6 ms·

The plummeting user base... is that accurate, or is that just a decrease in bots?

raverbashing 3y ago
No, the bots are clearly up, also the spam Just to share my experience I get mention spam pretty much every day (all with X symbol), or some scam using Elon's face for promoting itself
- natch 3y ago
  That hasn't been my experience at all.
  - Apocryphon 3y ago
    Try tweeting about how you like a t-shirt design.
    - natch 3y ago
      Huh? Please share a link, curious what you are talking about.
      - plorkyeran 3y ago
        If you tweet something along the lines of "I'd buy a tshirt with that image on it" you'll immediately get ten bots offering to sell you that shirt from a print-on-demand site.
        natch 3y ago
        I’m afraid I don’t believe you. Here is a link to someone doing what you say should immediately attract ten bots: https://x.com/xtlufa/status/1710110358088917405?s=46&t=mWO9fVw20o1MmhhoLVmFpQ https://x.com/xtlufa/status/1710110358088917405?s=46&t=mWO9f... As you can see, zero bots have replied. Unfortunately there are a lot of Elon haters who just make stuff up. I’m not saying you are one of those. But I will say that because of this phenomenon, when you make claims of this sort, if you don’t provide evidence you are likely to be asked for evidence.
        Apocryphon 3y ago
        https://www.knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-want-this-on-a-shirt-bot-bait https://www.knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-want-this-on-a-shirt-bo... Please also refer to the other reply link
        MichaelZuo 3y ago
        If it's that obvious then you should be easily able to link an example tweet as proof?
        Apocryphon 3y ago
        https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5yywm/twitters-t-shirt-bots-are-undefeated-and-verified-by-elon-musk https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5yywm/twitters-t-shirt-bots... Please also refer to the other reply link
        natch 3y ago
        Seems that Elon has fixed the problem. One of your links is months old, the other years old.
        Apocryphon 3y ago
        If you say so. https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1715823316991189078 https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1715823316991189078 (thread) https://twitter.com/BenGolliver/status/1716940900260258199 https://twitter.com/BenGolliver/status/1716940900260258199 (replies) Investigating this took one simple search for “t-shirt bots.”
        MichaelZuo 3y ago
        Can you link a few examples where: "If you tweet something along the lines of "I'd buy a tshirt with that image on it" you'll immediately get ten bots offering to sell you that shirt from a print-on-demand site."? There should be thousands upon thousands of examples, a single search away, to choose from right?
        Apocryphon 3y ago
        That is what the second link is. Most of those replies are fake, you can tell because there are bots working in call-and-answer pairs, with one stating their admiration for a shirt design and the second one providing a storefront that has miraculously spontaneously generated to fit that product demand. Examples from query "need this shirt:" https://twitter.com/kelsi_bree/status/1718103609832100137 https://twitter.com/kelsi_bree/status/1718103609832100137 https://twitter.com/pipikinkin/status/1718207087170498586 https://twitter.com/pipikinkin/status/1718207087170498586 https://twitter.com/fxgotron69/status/1717662530242478481 https://twitter.com/fxgotron69/status/1717662530242478481 https://twitter.com/nottheworse1/status/1718356453805658458 https://twitter.com/nottheworse1/status/1718356453805658458 https://twitter.com/iamjannana/status/1716620531531657419 https://twitter.com/iamjannana/status/1716620531531657419
- BiteCode_dev 3y ago
  YMMV. I have less bots and more followers than before. But the number of interesting exchanges are decreasing.
boo-ga-ga 3y ago
Not sure here, have to trust the sources mentioned on the Internet. I don't know how they count (or do not count) bots.
trial3 3y ago
it definitely feels like it to me - my account is more than 14 years old and looking in my following list recently i lamented how many accounts i enjoyed are have become minimally active or have moved to other platforms like bluesky/mastodon
- BiteCode_dev 3y ago
  And they are minimally active on those other platforms too, unfortunately. The community is in a slumber.
asynchronous 3y ago
14% actually sounds really low in my opinion, given how many people said they’d leave.
- fabian2k 3y ago
  The alternatives are only slowly taking shape, and the network effects are pretty strong. So I'm not surprised that it is slow, but my impression is that the efforts to move away are getting more serious. It varies by topic, but in some areas I've seen a lot of people on Bluesky now. A large number of them still use Twitter as well for now, I suspect this could change once it becomes clearer whether Bluesky will work out well enough.
  - BiteCode_dev 3y ago
    I'm on Bluesky, on substack notes and mastodont. The activity is low, the discussions are boring and the communities are homogeneous. It's nothing like when twitter started. The young us started the energy on twitter, and the old us moved out of it. This means the new services have people with the same opinion, less energy and busy life. It makes for a bland experience. I'm pretty sure the current young crowd is on platforms we are not, innovating, creating their culture, and we are just not there to participate, or even witness it.
- Kinrany 3y ago
  How do you know the number of people that said they'd leave?
- mrweasel 3y ago
  More people claimed that they wanted to leave than actually left. I've heard a ton of people claim that they'd leave, but then they've decided to stick around for DMs and then just never left and now their back using Twitter/X like nothing happened.
- verdverm 3y ago
  It would be better to see engagement numbers. For example, I use it less and uninstalled the app

