9 ms·

I stopped using it, mainly because of an “inverse network effect”. Twitter used to be a useful place to keep up on scientific papers. Science Twitter is dead.

I stopped using it, mainly because of an “inverse network effect”. Twitter used to be a useful place to keep up on scientific papers. Science Twitter is dead. Now my feed is like 10 percent science, 10 mildly racist / inflammatory content, 10 percent miscellaneous, and 70 percent a certain VC constantly shaking his fist, yelling about crypto, and shitting on fiat currency. And this is after aggressively curating my feed by unfollowing anybody who cheered on Musk’s takeover of Twitter. No thanks.

emodendroket 4y ago
I think the inherent design of Twitter has a bit of a flaw in that you're friends with people instead of joining communities. So if you think "geez, I have a lot of political content on my feed I don't want to read," you can't just unfollow all the politics topics/forums/subreddits/whatever you are subscribed to, you have to "unfriend" people, which is socially difficult if you're both small enough to follow/recognize each other. On top of that the "for you" page and trending topics seem to be injecting more stuff I don't want to read into my feed than before, which exacerbates the problem.
- mkmk 4y ago
  The 'mute' function is wonderful for opting out of certain communities
  - emodendroket 4y ago
    I suppose I'm really looking for a more fine-grained way to filter certain topics from certain users without ignoring them entirely.
    - ryanjshaw 4y ago
      I've thought about building a ChatGPT-based Twitter interface for this but... ironically, Twitter API is dead.
    - suddenclarity 4y ago
      Twitter has quite an extensive option to mute things nowadays. Such as keywords, phrases, usernames and hashtags. That's how I can keep following people that sometimes go on political rants.
- madeofpalk 4y ago
  Twitter does have ways to follow both topics (following a hashtag, basically, iirc) and joining communities. I've never used them because what I want from a Twitter-like network is to follow people who I'm interested in, or have interesting things to say. If I'm reading my timeline and think "geez, this person sure does post a bunch of political stuff I don't want to see" I either mute specific keywords, or just unfollow the person. Back on Twitter I was aggressive with keyword muting - I don't care about Marvel or people having passionite topics about "MCU", so I muted those phrases and my timeline was free of them.
  - SllX 4y ago
    What had made Twitter easier to use for me was the aggressive use of filters to just block out most of political Twitter. It didn’t block everything, but you would be surprised what blocking the names of Presidents, former Presidents, Presidential candidates, the clap, and a few popular political slogans can do to really cull the politics from a Timeline in the height of election season down to almost nothing. I was going to investigate targeting shibboleths next but then Twitter killed Tweetbot and Twitter is dead to me without Tweetbot.
    - emodendroket 4y ago
      A bit of a baby-with-the-bathwater approach as I would like to keep following straight news sources.
      - SllX 4y ago
        I mean, if you use Twitter for political news, then yes. I hadn’t even considered that, but my approach would also wreck your ability to follow political news via Twitter.
  - emodendroket 4y ago
    The problem is that I'm interested in what people have to say about some topics and not others. Sometimes I'll follow a musician I like and realize when he's not posting about his music he's talking about conspiracy theories I'd rather not look at. Or someone will be pretty funny and interesting but also spend a lot of time interacting with porn. Or just post a lot about a topic that I have no interest in. If it worked differently I could interact with these people on subjects I'd like to without being subjected to every thought that enters their head and everything they want to follow.
- leephillips 4y ago
  You don’t have to “unfriend” anyone. And I’ve never seen any of the “for you’ stuff: https://lee-phillips.org/howtotwitter/ https://lee-phillips.org/howtotwitter/
- djtango 4y ago
  Aren't you describing reddit?
