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I feel like Twitter could have launched “Nests” (flocks?) to replace subreddits in the face of a Reddit exodus and pretty much just reskinned twitter for the sp

I feel like Twitter could have launched “Nests” (flocks?) to replace subreddits in the face of a Reddit exodus and pretty much just reskinned twitter for the specific use case. Hashtags as top level organizing taxonomy (to replace subreddit). Then tweets as your “posts” with nested replies. Twitter had the infrastructure to just hit the ground running too.

gingerrr 3y ago
They already have exactly this, it's called "Communities" and not very heavily used. edit: great idea though it functions pretty much exactly as you described, get into product if you're not yet!
- interestica 3y ago
  I didn't know. I suppose this speaks to Instagram/Meta’s differing strategy: build a product as a separate app and then fold its successful features into its main offering. (Eg., Direct, Layout, Boomerang, Hyperlapse).
astrange 3y ago
Nobody uses hashtags anymore. You can actually tell when someone is a clueless LinkedIn refugee because they hashtag random words in their sentences.
- jeremyjh 3y ago
  Interest groups do.
  - sgc 3y ago
    It's a good way to follow Ukrainian news, for example (#ukraine, #ukrainewar). It definitely has its place.
    - astrange 3y ago
      I prefer using lists or trustworthy OSINT accounts for that. My impression is Twitter search 1. is now smart enough it doesn't need hashtags to assist it but 2. due to policy choices doesn't work. Namely, searching for term X returns both "posts containing X" but also "every single thing an account with X in their name" said, meaning any search doesn't work unless you block all those accounts. And then sometimes it includes porn spammers, who are the main users of hashtags.
      - sgc 3y ago
        I use the hashtags to discover new accounts to then follow / add to lists. It is not the same stage of research.
- brigandish 3y ago
  Because apps ignore them in favour of their algorithmic method of taxonomy instead. If hashtags were actually useful they'd doubtless take off again.
worrycue 3y ago
They are rate limiting the viewing of tweets now. No way they have the capacity to handle Reddit’s content. Maybe Google can try replicating Reddit in YouTube - it would just be serving text instead of video; discovery would be via their recommendation algorithm, i.e. no subreddits. Frankly, they can kind of already do this, you can post community messages on YouTube. They just need to tweak the algorithm to recommend such messages.
- troupo 3y ago
  > Maybe Google can try replicating Reddit in YouTube They can't. Google as an organization just doesn't understand social networking. They've had comments and forums (community?) for ages. Do you know how to engage in that community? Do you know how to even track your own comments? Etc.
  - worrycue 3y ago
    > Do you know how to even track your own comments? On YouTube actually yes, it’s in “History”. :P
    - troupo 3y ago
      Not in the app :) And on the web IIRC it doesn't show any replies to your comments. And if you click on your comment, there's a 50/50 chance Youtube will not show it to you under the video :)
gremlinsinc 3y ago
they could have, if they didn't close down their API, nobody wants to migrate from one API-less company to another.
russ 3y ago
Lol, I built this exact thing as a 120% project at Twitter in 2011. It was called “Flocks”. It even had transient/temporal flocks based on geo check-in and sound-fingerprint flocks for movies, tv shows, and events. We implemented the Shazam audio signature algo from a research paper we found. The thesis was: it’s more natural for people to have conversations when there’s a shared context. It became a widely known project within the company back then, but ultimately, like most things at Twitter, never shipped.
- pschuegr 3y ago
  That sounds really cool, you were basically (my translation) auto-creating sub-reddits based on the media people were consuming at the time? Sweet project.
  - russ 3y ago
    Yeah! Wanted a really fast/frictionless way for people to jump into a context based on signals in their environment. This was also around the time of Color (the photo app which raised 40m or something off just a pitch deck) — “ambient computing” was becoming part of the zeitgeist. Thanks for the kind words! <3
- interestica 3y ago
  Lol that’s amazing. They could have even now done tongue-in-cheek marketing and straight up call it a “migration”. Also, “nest-ed comments” on different “branches”. You could work backwards and find the bird-related concept and then build the correspond technology? What would “feathers” be?
  - russ 3y ago
    Hah! Working backwards would yield some hits for sure. “Feather” (a play off a quill) was my prototype (I built a lot of prototypes there in my “spare” time :)) for a richer, write/tweet only app. You could author long-form content, quickly jump into the camera for recording video or taking a picture (goal: frictionless citizen journalism), and other stuff. I wanted to build a delightful tweeting experience and at the time, it felt like the mobile implementation was just yanked wholesale from Web.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rlt 3y ago
Why would the people leaving Reddit because they killed the API go to Twitter which killed their own API last year?
dbbk 3y ago
This did exist at some point, it was called Communities: https://twitter.com/hiCommunities https://twitter.com/hiCommunities

gingerrr 3y ago

They already have exactly this, it's called "Communities" and not very heavily used. edit: great idea though it functions pretty much exactly as you described, get into product if you're not yet!

