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Twitter’s Spectacularly Awful 24 Hours

21 points by hko 17y ago

ivankirigin 17y ago
"Users will pick up on this waffling, smell blood and go in for the kill." Not everyone is as adversarial as a TechCrunch author. (though I like Siegler's coverage there)
swombat 17y ago
This article is pure gossip rag stuff, but at the same time it gives a nice timeline of events for those of us too busy to follow every little feature-change brouhaha. I wouldn't want to see too many articles in this style, but this particular one is ok, imho.
dryicerx 17y ago
Problem 8: A server failed, making Twitter unusable for several hours. Ahem... a single point of failure. Ouch.
- jeremymcanally 17y ago
  I sincerely doubt it was one server.
evdawg 17y ago
I think it's a pretty pissy thing for al3x (http://twitter.com/al3x/status/1786897274 http://twitter.com/al3x/status/1786897274) to publicly denounce a controversial feature change like that... at least wait until the backlash is over! He needs to support his company's decisions, instead of being so eager to divert blame from himself. Although my comment could be completely void if Techcrunch is overplaying the entire situation, which is probably the case...
- gojomo 17y ago
  Once upon a time, I would have agreed with you about keeping gripes internal, at least until the dust settles. But in the rising operating mode of constant deep interaction with a large vocal userbase, authentically sharing internal dissent might better manage customer expectations. It acknowledges and mollifies, a little, without making a commitment.
rrival 17y ago
Tired of hearing so much about twitter. It's like a reality show with these clowns. It should be an open protocol.
- KirinDave 17y ago
  Why?
- riffic 17y ago
  Pressure them to support OpenMicroBlogging..
cubicle67 17y ago
Is there a way I can exclude TechCrunch from my list? It's always puerile gossip or linkbait.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
KirinDave 17y ago
It amazes me how upset and involved people are in an obscure option of a microblogging service. People who are so upset really need to get some freakin' perspective. But what amuses me most is when commentators on the subject say the new system is convoluted. Both systems were convoluted and weird. The new mechanism is just as weird as the old one was. Every website's features are just gentle wrappers around their underlying architecture. When you look at them carefully you can see the system underneath, and that system is complicated no matter what you do.
- Tichy 17y ago
  I don't understand why it was deemed confusing. If I follow somebody, I want to read ALL their updates, no matter if they are replying to somebody or not. What is confusing about just seeing everything somebody tweets? I find it very confusing to suddenly not see everything anymore. Also I don't understand how it could have been a scaling issue, since it was just showing all tweets, no fancy filtering or anything. Removing certain tweets from the timeline seems a lot more complicated ("if tweet is reply and !user follows person_replied_to, remove post"). It makes me upset because it was one of the major ways to discover new people to follow on twitter. A lot of viral marketing schemes are also based on this (and I mean not in a bad way). So it is not just a small thing to change.
  - Timothee 17y ago
    Obviously, I have no idea how the service was built and it's most likely much more complicated than what it looks like but I, too, was surprised to read that it was a scaling issue. I'd be curious to know why an @reply makes it different from a regular status update. Also, (even though I don't really care that much honestly) as a new user, I would say that seeing everything was a way to discover other people and to potentially be discovered as well. I feel like it's important to discover people as the very beginning so that you get hooked on Twitter. If anyone can think of an explanation on the scaling issue, I'd be happy to read it.
    - kscaldef 17y ago
erlanger 17y ago
Does something like Twitter really warrant this sort of response? I mean, if my power goes out, or my internet, or anything like that, I'd be reasonably upset with the utility company, but this is a free service. I don't use Twitter so I'm a poor judge of its value.
- kscaldef 17y ago
  It's not really the users' fault that Twitter hasn't deigned to think of a business model.
DannoHung 17y ago
I don't get it... I don't even have an option to turn off/on @replies to people I don't follow... I just see them all. I've NEVER had an option to turn off @replies... is this only a thing for users who've signed up recently?
- kscaldef 17y ago
  Unless you signed up in the last day or two, you most certainly did have that option.