  - emodendroket 4y ago
    Or a traditional forum, yes.
    - danjoredd 4y ago
      TBH I prefer traditional forums over Twitter/reddit. There are a few I go to every now and again, and while there is way less content, I feel people are way less inflammatory over random things and conversation is usually way more civil.
      - MiddleEndian 4y ago
        Reddit should have been a technology, like PHPBB or Wordpress, instead of a website. That would have been better.
        rtsil 4y ago
        That technology exists. It's called newsgroups, it's fast, distributed, hard to censor, without a central authority and based on community of interests. It's also pretty much dead except for sharing pirated contents.
        emodendroket 4y ago
        Should it have been though? Something to be said for having it all in one place with one account.
        MiddleEndian 4y ago
        Consider Hacker News. It's a forum that's laid out somewhat similarly to reddit. It has pretty good moderation but in a way that is distinct from reddit. I don't think it would be better as a subreddit. It would be nice if someone with minimal tech skills could just spin something similar up. Related forums could link to each other, like the webrings of the past lol. That would be the ideal structure of interactive communities on the web, at least to me.
- raffraffraff 4y ago
  I used to think that following people was lame and that communities (like on Reddit) were where it was at. Until Reddit shut down a sub I joined. Because it got mass reported. Yes, it had some toxic people on it, but it also held really deep debates, and it wasn't 5% as horrendously hateful as some of the subs that still exist. It just felt wrong to me, that everyone's conversations were shut off by the electric eye, and all history off those debates was lost. How do you even begin to change your mind, or other people's minds, if you can't even talk? Isn't it the foundation of a working democracy, asking with a functioning press? Meanwhile, my wife is playing the long game on Twitter. She has a specific way of using it that just works for her. She follows a few hundred people, and she's followed by ~5k people, mostly "nobodies", but a handful are impressive: researchers, journalists, politicians, authors. She has conversations with "household names" daily. She even orchestrated an interview been a well known researcher and an ex NYT journalist on substack. Yet she's an be absolute nobody.
AzzieElbab 4y ago
How is that possible if one tab of the app is dedicated specifically to people you follow, and on top of that, you can use lists
- jltsiren 4y ago
  Because it's not the default. Every time you go to Twitter, the first page you see is full of random recommendations. There is a rule of thumb about online services and software: Don't fight the developers, because they have more power than you. If your usage is no longer compatible with the vision of the developers, stop using it. You may find temporary workarounds that make the service useful with a lot of effort, but it won't last. The developers will eventually find new innovative ways of ruining your experience. Science Twitter was already dying before the takeover, because it was not compatible with the increased focus on recommendations. Musk simply accelerated the process.
  - _gabe_ 4y ago
    YouTube is the same way (if I'm understanding this correctly, I don't use Twitter). You don't immediately land on a page full of your subscriptions. On the TV app I have to arrow left, arrow down 3 times to subscriptions, then I see my curated feed. On mobile I click the notification icon or the subscription tab. Neither of these feels like I'm "fighting with the developers". It's such a trivial thing to do. And almost all social media apps do this. Instagram does this[0], it looks like Tik Tok only allows an algorithmic feed[1], it seems like Reddit has recommendations on by default but I'm seeing mixed things[2], LinkedIn does this (not that linked in is a model to be followed in any regard). In fact, Facebook is the only major social media company I know of that doesn't spit out an algorithmic feed by default. So, if having to go to a new tab is "fighting the developer", then I think we've failed extraordinarily in this regard on all fronts and Twitter isn't doing anything new here. [0]: https://help.instagram.com/505299634436870 https://help.instagram.com/505299634436870 [1]: https://support.tiktok.com/en/getting-started/for-you https://support.tiktok.com/en/getting-started/for-you [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/xhxkdc/how_do_i_only_see_subreddits_im_following_on_my/ https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/xhxkdc/how_do_i_only_...
