4 ms·

If you dont mind, could you share an example of information posted exclusively on twitter which was crucial to you? Just curious;)

by gloosx 26d ago

codechicago277 26d ago
A few recent examples: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/currencies/articles/bessent-ready-repeat-joint-yen-004023739.html https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/currencies/articles/bessen... https://theprint.in/world/us-military-says-it-completed-latest-wave-of-strikes-on-iran/3031352/ https://theprint.in/world/us-military-says-it-completed-late... https://www.reuters.com/technology/brad-lightcap-leaving-openai-2026-08-11/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/brad-lightcap-leaving-ope... It’s still the go-to platform for public figures to broadcast unfortunately, so if you want to verify the original comments you need an alternate frontend or an X account.
- gloosx 26d ago
  Looking at these examples, I can't really see how this information was exclusive to X really: the currency intervention took place on July 31, during active market hours. It was immediately detected by global trading desks and reported by major news wires like Reuters and Bloomberg as it happened. When CENTCOM issued the statement regarding the strikes on IRGC targets, the text went live on the official U.S. Central Command Media Portal at the exact same second the automated post hit their X account. Before anything was posted online, Lightcap sent an official farewell note to the OpenAI team. Once an email is sent to hundreds of tech employees, it was immediately leaked to tech journalists. It seems, for all three examples, the platform was used merely as a broadcasting service for information that was either already occurring in the public eye or was simultaneously distributed through formal channels.
  - brigandish 26d ago
    The competition is between: - needing to look in several places - looking in one place Easy to see why Twitter wins, even when information isn't exclusive, which it often is (I would've suggested video involved in news events, which is often impossible to find elsewhere but easily gathered on Twitter).
burnhamup 26d ago
I don't know about crucial, but a recent amber alert went out last week. It contained a bit.ly link to the CHP's Twitter page and I couldn't see the information. I clicked on it because the alert was from my town, but light on the details. Surely a public post on a CHP website would have gotten the job done better.
- gloosx 26d ago
  In this case it seems that linking to the CHP website would likely crash their web servers. Understandable:)
  - uhoh-itsmaciek 26d ago
    So allowing projects like Nitter and XCancel must also be understandable, in order for recipients to be able to actually read these messages.
    - gloosx 26d ago
      100% agreed, auth-walling the broadcasting service which is de-facto used as a public infrastructure by so many parties around the world is just straight an a-hole move, even though it's a private company and they can do whatever they want about it. Who knows maybe at some point in the future they will decide twitter will only be available with a paid subscription.
- yaleman 26d ago
  The local emergency services uses it as a duplicate method because it's mostly more reliable than any service they can afford to offer... and historically a lot of people were using the site, so sharing helps get things noticed.
progval 26d ago
Paris' subway and local train lines each have a Twitter account, and they are the only reliable source of information regarding outages. Phone apps (at least three official ones with different data sources!) and websites can be outdated. Displays in station too (though less often), have outages of their own, and (rarely) even incorrect updates.
- gloosx 26d ago
  Wow, this is kind of a mess, seems twitter won from usability standpoint here
  - freshpots 26d ago
    Except that it doesn't because you need an account to see virtually anything on that N#*i site.
    - gloosx 26d ago
      Usability for announcers, I meant. Seems it's easier for them to just post on twitter instead of having to deal with whatever interface their internal systems provide
      - wlonkly 26d ago
        The funny thing is that one reason that cities, utilities etc. keep posting on Twitter is that it's integrated into their internal systems (or at least to something like Hootsuite that handles multiple social platforms). I'd be very surprised if they're sharing a Twitter password.
    - cancerkazoo 26d ago
      [flagged]
  - johannes1234321 26d ago
    Twitter was in a great space for those kind of things. They had a big user base, a simple format and a working API, which was free for those kinds of things. Toolbuilders integrated it. No platform took over as clear successor. Of course such information should be on the operator's website as primary source ...
Macha 26d ago
Irish rail posts about train delays exclusively on Twitter
- gloosx 26d ago
  Good one, and a heavily criticised one it seems;) Shame on Irish rail for doing this!
- deleted 25d ago
  [deleted]
sjourner 26d ago
They don't use Twitter, but my university exclusively uses Facebook for news and relevant announcements like scholarships, days off due to weather, etc. they won't even use their official webpage but for posting the official calendar...
- mosura 26d ago
  Both FB and WhatsApp have serious lockin with this sort of thing, far more than X does.
  - mitxela 26d ago
    WhatsApp is currently not enshittified enough to be a problem, although they do put an entry in my conversation list to talk to their AI.
deleted 26d ago
[deleted]
debugnik 26d ago
Last time my city had a water cutoff due to a broken main, the city hall posted on Twitter (and I think Facebook?) where and when to queue for drinking water sooner and much more often than on any other channels, their own website included.
- Animats 26d ago
  The NYC subway system now writes, on X, "Customer care has moved to the MTA app, chat with us there 24/7. Get service status, arrival times and more all in one place. Visit MTA.info/apps". The web page with similar data is "MTA.info". There are MTA data feeds, in General Transit Feed Specification format, for program use. Those are for systems that update maps. The MTA dumped Twitter/X in 2023 because Twitter/X wanted to charge them for using their API, and the MTA refused. [1] The MTA also said that Twitter/X had too much downtime. When the MTA first got into social media, the person who took the job demanded a desk in the rail control center, so she could see all the displays and immediately hear about problems. If someone mentioned a problem on Twitter, she'd reply immediately. That was the right idea. Few organizations have the guts to put the control room on social media. [1] https://www.mta.info/press-release/statement-mta-acting-chief-customer-shanifah-rieara-suspending-use-of-twitter-service https://www.mta.info/press-release/statement-mta-acting-chie...
tokioyoyo 26d ago
Any big information fan out is pretty useful for JP twitter. Like yes, we’ll get notifications for flooding / earthquake and etc., but if you want up to date, on the ground videos and etc. it’s pretty useful. Not even talking about the train line scenarios as other commentators mentioned. There’s a system that is not replicable unless you have majority of the population on the same social media.
qingcharles 26d ago
I don't know if it is still the case, but when I was writing some Wikipedia articles I discovered the British monarchy seemed to use Twitter exclusively for some purposes.
initatus 26d ago
Regional police and fire here post wildfire updates and accompanying rural road closures on twitter.

