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Twitter does not need a replacement. There seem to be a popular opinion that it does, but it's not something people are willing to act on. It's a better app th

Twitter does not need a replacement. There seem to be a popular opinion that it does, but it's not something people are willing to act on. It's a better app than it used to be, overall.

ks2048 2y ago
All politics aside (not a minor point for many), Twitter has been made much worse IMHO in the Musk era. They de-prioritize links, prevent 3rd party apps, closed the API, and blocked access for non-logged-in viewing. And a smaller meta-point: changed from an iconic name to a simple non-informative letter (Besides Google and maybe Uber, who have added a popular verb to the lexicon?)
- anon291 2y ago
  I feel this is a downside only to a particular bunch. For most people, Twitter is doing better than ever. Community notes are amazing and innovative and should be adopted by every social media platform. X feels legitimately more fun than most other apps. Plus, at this point, I think a solid portion of people have been banned from social media apps. You can't exile your way towards whatever ideal society you want. The barbarians are always at the gates. I especially feel this sort of enforced community separation is so prevalent among those who are so reticent to build a border wall, but I'm sure psychology has an explanation somewhere.
  - eadler 2y ago
    Community notes was designed, implemented and released before the acquisition. Only the name is new. Previously it was called birdwatch.
    - anon291 2y ago
      That's great. Unfortunately, Twitter still had a Kafka-esque moderation policy that is antithetical to the most basic understanding of free thought.
  - epistasis 2y ago
    > For most people, Twitter is doing better than ever. Citation needed... Twitter went from a highly useful daily visit for getting news in my field to being a gigantic time suck to even try to avoid the politics and low-quality posts. >enforced community separation is so prevalent among those who are so reticent to build a border wall Ah, so you have a certain form of politics, and its beneficial. But Is that "most people" who are on Twitter, were on Twitter, or most people in general? If I want what Twitter is serving me, I can go to any sort of right-wing forum or Fox News article comments (do they still have comments?). But for those of us that had practical uses for Twitter that weren't partisan politics, its value has been destroyed. And ad revenue shows that "most people" definitely do not want to be associated with such partisan politics. Twitter's past neutrality allowed all sorts of political views. Now it's become an echo chamber as the owner pushes his own strong partisan politics, and pushes to spread extremist views that may be fine on 4chan, but that 95% of people would rather never expose themselves to.
    - anon291 2y ago
      > Ah, so you have a certain form of politics, and its beneficial. Yes.. I believe a recent analysis shows that of all social media, Twitter's political composition now best matches America. If one's response to that is to run away, it's that person that is problematic, not the rest of society that is able to co-exist just fine.
    - CaptWillard 2y ago
      When you use phrases like "partisan politics" and "extremist", I assume you're talking about objective truths and reasonable opinions that run counter to establishment/corporate/IC narratives. I don't say this to debate you, but more to suggest my reaction is not unique among anyone who has been paying attention over these years. I'd go so far as to say this line of rhetoric has gone past diminishing returns and into net negatives. Do with that what you will.
      - epistasis 2y ago
        To be honest I don't know what you mean by this.
paxys 2y ago
You can't view Tweets without being signed in. API access is banned. Third party apps are banned. A verification badge used to signal trustworthiness, now it can be bought. All your posts are being used to train an AI model without the ability to opt out. Every second Tweet is a crypto scam. How exactly is the experience better than before?
- caekislove 2y ago
  >A verification badge used to signal trustworthiness, now it can be bought. They gave those out to Gawker bloggers. The only think the OG blue checkmark stood for was "someone who was friends with a Twitter insider".
- subarctic 2y ago
  Well to play devil's advocate the only things on that list that affect the logged in experience are the verification badges and the crypto scams. But I'm curious what the improvements are too since I haven't been on twitter in at least 2 years except for reading the occasional tweet that someone posts a link to somewhere
mcphage 2y ago
> but it's not something people are willing to act on. Sure looks like they are.

Twitter does not need a replacement. There seem to be a popular opinion that it does, but it's not something people are willing to act on. It's a better app than it used to be, overall.

ks2048 2y ago

All politics aside (not a minor point for many), Twitter has been made much worse IMHO in the Musk era. They de-prioritize links, prevent 3rd party apps, closed the API, and blocked access for non-logged-in viewing. And a smaller meta-point: changed from an iconic name to a simple non-informative letter (Besides Google and maybe Uber, who have added a popular verb to the lexicon?)

anon291 2y ago
I feel this is a downside only to a particular bunch. For most people, Twitter is doing better than ever. Community notes are amazing and innovative and should be adopted by every social media platform. X feels legitimately more fun than most other apps. Plus, at this point, I think a solid portion of people have been banned from social media apps. You can't exile your way towards whatever ideal society you want. The barbarians are always at the gates. I especially feel this sort of enforced community separation is so prevalent among those who are so reticent to build a border wall, but I'm sure psychology has an explanation somewhere.
- eadler 2y ago
  Community notes was designed, implemented and released before the acquisition. Only the name is new. Previously it was called birdwatch.
  - anon291 2y ago
    That's great. Unfortunately, Twitter still had a Kafka-esque moderation policy that is antithetical to the most basic understanding of free thought.
- epistasis 2y ago
  > For most people, Twitter is doing better than ever. Citation needed... Twitter went from a highly useful daily visit for getting news in my field to being a gigantic time suck to even try to avoid the politics and low-quality posts. >enforced community separation is so prevalent among those who are so reticent to build a border wall Ah, so you have a certain form of politics, and its beneficial. But Is that "most people" who are on Twitter, were on Twitter, or most people in general? If I want what Twitter is serving me, I can go to any sort of right-wing forum or Fox News article comments (do they still have comments?). But for those of us that had practical uses for Twitter that weren't partisan politics, its value has been destroyed. And ad revenue shows that "most people" definitely do not want to be associated with such partisan politics. Twitter's past neutrality allowed all sorts of political views. Now it's become an echo chamber as the owner pushes his own strong partisan politics, and pushes to spread extremist views that may be fine on 4chan, but that 95% of people would rather never expose themselves to.
  - anon291 2y ago
    > Ah, so you have a certain form of politics, and its beneficial. Yes.. I believe a recent analysis shows that of all social media, Twitter's political composition now best matches America. If one's response to that is to run away, it's that person that is problematic, not the rest of society that is able to co-exist just fine.
  - CaptWillard 2y ago
    When you use phrases like "partisan politics" and "extremist", I assume you're talking about objective truths and reasonable opinions that run counter to establishment/corporate/IC narratives. I don't say this to debate you, but more to suggest my reaction is not unique among anyone who has been paying attention over these years. I'd go so far as to say this line of rhetoric has gone past diminishing returns and into net negatives. Do with that what you will.
    - epistasis 2y ago
      To be honest I don't know what you mean by this.

paxys 2y ago

You can't view Tweets without being signed in. API access is banned. Third party apps are banned. A verification badge used to signal trustworthiness, now it can be bought. All your posts are being used to train an AI model without the ability to opt out. Every second Tweet is a crypto scam. How exactly is the experience better than before?

caekislove 2y ago
>A verification badge used to signal trustworthiness, now it can be bought. They gave those out to Gawker bloggers. The only think the OG blue checkmark stood for was "someone who was friends with a Twitter insider".
subarctic 2y ago
Well to play devil's advocate the only things on that list that affect the logged in experience are the verification badges and the crypto scams. But I'm curious what the improvements are too since I haven't been on twitter in at least 2 years except for reading the occasional tweet that someone posts a link to somewhere

mcphage 2y ago

> but it's not something people are willing to act on. Sure looks like they are.