14 ms·

Block the Blue – Twitter Verified Blocker

81 points by kitkat_new 3y ago

454454 3y ago
Alternatively, use Mastodon, which is a great website.
- threeseed 3y ago
  I look forward to Thread's pending ActivityPub integration. Then we will have a more friendly social network that can still access the more technical audience of Mastodon.
  - 454454 3y ago
    It will be revolutionary
    - threeseed 3y ago
      I think people are underestimating the potential impact of it. If it ends up being successful you could see governments e.g. EU using it as a showcase of the type of integration they want to see between platforms. So maybe Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky etc end up being forced to support it. And then a similar model proposed for messaging.
      - NavinF 3y ago
        Threads isn't even available in the EU. I think you're overestimating the potential impact
  - jrm4 3y ago
    100%. I keep saying, big companies are missing why they REALLY SHOULD WANT THIS model. "Hey, you want to run or pay for your OWN twitter-like thing -- outside of Elon or whoever's control; kind of like you do email and your website? This is that! No more Eli-Lilly situations for you!" (I like Mastodon's model, but I gotta say I'm kind of meh on the actual people who are there now; many can't seem to distinguish between extreme capitalism and mere commerce)
    - robertlagrant 3y ago
      Lots of people don't run their own email either!
      - jrm4 3y ago
        Sure, that's why I said "run or pay for" And yes, I think those people are doing it wrong too. Not paying 5 bucks a month for email if it's part of your business is absolute madness to me. Who do you call and yell at if something breaks?
- dragontamer 3y ago
  Use Mastodon is like saying 'Use Linux'. The practical advice would be 'Use Ubuntu'. I can safely say that 'Use Mastodon.world' because they have a top team of volunteers, moderators and trustworthy admins. With a $150ish/month server, Cloudflare CDN and other such features, it's a secure and fast over provisioned server with a good community vibe. Mastodon.world is one of the most popular Mastodon instances. An act of registration innately means trusting the admin team. You gotta characterize and 'sell' the admin/mod team because that's the main differentiator from servers (including Twitter and Threads).
cglong 3y ago
Some background about the "Block the Blue" campaign: https://mashable.com/article/block-the-blue-twitter-campaign-dril https://mashable.com/article/block-the-blue-twitter-campaign...
j16sdiz 3y ago
I don't understand why one would use this. If I don't like particular twitter user, just unfollow or block that particular user. If I don't like twitter as a platform, just quit using twitter. I don't understand why one would block all blue user
- kevincrane 3y ago
  Because Twitter Blue users get promoted to the top of everyone’s feeds and comments, and historically they just aren’t very bright or clever on average. The end result is Twitter actively making my feed worse to satisfy the ego of people not funny enough to get to the top of feeds naturally. I use this plugin and it rules, it’s purged thousands of the most annoying people from my feed without me having to lift a finger.
  - lionkor 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - rnk 3y ago
      Or just stop using twitter?
      - anigbrowl 3y ago
        Contesting with others for domination of virtual territory is an equally valid approach.
    - BryantD 3y ago
      For what it’s worth, being verified isn’t a random factor: it’s the result of a conscious decision to pay X $8 a month. (Maybe a few exceptions.) Your call as to whether that’s a reasonable evaluation but it’s not random.
    - mrd3v0 3y ago
      Blocking people based on choices they make is a perfectly valid reason and a far cry from a random factor in what they share. Lumping political opinions and choices with sexual orientation, race or otherwise is irrational at best and disingenuous at worst.
nerdjon 3y ago
I am a bit torn on this. I feel like we often complain about companies making money via ads and that we should pay for what we use, and yet when a company tries to do exactly that we turn against it? There is a lot to be said about Twitter and Musk and just how bad it has gotten. But to react in this manner seems... kinda elitist? I agree that there are a lot of people who subscribe and seem to be those that want to spread certain opinions. But I don't know how much of this is really a hard rule or not. Why does this need a plugin to go this far when if you see it you can just block them yourself. Edit: Also this is just going to further incentivize Twitter getting rid of a legitimate use of blocking, those that are actually sending you abuse. So I guess we have these campaigns to thank or that.
