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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are all content issues, not format/platform issues. Don't like those? Don't make your social circle out of the people who do them.
There's nothing inherently wrong with the Twitter platform.
300 characters incentivizes driveby remarks rather than articulate conversations.
Twitter also has really bad content enforcement. Not inherent to the format, but it's worth consideration in the interest of practicality.
A radical idea, lets all go back to blogs, hosted and owned by ourselves, on our own sites, which will enrich only us, and where you can write as long and as short as you want, and link to whatever you want.
Is there a good way to get my blog onto the fediverse? It sort of seems like the protocol (ActivityPub) is built in a way that it can support blog-style content as well as toot-style content, and it would solve many of the problems people have with discoverability, RSS dying, shared private posts, etc. I'd be interested in getting my blog (which is self-hosted and using a static site generator) publishing in a way th…
https://github.com/Plume-org/Plume
I'm aware that Micro.blog (mentioned elsewhere) is looking at ActivityPub support of some kind soon. I think the IndieWeb movement and the federated blogging/don't-call-it-tweeting movement are close enough that they should be working toward interoperability.
1. A way to hear about news from people or organisations you like (Elon, Yankees, WTO, Lady Gaga, whatever)
2. A way to microblog and share with your friends or (more usefully) with colleagues or interest communities.
3. A discussion medium where there is no hierarchy of competence, and everyone's opinion is given the same weight.
(1) and (2) are generally positive and useful things. In (2) you might get a flamewar in a gardening community or whatever, so you need moderators to prevent outbursts over how best to deal with greenfly, but generally these kinda things are pretty peaceful. See HN.
It is not at all clear that (3) is a good idea at all. Most people know nothing about most topics, so giving equal weight to their voice is a bad idea.
The reasons that (3) has come about, persisted, become central to Twitter, is that it's a very good way to engage people. Enragement is engagement. It sells advertising, but it doesn't do much for humanity or its user base.
I'd say using Twitter for (1), leaving (2) to better platforms, and realising we don't need (3) is a sensible solution. The only reason we don't have that is Jack knows full well that (3) makes money, and to hell with the terrible problems that causes.
tl;dr - before looking for alternatives, ask yourself if you need anything at all.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's nothing inherently wrong with the Twitter platform.
Depends on what the goal is. 300 characters incentivizes driveby remarks rather than articulate conversations. Twitter also has really bad content enforcement. Not inherent to the format, but it's worth consideration in the interest of practicality.
Tumblr is guaranteed one-upmanship. The reblogging feature causes escalation. We need to look at the brain, and figure out how neurons work together in networks to produce truth. Then use that model for our social networks.
Seriously, tumblr has a problem with basic text layout. Responses get indented, heavily on an already narrow column. And next thing you know, any text is basically wrapped to single characters on the right side of the page.
Edit: It's so bad, trying to intentionally reproduce it is more trouble than it is worth.
Yes, let's go to tumblr because text-wrapping is awesome. Seriously, tumblr has a problem with basic text layout. Responses get indented, heavily on an already narrow column. And next thing you know, any text is basically wrapped to single characters on the right side of the page. Edit: It's so bad, trying to intentionally reproduce it is more trouble than it is worth.
A radical idea, lets all go back to blogs, hosted and owned by ourselves, on our own sites, which will enrich only us, and where you can write as long and as short as you want, and link to whatever you want.
I have such nostalgia for the blogosphere. The one thing it's missing is post privacy; I want to be able to journal privately (like on Dreamwidth) but also use my own hosting and not rely on someone else's platform. I've been toying around with writing my own social media software along those lines, using servers. Some noodling about on that topic: https://www.brainonfire.net/blog/tag/social-media/
Yes, let's go to tumblr because text-wrapping is awesome. Seriously, tumblr has a problem with basic text layout. Responses get indented, heavily on an already narrow column. And next thing you know, any text is basically wrapped to single characters on the right side of the page. Edit: It's so bad, trying to intentionally reproduce it is more trouble than it is worth.
Didn't they change that quite a while back?
-self-harm glorification -bad porn -signal boosting for political rants -faux moral intellectualism by social justice warriors -cyber bullying Let's not?
Those are all content issues, not format/platform issues. Don't like those? Don't make your social circle out of the people who do them.
It turns out that your very advice ("don't make your social circle out of the people who [create weird and distateful fringe content]") is the exact same echo-chamber-and-radicalization-mechanism that filled Tumblr with this kind of crap in the first place.