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It's more the state of modern social media. Post Elon acquisition, many influential tech figures have discovered that being a provocateur on Twitter/X is more

It's more the state of modern social media. Post Elon acquisition, many influential tech figures have discovered that being a provocateur on Twitter/X is more consistently successful at building an audience than genuine insight.

nojs 3y ago
Post Elon acquisition? I mean Twitter has always been this.
- EasyMark 3y ago
  In a way, but now you can make sure your bot's racist post makes it to the top for $8 a month
  - tourmalinetaco 3y ago
    True; before that you simply had to be “notable”, whatever that meant.
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      Spending $10 one time with one of many companies that sold likes, follows, retweets, etc. for peanuts.
    - sehansen 3y ago
      No, before Elon the blue tick was just a blue tick next to your name. Now posts by blue ticks are also sorted before other posts in the interface.
      - TeMPOraL 3y ago
        Before Elon, posts on Twitter were sorted and hidden at the whim of engagement-maximizing algorithm. After Elon, the same is the case, maybe with the same tweak to the algorithm. I thought the idea that timeline sorting order on social media sites is deterministic or scrutable to the viewer is long dead by now - it's not been the case for at least a good decade now!
        rsynnott 3y ago
        While that's true, the thing where ~all bluetick replies are promoted above ~all normal replies is a post-Musk 'innovation'. Stupid idea; there's 25 years of experience showing that pay-for-attention is corrosive to social sites (dating/hookup sites have been trying to make it work basically forever, and have generally ended up having to ration it).
        mlrtime 3y ago
        The point remains that Pre and Post Musk Twitter are NO different when it comes to inflammatory tweets. The players and ordering has changed only.
- juped 3y ago
  Many influential commenters have discovered that sniping at Elon Musk is more consistently successful at garnering upvotes than genuine insight
  - tourmalinetaco 3y ago
    And many have also noticed that few if any care what they have to say outside of that.
ekms 3y ago
> implying that wasn't the case always on twitter?
epcoa 3y ago
> Post Elon acquisition Eh? Trump was never there post Elon acquisition. I don’t think that timing makes sense. The tone of Twitter has been like this for years if not the beginning.
raffraffraff 3y ago
This was the case pre Elon too. It's human nature. People are social creatures and they love to join some fight as long as they have their own comrades with them. My wife spent years on Twitter embroiled in a very long running and bitter political / rights issue. She was always thoughtful, insightful etc. She'd spend 10 minutes rewording a single tweet to make sure it got the real point across in a way that wasn't inflammatory, and that had a good chance of being persuasive. With 5k followers, I think her most popular tweets might get a few hundred likes. The one time she got drunk and angry, she got thousands of supportive reactions, and her followers increased by a large % overnight. And that scared her. She saw the way "the crowd" was pushing her. Rewarding her for the smell of blood in the water. Audience capture is real. Chronically online people with polarised followers will play to their crowd. Inch by inch, day by day, as social creatures, we automatically and subliminally seek approval from our social group. I've seen this type of dynamic push people into the extremes. My wife got out. First she asked me to block twitter on all of her devices. A month of cold turkey later, she quit for good ,and she's far happier for it.
- asddubs 3y ago
  thoughtful posts are boring, especially if you already agree with them. but people love a good spectacle
  - hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago
    At the same time, a thoughtful post today can change the entire life direction of a ten years younger you and end up providing far more value to the world overall. I know that was the case for me. I spent hundreds of hours of reading blog posts by intelligent, optimistic, philosophically transgressive at times but not actually rude or crass folks, all trying to grapple with how to live best in this world. I think this reshaped me to be a much better person in a whole bunch of ways. Very happy for it.
  - mlrtime 3y ago
    100% Agree, humans love drama. Especially when they aren't in it. Natural responses to this would be "I don't like drama" and I would say the same, unfortunately this isn't the case for most of humans.
tarsinge 3y ago
But which audience? It seems like with social media nowadays only the absolute numbers count. Influencers are very happy to have an army of dumb followers. I guess it’s easier to well influence them.

nojs 3y ago

Post Elon acquisition? I mean Twitter has always been this.

EasyMark 3y ago
In a way, but now you can make sure your bot's racist post makes it to the top for $8 a month
- tourmalinetaco 3y ago
  True; before that you simply had to be “notable”, whatever that meant.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    Spending $10 one time with one of many companies that sold likes, follows, retweets, etc. for peanuts.
  - sehansen 3y ago
    No, before Elon the blue tick was just a blue tick next to your name. Now posts by blue ticks are also sorted before other posts in the interface.
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      Before Elon, posts on Twitter were sorted and hidden at the whim of engagement-maximizing algorithm. After Elon, the same is the case, maybe with the same tweak to the algorithm. I thought the idea that timeline sorting order on social media sites is deterministic or scrutable to the viewer is long dead by now - it's not been the case for at least a good decade now!
      - rsynnott 3y ago
        While that's true, the thing where ~all bluetick replies are promoted above ~all normal replies is a post-Musk 'innovation'. Stupid idea; there's 25 years of experience showing that pay-for-attention is corrosive to social sites (dating/hookup sites have been trying to make it work basically forever, and have generally ended up having to ration it).
        mlrtime 3y ago
        The point remains that Pre and Post Musk Twitter are NO different when it comes to inflammatory tweets. The players and ordering has changed only.
juped 3y ago
Many influential commenters have discovered that sniping at Elon Musk is more consistently successful at garnering upvotes than genuine insight
- tourmalinetaco 3y ago
  And many have also noticed that few if any care what they have to say outside of that.

ekms 3y ago

> implying that wasn't the case always on twitter?

epcoa 3y ago

> Post Elon acquisition Eh? Trump was never there post Elon acquisition. I don’t think that timing makes sense. The tone of Twitter has been like this for years if not the beginning.

raffraffraff 3y ago

This was the case pre Elon too. It's human nature. People are social creatures and they love to join some fight as long as they have their own comrades with them. My wife spent years on Twitter embroiled in a very long running and bitter political / rights issue. She was always thoughtful, insightful etc. She'd spend 10 minutes rewording a single tweet to make sure it got the real point across in a way that wasn't inflammatory, and that had a good chance of being persuasive. With 5k followers, I think her most popular tweets might get a few hundred likes. The one time she got drunk and angry, she got thousands of supportive reactions, and her followers increased by a large % overnight. And that scared her. She saw the way "the crowd" was pushing her. Rewarding her for the smell of blood in the water. Audience capture is real. Chronically online people with polarised followers will play to their crowd. Inch by inch, day by day, as social creatures, we automatically and subliminally seek approval from our social group. I've seen this type of dynamic push people into the extremes. My wife got out. First she asked me to block twitter on all of her devices. A month of cold turkey later, she quit for good ,and she's far happier for it.

asddubs 3y ago
thoughtful posts are boring, especially if you already agree with them. but people love a good spectacle
- hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago
  At the same time, a thoughtful post today can change the entire life direction of a ten years younger you and end up providing far more value to the world overall. I know that was the case for me. I spent hundreds of hours of reading blog posts by intelligent, optimistic, philosophically transgressive at times but not actually rude or crass folks, all trying to grapple with how to live best in this world. I think this reshaped me to be a much better person in a whole bunch of ways. Very happy for it.
- mlrtime 3y ago
  100% Agree, humans love drama. Especially when they aren't in it. Natural responses to this would be "I don't like drama" and I would say the same, unfortunately this isn't the case for most of humans.

tarsinge 3y ago

But which audience? It seems like with social media nowadays only the absolute numbers count. Influencers are very happy to have an army of dumb followers. I guess it’s easier to well influence them.