7 ms·

I started a new account on Twitter just to see what it's like. It's completely unusable. The place is filled with shit content that a I don't want to see and bo

by mempko 2y ago

I started a new account on Twitter just to see what it's like. It's completely unusable. The place is filled with shit content that a I don't want to see and bots. Not sure what competitive advantage you are talking about.

TSUTiger 2y ago
[flagged]
- afavour 2y ago
  IMO Twitter has a core failure in promoting premium accounts over regular ones, then compensating those users for the amount of traffic they generate. Almost any post that goes viral will be swarmed by trolling/low effort responses from premium users who are looking to capitalize on outrage clicks. It's an exhausting user experience, IMO. I don't miss it at all.
- cableshaft 2y ago
  Disagree, I still have my account and check it periodically when I get linked to something on Twitter and the feed and trending are both pretty crap (maybe it would be different if I used it every day, but I never used it every day, even when I created the account ~10-ish years ago. But my feeds are way worse than they used to be). And it keeps putting things I really don't want to see in my feed, that aren't by anyone I follow. Facebook has also gotten worse with its feed as far as sometimes injecting things into it I don't want, but most of it is still decent or at least relevant to my interests, and usually product or harmless news related (I get a lot of Kickstarter and mobile game ads, or celebrity gossip for some reason, even though I couldn't care less about most celebrities' lives) instead of political outrage and misinformation like I tend to get on Twitter.
- portaouflop 2y ago
  No thanks I won’t waste my limited lifetime tweaking some algorithm to serve me better ragebait. Haven’t used any of these platforms in the last 5 years and I haven’t missed it a single minute - you should try it sometime
  - decremental 2y ago
    [dead]
  - LightBug1 2y ago
    Agreed. Twitter is now awful, and I'm not even being biassed. I checked it out recently via xcancel. The promotion of blue-ticks above everything has completely ruined it as the blue-tick has no correlation to quality - often the inverse.
  - pc86 2y ago
    They were talking to someone else so not sure what the point of this reply is? If you don't want to use the site there's no problem with that, just don't use it. But this is in direct response to a claim "this site [with a brand new user account with no history] is unusable" which - if your goal is to use the site - is easily fixed. If your goal is just to go "well I don't even use the site and you should try it and be as Good a person as I am" then it doesn't really matter either way.
    - portaouflop 2y ago
      I was responding to the claim that it’s sensible to go and tweak the algorithm to make the site usable - it think that’s a waste of life time and humanity as a whole would benefit if people don’t waste their very limited time on this stuff - idc what anyone here thinks of me, I just don’t want to lose more of my fellow humans to the mindless algorithms
swatcoder 2y ago
They all suck. But the user experience is practically irrelevant to the business of selling ads and operating sentiment manipulation channels, which is the business that all of the large social media companies are in. And whether their ideas and strategies are well-grounded or seem optimal or ethical to the rest of us, the top leadership at most of those companies lean strongly towards corporatist, libertarian political ideals and see most regulation (and preemptive self-regulation) as both philosophically immoral and an existential threat to their businesses.
- mulmen 2y ago
  > which is the business that all of the large social media companies are in. I agree with you. If this is the case and money is speech, can a well-intentioned organization just collect donations to advance their message? Like when Philip Morris uses this to sell cigarettes to kids we say that is bad. But what if the EFF used it to ensure net neutrality? Or if Planned Parenthood used it to add reproductive rights to the bill of rights? Do my donations already pay for social media campaigns? Do the ends justify the means?
glimshe 2y ago
I keep hearing this about Twitter and Facebook but my experience is completely different. I believe the default experience is as you describe, but after I started following dozens of retrogaming groups, old games are all I see in both places. Even the ads became relevant and, believe it or not, interesting. I've clicked on a couple, which took me to small creators in the retrogaming and RPG areas.
- eitally 2y ago
  The same is true with Reddit. The default feed is absolutely awful, but the bar required to curate something individually interesting and useful is too high for most new users, given the toxicity + banality of the default.
  - i_love_retros 2y ago
    I'm sorry but reddit is trash. Every subreddit, no matter how niche, is basically cringy phrases being repeated or photos of some "home set up" or said niche product someone bought who is looking for validation of their decision. It's so bad I blocked reddit from my search engine results.
    - eitally 2y ago
      Clearly we're using different subs. ymmv.
      - i_love_retros 2y ago
        Provide an example of a sub that isn't like that?
        ColdTakes 2y ago
        Both /r/Science and /r/AskScience are very heavily moderated and verified industry experts discuss papers on it.
femiagbabiaka 2y ago
The fact that you're being downvoted for accurate reporting that can be easily verified by anyone who makes a Twitter account.. lol Before I deleted my Twitter account, I tried really hard to just block every account that posted content I felt was pol-tier.. it just doesn't work. That platform is FUBAR, and the prime example is the owner of the platform who has been completely brainrotted from staring into the orb for 12 hours a day. It seems like public sentiment is trending towards rolling over and letting channers run society. We'll see how that goes.
- TranquilMarmot 2y ago
  I had my Twitter account for almost 15 years before deleting it. I hadn't blocked ANYBODY for 13 of those years, but towards the end I was blocking dozens of users per day. Not not just, "I don't agree with this person" but "Wow this person is genuinely hateful and not contributing anything meaningful, and I would rather not see that."
Xunjin 2y ago
I don't understand why you were being flagged, it was actually my experience then deleted my account, of course it was some months ago, but still think that is the current one. (September of 2024)
Rumudiez 2y ago
are you suggesting the company's staffing policy influences what users post? I don't agree the arrow points in that direction. or that there's an arrow between those topics at all
ranger_danger 2y ago
> It's completely unusable I will rail on FB just as hard as the next guy, but realistically, from a business perspective, if facebook's wild popularity and 3 billion active monthly users still says "unusable" to you... well, do you really think most people would agree with you? And more importantly to the company... whose opinion matters the most?
whamlastxmas 2y ago
You have to follow people you’re interested in, and continually curate that list. X is garbage in the same way /r/all is - you have to find the subreddits you like and aren’t too large
dang 2y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42658074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42658074.
jvwww 2y ago
As someone that uses Twitter quite a lot for consumption, I actually think it's great. I've learned so much on Twitter (and yes, I'm aware there is plenty of disinformation), and it's also extremely entertaining. Maybe I've just used it long enough so I my feed is quite curated.