segasaturn 4y ago
Right, I feel like the environment of the site has done a lot more damage to it than the unreliability/bugginess/downtime.
generalizations 4y ago
> And this is after aggressively curating my feed by unfollowing anybody who cheered on Musk’s takeover of Twitter If you care about science twitter, I wonder if that was the best criteria for filtering your content.
- Daz1 4y ago
  He doesn't care about science twitter, he cares about The Science twitter
afandian 4y ago
Where do you look now?
conscion 4y ago
> 70 percent a certain VC constantly shaking his fist > And this is after aggressively curating my feed If you're "aggressively curating [your] feed", just mute/block them
- dragontamer 4y ago
  The allegations is that mute/blocking no longer is working consistently on Twitter. Which is further proof that the platform is dying.
  - favsq 4y ago
    [flagged]
    - a4isms 4y ago
      Is there really a dichotomy between 1. Someone providing "proof" that you will accept, and 2. This being what you claim without evidence or justification is the "usual" smearing?
      - favsq 4y ago
        [flagged]
  - throwaway29812 4y ago
    The "I dont like this tweet" function is completely broken. I don't like blocking or muting, but I have to tell Twitter over and over I don't want to see certain people (including King Joffrey) but it never works.
winternett 4y ago
The public API used to help tweets persist beyond normal (on platform) visibility thresholds. Before it was ruined, people could embed tweets in their own sites, and tweets were more persistent on platforms like tweet deck. Musk has no real idea of the impacts of technical decisions on the platform, but he realized the tweet visibility threshold was too short bac when even his own tweets weren't seeing engagement. Since then he's created a scheme to grant slightly better longevity to the visibility of tweets by "verified" accounts, but it's really smoke and mirrors... Tweets anyone makes (Except for Elon and his selected Twitter "buddies") only are visible for seconds and to small audiences of people... It kills interaction, growth, and engagement for everyone else, but gives the illusion that the site is still vibrant (because it makes everyone tweet more often). Deception of this kind will just make everyone burn out and not come back... It defeats the very purpose of Twitter, as visibility of ideas is the only payment most people get on the platforms to begin with, the main problem is that most people on the platform don't know they're mostly invisible, and dropping their tweets into a waste bin.
Ifkaluva 4y ago
Where do you keep up with scientific papers now, if you don't mind me asking?
chrsjxn 4y ago
That's where I'm at, too. And the platform is really showing its lack of moderation, even compared to how little it was moderated in the past. I don't really want to click on webdev tweets and find replies full of hate speech and weird pornography.
wahnfrieden 4y ago
I get pushed a lot of nazi content now, so I’m using it less instead of trying to manage what their algo changes decided to promote now
- wonderwonder 4y ago
  Actual Nazi or just right wing / conservative?
  - darkwraithcov 4y ago
    [flagged]
    - celdon25 4y ago
      [flagged]
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - rhaway84773 4y ago
        How many congresspeople in either the US federal government or any of the US state governments are associated with Antifa? OTOH there are at least a few congresspersons who subscribe to QAnon. The
        dev_daftly 4y ago
        [flagged]
        c-hendricks 4y ago
        I would expect the people elected in democratic systems to be against fascists.
      - zztop44 4y ago