- kitkat_new 3y ago
  > I feel like we often complain about companies making money via ads and that we should pay for what we use, and yet when a company tries to do exactly that we turn against it? thinking about it, it seems like Musk switched from selling advertising to companies to selling advertising to users (promoting their posts) > Why does this need a plugin to go this far when if you see it you can just block them yourself. it's a lot of work, tbh. I tried it
  - nerdjon 3y ago
    > it's a lot of work, tbh. I tried it. To block a user? It really isn't, it's in the dropdown on a users profile. It takes a couple clicks. Unless you mean to block every blue checkmark which goes back to my question about why react in this manner. Why make a judgement call based on something arbitrary instead of the actual content of what someone posts. To be clear, I don't necessarily equate this with a political ideology. I personally have blocked a lot of republicans and transphobic people because I don't want to see that shit. Sure a lot of them have had the blue checkmark but not all of them and I just can't imagine actually saying let's block something that in reality has nothing to do with any of that.
    - kitkat_new 3y ago
ramesh31 3y ago
It's funny how this whole debacle played out exactly the same as the lifecycle of old internet forums from the 2000s. After gaining significant traction, and realizing how hard the moderation and monetization problem is, the original owners would always sell out to the most active troll who was willing to take over financial responsibility for it. Then the inevitable downfall of enshittification occurs. It happened to 4chan, and many many other smalller communities.
- ratsmack 3y ago
  4chan seems to be doing just fine, I don't think much has changed there.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - anigbrowl 3y ago
    It's OK if you pretend /pol/ doesn't exist. There's a reason oldfags refer to it as 'the containment board'.
  - ramesh31 3y ago
    >4chan seems to be doing just fine That depends on your definition of "just fine" I guess.
    - throwaway_IW1sJ 3y ago
      Not him, but an Anonymous of 18+ years. The boards I frequent have been doing more than "just fine". It is really an oasis in the desert that is the "modern" web. You don't like it? Fine, stay away. It's most likely better that way. You aren't missed. I almost feel like writing positively about it should be avoided. Simply to keep it as decent as it is.
medlazik 3y ago
I prefer BlueLiteBlocker, just instantly hide them all, no need to block https://github.com/BlueLiteBlocker/BlueLiteBlocker https://github.com/BlueLiteBlocker/BlueLiteBlocker
EvilUmpire 3y ago
Is there any proof Twitter Blue users are worse?
- wtfwhateven 3y ago
  yes. just browse twitter for a bit, bluecheck replies are consistently nonsensical and/or vile it's like asking "is the sky blue?"
- sundaeofshock 3y ago
  It’s totally subjective, and I’m happy to own that. When I use Twitter, I find that the most annoying and often angry and hateful users are blue checks. Maybe you don’t agree and that’s fine. I suspect we have different values and that is reflected in my lack of tolerance for the blue checks.
- asadotzler 3y ago
  Don't care if they're worse, they get promoted to the top of discussion and that's cheating so I auto-block.
EvilUmpire 3y ago
I don’t necessarily believe Blue users are any worse. This seems like a made up narrative as its been around since day 1 of Paid Twitter Blue service because people hate Elon and wanted to keep the privileged class at the top of all discussions.
- kevincrane 3y ago
  Counterpoint: have you seen the replies Twitter Blue users make? They’re so stupid, as a class of people.
  - GaryNumanVevo 3y ago
    It's like reading facebook comments from my boomer aunts and uncles
- lapcat 3y ago
  > This seems like a made up narrative It's not a made-up narrative. It's something that individual Twitter users can see for themselves just by reading Twitter.
scrumlord 3y ago
[dead]
nbittich 3y ago
It then becomes a mastodon instance... Only the weirdos remain
dubeye 3y ago
Feels a bit like the reddit protests. A tiny number of noisy users overestimating their influence It's self described as a campaign? What are the goals? 99% of users don't care and won't even notice