by mempko 2y ago

TSUTiger 2y ago

[flagged]

afavour 2y ago
IMO Twitter has a core failure in promoting premium accounts over regular ones, then compensating those users for the amount of traffic they generate. Almost any post that goes viral will be swarmed by trolling/low effort responses from premium users who are looking to capitalize on outrage clicks. It's an exhausting user experience, IMO. I don't miss it at all.
cableshaft 2y ago
Disagree, I still have my account and check it periodically when I get linked to something on Twitter and the feed and trending are both pretty crap (maybe it would be different if I used it every day, but I never used it every day, even when I created the account ~10-ish years ago. But my feeds are way worse than they used to be). And it keeps putting things I really don't want to see in my feed, that aren't by anyone I follow. Facebook has also gotten worse with its feed as far as sometimes injecting things into it I don't want, but most of it is still decent or at least relevant to my interests, and usually product or harmless news related (I get a lot of Kickstarter and mobile game ads, or celebrity gossip for some reason, even though I couldn't care less about most celebrities' lives) instead of political outrage and misinformation like I tend to get on Twitter.
portaouflop 2y ago
No thanks I won’t waste my limited lifetime tweaking some algorithm to serve me better ragebait. Haven’t used any of these platforms in the last 5 years and I haven’t missed it a single minute - you should try it sometime
- decremental 2y ago
  [dead]
- LightBug1 2y ago
  Agreed. Twitter is now awful, and I'm not even being biassed. I checked it out recently via xcancel. The promotion of blue-ticks above everything has completely ruined it as the blue-tick has no correlation to quality - often the inverse.
- pc86 2y ago
  They were talking to someone else so not sure what the point of this reply is? If you don't want to use the site there's no problem with that, just don't use it. But this is in direct response to a claim "this site [with a brand new user account with no history] is unusable" which - if your goal is to use the site - is easily fixed. If your goal is just to go "well I don't even use the site and you should try it and be as Good a person as I am" then it doesn't really matter either way.
  - portaouflop 2y ago
    I was responding to the claim that it’s sensible to go and tweak the algorithm to make the site usable - it think that’s a waste of life time and humanity as a whole would benefit if people don’t waste their very limited time on this stuff - idc what anyone here thinks of me, I just don’t want to lose more of my fellow humans to the mindless algorithms