If you dont mind, could you share an example of information posted exclusively on twitter which was crucial to you? Just curious;)

by gloosx 26d ago

If you dont mind, could you share an example of information posted exclusively on twitter which was crucial to you? Just curious;)

codechicago277 26d ago

A few recent examples: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/currencies/articles/bessent-ready-repeat-joint-yen-004023739.html https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/currencies/articles/bessen... https://theprint.in/world/us-military-says-it-completed-latest-wave-of-strikes-on-iran/3031352/ https://theprint.in/world/us-military-says-it-completed-late... https://www.reuters.com/technology/brad-lightcap-leaving-openai-2026-08-11/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/brad-lightcap-leaving-ope... It’s still the go-to platform for public figures to broadcast unfortunately, so if you want to verify the original comments you need an alternate frontend or an X account.

gloosx 26d ago
Looking at these examples, I can't really see how this information was exclusive to X really: the currency intervention took place on July 31, during active market hours. It was immediately detected by global trading desks and reported by major news wires like Reuters and Bloomberg as it happened. When CENTCOM issued the statement regarding the strikes on IRGC targets, the text went live on the official U.S. Central Command Media Portal at the exact same second the automated post hit their X account. Before anything was posted online, Lightcap sent an official farewell note to the OpenAI team. Once an email is sent to hundreds of tech employees, it was immediately leaked to tech journalists. It seems, for all three examples, the platform was used merely as a broadcasting service for information that was either already occurring in the public eye or was simultaneously distributed through formal channels.
- brigandish 26d ago
  The competition is between: - needing to look in several places - looking in one place Easy to see why Twitter wins, even when information isn't exclusive, which it often is (I would've suggested video involved in news events, which is often impossible to find elsewhere but easily gathered on Twitter).

burnhamup 26d ago

I don't know about crucial, but a recent amber alert went out last week. It contained a bit.ly link to the CHP's Twitter page and I couldn't see the information. I clicked on it because the alert was from my town, but light on the details. Surely a public post on a CHP website would have gotten the job done better.

