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I appreciate this considerably more nuanced and thoughtful view of the modern history of Twitter. So much coverage of Twitter since the Musk acquisition is ent

by bhauer 3y ago

I appreciate this considerably more nuanced and thoughtful view of the modern history of Twitter. So much coverage of Twitter since the Musk acquisition is entangled with partisan politics, ultimately in part thanks to Musk provoking such a reaction. That makes this post feel ever more illuminating and thoughtful—it avoids the partisan pitfalls and irrational extremism seen in virtually every other article on the topic. I too don't agree with many of Musk's decisions with Twitter/X. I don't like the new name and thus far refuse to use it. I don't like the ads I see as a Twitter user. I have not (yet) paid for Twitter. But on the other hand, I am thoroughly disinterested in the unhinged vitriol I see so often from Musk's haters. The incessant lazy discourse about how Twitter is dying, for either technical or other reasons. The ridiculous blindness to the awfulness of other social networks when critiquing Twitter (have you ever seen Reddit or Facebook?). It's a shame journalists have been largely unable to cover Twitter as well as this former insider and I am thankful to Crawford for publishing this.

JJMcJ 3y ago
I spend time on Twitter. It certainly seems less interesting and more annoying than it did before EM took over.
- bhauer 3y ago
  Aside from the feature changes, it seems about the same to me. I think it largely depends on who you follow and whether you use the "Following" or "For you" tab. I recommend the "Following" tab since this allows you to manage your feed by, unsurprisingly, selecting who you follow.
  - conradfr 3y ago
    The "verified" users being the top comments makes reading any moderately popular thread a bore.
  - marcinzm 3y ago
    The rolling waves of drama around Musk's latest "idea" eventually got more annoying to read on my Following feed so I left Twitter.
    - bhauer 3y ago
      Understood. I have no doubt it would become exhausting to follow people who are distracted by such meta-topics. I take some joy out of unfollowing people who are overly obsessed with topics I find uninteresting.
      - marcinzm 3y ago
        It doesn’t take someone being overly obsessed but merely reposting once in a blue moon.
- gdulli 3y ago
  It had been going downhill since before Musk, he's not to blame for the start of that. But it's certainly spiraled and become unusable since the acquisition.
bloopernova 3y ago
musk has a vast amount of power and influence due to his wealth, links to several corporations, links to other rich people, and his control of a social media site. I believe that someone with that much power has an obligation, a responsibility to improve the world for humanity. Whether elected or not. he instead chooses to do what he does. That is why I dislike him. he could offer so much more but messes around "trolling" the world like a 13 year old insulated from consequences.
- bhauer 3y ago
  I don't care for his tweets or his political thoughts, but I personally think he has done more good through his companies than most others with similar resources. In my opinion, when Gates was still running Microsoft, he did considerably less "good" for humanity than Musk is doing now. And Musk's contemporaries (Zuckerberg, Bezos, et al) don't seem to be interested in doing much good either. It's easy to be an armchair critic and say you would do more good if you had those resources at your disposal. But I will admit that I have never worked and will never work a quarter as hard as any of the names I've mentioned here. Despite my criticism of Gates, for example, he has done more good with his resources post-Microsoft than I expect I would have been able to do with the same.
  - palata 3y ago
    > less "good" for humanity than Musk is doing now Sorry, but... what is Musk doing for humanity now? SpaceX makes a business out of space, which will use more and more energy, which is exactly the biggest problem of humanity right now (fossil fuel is not unlimited, and CO2 is killing the planet). Tesla makes heavy vehicles that use a lot of energy, too. And somehow, some people think they are "green" because they are electric, but the truth is that driving such a heavy vehicle for (usually) one person is the opposite of green. Now let's be honest, his contemporaries are not helping humanity either. But if we talk about humanity, we would be better off without SpaceX, without Tesla, without Facebook and without Amazon. Let's not forget that. Gates, post-Microsoft, seems to be working hard to make good things, I have to say.
    - deleted 3y ago
pessimizer 3y ago
> The incessant lazy about how Twitter is dying, for either technical or other reasons. I'm absolutely shocked by the appetite people have for weekly stories proclaiming that their enemy is on the verge of being vanquished. So angry, and so incoherent and belligerent when confronted or even ignored. This is a person, not a demon. Also, a person with fairly median-of-the-road politics. He's gross because he's rich and you can't become rich without being unethical, and you can't remain rich without continuing to be, but there's 1000 other guys like him, most a bit less successful (government teat.) It's bizarre behavior coming from people who are behaving increasingly strangely. I won't be surprised if they're his biggest backers 5 years from now, because he was their ally during some invasion, or helped to defeat some left-wing politician who they used to love until the television and the President said it was time to hate them. I remember Tea Party people like this, but I honestly thought that kind of sensitivity to media could only thrive in fairly rural or exurban, churchy areas. Instead it's all the people who moved back into the city from the suburbs in the 90s-2000s and their dopey kids, ready to stand up for their DLC and W. Bush Republican kings. They just refuse to consume any information that upsets them. They think of it as assault, which is causing them trauma. It's a social grouping that demands the right to be traumatized by what they just watched on television. Enough of the rant. I think he's making a bunch of crazy, thoughtful plays borne out of the desperation of getting some worth out of this thing he was forced to vastly overpay for because of his own dumb mouth. But the valuation could have been wrong; it may not have predicted radical changes like Musk is trying, it was just assuming that this stable social network that was already half-merged with government was going to putter along as it was. Charging more for participation seemed inevitable, and keeping that pricing structure fairly flat would make people more likely to get used to it. Those things also massacre trolls, socks, and spammers, and allow celebrities/influencers to exclusively interact with people who are willing to sign what they say, and to clean up their timelines. They also stopped both giving away their DM service for free (or at least split it into a premium/free plan), and stopped having a backend that allowed people who abuse by DM free access to the eyes of the people they wish to abuse - if you're not blue, you go to another tab or non-blues can be blanket blocked altogether i.e. if you want to talk to me, do it in public. All of it sounds like an adventurous way to get money out of people's pockets, and give them some satisfaction in exchange. I don't know if people will pay for twitter, but the way that the internet is going at this moment, people are going to be paying for everything. Web3 but the only crypto involved is the Web Integrity API...
sdwr 3y ago
Yeah, this is great, cuts through a lot of the BS and kneejerk hate. > At times it seemed he trusted random feedback more than the people in the room who spent their lives dedicated to tackling the problem at hand. feels related to > Management had become bloated to accommodate career growth and the company culture felt too soft and entitled for my own taste [...] Twitter often felt like a place that kept squandering its own potential
downWidOutaFite 3y ago
As if Musk doesn't encourage the vitriol. He's banned antifascists and unbanned right wing trolls, and he's a right wing troll himself. This is what he created, and maybe it makes business sense, polarization and anger generates engagement. But it doesn't make sense to blame the users, thats just what the platform is now.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
TheHypnotist 3y ago
Your casual use of unhinged vitriol indicates you haven't been paying attention.
optmeyez 3y ago
[dead]

