9 ms·
Twitter policy page forbidding links to other social media removed
It's returning a 404 ... the original is available via the wayback machine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20221218200110/https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platforms-policy https://web.archive.org/web/20221218200110/https://help.twit...
Consider contributing to them.
- genericacct 4y agoThat was a crazy move. 99.9% of twitter users are there to promote something else
- pjc50 4y agoIt was just an overnight fever dream. Musk wakes up and does the "who did I send dumb texts to last night" routine.
- frou_dh 4y agoThe whole journey just seems like when big business and manic mental health episodes collide.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- xiphias2 4y agoMastodon links are still blocked. Also removing a page is not a solution, they need to come up with an explicit policy at this point. I signed up to Mastodon yesterday just in case.
- busssard 4y agoMastodon is much nicer than twitter ;)
- 0xy 4y agoWith no content, it's a dead platform walking. Screenshots of Twitter don't qualify as real community engagement.
- mewmew07 4y agoI feel bad for you.
- detaro 4y agoLuckily that's not a problem it actually has.
- ColinWright 4y agoIf it had no content, you'd be right. But the instance I co-admin has a lot of traffic, and it's of significantly higher quality than I've found on other platforms. Mastodon requires engagement to get your network established, and if you don't bother engaging, you'll get much less from it. If all you want is entertainment and amusement, maybe staying on Twitter is your best bet.
- robert_foss 4y agoFind your twitter follows on mastodon: https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ https://twitodon.com/ https://twitodon.com/
- mrpopo 4y agoI have more than 20% of my twitter follows on Mastodon at this point. Content discovery is a bit different, need to adjust to it, but so far it's the best experience I've had at decentralized social networks since 20-y. ago IRC.
- kalleboo 4y agoIn my hobby, Mastodon is absolutely buzzing with activity and feels a lot more alive than Twitter did (possibly because Twitter insisted on ranking mainstream ragebait and populism above mild enthusiast discussion so it would always bury interesting stuff)
- oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
- esskay 4y agoUntil you have to screw around trying to follow someone who signed up via another server and have to do nonsensicle crap like copying and pasting links to profiles instead of clicking the obvious 'follow' button because it intentionally does not work. It's got a long, long way to become anything close to Twitter.
- sunbum 4y agoHow would you solve the issue without breaking literally every single security feature of modern browsers?
- alangibson 4y agoBy just using Twitter instead. And therein lies the problem.
- some_furry 4y agoBrowser extension E.g. https://mstdn.social/@feditips/109507990803168318 https://mstdn.social/@feditips/109507990803168318
- pcl 4y agoI feel like there’s a HTTPS client-cert-based solution out there waiting to be discovered.
- blagie 4y agoProtocols like oauth do just fine, and accomplish the same sorts of goals: - I click "Follow." - Servers talk to each other. - I get redirected to a URL with a unique hash on the other server. It tells me what I'm agreeing to and I agree. - I get redirected back to a URL with a unique hash on the original server. There are a lot of other protocols possible. This one doesn't rely on CSRF or other features, so it should continue working even with security features of future browsers.
- Kudos 4y agoIm not sure you understand the problem. How does the server with the user you want to follow know what server to talk to if all you've done is click "follow"?
- Hamuko 4y agoI disagree. I see like three trends that all seem to be dead, so I have no idea what people in the world are actually talking about. All I see is that about 500 people talked about the FIFA World Cup final game during the past 48 hours, since that's taking two out of three top trends. "Tweets" are much longer, so it no longer feels like microblogging. Sensitive content feels even dumber, I don't want to click "Read more" in order to view a tweet like it was some kind of a ad-bait blog post. If someone sends me their profile link that's not on my instance, I can't actually reply to it. Instead, I need to go to my Mastodon instance and then search for that link in order to actually have an interactable version of that "tweet". Everything also feels slower, possibly because it's having to juggle between so many different instances. And I have no idea if I chose the right Mastodon instance with the right hall admins that won't read my private messages and ban me for having the wrong opinion. I'd much, much rather stay on Twitter. It's just that no one has any idea if it's going to be a viable platform in the future and who are going to stick around there.