81 points by kitkat_new 3y ago

454454 3y ago

Alternatively, use Mastodon, which is a great website.

threeseed 3y ago
I look forward to Thread's pending ActivityPub integration. Then we will have a more friendly social network that can still access the more technical audience of Mastodon.
- 454454 3y ago
  It will be revolutionary
  - threeseed 3y ago
    I think people are underestimating the potential impact of it. If it ends up being successful you could see governments e.g. EU using it as a showcase of the type of integration they want to see between platforms. So maybe Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky etc end up being forced to support it. And then a similar model proposed for messaging.
    - NavinF 3y ago
      Threads isn't even available in the EU. I think you're overestimating the potential impact
- jrm4 3y ago
  100%. I keep saying, big companies are missing why they REALLY SHOULD WANT THIS model. "Hey, you want to run or pay for your OWN twitter-like thing -- outside of Elon or whoever's control; kind of like you do email and your website? This is that! No more Eli-Lilly situations for you!" (I like Mastodon's model, but I gotta say I'm kind of meh on the actual people who are there now; many can't seem to distinguish between extreme capitalism and mere commerce)
  - robertlagrant 3y ago
    Lots of people don't run their own email either!
    - jrm4 3y ago
      Sure, that's why I said "run or pay for" And yes, I think those people are doing it wrong too. Not paying 5 bucks a month for email if it's part of your business is absolute madness to me. Who do you call and yell at if something breaks?
dragontamer 3y ago
Use Mastodon is like saying 'Use Linux'. The practical advice would be 'Use Ubuntu'. I can safely say that 'Use Mastodon.world' because they have a top team of volunteers, moderators and trustworthy admins. With a $150ish/month server, Cloudflare CDN and other such features, it's a secure and fast over provisioned server with a good community vibe. Mastodon.world is one of the most popular Mastodon instances. An act of registration innately means trusting the admin team. You gotta characterize and 'sell' the admin/mod team because that's the main differentiator from servers (including Twitter and Threads).

cglong 3y ago

Some background about the "Block the Blue" campaign: https://mashable.com/article/block-the-blue-twitter-campaign-dril https://mashable.com/article/block-the-blue-twitter-campaign...

j16sdiz 3y ago

I don't understand why one would use this. If I don't like particular twitter user, just unfollow or block that particular user. If I don't like twitter as a platform, just quit using twitter. I don't understand why one would block all blue user

kevincrane 3y ago
Because Twitter Blue users get promoted to the top of everyone’s feeds and comments, and historically they just aren’t very bright or clever on average. The end result is Twitter actively making my feed worse to satisfy the ego of people not funny enough to get to the top of feeds naturally. I use this plugin and it rules, it’s purged thousands of the most annoying people from my feed without me having to lift a finger.
- lionkor 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - rnk 3y ago
    Or just stop using twitter?
    - anigbrowl 3y ago
      Contesting with others for domination of virtual territory is an equally valid approach.
  - BryantD 3y ago
    For what it’s worth, being verified isn’t a random factor: it’s the result of a conscious decision to pay X $8 a month. (Maybe a few exceptions.) Your call as to whether that’s a reasonable evaluation but it’s not random.
  - mrd3v0 3y ago
    Blocking people based on choices they make is a perfectly valid reason and a far cry from a random factor in what they share. Lumping political opinions and choices with sexual orientation, race or otherwise is irrational at best and disingenuous at worst.

nerdjon 3y ago

I am a bit torn on this. I feel like we often complain about companies making money via ads and that we should pay for what we use, and yet when a company tries to do exactly that we turn against it? There is a lot to be said about Twitter and Musk and just how bad it has gotten. But to react in this manner seems... kinda elitist? I agree that there are a lot of people who subscribe and seem to be those that want to spread certain opinions. But I don't know how much of this is really a hard rule or not. Why does this need a plugin to go this far when if you see it you can just block them yourself. Edit: Also this is just going to further incentivize Twitter getting rid of a legitimate use of blocking, those that are actually sending you abuse. So I guess we have these campaigns to thank or that.