gloosx 26d ago
In this case it seems that linking to the CHP website would likely crash their web servers. Understandable:)
- uhoh-itsmaciek 26d ago
  So allowing projects like Nitter and XCancel must also be understandable, in order for recipients to be able to actually read these messages.
  - gloosx 26d ago
    100% agreed, auth-walling the broadcasting service which is de-facto used as a public infrastructure by so many parties around the world is just straight an a-hole move, even though it's a private company and they can do whatever they want about it. Who knows maybe at some point in the future they will decide twitter will only be available with a paid subscription.
yaleman 26d ago
The local emergency services uses it as a duplicate method because it's mostly more reliable than any service they can afford to offer... and historically a lot of people were using the site, so sharing helps get things noticed.

progval 26d ago

Paris' subway and local train lines each have a Twitter account, and they are the only reliable source of information regarding outages. Phone apps (at least three official ones with different data sources!) and websites can be outdated. Displays in station too (though less often), have outages of their own, and (rarely) even incorrect updates.

gloosx 26d ago
Wow, this is kind of a mess, seems twitter won from usability standpoint here
- freshpots 26d ago
  Except that it doesn't because you need an account to see virtually anything on that N#*i site.
  - gloosx 26d ago
    Usability for announcers, I meant. Seems it's easier for them to just post on twitter instead of having to deal with whatever interface their internal systems provide
    - wlonkly 26d ago
      The funny thing is that one reason that cities, utilities etc. keep posting on Twitter is that it's integrated into their internal systems (or at least to something like Hootsuite that handles multiple social platforms). I'd be very surprised if they're sharing a Twitter password.
  - cancerkazoo 26d ago
    [flagged]
- johannes1234321 26d ago
  Twitter was in a great space for those kind of things. They had a big user base, a simple format and a working API, which was free for those kinds of things. Toolbuilders integrated it. No platform took over as clear successor. Of course such information should be on the operator's website as primary source ...

Macha 26d ago

Irish rail posts about train delays exclusively on Twitter

gloosx 26d ago
Good one, and a heavily criticised one it seems;) Shame on Irish rail for doing this!
deleted 25d ago
[deleted]

sjourner 26d ago

They don't use Twitter, but my university exclusively uses Facebook for news and relevant announcements like scholarships, days off due to weather, etc. they won't even use their official webpage but for posting the official calendar...

mosura 26d ago
Both FB and WhatsApp have serious lockin with this sort of thing, far more than X does.
- mitxela 26d ago
  WhatsApp is currently not enshittified enough to be a problem, although they do put an entry in my conversation list to talk to their AI.

deleted 26d ago

[deleted]

debugnik 26d ago

Last time my city had a water cutoff due to a broken main, the city hall posted on Twitter (and I think Facebook?) where and when to queue for drinking water sooner and much more often than on any other channels, their own website included.

Animats 26d ago
The NYC subway system now writes, on X, "Customer care has moved to the MTA app, chat with us there 24/7. Get service status, arrival times and more all in one place. Visit MTA.info/apps". The web page with similar data is "MTA.info". There are MTA data feeds, in General Transit Feed Specification format, for program use. Those are for systems that update maps. The MTA dumped Twitter/X in 2023 because Twitter/X wanted to charge them for using their API, and the MTA refused. [1] The MTA also said that Twitter/X had too much downtime. When the MTA first got into social media, the person who took the job demanded a desk in the rail control center, so she could see all the displays and immediately hear about problems. If someone mentioned a problem on Twitter, she'd reply immediately. That was the right idea. Few organizations have the guts to put the control room on social media. [1] https://www.mta.info/press-release/statement-mta-acting-chief-customer-shanifah-rieara-suspending-use-of-twitter-service https://www.mta.info/press-release/statement-mta-acting-chie...

tokioyoyo 26d ago

Any big information fan out is pretty useful for JP twitter. Like yes, we’ll get notifications for flooding / earthquake and etc., but if you want up to date, on the ground videos and etc. it’s pretty useful. Not even talking about the train line scenarios as other commentators mentioned. There’s a system that is not replicable unless you have majority of the population on the same social media.

qingcharles 26d ago

I don't know if it is still the case, but when I was writing some Wikipedia articles I discovered the British monarchy seemed to use Twitter exclusively for some purposes.

initatus 26d ago

Regional police and fire here post wildfire updates and accompanying rural road closures on twitter.