21 points by hko 17y ago

"Users will pick up on this waffling, smell blood and go in for the kill." Not everyone is as adversarial as a TechCrunch author. (though I like Siegler's coverage there)

swombat 17y ago

This article is pure gossip rag stuff, but at the same time it gives a nice timeline of events for those of us too busy to follow every little feature-change brouhaha. I wouldn't want to see too many articles in this style, but this particular one is ok, imho.

dryicerx 17y ago

Problem 8: A server failed, making Twitter unusable for several hours. Ahem... a single point of failure. Ouch.

jeremymcanally 17y ago
I sincerely doubt it was one server.

evdawg 17y ago

I think it's a pretty pissy thing for al3x (http://twitter.com/al3x/status/1786897274 http://twitter.com/al3x/status/1786897274) to publicly denounce a controversial feature change like that... at least wait until the backlash is over! He needs to support his company's decisions, instead of being so eager to divert blame from himself. Although my comment could be completely void if Techcrunch is overplaying the entire situation, which is probably the case...

gojomo 17y ago
Once upon a time, I would have agreed with you about keeping gripes internal, at least until the dust settles. But in the rising operating mode of constant deep interaction with a large vocal userbase, authentically sharing internal dissent might better manage customer expectations. It acknowledges and mollifies, a little, without making a commitment.

rrival 17y ago

Tired of hearing so much about twitter. It's like a reality show with these clowns. It should be an open protocol.

KirinDave 17y ago
Why?
riffic 17y ago
Pressure them to support OpenMicroBlogging..

cubicle67 17y ago

Is there a way I can exclude TechCrunch from my list? It's always puerile gossip or linkbait.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

KirinDave 17y ago

It amazes me how upset and involved people are in an obscure option of a microblogging service. People who are so upset really need to get some freakin' perspective. But what amuses me most is when commentators on the subject say the new system is convoluted. Both systems were convoluted and weird. The new mechanism is just as weird as the old one was. Every website's features are just gentle wrappers around their underlying architecture. When you look at them carefully you can see the system underneath, and that system is complicated no matter what you do.

Tichy 17y ago
I don't understand why it was deemed confusing. If I follow somebody, I want to read ALL their updates, no matter if they are replying to somebody or not. What is confusing about just seeing everything somebody tweets? I find it very confusing to suddenly not see everything anymore. Also I don't understand how it could have been a scaling issue, since it was just showing all tweets, no fancy filtering or anything. Removing certain tweets from the timeline seems a lot more complicated ("if tweet is reply and !user follows person_replied_to, remove post"). It makes me upset because it was one of the major ways to discover new people to follow on twitter. A lot of viral marketing schemes are also based on this (and I mean not in a bad way). So it is not just a small thing to change.
- Timothee 17y ago
  Obviously, I have no idea how the service was built and it's most likely much more complicated than what it looks like but I, too, was surprised to read that it was a scaling issue. I'd be curious to know why an @reply makes it different from a regular status update. Also, (even though I don't really care that much honestly) as a new user, I would say that seeing everything was a way to discover other people and to potentially be discovered as well. I feel like it's important to discover people as the very beginning so that you get hooked on Twitter. If anyone can think of an explanation on the scaling issue, I'd be happy to read it.
  - kscaldef 17y ago

erlanger 17y ago

Does something like Twitter really warrant this sort of response? I mean, if my power goes out, or my internet, or anything like that, I'd be reasonably upset with the utility company, but this is a free service. I don't use Twitter so I'm a poor judge of its value.

kscaldef 17y ago
It's not really the users' fault that Twitter hasn't deigned to think of a business model.

DannoHung 17y ago

I don't get it... I don't even have an option to turn off/on @replies to people I don't follow... I just see them all. I've NEVER had an option to turn off @replies... is this only a thing for users who've signed up recently?

kscaldef 17y ago
Unless you signed up in the last day or two, you most certainly did have that option.