23/a-fadin... [2]: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitter-statistics/ https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitter-statistics/

yunwal 4y ago
I took that line as tongue in cheek. The whole article is kind of making fun of people who think decentralized/federated platforms will solve all problems with social media, so it's also making fun of the type of people who would say something like that.
jimmaswell 4y ago
It's been taken over by someone making erratic emotionally-driven changes every 10 minutes, firing people with domain knowledge left and right and already under various investigations. Maybe it'll be fine, but it's really up in the air.
- nailer 4y ago
  What erratic emotionally driven changes have there been? > Firing people with domain knowledge From the sounds of it, many deserved to be fired: > teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users. https://twitter.com/bariweiss/status/1601008766861815808?s=20&t=LQt2gKG8pkzRKvgNn9G47g https://twitter.com/bariweiss/status/1601008766861815808?s=2...
- sshine 4y ago
  > Maybe it'll be fine, but it's really up in the air. Twitter was already, by all means, up in the air. Twitter is a highly politicized environment where you get treated differently based on your views. Since it got a new captain, all those who were in power (meaning they didn't, on average, get treated unfavorably by the platform) are now claiming that the platform is dead. I dare to say the erratic emotion is on the side of those who say Twitter is dead.
api 4y ago
When the Nazis walk into the bar you throw them out or everyone else leaves and then it's a Nazi bar.
- dack 4y ago
  I really like your framing of it! To be fair though, I really haven't seen a change in the content on Twitter at all since Elon took over (modulo meta-discussion about Twitter itself). Time will tell I suppose
- stale2002 4y ago
  Did you stop using the telephone because anyone, including bad people, can use it to make phone calls? What about the grocery store? Did you know that bad people use those as well? Even going back to your bar example. I am sure that bad people go to bars all the time. And generally speaking, nobody gets kicked out, nor do people just leave. You have your drink like everyone else.
  - api 4y ago
    I would have stopped using the phone if it were a party line full of trolls. That’s social media.
- seti0Cha 4y ago
  I might have agreed with you back when people generally agreed what the term referred to. Now that it means whatever people want, I think it's a shitty heuristic to follow.
  - api 4y ago
    Replace "Nazi" with any form of obnoxious fanatic or troll. It's the principle. If you let the riffraff in too much, you will have only riffraff.
nstart 4y ago
To be fair, I read that as a joke that actually plays on this notion. Some people within the fediverse are of the opinion that Twitter is a dying dumpster fire. The reality is that it's got a bunch more dumpster fires going on, but depending on the corner you are in, it's business as normal. So the way I read that opening is a tongue in cheek expression in the voice of someone who is a little overeager to promote the fediverse as the Twitter Killer (when it's just... a different thing). Edit: Shared this thought only to say that there possibly is a different interpretation to this opening. Not to invalidate what you said (should have mentioned this in the start) :)
kmfrk 4y ago
I don't see Twitter as "dying" in the near future per se, but I think people are generally winding down their activities on the platform. There's obviously a parallel trend of people trying to rid themselves of social media in general to live less online lives. (After which they dial up usage of other social platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch.)

by sshine 4y ago

yunwal 4y ago

I took that line as tongue in cheek. The whole article is kind of making fun of people who think decentralized/federated platforms will solve all problems with social media, so it's also making fun of the type of people who would say something like that.

jimmaswell 4y ago

It's been taken over by someone making erratic emotionally-driven changes every 10 minutes, firing people with domain knowledge left and right and already under various investigations. Maybe it'll be fine, but it's really up in the air.

nailer 4y ago
What erratic emotionally driven changes have there been? > Firing people with domain knowledge From the sounds of it, many deserved to be fired: > teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users. https://twitter.com/bariweiss/status/1601008766861815808?s=20&t=LQt2gKG8pkzRKvgNn9G47g https://twitter.com/bariweiss/status/1601008766861815808?s=2...
sshine 4y ago
> Maybe it'll be fine, but it's really up in the air. Twitter was already, by all means, up in the air. Twitter is a highly politicized environment where you get treated differently based on your views. Since it got a new captain, all those who were in power (meaning they didn't, on average, get treated unfavorably by the platform) are now claiming that the platform is dead. I dare to say the erratic emotion is on the side of those who say Twitter is dead.

api 4y ago

When the Nazis walk into the bar you throw them out or everyone else leaves and then it's a Nazi bar.

dack 4y ago
I really like your framing of it! To be fair though, I really haven't seen a change in the content on Twitter at all since Elon took over (modulo meta-discussion about Twitter itself). Time will tell I suppose
stale2002 4y ago
Did you stop using the telephone because anyone, including bad people, can use it to make phone calls? What about the grocery store? Did you know that bad people use those as well? Even going back to your bar example. I am sure that bad people go to bars all the time. And generally speaking, nobody gets kicked out, nor do people just leave. You have your drink like everyone else.
- api 4y ago
  I would have stopped using the phone if it were a party line full of trolls. That’s social media.
seti0Cha 4y ago
I might have agreed with you back when people generally agreed what the term referred to. Now that it means whatever people want, I think it's a shitty heuristic to follow.
- api 4y ago
  Replace "Nazi" with any form of obnoxious fanatic or troll. It's the principle. If you let the riffraff in too much, you will have only riffraff.

nstart 4y ago

To be fair, I read that as a joke that actually plays on this notion. Some people within the fediverse are of the opinion that Twitter is a dying dumpster fire. The reality is that it's got a bunch more dumpster fires going on, but depending on the corner you are in, it's business as normal. So the way I read that opening is a tongue in cheek expression in the voice of someone who is a little overeager to promote the fediverse as the Twitter Killer (when it's just... a different thing). Edit: Shared this thought only to say that there possibly is a different interpretation to this opening. Not to invalidate what you said (should have mentioned this in the start) :)

kmfrk 4y ago

I don't see Twitter as "dying" in the near future per se, but I think people are generally winding down their activities on the platform. There's obviously a parallel trend of people trying to rid themselves of social media in general to live less online lives. (After which they dial up usage of other social platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch.)