by bhauer 3y ago

JJMcJ 3y ago

I spend time on Twitter. It certainly seems less interesting and more annoying than it did before EM took over.

bhauer 3y ago
Aside from the feature changes, it seems about the same to me. I think it largely depends on who you follow and whether you use the "Following" or "For you" tab. I recommend the "Following" tab since this allows you to manage your feed by, unsurprisingly, selecting who you follow.
- conradfr 3y ago
  The "verified" users being the top comments makes reading any moderately popular thread a bore.
- marcinzm 3y ago
  The rolling waves of drama around Musk's latest "idea" eventually got more annoying to read on my Following feed so I left Twitter.
  - bhauer 3y ago
    Understood. I have no doubt it would become exhausting to follow people who are distracted by such meta-topics. I take some joy out of unfollowing people who are overly obsessed with topics I find uninteresting.
    - marcinzm 3y ago
      It doesn’t take someone being overly obsessed but merely reposting once in a blue moon.
gdulli 3y ago
It had been going downhill since before Musk, he's not to blame for the start of that. But it's certainly spiraled and become unusable since the acquisition.

bloopernova 3y ago

musk has a vast amount of power and influence due to his wealth, links to several corporations, links to other rich people, and his control of a social media site. I believe that someone with that much power has an obligation, a responsibility to improve the world for humanity. Whether elected or not. he instead chooses to do what he does. That is why I dislike him. he could offer so much more but messes around "trolling" the world like a 13 year old insulated from consequences.

