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Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

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Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#21

Post by brianwawok »

AznHisoka wrote: post #19
chippy wrote: post #12

Ask yourself what emotions you are feeling when you think about Twitter shutting down share counts. Really feel these feelings, don't let them go away, don't try to hide the outrage. Now clear your mind of the negative feeling. Take several deep breaths and clear your mind. Now think of something important in your life. Now think of something important in the lives of another person. Mediate on what a sense of perspe…

I think you're being insincere here. OP obviously (I assume) is not that devastated by this change like a death in the family. But he's unhappy about it, similar to as if your client changed their spec overnight, or if their database got wiped out of data, and they had no backups. He's trying to start a conversation about this. Your comment doesn't add anything to this because HN revolves around developer/tech issues…

Many HN posts are about sharing cool things. Expressing outrage a commercial product changed a feature? Seems a waste of hot air and lowers the quality of this site.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#22

Post by rustynails »

charlesism wrote: post #17

What are "share counts"? I guess that's my short answer. The only feeling I have about Twitter is mild irritation at the amount of attention it gets. It's not very useful to the vast majority of its users. Twitter is extremely useful if you have some measure of celebrity, of course, which is why well-known journalists prattle on and on about it. I don't have unbridled hatred toward Twitter. It just gets tired constan…

I do not use social networking like Twitter, Facebook, linked in, etc. however, of all of these systems, I prefer Twitter because it's the least invasive. If I want to hear what a particular person has to say, I opt in. I find that an appealing concept. It's almost the antithesis of Facebook.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#23

Post by rustynails »

loceng wrote: post #20
calind wrote: post #11

It finally went away. I'm hoping the same for all counters because from a reader's perspective they are pointless. so I have only positive feelings about this :).

People don't trust themselves as much as we should, which is why people are more likely to share something if it looks like it is "safe" to do - if others are doing it. I agree though that it would be better that if people shared something because they were compelled enough to do it on their own.

I find value in the popularity of a comment because it gives me some insight to how a community thinks, collectively.

I've observed a number of times that the most popular web sites and the most popular news sites (as ranked by web traffic) are the most controversial (eg. sexist) and least informative. Hence, trusting the average person is like trusting populist politics.. The Kardadhians rule. Aka race to the bottom, aka McDonalds journalism.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#24

Post by voidz »

AznHisoka wrote: post #19
chippy wrote: post #12

Ask yourself what emotions you are feeling when you think about Twitter shutting down share counts. Really feel these feelings, don't let them go away, don't try to hide the outrage. Now clear your mind of the negative feeling. Take several deep breaths and clear your mind. Now think of something important in your life. Now think of something important in the lives of another person. Mediate on what a sense of perspe…

I think you're being insincere here. OP obviously (I assume) is not that devastated by this change like a death in the family. But he's unhappy about it, similar to as if your client changed their spec overnight, or if their database got wiped out of data, and they had no backups. He's trying to start a conversation about this. Your comment doesn't add anything to this because HN revolves around developer/tech issues…

The word outrage fully implies otherwise. It's a hyperbole? Then this is how others will respond. QED.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#25

Post by [deleted] »

AznHisoka wrote: post #19
chippy wrote: post #12

Ask yourself what emotions you are feeling when you think about Twitter shutting down share counts. Really feel these feelings, don't let them go away, don't try to hide the outrage. Now clear your mind of the negative feeling. Take several deep breaths and clear your mind. Now think of something important in your life. Now think of something important in the lives of another person. Mediate on what a sense of perspe…

I think you're being insincere here. OP obviously (I assume) is not that devastated by this change like a death in the family. But he's unhappy about it, similar to as if your client changed their spec overnight, or if their database got wiped out of data, and they had no backups. He's trying to start a conversation about this. Your comment doesn't add anything to this because HN revolves around developer/tech issues…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#27

Post by anon6_ »

It was always a metric easy to inflate.

Just like Ashley Madison's male to female and bot to human ratio, we'll never get honest stats on this - but it's really easy to bot twitter. There is no mobile phone verification. The amount of computerized accounts on twitter is huge.

From Twitter's SEC filing [1]:

In a new filing, the company said that “up to approximately 8.5%” of the accounts it considers active are automatically updated “without any discernible additional user-initiated action.”

Even that is quite a qualifier. You could have a discernible user-initiated action, then leave it to a bot.

I won't deny that twitter is a great way to get inbound traffic, and lots of it. But your followers, shares, etc. are still hugely inflated. It's really easy to game Twitter. The signal:noise ratio on there is critical.

[1]: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000156459014...

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#28

Post by ryanwaggoner »

chippy wrote: post #12

Ask yourself what emotions you are feeling when you think about Twitter shutting down share counts. Really feel these feelings, don't let them go away, don't try to hide the outrage. Now clear your mind of the negative feeling. Take several deep breaths and clear your mind. Now think of something important in your life. Now think of something important in the lives of another person. Mediate on what a sense of perspe…

Please keep this condescending tone off of HN.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#29

Post by thenomad »

chippy wrote: post #12

Ask yourself what emotions you are feeling when you think about Twitter shutting down share counts. Really feel these feelings, don't let them go away, don't try to hide the outrage. Now clear your mind of the negative feeling. Take several deep breaths and clear your mind. Now think of something important in your life. Now think of something important in the lives of another person. Mediate on what a sense of perspe…

Unless you know the original poster personally, in which case this message would have been considerably better delivered offline rather than trying to publicly humiliate him/her with a lecture about perspective, you have no idea if Twitter share counts are genuinely important to her/his life or not.

If the original poster is, for example, involved in launching a startup that he/she hopes will change the world, and his/her primary expected marketing vector is social media, then Twitter share counts are genuinely important in his/her life, and those of the people around him/her.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one outraged by Twitter shutting down share counts?

#30

Post by loceng »

rustynails wrote: post #23
loceng wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't trust themselves as much as we should, which is why people are more likely to share something if it looks like it is "safe" to do - if others are doing it. I agree though that it would be better that if people shared something because they were compelled enough to do it on their own.

I find value in the popularity of a comment because it gives me some insight to how a community thinks, collectively. I've observed a number of times that the most popular web sites and the most popular news sites (as ranked by web traffic) are the most controversial (eg. sexist) and least informative. Hence, trusting the average person is like trusting populist politics.. The Kardadhians rule. Aka race to the bottom…

That type of thinking may not be able to pool together as easily then, and therefore that thinking may not be reenforced as much.

And I agree, it is interesting to see it - and obviously Twitter would have that data, so they could make it available to researchers as well. On a daily basis I wonder how it impacts everything.

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