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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

#91

Post by ordinaryperson »

pjc50 wrote: post #71
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…

Less than 5% of the accounts I follow have a checkmark. Most of the most interesting ones don't use their real name or profile pic. The real problem is that reputation can't be absolute but is relative to a context. Hence the blockbot partial solution.

As I mention in another reply -- I'm not saying this filtering would result in the most interesting feed, but it's frustrating you can't filter your feed at all.

If some people want more interesting opinions, great. If others want more bland but less abuse, also great. Right now you can't filter for anything and most of tweet replies are a giant waste of time.

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

#92

Post by jimmy1 »

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.

And the option to choose the algorithmic filtering based on my needs, in the rare cases that the number of individuals or volume of their tweets may be too large to take in chronologically.

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

#93

Post by smacktoward »

Dorsey recalled that when the team was first building the service, it decided to make follower count “big and bold,” which naturally made people focus on it.

“Was that the right decision at the time? Probably not,” he said. “If I had to start the service again, I would not emphasize the follower count as much … I don’t think I would create ‘likes’ in the first place.”

If you put something in front of people that looks like a score, they will start thinking of it as a score. And then they will inevitably start recognizing and incorporating behaviors that tend to increase their personal score. Which leads to competition among them as to who can rack up the highest score, and that competition drives them into a spiral of increasingly extreme behavior in order to stay ahead of the pack.

If Twitter was smart they would just stop displaying follower, like and retweet counts altogether, or at least hide them away someplace deep within a pile of submenus and dialog boxes. Displaying this information prominently is what created the feedback loop that made Twitter into the cesspool it is today.

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

#94

Post by tomschlick »

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.

So basically Reddit

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

#95

Post by jimmy1 »

avip wrote: post #84
dmode wrote: post #82

I recently closed my Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit accounts. A week has passed since then and I have noticed that I have been really happy and optimistic. Probably the happiest in the last 5 years. I am still tempted to take a glance at Reddit or Twitter. It is almost a drug like addiction. These platforms are designed to provoke, agitate, and make you mad. It was immensely bad for my mental health and I am sure for…

But can you close your HN account? That's the ultimate challenge.

I find HN more rewarding than any other social site I visit.

Healthy discussions, engaging topics and interests, no clear political slant in either direction, with multiple groups and opinions represented (you know, real diversity of thought). Finally no ads being shoved down my throat unless its engaging content disguised as an advert that reaches the top, in which case I am OK with because at least the advertiser tried, and it got support enough to be upvoted and shared.

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

#97

Post by p1necone »

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…

As far as I can tell the real motivation for so many feed based services doing this is just that if you stick enough irrelevant non ad shit in users feeds the ads will blend in better. None of these companies will ever publicly admit that that's the intention though.

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

#98

Post by 013a »

The way I see it: If you don't want to run into assholes, you can make your account private. Or, you know, not use Twitter. Its that easy. If you have thicker skin, there are tools to manage public accounts, like blocking and reporting.

A large number of people want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the advantages of a public twitter, primarily publicity and fame, but they can't deal with the darker side of human nature. Twitter should do everything they can to tame that darker side, because fundamentally their platform is built on public discourse, not private cliques, but its a losing battle. And moreover, any control they exert has the unintentional effect of polarizing people further, which makes the problem worse; Twitter is, to a degree, their own worst enemy.

> where you log in and see content relevant to your interests, no matter who posted it

So, Reddit.

Twitter is trying to steer clear of a massive storm on the horizon, except the ship has a hundred million people on it and most of them want to sail right into the Eye. They may be in for a small shock when they realize that it won't work.

Its far beyond the product they publish to the app store; there's a culture on there that you can't just change. You can't change a few lines of code and expect people to behave differently, or still want to install it. Facebook was very smart and knew this; the primary platform got took over by grandmas and bad flash games, so they started buying tangential properties like Insta and Whatsapp.

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

#100

Post by p1necone »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #36
baggy_trough wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"User engagement" is a euphemism for "eyes on screen for as long as possible" and is a good metric for selling ads (the best one really).

It's not a very good metric for measuring actual usefulness to users at all though.

We need a business model for social media where incentives for companies and their users actually line up.

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