Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit? • Hacker News Board

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#281

Post by notyourwork » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 4:19 AM UTC

blakeyrat wrote: post #225

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What availability does Twitter actually deliver? I might be getting mixed up with reports about other sites or biased toward older events that happened when Twitter's architecture was less mature, but it seems like it's at least a semi-regular victim of "break the Internet" phenomena.

Twitter hasn't gone down in ages. (At least 2-3 full years.) It's reliable enough that hundreds of sites use Twitter as their "if our site is down, check for updates here" alternative.

> It's reliable enough that hundreds of sites use Twitter as their "if our site is down, check for updates here" alternative.

This has nothing to do with twitter's reliability. It just means companies have said twitter is more reliable than they are so look for our update on twitter opposed to some company specific system status page.

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#282

Post by notyourwork » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 4:26 AM UTC

intended wrote: post #277

Yes, Reddit too. These websites are more like gardens than amusement parks. A collective shared space, which is hard to monetize.

And when they die a new one comes to fruition and the herd moves along. Its a repeat problem.

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#283

Post by misnamed » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 4:26 AM UTC

davidpatrick wrote: post #279

misnamed wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can build your own network of interesting people by following only what genuinely interests you See that sounds great in theory but in practice I have never figured out how that actually works. Any tips?

As a frontend developer it has been quite easy since the industry leaders are all very active on Twitter. My rule of thumb is to unfollow people who tweet out of context to why I follow them.

Yikes in that case I'm following wrong AND tweeting wrong. I tweet about whatever - treat it like Facebook - probably a bad idea :S

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#284

Post by sanderjd » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 5:15 AM UTC

funkyy wrote: post #245

nothrabannosir wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And see what? Mostly 1-to-1 events, no search, no broadcast, no history, not badgered with legal matters on any comparable scale, ... I don't think it's comparable.

Legal would be outsourced, marketing same, spam control - yup, the same. That leaves developers and critical function staff. Twitter could easily work with 200 staff from 2 locations.

I'm curious: do you have experience running an organization like this, or are you speculating?

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#285

Post by sanderjd » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 5:20 AM UTC

logicallee wrote: post #206

komali2 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think would happen if Twitter didn't exist? You'd probably just email them or something.

huh? If cell phones didn't exist, you would make an arrangement to go meet someone at a certain time and place, and if you both didn't show up, OH WELL. "stood up". That doesn't diminish from the value and buy-in of cell phones and is a bizarre argument to make regarding the value, if any, of twitter.

I don't really get this analogy. Cell phones are a qualitative improvement in that situation. How is sending a DM an improvement over sending an email?

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#286

Post by cyphar » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 5:39 AM UTC

crazy1van wrote: post #249

treehau5_ wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The silicon valley bleeding hearts don't like to hear the truth when it doesn't fit their narrative or look good through their valley, rose colored, horn rimmed glasses. Even Mountain View coordinated with her campaign. As much as a self serving narcissist Trump is, I find it equally appalling that she gets so much support. The entire Wallstreet transcript scandal once again got buried by Trump-mania. This will be th…

> Democracy is a farce in this country. Where did this claim come from? None of the (many) scandals in the election so far have involved fraudulent voting. Democracy in America is very far from a farce. Instead it's more that you don't like the choices the voters have made.

America's electoral college voting system is a joke though. Not to mention that voting isn't mandatory. Australia solved both of those problems with a preferential, mandatory voting system.

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#287

Post by pvdebbe » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 5:51 AM UTC

misnamed wrote: post #283

davidpatrick wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a frontend developer it has been quite easy since the industry leaders are all very active on Twitter. My rule of thumb is to unfollow people who tweet out of context to why I follow them.

Yikes in that case I'm following wrong AND tweeting wrong. I tweet about whatever - treat it like Facebook - probably a bad idea :S

Yep. Twitter should have incorporated the concept of user switching to their UI by now. Trying to avoid (US/gender) politics by unfollowing technical leader people has left me with a, let's say, very manageable set of people to follow.

This would be largely avoidable if there was easy way to switch to a secondary/tertiary user to vent off thoughts that aren't the beef.

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#288

Post by jv22222 » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 6:04 AM UTC

Yup. I suggested this in 2012.

http://justinvincent.com/page/1972/its-time-for-an-open-twit...

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#289

Post by nixos » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 6:15 AM UTC

orthoganol wrote: post #161

sverige wrote: post #126

I've never been able to understand Twitter's popularity. To me, it's like a website's comment section without the attached content. And most of the stuff I've seen on Twitter is only slightly better than YouTube comments, and often worse. I know there are lots of Twitter users here -- seriously, I'm not trying to be funny or sarcastic, I just don't get the appeal. What am I missing?

IMO it's the appeal of having an audience. Get followers, get recognition for your thoughts - get recognition for yourself. I really think the reason Facebook first exploded in popularity (I was just entering college when it rolled out so have some first-hand experience) was because a whole lot of college age people love to show off pictures of themselves doing cool things, they want the audience. I won't comment on…

I don't know if it's just me, but these days instead of seeing inane photos of my friends, all I see are photo's my friends liked (especially if they have 1.5k other likes).

I don't "like" anything on fb so it's not just fb deciding for me what I want to see. I think that it's moving closer and closer to curated TV than a true social network

Re: Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?

#290

Post by hodgesrm » Mon, Oct 10, 2016, 6:17 AM UTC

cyphar wrote: post #286

crazy1van wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Democracy is a farce in this country. Where did this claim come from? None of the (many) scandals in the election so far have involved fraudulent voting. Democracy in America is very far from a farce. Instead it's more that you don't like the choices the voters have made.

America's electoral college voting system is a joke though. Not to mention that voting isn't mandatory. Australia solved both of those problems with a preferential, mandatory voting system.

Why is it a joke? It's been around for a couple of hundred years so it can't be that terrible.

Also, it helps avoid the problem of settling close elections--we saw that in Florida in 2000. Without the electoral college the Florida mess would conceivably extend over all 50 states any time there is a close contest.