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Twitter Notes

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Re: Twitter Notes

#201

Post by robocat »

ckastner wrote: post #171
lamontcg wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would just love to get rid of the obnoxious writing style that twitter thought-leaders use when they're posting a thread. They always start with a fairly obnoxious click-baitey sentence. Then usually a fairly narcissistic hook about how "i'll explain" then "a " and "/1". And then each tweet needs to be punchy enough in 240 characters to keep people reading which produces a particularly annoying writing style. Then…

I wholeheartedly agree with all of what you said, but this stands out: > And then each tweet needs to be punchy enough in 240 characters to keep people reading which produces a particularly annoying writing style. I also find this writing style insufferable (every sentence a punchline), but though it may seem obvious in hindsight, the explanation that otherwise people won't keep reading had escaped me. I thought that…

/1 The existing Twitter limitations strongly encourage conciseness, which I often like.

/2 Blogs, articles, and HN comments like this, can ramble on and make diversions that I don’t always care for.

/3 I would like a dynamic slider control where I could contract someone’s writing to their essential point (tl;dr) or expand it (longreads).

/4 Bonus boffin round: a control to vary depth/complexity. I mostly would use simplification à la ELI5 or simple.wikipedia.org.

Re: Twitter Notes

#202

Post by notatoad »

dend wrote: post #76

My reaction to this is that it's an effort to keep users within the "walled garden" of Twitter, which is not the best thing for those that write. Recall the story with Medium - yes, you get broader reach with less effort, but at the cost of giving up control of your content. I know that I am talking with an overly developer-focused lens (a-la "you can reimplement Dropbox in a weekend"), but self-hosting blogs outside…

i think it's pretty easy to see the simplest motivation for this project: all the twitter users who post screenshots of the iOS notes app. they literally gave it the same name.

is this better than a screenshot of the notes app? IMHO the answer is a pretty obvious yes. how it compares to various other blogging platforms isn't super relevant. it's not a blog, it's a feature for people who are already on twitter and already using twitter to publish longer-form content in suboptimal ways.

Re: Twitter Notes

#203

Post by the_gipsy »

emadabdulrahim wrote: post #197
the_gipsy wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medium has turned in such a unusable shitshow now, it should be a lesson for anybody who seriously considers using twitter as a writing platform.

It amazes me how Medium held the shrine for the BEST blogging platform and the best reading experience for a few years around 2015. Which didn't last long as it became one of the worst platform for writers and readers alike. How can a company shit the bed so bad?!

Bait and switch, we see it every day. Acquire users with a good product, then squeeze the shit outta that without remorse.

Re: Twitter Notes

#204

Post by dend »

notatoad wrote: post #202
dend wrote: post #76

My reaction to this is that it's an effort to keep users within the "walled garden" of Twitter, which is not the best thing for those that write. Recall the story with Medium - yes, you get broader reach with less effort, but at the cost of giving up control of your content. I know that I am talking with an overly developer-focused lens (a-la "you can reimplement Dropbox in a weekend"), but self-hosting blogs outside…

i think it's pretty easy to see the simplest motivation for this project: all the twitter users who post screenshots of the iOS notes app. they literally gave it the same name. is this better than a screenshot of the notes app? IMHO the answer is a pretty obvious yes. how it compares to various other blogging platforms isn't super relevant. it's not a blog, it's a feature for people who are already on twitter and alr…

I would generally agree, _except_ with the fact then this just defeats the entire point of Twitter - it might as well become the next Medium then. Which, let's be realistic, can be a strategy too - become a content publisher rather than an aggregator of links and short opinions. But then again, that's not why I am personally on Twitter. YMMV.

Re: Twitter Notes

#205

Post by the_gipsy »

skybrian wrote: post #198
the_gipsy wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medium has turned in such a unusable shitshow now, it should be a lesson for anybody who seriously considers using twitter as a writing platform.

How does that follow? They are entirely different companies. Twitter will make its own mistakes. (Perhaps Musk-related, who knows?)

Same cofounders or some other strong relation, idr

Re: Twitter Notes

#206

Post by minsc_and_boo »

sumy23 wrote: post #54
dgs_sgd wrote: post #4

I welcome this. I always hated the long multi-tweet essays and have often just given up on reading them, especially when I'm not logged in I can't even make it to the end before twitter blocks me from scrolling further. As of now it doesn't look like you can reply to a note with another note? That might go a long way for improving debate and discussion.

I just tried reading some of the things written by Twitter's test authors. I immediately missed the old format. For one, the old format forces succinct points. There isn't any fluff in a Twitter thread. First four paragraphs in the sample I read: > Hello. Hi. Do you have a moment to talk about porgs? > Yes. Porgs, the cute things seen in Star Wars Episodes VII and VIII. > These. > (Image of porg) > