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The Decay of Twitter

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Decay of Twitter

#11

Post by DanBC »

pmelendez wrote: post #9
DanBC wrote: post #5

Recently, within the past month, someone I follow either posted or retweeted a link to a survey about paracetamol use in accident and emergency departments in the Uk, and how it was about as effective as opiate meds for most people. Today there are stories on HN where that link would be relevant. I would have posted a link to the tweet, and a link to the study mentioned in the tweet. But Twitter's search is not good…

> I'm ad tolerant, but the ads Twitter show me are always useless. The ads have zero relevance to me I have actually thinking about this and some ideas come up. If you don't mind me asking... What would be your ideal non-introsive ads mechanism? Maybe a relevant mention to you on a recommended tweet?

Ads should allow me to opt out of any alcohol or gambling company's campaign.

If the ad network is slurping all my data they should use that info to serve ads that have some relevance to me.

I'm happy for stuff to end up in my twitter stream. I'm not happy for anything to sound like it's come from me, or has my endorsement or recommendation.

Re: The Decay of Twitter

#12

Post by tinkerrr »

trymas wrote: post #6

Maybe it will seem as a dumb question, but how Twitter can be in the loss (in order of millions of US dollars) since day one, without (IMHO) clear path to profitability and not be bankrupt? It is growing, but it still has huge losses. Do investors believe it will be hugely profitable 5-10 years from now? Is this new normal in business?

To answer your question simply, yes, investors believe it will be hugely profitable in the future. That's the only reason to invest in any company that doesn't make a profit today.

It is not as unreasonable as you might think. Look at how fast Facebook's earnings are growing in the last 2-3 years. Investors hope Twitter can replicate this, even if it is at a smaller scale. Whether they are right or not is obviously up for debate, and you can take part in this debate by buying/selling/shorting Twitter in the stock market.

Re: The Decay of Twitter

#13

Post by drumdance »

samsolomon wrote: post #10
omginternets wrote: post #8

Twitter is somewhat of a quantum state for me. It's a complete cesspool on the whole, but the academic community is absolutely outstanding. I follow @Neuro_Skeptic, @StanDehaene, @practiCalfMRI, @sensorimotorlab, @davidpoeppel, among many others, and they certainly seem to squeeze a lot of insight into 160 characters. In any case, everything I've been hearing relates to twitter not growing. I understand the pressure…

I love Twitter, but the burden is on the user to make the experience—it's entirely dictated by who you follow.

That's a really good point.

A friend of mine who wants to be a forensic pathologist follows a coroner who posts autopsy photos and asks people to guess the cause of death. She has something like 500k followers. It's amazing all the micro-celebrity that's possible, but as a user you have to know where to find it.

Re: The Decay of Twitter

#14

Post by benten10 »

I really hope twitter somehow makes money. I would be willing to pay a subscription fee if that helps it sustain. Facebook, I'd rather see die in the hottest fires of all the hells.

I don't exaggerate when I say this: twitter has made me smarter. If I'm interested in a new field, I just follow the experts in that field that are on twitter. The conversations and the discussions not only make me feel like an insider, but make me explore the field in a much deeper level. Three of the fields that I have gotten 'into' because of twitter are Urban 'renewal' sort of projects (citylab, atlantic cities, etcetera), the book reviews circle, and a certain subfield of computer science I won't mention, because I'd probably be the only intersection of those fields. : P

Sometimes, some people I follow tweet things I'd rather not hear. So I simply mute them. Done. (This is however NOT a apology for all the awful harassment that does happen)

I cull my 'following' list to get to 300 people once every couple of months, so it doesn't get out of hand, and it's worked perfectly for me. I can catch up with pretty much everything that appears on my timeline. I Like twitter because it doesn't 'curate' my content for me. The day it decides to get rid of the 'everything' timeline will be the day the 'decay' begins.

Perhaps my viewpoint is tainted, but in the past six years (that's how long I've been on it/using it), the number of twitter users has been growing (at least in terms of people I know), and their quality increasing. I realize harassment is still a huge issue, but despite that, Twitter is still a great community : )

Re: The Decay of Twitter

#15

Post by draugadrotten »

drumdance wrote: post #13
samsolomon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Twitter, but the burden is on the user to make the experience—it's entirely dictated by who you follow.

That's a really good point. A friend of mine who wants to be a forensic pathologist follows a coroner who posts autopsy photos and asks people to guess the cause of death. She has something like 500k followers. It's amazing all the micro-celebrity that's possible, but as a user you have to know where to find it.

> a coroner who posts autopsy photos

How is that even legal?

shudder

Re: The Decay of Twitter

#16

Post by tacos »

samsolomon wrote: post #10
omginternets wrote: post #8

Twitter is somewhat of a quantum state for me. It's a complete cesspool on the whole, but the academic community is absolutely outstanding. I follow @Neuro_Skeptic, @StanDehaene, @practiCalfMRI, @sensorimotorlab, @davidpoeppel, among many others, and they certainly seem to squeeze a lot of insight into 160 characters. In any case, everything I've been hearing relates to twitter not growing. I understand the pressure…

I love Twitter, but the burden is on the user to make the experience—it's entirely dictated by who you follow.

This gets posted every Twitter article. The burden is ALWAYS on the human to make the experience. Online, offline, with a lover, on vacation, while under duress, while rich, while broke.

It's a meaningless platitude. Because people will migrate toward a more pleasant experience. They will choose things that require less effort.

Even in regards to Twitter, the "who you follow" myth is particularly ridiculous. Know how one negative comment in a stream of 100 positives can ruin your day?

One friend on a bender can ruin your whole Twitter night. One sporting event can drown out your favorite intellectual writers. "Scope what I read by username, sort by time" is a fun but flawed concept.

Re: The Decay of Twitter

#17

Post by benten10 »

omginternets wrote: post #8

Twitter is somewhat of a quantum state for me. It's a complete cesspool on the whole, but the academic community is absolutely outstanding. I follow @Neuro_Skeptic, @StanDehaene, @practiCalfMRI, @sensorimotorlab, @davidpoeppel, among many others, and they certainly seem to squeeze a lot of insight into 160 characters. In any case, everything I've been hearing relates to twitter not growing. I understand the pressure…

I am being flippant here (see my other comment on this post), but giving out the people you follow on twitter would be an easy way to compromise your anonymity (assuming that those accounts don't have a large overlap of followers). Just wanted to raise awareness, and point out there are very likely companies that make money by identifying people by the accounts they follow.

: )

Re: The Decay of Twitter

#18

Post by mschuster91 »

Twitter has fallen victim to the advertising plague hitting a boatload of other websites.

Offer your users a cheap way to opt out of ads (1$ a month) and you'll make far more money than you could ever do with ads.

Re: The Decay of Twitter

#19

Post by talmand »

draugadrotten wrote: post #15
drumdance wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a really good point. A friend of mine who wants to be a forensic pathologist follows a coroner who posts autopsy photos and asks people to guess the cause of death. She has something like 500k followers. It's amazing all the micro-celebrity that's possible, but as a user you have to know where to find it.

> a coroner who posts autopsy photos How is that even legal? shudder

Likely legal as long as it isn't possible to identify the body from the photo.
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