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Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

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Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#31

Post by allenu »

baggy_trough wrote: post #25
jsnell wrote: post #2

> He suggested that the service works best as an “interest-based network,” where you log in and see content relevant to your interests, no matter who posted it Yeah, no thanks. Has anybody ever been happy with Twitter's attempts to force content from non-followed users into the feed? A couple of times a year they'll opt everybody back into whatever crappy experiment they're running ("hey, we'll put some posts to your…

Algorithmic feeds are, in all cases, Satan's handiwork. What I want is to see posts from the individuals I have selected, interleaved in chronological order, with no tampering.

It's frustrating that this is the general trend today. I was using the Reddit app the other day and pruning my list of subreddits to reduce distraction when I'm in the app. Of course the app will still insert suggested subreddits in my feed. And then there are the streaming services that recommend (and auto-play) shows and movies to you.

Usually I just want to just use a service to consume specific things and then move onto some other activity, but each one is aware of the attention economy and trying to keep me in for as long as possible.

Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#32

Post by hanniabu »

dman wrote: post #6
pavel_lishin wrote: post #3

> He suggested that the service works best as an “interest-based network,” where you log in and see content relevant to your interests, no matter who posted it — rather than a network where everyone feels like they need to follow a bunch of other accounts This is probably true for the majority of Twitter's users, but this is completely the opposite of what I want. Even with aggressively pruning the list of people I f…

Networks are trying to move away from long tail content since it is so expensive to moderate. I think in next 10 years expect social networks and video playing websites to become much like network television. Ie there will be a vetted list of large creators, and everyone else will be a consumer. To do that you need to take away peoples ability to control exactly whom they follow / subscribe to.

> a vetted list

Seems like this can definitely be done with a combination of a reputation system and post stats like acceleration/momentum.

Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#33

Post by duskwuff »

claudiawerner wrote: post #20
ordinaryperson wrote: post #8

I don't understand why Twitter hasn't implemented some kind of reputation gradient that would allow users to filter by levels. Yes, I realize they are tricky to implement and subject to abuse but imagine you got points for using your real name, real photo, demerits for insults etc, then users could filter out hordes of trolls and gutter nonsense and instead focus on the meaningful conversations that do actually occur…

Personally I don't consider real name or real photo to be much of an asset of any of the circles I was in on Twitter. In fact, in my experience the ones with real name/real photo (or what seemed that way) were generally the least interesting posters. They were never willing to put out their own opinion, especially on controversial topics. In fact, in the kind of groups I was in (let's say political activism), having…

In a lot of circles, a Twitter profile with a "real photo" as the profile picture usually means you're looking at a spambot with a profile picture scraped from either Facebook or a dating site.

Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#34

Post by azhenley »

baggy_trough wrote: post #25
jsnell wrote: post #2

> He suggested that the service works best as an “interest-based network,” where you log in and see content relevant to your interests, no matter who posted it Yeah, no thanks. Has anybody ever been happy with Twitter's attempts to force content from non-followed users into the feed? A couple of times a year they'll opt everybody back into whatever crappy experiment they're running ("hey, we'll put some posts to your…

Algorithmic feeds are, in all cases, Satan's handiwork. What I want is to see posts from the individuals I have selected, interleaved in chronological order, with no tampering.

I agree. As soon as there is any tampering of what information is being displayed, users have a difficult time understanding why they are seeing it and ultimately find it less enjoyable to use.

Research keeps showing that for users to "trust" software then they need to have an understanding of why something is being presented to them. It is one of the biggest barriers with recommendation systems.

Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#35

Post by jeffwass »

Bokanovsky wrote: post #28
jsnell wrote: post #2

> He suggested that the service works best as an “interest-based network,” where you log in and see content relevant to your interests, no matter who posted it Yeah, no thanks. Has anybody ever been happy with Twitter's attempts to force content from non-followed users into the feed? A couple of times a year they'll opt everybody back into whatever crappy experiment they're running ("hey, we'll put some posts to your…

What I really dislike is the spam in the notifications section. If someone likes my tweet, replies to it or retweets it, that's relevant. I don't however want to see a notification for something Tweeter deems interesting under other people you follow liked/retweed this as a notification.

Agreed.

What really clogs up my notifications is when other people “like” a post I’m mentioned in. You get a few ‘runaway’ threads that pull on a few dozen people and every like becomes its own notification. A dozen people each liking a dozen tweets on the thread, the notification timeline becomes absolutely useless.

Let me mute all likes (potentially keeping likes only for my own tweets).

Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#36

Post by cycrutchfield »

baggy_trough wrote: post #25
jsnell wrote: post #2

> He suggested that the service works best as an “interest-based network,” where you log in and see content relevant to your interests, no matter who posted it Yeah, no thanks. Has anybody ever been happy with Twitter's attempts to force content from non-followed users into the feed? A couple of times a year they'll opt everybody back into whatever crappy experiment they're running ("hey, we'll put some posts to your…

Algorithmic feeds are, in all cases, Satan's handiwork. What I want is to see posts from the individuals I have selected, interleaved in chronological order, with no tampering.

If that maximized user engagement, then that is the UI they would present. The fact that they don't do that should tell you that their tests have shown algorithmic feeds are more engaging for users.

Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#37

Post by jklinger410 »

jsnell wrote: post #2

> He suggested that the service works best as an “interest-based network,” where you log in and see content relevant to your interests, no matter who posted it Yeah, no thanks. Has anybody ever been happy with Twitter's attempts to force content from non-followed users into the feed? A couple of times a year they'll opt everybody back into whatever crappy experiment they're running ("hey, we'll put some posts to your…

He's lost in the advertising metrics sauce.

Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#38

Post by hombre_fatal »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #8

I don't understand why Twitter hasn't implemented some kind of reputation gradient that would allow users to filter by levels. Yes, I realize they are tricky to implement and subject to abuse but imagine you got points for using your real name, real photo, demerits for insults etc, then users could filter out hordes of trolls and gutter nonsense and instead focus on the meaningful conversations that do actually occur…

> Even HN has a more sophisticated system

HN has such low volume that it can be centrally curated by a few people who enforce policies like "no flame bait -- and I'll know it when I see it." Or, for example, when someone writes a quick attack on HN, they are encouraged to flesh out their point with substance which is something that Twitter fundamentally discourages.

It's hard for me to see any way forward for Twitter. By design, it amplifies the worst characteristics of humans from tribalism to outrage fetishism.

For instance, even if you configured Twitter to never see posts from the opposing cultural faction or trolls (usually used as synonyms), the people you follow will retweet/quote them and bring them back into your feed.

Re: Jack Dorsey says it’s time to rethink the fundamental dynamics of Twitter

#40

Post by bhl »

dman wrote: post #6
pavel_lishin wrote: post #3

> He suggested that the service works best as an “interest-based network,” where you log in and see content relevant to your interests, no matter who posted it — rather than a network where everyone feels like they need to follow a bunch of other accounts This is probably true for the majority of Twitter's users, but this is completely the opposite of what I want. Even with aggressively pruning the list of people I f…

Networks are trying to move away from long tail content since it is so expensive to moderate. I think in next 10 years expect social networks and video playing websites to become much like network television. Ie there will be a vetted list of large creators, and everyone else will be a consumer. To do that you need to take away peoples ability to control exactly whom they follow / subscribe to.

Why can’t a network have self moderation at a global and local level? Reddit does this to an extent, with each community having its own separate moderation and culture, and the front page which is curated from a list of communities. The trick is have a moderation bottleneck, the curation, between the local and global stages.
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