        Nazi and antifa are not equivalents in any way whatsoever. I think the only equivalence you might find is that both tendencies are somewhat open to the concept of political violence? But beyond that, banning nazi content while allowing antifa is a perfectly reasonable stance for any platform to take.
aausch 4y ago
Did science twitter migrate to somewhere else? Where would you go to keep up with scientific papers?
- chimeracoder 4y ago
  > Did science twitter migrate to somewhere else? Where would you go to keep up with scientific papers? Science Twitter in particular has mostly migrated to Mastodon (although it's split between a few different subgroups). A number of other de facto Twitter communities have migrated to Mastodon. Some have stayed on Twitter. And some have basically died without moving anywhere else.
  - anigbrowl 4y ago
    (although it's split between a few different subgroups) This is the big problem with Mastodon. Some people want highly curated communities on small instances, and it's great for that. But it's really bad for people who want to make us of network effects - as exemplified by the very phrase '______ Twitter'.
WalterBright 4y ago
> shitting on fiat currency I hope you're enjoying inflation, then.
- dijit 4y ago
  Is the implication here that crypto coins are immune to inflation and instability? Genuinely asking because if I know my crypto history it basically says the opposite.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    The history of fiat money is always one of endemic inflation, sometimes really wild inflation. When the US was on the gold standard, the inflationary periods were during the California and Yukon gold rushes, which had the effect of "printing" more gold. The inflation we see today in the US is due to massive deficit spending, which is enabled by fiat money. All countries today use fiat money, because then they can spend money without limit and without raising taxes. They always blame the resulting inflation on something else. The value of crypto currency is based on supply & demand. To me it seems more like collecting Beanie Babies than being a substitute for money. We'll see how it fares in the next few years.
    - WalterBright 4y ago
      Interestingly, when Spain looted the New World of gold and silver, it did not make Spain any wealthier. The result was just inflation - the gold was worth less. The more gold that was imported, the lower the value the gold had. It's just like the government deficit printing fiat money.
      - lmm 4y ago
        Sounds like there's no particular advantage to the gold or silver standard and no reason to complain about fiat money then.
        4y ago
libraryatnight 4y ago
It's just so much more noisy and garbage filled. Maybe I was in the minority, but I used it mostly to follow some bands/artists/game designers and keep up with their projects - I rarely engaged with the twitter userbase in general and it feels like that's what is being amplified and it's a lot of noise, toxic speculation, and useless opinions.
fuckyah 4y ago
[dead]
tambourine_man 4y ago
> Science Twitter is dead Yes, and a lot haven’t gone to Mastodon. Where are they?
TapWaterBandit 4y ago
Where do you go for AI news? I haven't found anywhere close to as good as Twitter for AI stuff (admittedly I didn't unfollow anyone because I just ignore political tweets)
vonseel 4y ago
> ow my feed is like 10 percent science, 10 mildly racist / inflammatory content, 10 percent miscellaneous, So basically it's the new Facebook
mr_gibbins 4y ago
My Twitter feed started showing hot takes from more and more right-wing nutjobs, probably because I am naturally slightly conservative (small-c) in my views. Eventually I got fed up with seeing so many posts from Lotus Eaters / Alex Jones / Katie Hopkins / <insert fascist>, was thinking of leaving, then Musk took over, fired everyone and tried to charge me $8, so a good opportunity to go. Account deleted and I haven't been back since.
DuckFeathers 4y ago
Science today is exactly like the Catholic Church 500 years ago. We are supposed to worship the Gods of science and listen to everything the priests have to say. I have given up on any reformation coming from the West though because I think it is too corrupt and too powerful and don't see how it can change in the near future. I am hoping it will be from India and/or China when they catch up.

