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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

#101

Post by mypalmike »

danShumway wrote: post #35
ilamont wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've done quite a bit on the product front, although it's fair to question the utility to average users: - Increased tweet length to 280 chars - Tweet threads - GIF integration - Multiple UI revisions of desktop and mobile apps There's also been a fair amount of work on ads and security, although these changes will be less apparent to most users.

But is any of this really stuff that should take 1000 engineers to build? Tweet length? GIFs? I don't question that those engineers are working hard. I'm sure they're not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. And I don't question that there aren't some genuinely hard, complicated problems to solve at Twitter, particularly around scaling and security. But from a structural perspective, I do still kind of wonder if co…

There's a ton of infrastructure to build and maintain at Twitter. Yesterday's solutions don't scale and need replacing. Yesterday's "just get it done, we'll worry about cost (or quality, or operational burden) later" have happened and it's time to fix. Lather, rinse, repeat.

This post should give you an idea of scale at Twitter. When I worked there, I spent about 2 months focused just on creating software to help automate the Clos migration mentioned. And there are just tons of things like this that are constantly being worked on.

https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/topics/infrastruc...

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

#102

Post by lotsofpulp »

KarlKemp wrote: post #55
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #47

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…

Also born and raised in US and have no clue what a fleets enema is.

edit: apparently it’s a brand of enema laxative. I wonder what proportion of people have had to use an enema. I may be in the minority due to young age and being male?

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

#103

Post by lostgame »

cmauniada wrote: post #68
ASalazarMX wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine, I concede that although Snapchat does monetize porn content with premium accounts, it's not its main purpose; the meme is relevant. Still, please don't reply with memes. Before you know it, people will start replying with threads of lyrics here too.

I understand, but my reply was meant to allude to both how out of touch the older generation is and also how they look down at snapchat. I have snapchat and I use it everyday pretty much, its so much more than just sending nudes, so it irks me a bit when someone calls it just a nude sharing app. Thus my reply.

But I am a millennial who literally uses Snap for this very purpose and pretty much only this purpose - like most of the people I know who use it. Otherwise, it’s WhatsApp.

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

#104

Post by jeromegv »

Zenst wrote: post #6
OedipusRex wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot prevent that and it cannot be policed.

I concur about preventing, though T&C's could enable policing. Also a nice (c) notice would enable self-policing upon such infractions to some extent. But certainly it will not be a fluid process currently. Let's see if they update T&C's to accommodate that aspect.

Because the other twitter terms and conditions on harassment are so well policed. That some people are concerned about screenshots instead of bullying, harassment, etc that we see every day on the platform is quite something.

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

#105

Post by Jonovono »

shanev wrote: 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 think this is what's driving tiktoks success (or at least why I am obsessed). Tiktoks bring an entirely new level of getting to know someone that I havn't ever met before that i've never experienced before on an app.

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

#106

Post by mLuby »

Jonovono wrote: post #105
shanev wrote: 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 think this is what's driving tiktoks success (or at least why I am obsessed). Tiktoks bring an entirely new level of getting to know someone that I havn't ever met before that i've never experienced before on an app.

Wasn't this Snapchat back in the day? And Twitter before that?

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

#107

Post by nine_k »

cirno wrote: post #98
rriepe wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I keep saying that, and I'll repeat.

To my mind, if you're posting something publicly (or even semi-publicly but you can't vouch personally for everyone who has access), stop and think. Would you mind if the content you're posting, with your real name attached, were posted on every wall in your city, and on the front page of every newspaper?

If you'd feel uncomfortable, don't post it publicly.

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

#108

Post by Shank »

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.…

The biggest thing is that I find my own posts cringeworthy 6 months back. Facebook's Timeline revamp a few years back really exacerbated this by making it easy to jump back multiple years to see what people had posted.

A small example: people often post memes & jokes on social media. Old memes don't really sound funny though, unless they were well recognized. They seem embarrassing or downright stupid. You look terrible if you find one of those old posts.

On the larger scale: most people grow more mature over time. So you have this whole historical graph of someone's life and you can easily surface when they made less great decisions or were younger. Lots of people don't like this.

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

#110

Post by awad »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #47

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 never heard of this phrase. At first I thought ships but then within the context of Twitter and their nomenclature, Fleets as temporal and Tweets as short messages made more sense, though I still thought it a terrible name.
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