3 ms·

These social networks never implode in spectacularly entertaining fashion, making the premise of the site flawed from beginning. They become zombies and collap

These social networks never implode in spectacularly entertaining fashion, making the premise of the site flawed from beginning. They become zombies and collapse gradually, and then suddenly. Maybe twitter will reach a steady state of journalist echo chamber and survive for a bit longer but I don't understand why anyone spends time there unless they are advertising their work / doing public relations.

bena 4y ago
Exactly, everyone is expecting a Toys R Us moment, an Enron implosion, or an FTX scandal, but really, it's going to be IBM. It's going to be Atari. It's going to be MySpace, Digg, etc. It'll dwindle until it's a shell of its former self. And you won't be able to say exactly when it flipped from being alive to a zombie, but you'll know it's just different now.
detaro 4y ago
> They become zombies and collapse gradually, and then suddenly From an information perspective, that makes tracking it over time more relevant, not less. But of course also means it's a lot more work.
- fullshark 4y ago
  Sure, such a website could exist, but it wouldn't be very fun to read or maintain. Seems like they created this site in a desire to partake in schadenfreude, not as an intellectual exercise.
- nicky0 4y ago
  But they weren't really tracking changes in Twitter over time in any meaningful or informative way. The were just regurgitating a variety of anti-Elon headlines.
butterfi 4y ago
Sounds like the digital equivalent of a dead mall
- cornhole34 4y ago
  thanks foldingideas
satokema 4y ago
The Japanese artists I follow to see their art once in a while apparently have not gotten the "Twitter is dying" memo.
- majikaja 4y ago
  Japanese Twitter feels like manifestation of nation-level social dysfunction It's popular here because people don't feel able to express themselves to others outside of such an online platform. That and prostitution Elon wants to export this dystopia to the rest of the world... I joke, I doubt he has any clue about anything beyond the user counts.
cxr 4y ago
> They become zombies and collapse gradually, and then suddenly. I know people love to crib Hemingway's turn of phrase, but I don't think it makes sense here. Because it's the opposite, right? Sudden first, and then gradual. There's some big catalyst, and what remains afterwards slowly dissipates seemingly interminably towards zero. Even in notable cases like MySpace, which still exists, it's just "gradual" at first and then it's still "gradual" later, too.
- fullshark 4y ago
  Hmm perhaps you are right. Elon acquisition of Twitter / Fox News acquisition of Myspace? not sure what was the catalyst there. Removing porn from Tumblr? All sudden shocks that lead to a long term decline and eventual irrelevance.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- rsynnott 4y ago
  Depends. Livejournal, say, was gradual (long-term decline), then sudden (Russian takeover). Similar for freenode. Digg was sudden (truly disastrous redesign), then gradual (spiral into irrelevance). Tumblr was… kind of all over the place.
eduction 4y ago
>They become zombies and collapse gradually, and then suddenly. This is true for all companies though. It's arguably happening to Google now, and to Facebook, and, hard as it is to imagine, will happen to Apple some day, even if that day is decades away. GE was an icon of corporate competence in the 80s and is now in parts. Toyota has long seemed invincible but now has to make it through the transition to electric vehicles. Intel, Microsoft, etc. The hard part is not predicting that a corporation will decline, it's getting the timing right. (Just ask Michael Dell, who in the mid 1990s famously said he'd shut down Apple and sell it for parts if he was in charge. Red Herring magazine kept predicting Amazon's imminent collapse and at least half the people reading this don't even know who that is because they very much died first.)
moogly 4y ago
I think Digg did, but overall you're right.

bena 4y ago

Exactly, everyone is expecting a Toys R Us moment, an Enron implosion, or an FTX scandal, but really, it's going to be IBM. It's going to be Atari. It's going to be MySpace, Digg, etc. It'll dwindle until it's a shell of its former self. And you won't be able to say exactly when it flipped from being alive to a zombie, but you'll know it's just different now.

detaro 4y ago

> They become zombies and collapse gradually, and then suddenly From an information perspective, that makes tracking it over time more relevant, not less. But of course also means it's a lot more work.

fullshark 4y ago
Sure, such a website could exist, but it wouldn't be very fun to read or maintain. Seems like they created this site in a desire to partake in schadenfreude, not as an intellectual exercise.
nicky0 4y ago
But they weren't really tracking changes in Twitter over time in any meaningful or informative way. The were just regurgitating a variety of anti-Elon headlines.

butterfi 4y ago

Sounds like the digital equivalent of a dead mall

cornhole34 4y ago
thanks foldingideas

satokema 4y ago

The Japanese artists I follow to see their art once in a while apparently have not gotten the "Twitter is dying" memo.

majikaja 4y ago
Japanese Twitter feels like manifestation of nation-level social dysfunction It's popular here because people don't feel able to express themselves to others outside of such an online platform. That and prostitution Elon wants to export this dystopia to the rest of the world... I joke, I doubt he has any clue about anything beyond the user counts.

cxr 4y ago

> They become zombies and collapse gradually, and then suddenly. I know people love to crib Hemingway's turn of phrase, but I don't think it makes sense here. Because it's the opposite, right? Sudden first, and then gradual. There's some big catalyst, and what remains afterwards slowly dissipates seemingly interminably towards zero. Even in notable cases like MySpace, which still exists, it's just "gradual" at first and then it's still "gradual" later, too.

fullshark 4y ago
Hmm perhaps you are right. Elon acquisition of Twitter / Fox News acquisition of Myspace? not sure what was the catalyst there. Removing porn from Tumblr? All sudden shocks that lead to a long term decline and eventual irrelevance.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
rsynnott 4y ago
Depends. Livejournal, say, was gradual (long-term decline), then sudden (Russian takeover). Similar for freenode. Digg was sudden (truly disastrous redesign), then gradual (spiral into irrelevance). Tumblr was… kind of all over the place.

eduction 4y ago

>They become zombies and collapse gradually, and then suddenly. This is true for all companies though. It's arguably happening to Google now, and to Facebook, and, hard as it is to imagine, will happen to Apple some day, even if that day is decades away. GE was an icon of corporate competence in the 80s and is now in parts. Toyota has long seemed invincible but now has to make it through the transition to electric vehicles. Intel, Microsoft, etc. The hard part is not predicting that a corporation will decline, it's getting the timing right. (Just ask Michael Dell, who in the mid 1990s famously said he'd shut down Apple and sell it for parts if he was in charge. Red Herring magazine kept predicting Amazon's imminent collapse and at least half the people reading this don't even know who that is because they very much died first.)

moogly 4y ago

I think Digg did, but overall you're right.