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Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

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Re: Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

#83
post #15

This will be popular, and might even replace regular usage, as Stories have in Instagram. It'll enable people to be more authentic, transparent, and casual. It will help counter Twitter getting increasingly LinkedIn-like. I made an app called Blink that did exactly this a few years ago: https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/blink . Build it and they will come, not :)

I honestly couldn't disagree more with this assessment of "stories".

Stories are great for the platform. They drive user engagement, and, hence, advertising.

As far as I can tell, they're terrible for the users. You have to constantly be active to not miss something, you can't just check back in after a few days. For some reason, comments are private only, which is almost never what I want -- as a poster, as a commenter, or as an observer. Contrast that with (say) a "normal" IG/FB post of a picture from the beach, where comments are public and a community of people and comment on it and reply to each other in a social way. Stories are basically broadcast-only. They're also MUCH more time-consuming to create.

I've only done a few stories, always when traveling solo, so I have time to kill and it was useful to learn something new the first time. The only positive thing I can say about them is that, because they're ephemeral, I feel less bad about posting some stupid snapshot of something unimportant/trivial.

That this is coming to Twitter is even more concerning, because it's already the most shouty, least-community driven social network, with the largest multiplier on saying trolling/annoying/controversial/stupid things in the pursuit of clicks and likes and retweets.

Re: Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

#84
post #83
post #15

This will be popular, and might even replace regular usage, as Stories have in Instagram. It'll enable people to be more authentic, transparent, and casual. It will help counter Twitter getting increasingly LinkedIn-like. I made an app called Blink that did exactly this a few years ago: https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/blink . Build it and they will come, not :)

I honestly couldn't disagree more with this assessment of "stories". Stories are great for the platform. They drive user engagement, and, hence, advertising. As far as I can tell, they're terrible for the users. You have to constantly be active to not miss something, you can't just check back in after a few days. For some reason, comments are private only, which is almost never what I want -- as a poster, as a commen…

I find that Instagram stories, being ephemeral (they disappear after 24 hours) have done a lot do reduce the impact of "instagram perfection". You get to see a bit more of people's real, everyday lives.

You're right that you miss things if you don't check it at the right time, but that's ok, you don't have to see everything.

Re: Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

#85
post #64
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they want to police it? Surely Twitter is perfectly fine with you posting screenshots of things of interest (obviously within obscenity and legal restrictions).

Because if users posting screenshots of fleets becomes a common thing, users would be averse to post fleets?

I don't know. Twitter reposts of TikTok videos seems ubiquitous, but it seems like TikTok is still thriving. I don't think the primary reason people post a story rather than a permanent post is that they want to ensure the story only lasts for a day. At least for Instagram, I think it's more about keeping your main feed highly curated while still being able to hammer out tons of stories.

Re: Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

#86

I really don't get it. Twitter has five thousand full-time employees. I have to assume at least 20% of them are in product development in some capacity. What exactly are these people doing all day? I can't point to a single notable product innovation they've had in years. And they continue to ignore the drumbeat of user asking for an edit button, and are completely unable to come up with any kind of reasonable soluti…

The only comment on HN more tiresome than "lol I can build twitter over a weekend" is a comment by a throwaway implicitly claiming that fixing the twitter product problems is easy.

Re: Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

#87
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly couldn't disagree more with this assessment of "stories". Stories are great for the platform. They drive user engagement, and, hence, advertising. As far as I can tell, they're terrible for the users. You have to constantly be active to not miss something, you can't just check back in after a few days. For some reason, comments are private only, which is almost never what I want -- as a poster, as a commen…

I find that Instagram stories, being ephemeral (they disappear after 24 hours) have done a lot do reduce the impact of "instagram perfection". You get to see a bit more of people's real, everyday lives. You're right that you miss things if you don't check it at the right time, but that's ok, you don't have to see everything.

I've stopped using Instagram to post pictures; I only use stories. I post a lot of trash/ephemera/jokes on stories. It's much more fun that having to figure out what to post. It's not permanent.

Re: Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

#88
post #15

This will be popular, and might even replace regular usage, as Stories have in Instagram. It'll enable people to be more authentic, transparent, and casual. It will help counter Twitter getting increasingly LinkedIn-like. I made an app called Blink that did exactly this a few years ago: https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/blink . Build it and they will come, not :)

How often do you click on the avatar of people you follow? I think it’s a rare action.

Re: Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

#89

I wonder how much research went into the name "Fleets". To a lot of people, the first thing that comes to mind after "Fleets" is "enema" as in "Fleets enema". I am not sure Twitter wants to evoke that image. Then again, maybe this is Twitter acknowledging the toxic nature of Tweets and why they should be flushed out of the system quickly.

I've studied in the US, binged every Sorkin series, scored a 700 on the verbal SAT, and work almost exclusively in an English-language environment. And yet I've never heard of Fleets enema". It's strange what cultural blind spots remain. That being said, "Fleets" strikes my non-native ears as an above-average naming choice with its double entendre of "Group of something" as well as "fleeting". (It's also an ongoing p…

Never heard of it either, here's someone else making the same point:

https://www.inputmag.com/culture/im-sorry-but-twitter-babe-y...

Twitter acknowledging it: https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1235271981462720512

Re: Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

#90
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly couldn't disagree more with this assessment of "stories". Stories are great for the platform. They drive user engagement, and, hence, advertising. As far as I can tell, they're terrible for the users. You have to constantly be active to not miss something, you can't just check back in after a few days. For some reason, comments are private only, which is almost never what I want -- as a poster, as a commen…

I find that Instagram stories, being ephemeral (they disappear after 24 hours) have done a lot do reduce the impact of "instagram perfection". You get to see a bit more of people's real, everyday lives. You're right that you miss things if you don't check it at the right time, but that's ok, you don't have to see everything.

Huh. I generally think social media is a positive thing in my life, and often wonder why people get this FOMO/anxiety thing, but the few times I've noticed folks broadcasting their "perfect" lives, it's those using stories. And, again, it's not helped by the lack of human response. You don't get someone saying "man, that looks perfect!" followed by the OP saying "well actually, all these things went wrong and it was a disaster, but i got this one shot when everything came together" .. without that human interaction it's just a broadcast-only image, which seems to be meant for broadcasting perfection.

That may, however, just be a matter of the KINDS of people in my life who use stories, though. Selection bias.

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