emodendroket 4y ago

I think the inherent design of Twitter has a bit of a flaw in that you're friends with people instead of joining communities. So if you think "geez, I have a lot of political content on my feed I don't want to read," you can't just unfollow all the politics topics/forums/subreddits/whatever you are subscribed to, you have to "unfriend" people, which is socially difficult if you're both small enough to follow/recognize each other. On top of that the "for you" page and trending topics seem to be injecting more stuff I don't want to read into my feed than before, which exacerbates the problem.

mkmk 4y ago
The 'mute' function is wonderful for opting out of certain communities
- emodendroket 4y ago
  I suppose I'm really looking for a more fine-grained way to filter certain topics from certain users without ignoring them entirely.
  - ryanjshaw 4y ago
    I've thought about building a ChatGPT-based Twitter interface for this but... ironically, Twitter API is dead.
  - suddenclarity 4y ago
    Twitter has quite an extensive option to mute things nowadays. Such as keywords, phrases, usernames and hashtags. That's how I can keep following people that sometimes go on political rants.
madeofpalk 4y ago
Twitter does have ways to follow both topics (following a hashtag, basically, iirc) and joining communities. I've never used them because what I want from a Twitter-like network is to follow people who I'm interested in, or have interesting things to say. If I'm reading my timeline and think "geez, this person sure does post a bunch of political stuff I don't want to see" I either mute specific keywords, or just unfollow the person. Back on Twitter I was aggressive with keyword muting - I don't care about Marvel or people having passionite topics about "MCU", so I muted those phrases and my timeline was free of them.
- SllX 4y ago
  What had made Twitter easier to use for me was the aggressive use of filters to just block out most of political Twitter. It didn’t block everything, but you would be surprised what blocking the names of Presidents, former Presidents, Presidential candidates, the clap, and a few popular political slogans can do to really cull the politics from a Timeline in the height of election season down to almost nothing. I was going to investigate targeting shibboleths next but then Twitter killed Tweetbot and Twitter is dead to me without Tweetbot.
  - emodendroket 4y ago
    A bit of a baby-with-the-bathwater approach as I would like to keep following straight news sources.
    - SllX 4y ago
      I mean, if you use Twitter for political news, then yes. I hadn’t even considered that, but my approach would also wreck your ability to follow political news via Twitter.
- emodendroket 4y ago
  The problem is that I'm interested in what people have to say about some topics and not others. Sometimes I'll follow a musician I like and realize when he's not posting about his music he's talking about conspiracy theories I'd rather not look at. Or someone will be pretty funny and interesting but also spend a lot of time interacting with porn. Or just post a lot about a topic that I have no interest in. If it worked differently I could interact with these people on subjects I'd like to without being subjected to every thought that enters their head and everything they want to follow.
leephillips 4y ago
You don’t have to “unfriend” anyone. And I’ve never seen any of the “for you’ stuff: https://lee-phillips.org/howtotwitter/ https://lee-phillips.org/howtotwitter/
djtango 4y ago
Aren't you describing reddit?
- emodendroket 4y ago
  Or a traditional forum, yes.
  - danjoredd 4y ago
    TBH I prefer traditional forums over Twitter/reddit. There are a few I go to every now and again, and while there is way less content, I feel people are way less inflammatory over random things and conversation is usually way more civil.
    - MiddleEndian 4y ago
      Reddit should have been a technology, like PHPBB or Wordpress, instead of a website. That would have been better.
      - rtsil 4y ago
        That technology exists. It's called newsgroups, it's fast, distributed, hard to censor, without a central authority and based on community of interests. It's also pretty much dead except for sharing pirated contents.
      - emodendroket 4y ago
        Should it have been though? Something to be said for having it all in one place with one account.
        MiddleEndian 4y ago
        Consider Hacker News. It's a forum that's laid out somewhat similarly to reddit. It has pretty good moderation but in a way that is distinct from reddit. I don't think it would be better as a subreddit. It would be nice if someone with minimal tech skills could just spin something similar up. Related forums could link to each other, like the webrings of the past lol. That would be the ideal structure of interactive communities on the web, at least to me.
raffraffraff 4y ago
I used to think that following people was lame and that communities (like on Reddit) were where it was at. Until Reddit shut down a sub I joined. Because it got mass reported. Yes, it had some toxic people on it, but it also held really deep debates, and it wasn't 5% as horrendously hateful as some of the subs that still exist. It just felt wrong to me, that everyone's conversations were shut off by the electric eye, and all history off those debates was lost. How do you even begin to change your mind, or other people's minds, if you can't even talk? Isn't it the foundation of a working democracy, asking with a functioning press? Meanwhile, my wife is playing the long game on Twitter. She has a specific way of using it that just works for her. She follows a few hundred people, and she's followed by ~5k people, mostly "nobodies", but a handful are impressive: researchers, journalists, politicians, authors. She has conversations with "household names" daily. She even orchestrated an interview been a well known researcher and an ex NYT journalist on substack. Yet she's an be absolute nobody.

AzzieElbab 4y ago

How is that possible if one tab of the app is dedicated specifically to people you follow, and on top of that, you can use lists

