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

I resigned from Twitter

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 1001 posts

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#371

Post by sanderjd »

dnautics wrote: post #230
danschumann wrote: post #219

Twitter made me feel: some combination of violated, indignant, numb, inferior, empty, powerless, disappointed, embarassed, furious, annoyed, and infuriated.

I used to feel that way, but I aggressively moderated who I follow in a purge, and being selective about who I add as follows. It feels like it's easier to marie-kondo people I don't care for anymore in twitter since there's little-to-no-expectation that I know anyone on twitter, and for me, anyways, twitter is a much more pleasant experience than any other social network has been.

My problem is that "person" is a broader category than I want to unfollow. There are precious few people whose posts I want to see all of. Most people I have ever followed exist somewhere on a continuum of what proportion of their tweets I want to see. It would be nice to have more positions on the knob than 100% and 0%.

What I'd really like would be to say "don't show me tweets like this from this person". Yes it's hard to figure out what "tweets like this" mean to me, but hey, you're a giant company that does nothing but show an updating page of hypertext, seems like you could throw some work toward figuring this out.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#372

Post by [deleted] »

xeromal wrote: post #277
mardifoufs wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did dorsey stand up to anything? They are trying to monetize twitter just as much, with extremely annoying dark patterns to boot. They just don't seem to succeed as well. The way they redesigned feeds, made linking to tweets a coin toss because of how often they just show "oops something went wrong" if you aren't logged in, or if you are lucky made it so Twitter threads just don't show anything but the single lin…

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1349510769268850690?lang=en Here's an example off the top of my head. Banning Trump I felt was pretty courageous.

[deleted]

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#373

Post by brightball »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Where it all went sideways was when mainstream news started showing tweets on air.

EDIT: I need to add clarification. I don't mean when breaking news gets onto mainstream channels. No question that happens.

What I mean is the use of a single tweet with maybe 1 or 2 likes here or there to reflect public sentiment on different issues. All any news station had to do was fish through the pile of tweets about any given topic to find something they wanted to show on air and then act as if it represented a large segment of people. I watched it happen over and over for years.

Twitter created the ability to engineer the perception of public sentiment already with bots, but when main stream news joined in things went downhill much, much faster.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#374

Post by smolder »

jcadam wrote: post #276
koheripbal wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with Dorsey is that he acknowledges how toxic Twitter is, but has no idea how to fix it nor did he seem ready to do so, and this made investors very nervous. See his recent interview on CNN : https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/2100868666791589/

I don't think it can be fixed. Social media in general is a cancer.

HN is not what I'd call cancer. Social media doesn't need to be an engagement-obsessed, emotionally charged misinformation hose. Social media is broader than the category that twitter and FB live in. It can be less toxic, but less toxic platforms are less exciting and don't get the same kind of attention, which is what all the toxic stuff optimizes for.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#375

Post by latexr »

kevingadd wrote: post #305
xeromal wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1349510769268850690?lang=en Here's an example off the top of my head. Banning Trump I felt was pretty courageous.

They waited FOREVER to actually ban Trump. A staffer enforced the rules to ban him well before that and Jack's organization courageously reversed it. Until they finally banned him, they openly violated their own rules for years to keep him on for attention.

And they explicitly used him as a selling point for Twitter: https://www.cnet.com/news/donald-trump-twitter-ad-campaign-j...

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#376

Post by charkubi »

juancampa wrote: post #236
danschumann wrote: post #219

Twitter made me feel: some combination of violated, indignant, numb, inferior, empty, powerless, disappointed, embarassed, furious, annoyed, and infuriated.

Here's a tip on how to make the best out of Twitter: unfollow anyone that makes you feel that way. Think about it, it's not Twitter per se, it's the people you follow, and that's under your control.

This is good advice generally.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#377

Post by sporkland »

a4isms wrote: post #248
handrous wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed that lots of C-suite and owner/CEO startup people have like three to five active business roles on their Linkedins. A fun case of "rules for thee, but not for me" when it comes to anti-moonlighting clauses and such. I can't "give it my all" if I take some weekend gigs, but you can hold two C-suite positions, be on two boards, plus have an "advisory" role with some startup? It's a lot like drug testing fo…

“Rules for thee but not for me” is interesting when placed in juxtaposition with a famous quote from the software architect and composer Frank Wilhoit: Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. That applies to no-moonlighting clauses, but also to no sexual harassment clauses,…

I have an open mind about it and have seen it many times, but I struggle with the leaps of logic required to understand the one proposition of conservatism. On its face it is obviously unfair, and it's hard for me to see it as the obvious consequence of conservatism which is "heavily trust the past and move forward with caution".

Can you help me connect the two or at least help me understand the underlying proposition?

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#378

Post by Geee »

skytreader wrote: post #251
phreack wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a lifesaver in countries with rampant inflation where they forbid you to buy currencies from other countries. Literally in some cases.

So, it's easy to find a list of the countries with the highest inflation rates, but which of those countries actually forbid individuals from acquiring foreign currency? I assume you have a verifiable example? Not to mention, for an everyman living in one of these countries, how feasible is it to actually participate in crypto to the point where it is useful in day-to-day living ? How much upfront investment will it…

This short documentary about Bitcoin in Africa makes it easier to understand why Bitcoin is important in developing (or authoritarian) countries. It'll answer some of those questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7lm7IHnKDw

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#379

Post by Tijdreiziger »

BurningFrog wrote: post #367
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is a social medium.

The more I think about this, the less I agree. To be a social medium/network, I think you need to follow/"friend" specific people. That's what makes it social. I'd say HN is a "forum". I realize these are my personal definitions, and there are no correct answers.

Isn't Reddit usually considered a social medium? HN seems pretty similar to Reddit, but without subreddits and with better moderation.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#380

Post by pvsukale3 »

Unrelated:

I really liked the "Hi mom!" at the end of the letter. To be one of the co-founders and CEO of global tech co, and to say "Hi mom!" at the end of the your publicly shared resignation letter is such a big flex.

I understand his mom must already have been very proud of him, but this hit different.

Post reply on HN