3 ms·

I've left Twitter years ago. But I occasionally follow Twitter links and sometimes even refer to them, when there's no other choice. There's nothing "dangerous"

by smsm42 3y ago

I've left Twitter years ago. But I occasionally follow Twitter links and sometimes even refer to them, when there's no other choice. There's nothing "dangerous" in that and exactly nothing changed recently. And I must note in general that using "dangerous" (or "unsafe") to mean "has a non-zero risk of mildly annoying me" is extremely pretentious and obnoxious. The login requirement has been slightly annoying (note - not "dangerous") but only marginally as it still allows to view the main tweet, and the discussion under it is usually very low-value (also nothing new in it, has been like that for years). I feel like all this "twitter is a hellscape now" is posing trying to get back at Musk because his idea about who should be allowed on twitter doesn't match theirs. And mainly for politically tribal and partisan reasons, to be blunt. Also I note I have never followed or sent a link to Threads so far - not because I am somehow opposed to that, just there was no opportunity to do that since nothing that could interest me and is published there got into my attention so far. There's little reason to prefer one to the other, but effectively my experience shows twitter links sometimes contain useful information - I follow several every week - and I haven't seen any Threads links yet that did. Maybe in time that'll happen too.

LexiMax 3y ago
> I feel like all this "twitter is a hellscape now" is posing trying to get back at Musk because his idea about who should be allowed on twitter doesn't match theirs. And mainly for politically tribal and partisan reasons, to be blunt. I'm sure this is true of some people, but the habitual Twitter users I know have basically given up on the site as a shared social space because of changes to the feed algorithm and the blue check system making the sort of social engagement they used to regularly enjoy on the site almost impossible.
- smsm42 3y ago
  Well, blue check thing is part of the tribal reasons - "the plebes can have the blue checks now, the place is going to hell!". As for the feed algos, there may be some truth to that, I personally have no idea since I never looked at the "feed" - I only ever engaged twitter by using direct links or reading the twitstream of specific people I was interested in. But I could imagine algorithm changes could ruin somebody's carefully constructed bubble and that could be upsetting. The reasons given in the article though have a strong political bent.
  - LexiMax 3y ago
    > But I could imagine algorithm changes could ruin somebody's carefully constructed bubble and that could be upsetting. Well...yeah. That's social media for you. At the end of the day, you have to give people a reason to visit, it can't all be ragebait and crypto-scammers. By all appearances, its utility as a social space has tanked, and that's not a hard sentiment to find even in this comments section. Twitter remains king of being a de-facto centralized RSS feed, but that position is very precarious.

by smsm42 3y ago

LexiMax 3y ago

> I feel like all this "twitter is a hellscape now" is posing trying to get back at Musk because his idea about who should be allowed on twitter doesn't match theirs. And mainly for politically tribal and partisan reasons, to be blunt. I'm sure this is true of some people, but the habitual Twitter users I know have basically given up on the site as a shared social space because of changes to the feed algorithm and the blue check system making the sort of social engagement they used to regularly enjoy on the site almost impossible.

smsm42 3y ago
Well, blue check thing is part of the tribal reasons - "the plebes can have the blue checks now, the place is going to hell!". As for the feed algos, there may be some truth to that, I personally have no idea since I never looked at the "feed" - I only ever engaged twitter by using direct links or reading the twitstream of specific people I was interested in. But I could imagine algorithm changes could ruin somebody's carefully constructed bubble and that could be upsetting. The reasons given in the article though have a strong political bent.
- LexiMax 3y ago
  > But I could imagine algorithm changes could ruin somebody's carefully constructed bubble and that could be upsetting. Well...yeah. That's social media for you. At the end of the day, you have to give people a reason to visit, it can't all be ragebait and crypto-scammers. By all appearances, its utility as a social space has tanked, and that's not a hard sentiment to find even in this comments section. Twitter remains king of being a de-facto centralized RSS feed, but that position is very precarious.