interestica 3y ago
I didn't know. I suppose this speaks to Instagram/Meta’s differing strategy: build a product as a separate app and then fold its successful features into its main offering. (Eg., Direct, Layout, Boomerang, Hyperlapse).

astrange 3y ago

Nobody uses hashtags anymore. You can actually tell when someone is a clueless LinkedIn refugee because they hashtag random words in their sentences.

jeremyjh 3y ago
Interest groups do.
- sgc 3y ago
  It's a good way to follow Ukrainian news, for example (#ukraine, #ukrainewar). It definitely has its place.
  - astrange 3y ago
    I prefer using lists or trustworthy OSINT accounts for that. My impression is Twitter search 1. is now smart enough it doesn't need hashtags to assist it but 2. due to policy choices doesn't work. Namely, searching for term X returns both "posts containing X" but also "every single thing an account with X in their name" said, meaning any search doesn't work unless you block all those accounts. And then sometimes it includes porn spammers, who are the main users of hashtags.
    - sgc 3y ago
      I use the hashtags to discover new accounts to then follow / add to lists. It is not the same stage of research.
brigandish 3y ago
Because apps ignore them in favour of their algorithmic method of taxonomy instead. If hashtags were actually useful they'd doubtless take off again.

worrycue 3y ago

They are rate limiting the viewing of tweets now. No way they have the capacity to handle Reddit’s content. Maybe Google can try replicating Reddit in YouTube - it would just be serving text instead of video; discovery would be via their recommendation algorithm, i.e. no subreddits. Frankly, they can kind of already do this, you can post community messages on YouTube. They just need to tweak the algorithm to recommend such messages.

troupo 3y ago
> Maybe Google can try replicating Reddit in YouTube They can't. Google as an organization just doesn't understand social networking. They've had comments and forums (community?) for ages. Do you know how to engage in that community? Do you know how to even track your own comments? Etc.
- worrycue 3y ago
  > Do you know how to even track your own comments? On YouTube actually yes, it’s in “History”. :P
  - troupo 3y ago
    Not in the app :) And on the web IIRC it doesn't show any replies to your comments. And if you click on your comment, there's a 50/50 chance Youtube will not show it to you under the video :)

gremlinsinc 3y ago

they could have, if they didn't close down their API, nobody wants to migrate from one API-less company to another.

russ 3y ago

Lol, I built this exact thing as a 120% project at Twitter in 2011. It was called “Flocks”. It even had transient/temporal flocks based on geo check-in and sound-fingerprint flocks for movies, tv shows, and events. We implemented the Shazam audio signature algo from a research paper we found. The thesis was: it’s more natural for people to have conversations when there’s a shared context. It became a widely known project within the company back then, but ultimately, like most things at Twitter, never shipped.

pschuegr 3y ago
That sounds really cool, you were basically (my translation) auto-creating sub-reddits based on the media people were consuming at the time? Sweet project.
- russ 3y ago
  Yeah! Wanted a really fast/frictionless way for people to jump into a context based on signals in their environment. This was also around the time of Color (the photo app which raised 40m or something off just a pitch deck) — “ambient computing” was becoming part of the zeitgeist. Thanks for the kind words! <3
interestica 3y ago
Lol that’s amazing. They could have even now done tongue-in-cheek marketing and straight up call it a “migration”. Also, “nest-ed comments” on different “branches”. You could work backwards and find the bird-related concept and then build the correspond technology? What would “feathers” be?
- russ 3y ago
  Hah! Working backwards would yield some hits for sure. “Feather” (a play off a quill) was my prototype (I built a lot of prototypes there in my “spare” time :)) for a richer, write/tweet only app. You could author long-form content, quickly jump into the camera for recording video or taking a picture (goal: frictionless citizen journalism), and other stuff. I wanted to build a delightful tweeting experience and at the time, it felt like the mobile implementation was just yanked wholesale from Web.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

rlt 3y ago

Why would the people leaving Reddit because they killed the API go to Twitter which killed their own API last year?

dbbk 3y ago

This did exist at some point, it was called Communities: https://twitter.com/hiCommunities https://twitter.com/hiCommunities