swatcoder 2y ago

They all suck. But the user experience is practically irrelevant to the business of selling ads and operating sentiment manipulation channels, which is the business that all of the large social media companies are in. And whether their ideas and strategies are well-grounded or seem optimal or ethical to the rest of us, the top leadership at most of those companies lean strongly towards corporatist, libertarian political ideals and see most regulation (and preemptive self-regulation) as both philosophically immoral and an existential threat to their businesses.

mulmen 2y ago
> which is the business that all of the large social media companies are in. I agree with you. If this is the case and money is speech, can a well-intentioned organization just collect donations to advance their message? Like when Philip Morris uses this to sell cigarettes to kids we say that is bad. But what if the EFF used it to ensure net neutrality? Or if Planned Parenthood used it to add reproductive rights to the bill of rights? Do my donations already pay for social media campaigns? Do the ends justify the means?

glimshe 2y ago

I keep hearing this about Twitter and Facebook but my experience is completely different. I believe the default experience is as you describe, but after I started following dozens of retrogaming groups, old games are all I see in both places. Even the ads became relevant and, believe it or not, interesting. I've clicked on a couple, which took me to small creators in the retrogaming and RPG areas.

eitally 2y ago
The same is true with Reddit. The default feed is absolutely awful, but the bar required to curate something individually interesting and useful is too high for most new users, given the toxicity + banality of the default.
- i_love_retros 2y ago
  I'm sorry but reddit is trash. Every subreddit, no matter how niche, is basically cringy phrases being repeated or photos of some "home set up" or said niche product someone bought who is looking for validation of their decision. It's so bad I blocked reddit from my search engine results.
  - eitally 2y ago
    Clearly we're using different subs. ymmv.
    - i_love_retros 2y ago
      Provide an example of a sub that isn't like that?
      - ColdTakes 2y ago
        Both /r/Science and /r/AskScience are very heavily moderated and verified industry experts discuss papers on it.

femiagbabiaka 2y ago

The fact that you're being downvoted for accurate reporting that can be easily verified by anyone who makes a Twitter account.. lol Before I deleted my Twitter account, I tried really hard to just block every account that posted content I felt was pol-tier.. it just doesn't work. That platform is FUBAR, and the prime example is the owner of the platform who has been completely brainrotted from staring into the orb for 12 hours a day. It seems like public sentiment is trending towards rolling over and letting channers run society. We'll see how that goes.

TranquilMarmot 2y ago
I had my Twitter account for almost 15 years before deleting it. I hadn't blocked ANYBODY for 13 of those years, but towards the end I was blocking dozens of users per day. Not not just, "I don't agree with this person" but "Wow this person is genuinely hateful and not contributing anything meaningful, and I would rather not see that."

Xunjin 2y ago

I don't understand why you were being flagged, it was actually my experience then deleted my account, of course it was some months ago, but still think that is the current one. (September of 2024)

Rumudiez 2y ago

are you suggesting the company's staffing policy influences what users post? I don't agree the arrow points in that direction. or that there's an arrow between those topics at all

ranger_danger 2y ago

> It's completely unusable I will rail on FB just as hard as the next guy, but realistically, from a business perspective, if facebook's wild popularity and 3 billion active monthly users still says "unusable" to you... well, do you really think most people would agree with you? And more importantly to the company... whose opinion matters the most?

whamlastxmas 2y ago

You have to follow people you’re interested in, and continually curate that list. X is garbage in the same way /r/all is - you have to find the subreddits you like and aren’t too large

dang 2y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42658074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42658074.

jvwww 2y ago

As someone that uses Twitter quite a lot for consumption, I actually think it's great. I've learned so much on Twitter (and yes, I'm aware there is plenty of disinformation), and it's also extremely entertaining. Maybe I've just used it long enough so I my feed is quite curated.