jltsiren 4y ago
Because it's not the default. Every time you go to Twitter, the first page you see is full of random recommendations. There is a rule of thumb about online services and software: Don't fight the developers, because they have more power than you. If your usage is no longer compatible with the vision of the developers, stop using it. You may find temporary workarounds that make the service useful with a lot of effort, but it won't last. The developers will eventually find new innovative ways of ruining your experience. Science Twitter was already dying before the takeover, because it was not compatible with the increased focus on recommendations. Musk simply accelerated the process.
- _gabe_ 4y ago
  YouTube is the same way (if I'm understanding this correctly, I don't use Twitter). You don't immediately land on a page full of your subscriptions. On the TV app I have to arrow left, arrow down 3 times to subscriptions, then I see my curated feed. On mobile I click the notification icon or the subscription tab. Neither of these feels like I'm "fighting with the developers". It's such a trivial thing to do. And almost all social media apps do this. Instagram does this[0], it looks like Tik Tok only allows an algorithmic feed[1], it seems like Reddit has recommendations on by default but I'm seeing mixed things[2], LinkedIn does this (not that linked in is a model to be followed in any regard). In fact, Facebook is the only major social media company I know of that doesn't spit out an algorithmic feed by default. So, if having to go to a new tab is "fighting the developer", then I think we've failed extraordinarily in this regard on all fronts and Twitter isn't doing anything new here. [0]: https://help.instagram.com/505299634436870 https://help.instagram.com/505299634436870 [1]: https://support.tiktok.com/en/getting-started/for-you https://support.tiktok.com/en/getting-started/for-you [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/xhxkdc/how_do_i_only_see_subreddits_im_following_on_my/ https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/xhxkdc/how_do_i_only_...

segasaturn 4y ago

Right, I feel like the environment of the site has done a lot more damage to it than the unreliability/bugginess/downtime.

generalizations 4y ago

> And this is after aggressively curating my feed by unfollowing anybody who cheered on Musk’s takeover of Twitter If you care about science twitter, I wonder if that was the best criteria for filtering your content.

Daz1 4y ago
He doesn't care about science twitter, he cares about The Science twitter

afandian 4y ago

Where do you look now?

conscion 4y ago

> 70 percent a certain VC constantly shaking his fist > And this is after aggressively curating my feed If you're "aggressively curating [your] feed", just mute/block them

dragontamer 4y ago
The allegations is that mute/blocking no longer is working consistently on Twitter. Which is further proof that the platform is dying.
- favsq 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - a4isms 4y ago
    Is there really a dichotomy between 1. Someone providing "proof" that you will accept, and 2. This being what you claim without evidence or justification is the "usual" smearing?
    - favsq 4y ago
      [flagged]
- throwaway29812 4y ago
  The "I dont like this tweet" function is completely broken. I don't like blocking or muting, but I have to tell Twitter over and over I don't want to see certain people (including King Joffrey) but it never works.

winternett 4y ago

The public API used to help tweets persist beyond normal (on platform) visibility thresholds. Before it was ruined, people could embed tweets in their own sites, and tweets were more persistent on platforms like tweet deck. Musk has no real idea of the impacts of technical decisions on the platform, but he realized the tweet visibility threshold was too short bac when even his own tweets weren't seeing engagement. Since then he's created a scheme to grant slightly better longevity to the visibility of tweets by "verified" accounts, but it's really smoke and mirrors... Tweets anyone makes (Except for Elon and his selected Twitter "buddies") only are visible for seconds and to small audiences of people... It kills interaction, growth, and engagement for everyone else, but gives the illusion that the site is still vibrant (because it makes everyone tweet more often). Deception of this kind will just make everyone burn out and not come back... It defeats the very purpose of Twitter, as visibility of ideas is the only payment most people get on the platforms to begin with, the main problem is that most people on the platform don't know they're mostly invisible, and dropping their tweets into a waste bin.

Ifkaluva 4y ago

Where do you keep up with scientific papers now, if you don't mind me asking?

chrsjxn 4y ago

That's where I'm at, too. And the platform is really showing its lack of moderation, even compared to how little it was moderated in the past. I don't really want to click on webdev tweets and find replies full of hate speech and weird pornography.