- paranoidrobot 4y ago> won't read my private messages I heard other folks who're more in the security mindset explain it that you shouldn't just trust your particular fediverse/mastodon instance not to read your private messages. If you have something truly private, exchange contact details for some other secure thing and have that conversation there. For instance, Signal.
- some_furry 4y ago> If someone sends me their profile link that's not on my instance, I can't actually reply to it. Instead, I need to go to my Mastodon instance and then search for that link in order to actually have an interactable version of that "tweet". Actually, you have options: https://mstdn.social/@feditips/109507990803168318 https://mstdn.social/@feditips/109507990803168318 > And I have no idea if I chose the right Mastodon instance with the right hall admins that won't read my private messages and ban me for having the wrong opinion. I'm working on that. https://github.com/soatok/mastodon-e2ee-specification https://github.com/soatok/mastodon-e2ee-specification
- infinitezest 4y ago
- roomey 4y agoIt is. To the other responders, you have to find people to follow, it is not served up on a plate. So if you feel like it is dead, or only football, spend a while looking for things and people that interest you. To follow people from other instances, just search or follow the link through the instance you are already logged into, and all you have to do is click a follow button. I would recommend looking for an instance that has some sort of similarity with what you are interested in. For example, I joined the Irish instance mastodon.ie so I know there will always be a stream of slightly humourous shite talk in the local time line. But there is also a good infosec instance, and a good quantum research instance. But look, I never liked twitter in the first place, so maybe, yes for twitter people, Mastodon just won't scratch that itch!
- nicce 4y agoYou cannot trust Twitter again until someone else buys it. One policy means nothing since they can change it overnight… as they have done now.
- thejohnconway 4y agoIt’s pretty obvious you can’t trust Twitter if someone else buys it either. It can always be bought by an idiot and run into the ground (again).
- nicce 4y agoI am not sure if it can get much deeper into the ground anymore, since it makes people already turn away. But it is true that it depends on the buyer. But there is new hope at least, if the ownership changes.
- jacquesm 4y ago> I am not sure if it can get much deeper into the ground anymore, since it makes people already turn away. Give it 24 hours.
- flandish 4y agoIt was(is/will be) a corporation - you cannot “trust” any corporation. None of what twitter / elon is doing is a surprise - it’s just a popular site so it’s more reported.
- nicce 4y agoNot entirely true anymore. In my understanding Twitter is in the process for going private company, and by not being a public company reduces the pressure for profits. For example Valve is a great example, how a private company can be successful and respect it's customers. But the problem is, that the price is still going to be high for Twitter when it will sold again, even if the price is just a fraction. Not many are willing to buy it and then reduce profits by thinking the best of its users.
- muglug 4y agoYeah, it's easy to add and remove policy pages, but I imagine there's more work involved in blocking and unblocking Mastodon links. It's in Twitter's interest to say those links are now allowed, while still actually blocking them for at least another 24 hours to stem the outflow. When they introduced the no-links-in-bio policy I imagine they had not actually written the code to scan 1 billion Twitter accounts for bios and tweets in violation of that policy.
- cormacrelf 4y agoMastodon links in tweets have been blocked by someone adding a rule list to the malware filter for the last couple of weeks. It was a silent change. They just decided to formally announce it and ant the same time expand that to non-link text, referring people to @username on <service>, writing AT facebook DOT com, etc. Since they introduced the link blocking silently, they will just leave it in place silently. Maybe they’ll get sued by a competition regulator in one of the dozen jurisdictions that this kind of thing is illegal in. (Edit, the rule list was not comprehensive, so you will find plenty of counter-examples. Possibly by design to make people think it isn’t happening.)
- SanjayMehta 4y agoSigned up a while ago and this showed up https://mastodon.social/@oatmeal/109383511262415597 https://mastodon.social/@oatmeal/109383511262415597
- xiphias2 4y agoSure, because Twitter crossed the red line for everybody when Facebook / Instagram / Mastodon links of users got blocked. This is unprecedented, no social media did that before.
- gaius_baltar 4y agoNot _openly_ I'm pretty sure everything that affects the profits of these companies is downplayed by the recommendation system.
- wildpeaks 4y agoThis proved that Twitter is bleeding out a lot of users and specifically named the concurrents he's scared of, and he just gave them free advertising.