bhauer 3y ago
I don't care for his tweets or his political thoughts, but I personally think he has done more good through his companies than most others with similar resources. In my opinion, when Gates was still running Microsoft, he did considerably less "good" for humanity than Musk is doing now. And Musk's contemporaries (Zuckerberg, Bezos, et al) don't seem to be interested in doing much good either. It's easy to be an armchair critic and say you would do more good if you had those resources at your disposal. But I will admit that I have never worked and will never work a quarter as hard as any of the names I've mentioned here. Despite my criticism of Gates, for example, he has done more good with his resources post-Microsoft than I expect I would have been able to do with the same.
- palata 3y ago
  > less "good" for humanity than Musk is doing now Sorry, but... what is Musk doing for humanity now? SpaceX makes a business out of space, which will use more and more energy, which is exactly the biggest problem of humanity right now (fossil fuel is not unlimited, and CO2 is killing the planet). Tesla makes heavy vehicles that use a lot of energy, too. And somehow, some people think they are "green" because they are electric, but the truth is that driving such a heavy vehicle for (usually) one person is the opposite of green. Now let's be honest, his contemporaries are not helping humanity either. But if we talk about humanity, we would be better off without SpaceX, without Tesla, without Facebook and without Amazon. Let's not forget that. Gates, post-Microsoft, seems to be working hard to make good things, I have to say.
  - deleted 3y ago

pessimizer 3y ago

> The incessant lazy about how Twitter is dying, for either technical or other reasons. I'm absolutely shocked by the appetite people have for weekly stories proclaiming that their enemy is on the verge of being vanquished. So angry, and so incoherent and belligerent when confronted or even ignored. This is a person, not a demon. Also, a person with fairly median-of-the-road politics. He's gross because he's rich and you can't become rich without being unethical, and you can't remain rich without continuing to be, but there's 1000 other guys like him, most a bit less successful (government teat.) It's bizarre behavior coming from people who are behaving increasingly strangely. I won't be surprised if they're his biggest backers 5 years from now, because he was their ally during some invasion, or helped to defeat some left-wing politician who they used to love until the television and the President said it was time to hate them. I remember Tea Party people like this, but I honestly thought that kind of sensitivity to media could only thrive in fairly rural or exurban, churchy areas. Instead it's all the people who moved back into the city from the suburbs in the 90s-2000s and their dopey kids, ready to stand up for their DLC and W. Bush Republican kings. They just refuse to consume any information that upsets them. They think of it as assault, which is causing them trauma. It's a social grouping that demands the right to be traumatized by what they just watched on television. Enough of the rant. I think he's making a bunch of crazy, thoughtful plays borne out of the desperation of getting some worth out of this thing he was forced to vastly overpay for because of his own dumb mouth. But the valuation could have been wrong; it may not have predicted radical changes like Musk is trying, it was just assuming that this stable social network that was already half-merged with government was going to putter along as it was. Charging more for participation seemed inevitable, and keeping that pricing structure fairly flat would make people more likely to get used to it. Those things also massacre trolls, socks, and spammers, and allow celebrities/influencers to exclusively interact with people who are willing to sign what they say, and to clean up their timelines. They also stopped both giving away their DM service for free (or at least split it into a premium/free plan), and stopped having a backend that allowed people who abuse by DM free access to the eyes of the people they wish to abuse - if you're not blue, you go to another tab or non-blues can be blanket blocked altogether i.e. if you want to talk to me, do it in public. All of it sounds like an adventurous way to get money out of people's pockets, and give them some satisfaction in exchange. I don't know if people will pay for twitter, but the way that the internet is going at this moment, people are going to be paying for everything. Web3 but the only crypto involved is the Web Integrity API...

sdwr 3y ago

Yeah, this is great, cuts through a lot of the BS and kneejerk hate. > At times it seemed he trusted random feedback more than the people in the room who spent their lives dedicated to tackling the problem at hand. feels related to > Management had become bloated to accommodate career growth and the company culture felt too soft and entitled for my own taste [...] Twitter often felt like a place that kept squandering its own potential

downWidOutaFite 3y ago

As if Musk doesn't encourage the vitriol. He's banned antifascists and unbanned right wing trolls, and he's a right wing troll himself. This is what he created, and maybe it makes business sense, polarization and anger generates engagement. But it doesn't make sense to blame the users, thats just what the platform is now.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

TheHypnotist 3y ago

Your casual use of unhinged vitriol indicates you haven't been paying attention.

optmeyez 3y ago

[dead]