wahnfrieden 4y ago

I get pushed a lot of nazi content now, so I’m using it less instead of trying to manage what their algo changes decided to promote now

wonderwonder 4y ago
Actual Nazi or just right wing / conservative?
- darkwraithcov 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - celdon25 4y ago
    [flagged]
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - rhaway84773 4y ago
      How many congresspeople in either the US federal government or any of the US state governments are associated with Antifa? OTOH there are at least a few congresspersons who subscribe to QAnon. The
      - dev_daftly 4y ago
        [flagged]
      - c-hendricks 4y ago
        I would expect the people elected in democratic systems to be against fascists.
    - zztop44 4y ago
      Nazi and antifa are not equivalents in any way whatsoever. I think the only equivalence you might find is that both tendencies are somewhat open to the concept of political violence? But beyond that, banning nazi content while allowing antifa is a perfectly reasonable stance for any platform to take.

aausch 4y ago

Did science twitter migrate to somewhere else? Where would you go to keep up with scientific papers?

chimeracoder 4y ago
> Did science twitter migrate to somewhere else? Where would you go to keep up with scientific papers? Science Twitter in particular has mostly migrated to Mastodon (although it's split between a few different subgroups). A number of other de facto Twitter communities have migrated to Mastodon. Some have stayed on Twitter. And some have basically died without moving anywhere else.
- anigbrowl 4y ago
  (although it's split between a few different subgroups) This is the big problem with Mastodon. Some people want highly curated communities on small instances, and it's great for that. But it's really bad for people who want to make us of network effects - as exemplified by the very phrase '______ Twitter'.

WalterBright 4y ago

> shitting on fiat currency I hope you're enjoying inflation, then.

dijit 4y ago
Is the implication here that crypto coins are immune to inflation and instability? Genuinely asking because if I know my crypto history it basically says the opposite.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  The history of fiat money is always one of endemic inflation, sometimes really wild inflation. When the US was on the gold standard, the inflationary periods were during the California and Yukon gold rushes, which had the effect of "printing" more gold. The inflation we see today in the US is due to massive deficit spending, which is enabled by fiat money. All countries today use fiat money, because then they can spend money without limit and without raising taxes. They always blame the resulting inflation on something else. The value of crypto currency is based on supply & demand. To me it seems more like collecting Beanie Babies than being a substitute for money. We'll see how it fares in the next few years.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    Interestingly, when Spain looted the New World of gold and silver, it did not make Spain any wealthier. The result was just inflation - the gold was worth less. The more gold that was imported, the lower the value the gold had. It's just like the government deficit printing fiat money.
    - lmm 4y ago
      Sounds like there's no particular advantage to the gold or silver standard and no reason to complain about fiat money then.
      - 4y ago

libraryatnight 4y ago

It's just so much more noisy and garbage filled. Maybe I was in the minority, but I used it mostly to follow some bands/artists/game designers and keep up with their projects - I rarely engaged with the twitter userbase in general and it feels like that's what is being amplified and it's a lot of noise, toxic speculation, and useless opinions.

fuckyah 4y ago

[dead]

tambourine_man 4y ago

> Science Twitter is dead Yes, and a lot haven’t gone to Mastodon. Where are they?

TapWaterBandit 4y ago

Where do you go for AI news? I haven't found anywhere close to as good as Twitter for AI stuff (admittedly I didn't unfollow anyone because I just ignore political tweets)

vonseel 4y ago

> ow my feed is like 10 percent science, 10 mildly racist / inflammatory content, 10 percent miscellaneous, So basically it's the new Facebook

mr_gibbins 4y ago

My Twitter feed started showing hot takes from more and more right-wing nutjobs, probably because I am naturally slightly conservative (small-c) in my views. Eventually I got fed up with seeing so many posts from Lotus Eaters / Alex Jones / Katie Hopkins / <insert fascist>, was thinking of leaving, then Musk took over, fired everyone and tried to charge me $8, so a good opportunity to go. Account deleted and I haven't been back since.

DuckFeathers 4y ago

Science today is exactly like the Catholic Church 500 years ago. We are supposed to worship the Gods of science and listen to everything the priests have to say. I have given up on any reformation coming from the West though because I think it is too corrupt and too powerful and don't see how it can change in the near future. I am hoping it will be from India and/or China when they catch up.