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Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

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Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#111

Post by jacquesm »

Turn back the clock to when Twitter was mostly a protocol and less of a web application. Re-enable the API's that have been disabled, open up easier access to the firehose.

Essentially making Twitter 'too big to fail'.

Tell shareholders that they're in for the long haul and that they can write off any chances for quick bucks.

Most probably - unfortunately - cut deeply into the employee base because there is no way Twitter could sustain the company size they are at today based on the product that they have.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#112

Post by skylan_q »

They started a great slaughter of #FrogTwitter twitterers.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/silence-frogs-why-twitter-censoring...

This is the price they now pay.

Also, Twitter isn't so much a business as it's a hybrid speech platform/media outlet and moneyed interests shape it as they please to promote the agenda they want.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#113

Post by metaphorm »

new economic model: users pay on the basis of how many followers they have. the first 1000 followers are free. pricing begins for accounts with over 1000 followers. the more followers you have the more you pay.

this places the payment model in alignment with who the actual beneficiaries of twitter are. it's a mass broadcast advertising/propaganda platform. let the propagandists pay for it.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#114

Post by dotBen »

davycro wrote: post #96
dotBen wrote: post #18

Refocus the company to be the Netflix of live TV, focusing on the delivery of live sports and news broadcasts while enabling fans/viewers to discuss in real time. It's a greenfield space no one else is really jumping upon yet. Focus may have turned to on-demand TV, but people still want to watch sports live, and Twitter already has acquired some of those deals as the sport franchises get more comfortable with online…

"Twitter's modern-day utility seems very low outside of news/sports/politics" Twitter has tremendous utility for the medical community. I am final year medical student and through twitter can follow worldwide leaders in emergency medicine (my field of interest). These doctors post clinical factoids, cases reports, unique ekgs, and other learning points live from the wards (all de-identified to protect patients of cou…

That's great but it's fair to say that's niche - both in terms of the number of people I'm guessing who are producing that type of content and the amount of monetization that can occur from that community.

As a public company, Twitter has to focus on the mainstream, big numbers.

I would also suggest that Twitter refocusing to sports and news would give the specialist apps you mention (and others) a better chance at super-serving your community. Is Twitter's ephemeral nature, mixed in with non-medical updates, really the best way for you to spot trends and identify useful links? If you don't fire up the app every few hours do you risk missing a crucial link or update?

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#116

Post by mrtron »

xanderstrike wrote: post #64
donpark wrote: post #59

I tweeted this few months ago: 1) Add golden heart 2) Sell golden hearts to users. 3) Reward some golden hearts daily to users, perhaps based on tiered ranking. 4) Allow advertisers to gift golden hearts to users. 5) 'Promote' tweets with golden hearts and display them in Moments. In short, allow peer promotion. Red hearts are currently being wasted as weak social signals and nods. This change blurs the line between…

So reddit gold.

TotalFark

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#117

Post by skylan_q »

monochromatic wrote: post #53

I'd stop using it to suppress political speech that I disagree with. http://blog.dilbert.com/post/157826468646/nothing-to-see-her...

Don't like Clinton? Get silenced.

Want to facilitate revolutions in other countries with the help of the CIA? That's cool. No problem.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#118

Post by bitwiseand »

jraines wrote: post #101

- Get rid of modals for everything. Especially: when clicking on a tweet to view replies, open a new page with better threading of replies, pagination, and no reordering (or optional "quality" reordering). Twitter is a forum on speed; take some good ideas from forums. Right now it's a forum on speed and acid. - Have more options for blocking, including "block this person and everyone who follows them or followed them…

- Allow an unambiguous, never "played with", chronological timeline. Have a separate view that's your ML playground.

I disagree. The alternate to a vision you may not agree with is not having two visions. Use data to support one not both.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#119

Post by portman »

Charge Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian, and anyone else who has 1MM+ followers. Charge them per tweet. They are the true economic beneficiaries of Twitter.

(Like any software company, offer lower pricing to charities.)

Use that cash to get rid of ads (they are not working) and invest in more tools for publishers (who are now paying).

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#120

Post by skylan_q »

ijafri wrote: post #29

I have no clue why they stopped developing it any further, in old days you would eagerly wait for a new feature, every couple of month. That's also true back then it didn't even have image upload. I'd expect it be something between Facebook and twitter itself. Nope never google+. It needs a fresh look hmm! By fresh I meant the design as the aesthetics of web Facebook messenger a modern, miminial, fresh look. That Fac…

I have no clue why they stopped developing it any further, in old days you would eagerly wait for a new feature, every couple of month.

Capital turns these companies into SJW havens where nothing gets done but they get to promote the companies as part of valley culture/cultural meccas. Look at Github, for example.

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