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In addition to sentiment changing, you can no longer view tweet threads without logging in. Nitter etc still work so people who know about them can work around

by mcintyre1994 2y ago

In addition to sentiment changing, you can no longer view tweet threads without logging in. Nitter etc still work so people who know about them can work around it, but most people without a Twitter account or who can’t be bothered to log in are probably just going to bounce.

miohtama 2y ago
It's one of the worst UX decision ever. Probably was done to prevent scraping, but still. If I recall correctly it was done pre-Musk.
- pavlov 2y ago
  Based on some quick googling, it seems like this anti-feature (login wall for threads) was tested pre-Musk on some users, but it was switched on globally by Musk. For example here’s a mention from 2021 where some people report getting the login wall and others don’t: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28267774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28267774
  - dmix 2y ago
    Login gating was initially made less aggressive when Musk took over, then not long after AI scraping became a big deal and then Twitter clamped down hard, around the same time Reddit started locking down their API for same reason.
- Angostura 2y ago
  It's probably the main reason the organisations I work with are considering an alternative like Bluesky or Mastodon - the ability to have a widget consistently displays your own posts on yoiur website is very handy.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  > If I recall correctly it was done pre-Musk. It was sporadically AB tested, IIRC, for _years_, but it was certainly _rare_. One gets the impression that the first thing Musk did on arrival was demand that every feature flag Twitter had for experimental changes be turned full on; a lot of early Musk changes were things that Twitter had flirted with in the past.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  I thought it was just market capture. It was the most popular website in the world, so if you needed to see sports news, or event updates from celebrities, or your government representatives make an announcement (ugh, I still hate that): well, you need a profile for us to monetize.
theshrike79 2y ago
Just the fact that you can't share tweets (or Instagram posts/reels) on most platforms and have the preview show you anything has a massive effect on people just not bothering with sharing stuff. I'm not clicking a link without a preview, why would I?

miohtama 2y ago

It's one of the worst UX decision ever. Probably was done to prevent scraping, but still. If I recall correctly it was done pre-Musk.

pavlov 2y ago
Based on some quick googling, it seems like this anti-feature (login wall for threads) was tested pre-Musk on some users, but it was switched on globally by Musk. For example here’s a mention from 2021 where some people report getting the login wall and others don’t: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28267774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28267774
- dmix 2y ago
  Login gating was initially made less aggressive when Musk took over, then not long after AI scraping became a big deal and then Twitter clamped down hard, around the same time Reddit started locking down their API for same reason.
Angostura 2y ago
It's probably the main reason the organisations I work with are considering an alternative like Bluesky or Mastodon - the ability to have a widget consistently displays your own posts on yoiur website is very handy.
rsynnott 2y ago
> If I recall correctly it was done pre-Musk. It was sporadically AB tested, IIRC, for _years_, but it was certainly _rare_. One gets the impression that the first thing Musk did on arrival was demand that every feature flag Twitter had for experimental changes be turned full on; a lot of early Musk changes were things that Twitter had flirted with in the past.
johnnyanmac 2y ago
I thought it was just market capture. It was the most popular website in the world, so if you needed to see sports news, or event updates from celebrities, or your government representatives make an announcement (ugh, I still hate that): well, you need a profile for us to monetize.

theshrike79 2y ago

Just the fact that you can't share tweets (or Instagram posts/reels) on most platforms and have the preview show you anything has a massive effect on people just not bothering with sharing stuff. I'm not clicking a link without a preview, why would I?