No, the bots are clearly up, also the spam Just to share my experience I get mention spam pretty much every day (all with X symbol), or some scam using Elon's face for promoting itself

natch 3y ago
That hasn't been my experience at all.
- Apocryphon 3y ago
  Try tweeting about how you like a t-shirt design.
  - natch 3y ago
    Huh? Please share a link, curious what you are talking about.
    - plorkyeran 3y ago
      If you tweet something along the lines of "I'd buy a tshirt with that image on it" you'll immediately get ten bots offering to sell you that shirt from a print-on-demand site.
      - natch 3y ago
        I’m afraid I don’t believe you. Here is a link to someone doing what you say should immediately attract ten bots: https://x.com/xtlufa/status/1710110358088917405?s=46&t=mWO9fVw20o1MmhhoLVmFpQ https://x.com/xtlufa/status/1710110358088917405?s=46&t=mWO9f... As you can see, zero bots have replied. Unfortunately there are a lot of Elon haters who just make stuff up. I’m not saying you are one of those. But I will say that because of this phenomenon, when you make claims of this sort, if you don’t provide evidence you are likely to be asked for evidence.
        Apocryphon 3y ago
        https://www.knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-want-this-on-a-shirt-bot-bait https://www.knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-want-this-on-a-shirt-bo... Please also refer to the other reply link
      - MichaelZuo 3y ago
        If it's that obvious then you should be easily able to link an example tweet as proof?
        Apocryphon 3y ago
        https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5yywm/twitters-t-shirt-bots-are-undefeated-and-verified-by-elon-musk https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5yywm/twitters-t-shirt-bots... Please also refer to the other reply link
        natch 3y ago
        Seems that Elon has fixed the problem. One of your links is months old, the other years old.
        Apocryphon 3y ago
        If you say so. https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1715823316991189078 https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1715823316991189078 (thread) https://twitter.com/BenGolliver/status/1716940900260258199 https://twitter.com/BenGolliver/status/1716940900260258199 (replies) Investigating this took one simple search for “t-shirt bots.”
        MichaelZuo 3y ago
        Can you link a few examples where: "If you tweet something along the lines of "I'd buy a tshirt with that image on it" you'll immediately get ten bots offering to sell you that shirt from a print-on-demand site."? There should be thousands upon thousands of examples, a single search away, to choose from right?
        Apocryphon 3y ago
        That is what the second link is. Most of those replies are fake, you can tell because there are bots working in call-and-answer pairs, with one stating their admiration for a shirt design and the second one providing a storefront that has miraculously spontaneously generated to fit that product demand. Examples from query "need this shirt:" https://twitter.com/kelsi_bree/status/1718103609832100137 https://twitter.com/kelsi_bree/status/1718103609832100137 https://twitter.com/pipikinkin/status/1718207087170498586 https://twitter.com/pipikinkin/status/1718207087170498586 https://twitter.com/fxgotron69/status/1717662530242478481 https://twitter.com/fxgotron69/status/1717662530242478481 https://twitter.com/nottheworse1/status/1718356453805658458 https://twitter.com/nottheworse1/status/1718356453805658458 https://twitter.com/iamjannana/status/1716620531531657419 https://twitter.com/iamjannana/status/1716620531531657419
BiteCode_dev 3y ago
YMMV. I have less bots and more followers than before. But the number of interesting exchanges are decreasing.

boo-ga-ga 3y ago

Not sure here, have to trust the sources mentioned on the Internet. I don't know how they count (or do not count) bots.

trial3 3y ago

it definitely feels like it to me - my account is more than 14 years old and looking in my following list recently i lamented how many accounts i enjoyed are have become minimally active or have moved to other platforms like bluesky/mastodon

BiteCode_dev 3y ago
And they are minimally active on those other platforms too, unfortunately. The community is in a slumber.

asynchronous 3y ago

14% actually sounds really low in my opinion, given how many people said they’d leave.

fabian2k 3y ago
The alternatives are only slowly taking shape, and the network effects are pretty strong. So I'm not surprised that it is slow, but my impression is that the efforts to move away are getting more serious. It varies by topic, but in some areas I've seen a lot of people on Bluesky now. A large number of them still use Twitter as well for now, I suspect this could change once it becomes clearer whether Bluesky will work out well enough.
- BiteCode_dev 3y ago
  I'm on Bluesky, on substack notes and mastodont. The activity is low, the discussions are boring and the communities are homogeneous. It's nothing like when twitter started. The young us started the energy on twitter, and the old us moved out of it. This means the new services have people with the same opinion, less energy and busy life. It makes for a bland experience. I'm pretty sure the current young crowd is on platforms we are not, innovating, creating their culture, and we are just not there to participate, or even witness it.
Kinrany 3y ago
How do you know the number of people that said they'd leave?
mrweasel 3y ago
More people claimed that they wanted to leave than actually left. I've heard a ton of people claim that they'd leave, but then they've decided to stick around for DMs and then just never left and now their back using Twitter/X like nothing happened.
verdverm 3y ago
It would be better to see engagement numbers. For example, I use it less and uninstalled the app