Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#11

Post by danShumway » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:46 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #4

I wonder what the real reason for account deletions is. Could it be possible they have overflowed their primary / foreign key allocation necessary to support further user growth? Depending on their internal architecture, a migration to a wider key might not be feasible within the time horizon they have. Maybe it's easier to delete accounts? If they have weird sharding and a lot of microservices, this might be their o…

It could be a variety of reasons.

If you forced me to guess though, I think the most straightforward, simplest one is that threatening account deletion is a good way to force older users to become active again, which will increase engagement on their platform and allow them to deliver more ads. In other words, the same reason that Facebook will start spamming your email if you stop logging in.

I can't imagine any manager at Twitter would be upset about the idea that a substantial portion of their dormant userbase would be effectively "forced" to log in every 4-5 months or so.

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#12

Post by 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:50 AM UTC

cheald wrote: post #8

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it’s something that interesting. I’ve read it’s mostly a legal thing regarding the original terms and conditions accepted by the user.

What's with the rash of accounts with hex/base64 names today? They've been popping up all over.

Im not sure what the other anonymous cowards are doing but I’m just not very creative and did:

    head /dev/urandom | shasum

When creating a throwaway.

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#13

Post by emptybottle » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:51 AM UTC

fphilipe wrote: post #9

undefined3840 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty disappointing. Their share price has been completely flat since IPO. I’m surprised shareholders have not revolted against Jack being a part time CEO. Clearly there needs to be some dedicated focus to clean up the app. So much potential to be so much better.

It has always amazed me how one can be a part time CEO, let alone CEO at two companies simultaneously. How would a board even allow that?

Part time board

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#14

Post by onion2k » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:51 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #4

I wonder what the real reason for account deletions is. Could it be possible they have overflowed their primary / foreign key allocation necessary to support further user growth? Depending on their internal architecture, a migration to a wider key might not be feasible within the time horizon they have. Maybe it's easier to delete accounts? If they have weird sharding and a lot of microservices, this might be their o…

I would be pleasantly surprised if one of the big tech companies was deciding policy based on actual technical problems rather than politics/'business' reasons/whatever junk science is trending today. That would make a nice change.

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#15

Post by Sendotsh » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:52 AM UTC

I understand why some people are upset about it (Eg due to accounts of deceased people), but I was really REALLY hoping to snap my first name which was registered by a European person 10 years ago, has 0 followers, and has never posted.

I definitely feel like they could compromise and at least delete those blatantly unused ones.

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#16

Post by taneq » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:52 AM UTC

danShumway wrote: post #11

echelon wrote: post #4

I wonder what the real reason for account deletions is. Could it be possible they have overflowed their primary / foreign key allocation necessary to support further user growth? Depending on their internal architecture, a migration to a wider key might not be feasible within the time horizon they have. Maybe it's easier to delete accounts? If they have weird sharding and a lot of microservices, this might be their o…

It could be a variety of reasons. If you forced me to guess though, I think the most straightforward, simplest one is that threatening account deletion is a good way to force older users to become active again, which will increase engagement on their platform and allow them to deliver more ads. In other words, the same reason that Facebook will start spamming your email if you stop logging in. I can't imagine any man…

Wow, I'm usually pretty cynical and even I didn't think of that one. Makes sense when you put it like that though!

Also as someone said below, it forces users to accept any new changes to the ToS.

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#17

Post by rahuldottech » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:53 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #6

undefined3840 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty disappointing. Their share price has been completely flat since IPO. I’m surprised shareholders have not revolted against Jack being a part time CEO. Clearly there needs to be some dedicated focus to clean up the app. So much potential to be so much better.

Vine could have easily beaten TikTok. It was already well positioned.

TikTok didn't even exist back then. It's essentially a Vine replacement + extras.

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#18

Post by cryptoz » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:55 AM UTC

Sendotsh wrote: post #15

I understand why some people are upset about it (Eg due to accounts of deceased people), but I was really REALLY hoping to snap my first name which was registered by a European person 10 years ago, has 0 followers, and has never posted. I definitely feel like they could compromise and at least delete those blatantly unused ones.

Not posting on twitter doesn't mean the account is unused. Lots of people make accounts and follow people and are DAU but never post.

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#19

Post by gonehome » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:57 AM UTC

Sendotsh wrote: post #15

I understand why some people are upset about it (Eg due to accounts of deceased people), but I was really REALLY hoping to snap my first name which was registered by a European person 10 years ago, has 0 followers, and has never posted. I definitely feel like they could compromise and at least delete those blatantly unused ones.

Yep - I was looking forward to getting my name username too.

The user has no tweets, has followed nothing and done nothing since registering 2013.

I hope they end up doing it.

Re: Twitter account deletions on 'pause' after outcry

#20

Post by avian » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:58 AM UTC

Did Twitter already delete inactive accounts in the past? When I created my account in 2008 my preferred handle was taken by an empty account that seemingly never posted anything. With this recent news about account deletions I was curious if maybe I could get it, so I checked it again. I was surprised to see that it’s now a very active account with a “joined in” date in 2014. So it looks like the old inactive one was deleted at some point and then the handle was re-registered by someone else. Either that or the “joined in” date isn’t accurate.