- nerdawson 4y agoWhat better way to prompt someone to establish themselves on an alternative than demonstrate just how fragile their presence on Twitter is.
- drexlspivey 4y agoMy twitter feed is mostly people who “left” twitter
- catfishx 4y agoIs posting links to other platforms not considered free speech Mr. Musk?
- mewmew07 4y ago[flagged]
- alangibson 4y agoMusk has revealed himself to be just an outright liar. I used to believe the story about 'Elon time's being an artifact of optimism, but now I'm sure he's willing to just lie his @ss off to get people on his side. Really makes me wonder about his commitment to making life multiplanetary...
- jacquesm 4y ago> Really makes me wonder about his commitment to making life multiplanetary... I see no need to wonder about that one. It wasn't ever going to happen but it served well to get people aligned on pulling his cart.
- tiku 4y ago
- lolc 4y agoMore like "I tried to talk about going to another restaurant with my friends at the bar. The restaurant wouldn't let me."
- the_gipsy 4y agoDo you really think it's not normal to post links?
- mtmail 4y agoThe assumed issue wasn't eating (consuming) but advertising. More fitting is wearing a McDonald's t-shirt in a restaurant or telling people McDonalds is better while the restaurant owner is a self-proclaimed free-speach advocate.
- kalleboo 4y agoJust a few weeks ago he said he was a "free speech absolutist" and that "any speech that is legal should be allowed", and criticizing the former leadership for straying from that. Going from that to "don't post links to other sites" and as much of a 180 as you can go
- lolc 4y agoWow that didn't last long. For me, that was the "Twitter is done" moment. Because it would ban away all the influencer types. So I wonder whether Twitter will recover if they reverse the policy now. I wonder who at Twitter thought this was a good idea. We only know about the one guy, do we? Was the rest just forced into implementing it, knowing it would set their ship on fire?
- yreg 4y agoThe word on the street is that the boss (who says he's the law) currently isn't interested in other's opinions on his decisions. If I was still at Twitter (by my own decision, ie not visa, etc), I would just enjoy the ride and see where it goes instead of trying to save the product and oppose Elon.
- uwuemu 4y agoElon is Elon. If he was too interested in other people's opinions, he wouldn't be where he is. That applies basically to all successful CEOs. Nonetheless he currently has a Teitter poll up if he should step down as a head of Twitter (and the majority voted Yes) and says he will do it if yes wins. Soooo...
- dbt00 4y agoFirst, click polls are garbage and alllllways have been, second, he runs the platform with no dissent the poll will say whatever he wants it to say.
- Nathanba 4y agoSo when Elon steps down you'll apologize for confidently claiming that Elon manipulates his polls?
- gambiting 4y agoThat's implying that the doesn't want the poll to vote yes, and I don't think that's true. There are already journalists claiming that he has a new CEO in mind and was going to step down within the next day or two because of how much shitshow this is - a twitter poll is a perfect easy excuse "hey guys I really didn't want to step down but you voted yes so I'm doing it, look how great and honest I am, keeping my word".
- foindf 4y agoI hope this ridiculous debacle helps to show all the Twitter addicts that they don't really need that website in their lives. Has social media been a benefit for humanity? I think most of us were happier before being drawn into these advertisement honeytraps of outrage.
- allarm 4y ago> Has social media been a benefit for humanity? Definitely yes. It was a miracle when in started, it changed everything. But at a later stage it was ruined by engagement and ads and recommended content and crippled ux. I’ve not used any social network for years because I just couldn’t force myself to get through the piles of crap just to connect with my friends and contacts. I’ve been using other methods since then.
- spikeagally 4y ago>> Definitely yes. It was a miracle when in started, it changed everything. Just because it “changed everything” doesn’t mean it was a benefit to humanity. In what ways would you say it has been beneficial for humanity? We already have plenty of communication tools for keeping in touch with friends.
- zimpenfish 4y ago> We already have plenty of communication tools for keeping in touch with friends. Nothing that covers the same gamut of easy to use, easy to find people, etc.
