It gets worse. If you make a twitter account, then sign out, it will refuse to show you anything until you either sign back in or clear your cookies. I made a quick account to test out the API, then found that I'd need to give them a phone number actually generate an API key. Suddenly, every publicly-visible URL started stating that I must be logged in to view the content.
Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
51–60 of 250 posts
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#52Honestly, this seems like the most entitled thing ever. You want to use someone else's stuff for free but you get annoyed that they want you to have an account.
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#53> Unfortunately twitter is going the direction of quora, pinterest, facebook, and medium Don’t forget Reddit. Reddit’s login pop-ups are more aggressive than Twitter’s for me. > Now you can perhaps read ten tweets or replies to a linked tweet without an account before the same thing occurs Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account.…
> I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account No no no, companies should not be allowed to this kind of bait and switch: 1) provide a free service 2) gain market dominance, push out competitors, and turn into a necessity for millions of users 3) create lock-in and exploit the userbase Essential public utilities are regulated (properly, in many countries) to avoid thi…
I'd call Twitter many things, but never a necessity. And the contrived person for who it is, has an account and won't be bothered by a login prompt.
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#54I killed my accounts when they gave me the GDPR consent to tracking or close account ultimatum so nowadays I have the privacy redirect browser extension send me to nitter instead when I need to read tweets.
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#55> Unfortunately twitter is going the direction of quora, pinterest, facebook, and medium Don’t forget Reddit. Reddit’s login pop-ups are more aggressive than Twitter’s for me. > Now you can perhaps read ten tweets or replies to a linked tweet without an account before the same thing occurs Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account.…
> Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account. If you’re trying to scroll deep into conversations or someone’s Tweets, it’s reasonable to expect that you’d need to become a user of the website. Oh of course. But then it should have been that way from the start . Instead they were user-friendly at first, and only once they'd grown eno…
Why would you not want an account on a website you rely on? It's one thing to complain that your occasional visits to twitter are more inconvenient now. But if you would go so far as to say that people rely on them, then it seems like a silly hill to die on for those people to resist creating an account.
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#56> Unfortunately twitter is going the direction of quora, pinterest, facebook, and medium Don’t forget Reddit. Reddit’s login pop-ups are more aggressive than Twitter’s for me. > Now you can perhaps read ten tweets or replies to a linked tweet without an account before the same thing occurs Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account.…
> Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account.
I agree with this to a degree. However, it's so much easier to find and interact with/around content tailored to your interests on FB/Twitter/Reddit than to use the indie web. Network effects mean the silos are growing and the experience of using the more open internet is increasingly niche. This seems a shame to those of us who really enjoyed the more open internet. (I'm not saying it's dead, just that the people who missed it are so well catered for by the silos that they don't go looking for it, so it stays niche).
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#57> Unfortunately twitter is going the direction of quora, pinterest, facebook, and medium Don’t forget Reddit. Reddit’s login pop-ups are more aggressive than Twitter’s for me. > Now you can perhaps read ten tweets or replies to a linked tweet without an account before the same thing occurs Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account.…
> I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account No no no, companies should not be allowed to this kind of bait and switch: 1) provide a free service 2) gain market dominance, push out competitors, and turn into a necessity for millions of users 3) create lock-in and exploit the userbase Essential public utilities are regulated (properly, in many countries) to avoid thi…
What’s exploitative about offering a free account?
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#58I guess there isn't much we can do besides creating an account in 30 seconds and not using it, it's not that bad
Last time I tried to create an annoymous account ,they asked for tel verification. (not exactly when you sign it up but after a few day)
Same. It allowed me to create an account with just an e-mail address, but soon after the account was suspended for "unusual activity" and the only way to unlock it was with a phone number. At this point I gave up.
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#59I see this as a feature and not a bug now that I no longer have an account on Twitter. If I absolutely want to read a tweet, I can. But the barrier to entry is a _good_ thing to me.
It's delightful. All these trash sites are under pressure to deliver more profits (presumably) and they're going to find out how little we all need them.
Shame that that heroin needle is behind a sign-up/paywall barrier...
Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account
#60Honestly, this seems like the most entitled thing ever. You want to use someone else's stuff for free but you get annoyed that they want you to have an account.
Twitter sells eyeballs. Do they pay me to visit their site? To tweet?
Is Twitter entitled to my attention? In only narrowly proscribed ways that maximize their own benefit?
Quid pro quo.