kitkat_new 3y ago
> I feel like we often complain about companies making money via ads and that we should pay for what we use, and yet when a company tries to do exactly that we turn against it? thinking about it, it seems like Musk switched from selling advertising to companies to selling advertising to users (promoting their posts) > Why does this need a plugin to go this far when if you see it you can just block them yourself. it's a lot of work, tbh. I tried it
- nerdjon 3y ago
  > it's a lot of work, tbh. I tried it. To block a user? It really isn't, it's in the dropdown on a users profile. It takes a couple clicks. Unless you mean to block every blue checkmark which goes back to my question about why react in this manner. Why make a judgement call based on something arbitrary instead of the actual content of what someone posts. To be clear, I don't necessarily equate this with a political ideology. I personally have blocked a lot of republicans and transphobic people because I don't want to see that shit. Sure a lot of them have had the blue checkmark but not all of them and I just can't imagine actually saying let's block something that in reality has nothing to do with any of that.
  - kitkat_new 3y ago

ramesh31 3y ago

It's funny how this whole debacle played out exactly the same as the lifecycle of old internet forums from the 2000s. After gaining significant traction, and realizing how hard the moderation and monetization problem is, the original owners would always sell out to the most active troll who was willing to take over financial responsibility for it. Then the inevitable downfall of enshittification occurs. It happened to 4chan, and many many other smalller communities.

ratsmack 3y ago
4chan seems to be doing just fine, I don't think much has changed there.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- anigbrowl 3y ago
  It's OK if you pretend /pol/ doesn't exist. There's a reason oldfags refer to it as 'the containment board'.
- ramesh31 3y ago
  >4chan seems to be doing just fine That depends on your definition of "just fine" I guess.
  - throwaway_IW1sJ 3y ago
    Not him, but an Anonymous of 18+ years. The boards I frequent have been doing more than "just fine". It is really an oasis in the desert that is the "modern" web. You don't like it? Fine, stay away. It's most likely better that way. You aren't missed. I almost feel like writing positively about it should be avoided. Simply to keep it as decent as it is.

medlazik 3y ago

I prefer BlueLiteBlocker, just instantly hide them all, no need to block https://github.com/BlueLiteBlocker/BlueLiteBlocker https://github.com/BlueLiteBlocker/BlueLiteBlocker

EvilUmpire 3y ago

Is there any proof Twitter Blue users are worse?

wtfwhateven 3y ago
yes. just browse twitter for a bit, bluecheck replies are consistently nonsensical and/or vile it's like asking "is the sky blue?"
sundaeofshock 3y ago
It’s totally subjective, and I’m happy to own that. When I use Twitter, I find that the most annoying and often angry and hateful users are blue checks. Maybe you don’t agree and that’s fine. I suspect we have different values and that is reflected in my lack of tolerance for the blue checks.
asadotzler 3y ago
Don't care if they're worse, they get promoted to the top of discussion and that's cheating so I auto-block.

EvilUmpire 3y ago

I don’t necessarily believe Blue users are any worse. This seems like a made up narrative as its been around since day 1 of Paid Twitter Blue service because people hate Elon and wanted to keep the privileged class at the top of all discussions.

kevincrane 3y ago
Counterpoint: have you seen the replies Twitter Blue users make? They’re so stupid, as a class of people.
- GaryNumanVevo 3y ago
  It's like reading facebook comments from my boomer aunts and uncles
lapcat 3y ago
> This seems like a made up narrative It's not a made-up narrative. It's something that individual Twitter users can see for themselves just by reading Twitter.

scrumlord 3y ago

[dead]

nbittich 3y ago

It then becomes a mastodon instance... Only the weirdos remain

dubeye 3y ago

Feels a bit like the reddit protests. A tiny number of noisy users overestimating their influence It's self described as a campaign? What are the goals? 99% of users don't care and won't even notice