Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twitter starts testing 'Fleets,' its version of Stories

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 152 posts

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

#91

Post by soneca »

I wonder why social media in general enforces everything to be ephemeral. Sure, Stories are specific about it, but even regular old posts in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are very hard to track and consume. They are there, you can search if you are looking for something specific, a Facebook resurface some old memory for you when an algorithm decides it should. But they are not made to be a memory repository for users. Why is that?

I wonder this because I am building a social-network-y site (https://www.quidsentio.com) that's pretty much memory-focused, I even position it as a journal. I wonder if I am missing some obvious connection between hiding users memories and being a successful social network site.

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

#93

Post by Jagat »

soneca wrote: post #91

I wonder why social media in general enforces everything to be ephemeral. Sure, Stories are specific about it, but even regular old posts in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are very hard to track and consume. They are there, you can search if you are looking for something specific, a Facebook resurface some old memory for you when an algorithm decides it should. But they are not made to be a memory repository for users.…

That's because it's not just about you. Things you post are things that are meant to be interesting to your followers (so that they spend time on the newsfeed where ads can be injected).

And believe or not, users only find recent things interesting. You may be interested in your old content, but your followers are not, and they'd have have likely already seen your old content.

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

#94

Post by rriepe »

soneca wrote: post #91

I wonder why social media in general enforces everything to be ephemeral. Sure, Stories are specific about it, but even regular old posts in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are very hard to track and consume. They are there, you can search if you are looking for something specific, a Facebook resurface some old memory for you when an algorithm decides it should. But they are not made to be a memory repository for users.…

I've thought a lot about this recently. A large portion of people hate social artifacts.

They don't want to have their picture taken. They don't want to be recorded on audio or video. They don't want their daily utterances to be a matter of record. They want comfort and low stakes.

A performance can be evaluated in the moment. An artifact (a recording of that performance) can be scrutinized forever, even by people who weren't actually there. It's why I love public speaking but I hate being on video.

Our whole society is increasingly becoming Mirandized, where "anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of [public opinion]." Ephemerality mitigates that, providing the expression and connection of social media without the stakes.

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

#96

Post by jsjddbbwj »

soneca wrote: post #91

I wonder why social media in general enforces everything to be ephemeral. Sure, Stories are specific about it, but even regular old posts in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are very hard to track and consume. They are there, you can search if you are looking for something specific, a Facebook resurface some old memory for you when an algorithm decides it should. But they are not made to be a memory repository for users.…

Sometimes I wish I could delete everything I've ever posted on the internet. Pretty sure many people feel the same way.

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

#98

Post by cirno »

rriepe wrote: post #94
soneca wrote: post #91

I wonder why social media in general enforces everything to be ephemeral. Sure, Stories are specific about it, but even regular old posts in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are very hard to track and consume. They are there, you can search if you are looking for something specific, a Facebook resurface some old memory for you when an algorithm decides it should. But they are not made to be a memory repository for users.…

I've thought a lot about this recently. A large portion of people hate social artifacts. They don't want to have their picture taken. They don't want to be recorded on audio or video. They don't want their daily utterances to be a matter of record. They want comfort and low stakes. A performance can be evaluated in the moment. An artifact (a recording of that performance) can be scrutinized forever, even by people wh…

> They don't want their daily utterances to be a matter of record.

Experience being stalked and harassed online for years and you'll hate it as well. Imagine in your 30s having your job threatened because you made a dumb post when you were a teenager, and no one will ever let it go or accept that people change.

Many people are uninteresting, and never have this experience. Celebrities have large support networks and agents. For anyone caught between the two extremes, this can really break people who have no one to turn to and no support when they end up targeted.

> Ephemerality mitigates that, providing the expression and connection of social media without the stakes.

It's also a lie and setting people up for disaster. Nothing will stop stalkers from crawling stories with archive.is or even just taking screenshots. Nothing you put online is ephemeral, unless it's too uninteresting to be worth saving. Stalkers will write bots to scrape your Twitter stories, your Discord deleted messages and on and on, and then peruse the results at their leisure for juicy content to twist and distort.

Google currently OCRs text in screenshots posted to stalking websites to tie back to you in search results. And those websites rank like you wouldn't believe. Once Google gets their hands on it, forget it. You'll never outlive it.

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

#99

Post by cirno »

ihuman wrote: post #67
ceejayoz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter can't. Lots of people use third-party clients or the website, where detecting a screenshot simply isn't possible.

This feature might not be available in 3rd-party clients, like polls and cards.

Worst case, take a photo of your screen with another phone. The harder it is to scrape the content, the more vulnerable the content posted there will be, which will make it that much more desirable a target to scrape.

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

#100

Post by cirno »

abnry wrote: post #10
Zenst wrote: post #2

Interesting, will be interesting how they are received and utilised. Whilst they don't allow reshares, it is common for people to screenshot a tweet and share that screenshot - this won't prevent that and wonder how Twitter will police that. Also wonder if they will allow customisable expiration (up to a point), say 36 hours etc. Or allow shorter duration posts, say an hour for spot promotions - which would be a grea…

The advantage is that the tweet still doesn't show up in search.

Google has begun OCRing text inside screenshots to show up in search. I've seen it happen first hand.
Post reply on HN