- allarm 4y agoI can’t think of any tools that allowed building a social graph. It was a novelty back in 00 and it was nice to have your close circle be easily discoverable and reachable. In a sense of discoverability social media was a benefit to many, many people. Before that it was ICQ/other ims and email only. And before that I had to write down the contact details; I remember having physical notebooks with addresses and phone numbers of people, back in early 90s. Don’t you think it was a nice thing to finally be able to easily connect with people?
- eternalban 4y ago> Consider contributing to them. I've been thinking the same lately. This is a critical public service.
- Kye 4y agoThey also deleted the tweets.
- twistedcheeslet 4y agoI wonder what kind of growth Mastodon saw over the last 24hrs.
- ColinWright 4y agoIn mid-October the instance I co-admin had 2K accounts, about 600 of which were active. We now have about 12K accounts with around half active. We've grown in fits'n'starts, and in the last 72 hours we've had about 800 new accounts. This screenshot is from Nov 23rd: https://www.solipsys.co.uk/images/SCR_20221123_102916.jpg https://www.solipsys.co.uk/images/SCR_20221123_102916.jpg This is today: https://www.solipsys.co.uk/images/SCR_20221219_112249.png https://www.solipsys.co.uk/images/SCR_20221219_112249.png Here are new accounts over the past 8 weeks or so: https://www.solipsys.co.uk/images/SCR_20221219_113810.png https://www.solipsys.co.uk/images/SCR_20221219_113810.png In case anyone wants to discuss it or add other stats, I've submitted that separately here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34050994 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34050994
- Kudos 4y agoNo need to wonder https://bitcoinhackers.org/@mastodonusercount https://bitcoinhackers.org/@mastodonusercount
- mattkevan 4y agoI’d say quite a lot. Anecdata etc, but over the last 24 hours I’ve had a new follower roughly every 10 mins, all new accounts. Never seen that level of activity before.
- androa 4y agoI have a friend that went of rails (schizophrenia) a couple of years back. One day he threw out all his light bulbs because they were listening devices for "the others". Or deleted all the files on his computer that contained the letter X, because it is "the unknown". Paranoia was a LARGE part of his life, in every decision he took. My friend was experiencing a lot of stress in his life at the time, which the doctors says most likely induced the schizophrenia. It looked a lot like what is happening with Musk now.
- JacobSeated 4y agoTo late. Already deleted an account with thousands of followers. Engagement was low, so no big loss. It's probably best we just focus on our own platforms/websites. Haha
- fareesh 4y ago
- jacquesm 4y ago> In free speech analogy terms these amount to subversion, sedition and treason That's hilarious. Do you honestly believe that they are equivalent? Or is this some kind of joke that I'm missing?
- fareesh 4y agoYou can share your view - what would be the equivalent of subversion, sedition or treason in the analogy, if Twitter is the state and freedom of speech is the law of the land?
- jacquesm 4y agoTwitter isn't the state, period. Any analogy is broken beyond being useful.
- arrrg 4y agoIt doesn’t really matter because your analogy makes little sense, but linking to competitors doesn’t work as an analogy for subversion, sedition or treason. I can go to any market place in Germany and lead a demonstration that’s about how Germany sucks and that we should all emigrate to Canada. I can even bring info material that shows you all the steps about how to emigrate to Canada. That would be a perfectly legal demonstration in Germany and I think in most democratic societies that have basic human rights. I cannot imagine any of those societies considering that subversion, sedition or treason and considering such harmless protests a crime.
- timeon 4y agoApparently promoting competition is not free speech for free speech absolutists.
- eduction 4y agoIt’s interesting to me that so many people are upset when a mundane piece of software is banned, but were relatively content when factually accurate statements and news articles were banned. I’m not a fan of this Twitter policy but I was also not a fan of what the company was censoring before. Its absurdly stretched definition of disinformation was a problem, but one that fit the political goals of many tech types who are now upset about the Mastodon thing.
- miloignis 4y agoI disagree with this interpretation - many have been vocally protesting each of the rounds of banning and policy changes, and multiple large waves of migration happened. This policy became such a talking point because of how there wasn't even a pretense of doing it for safety etc. Other policies may have been functionally more harmful, but this was bald-faced with no concievable defense for the blatent hypocrisy, and if anything is going to get people riled up it's hypocrisy.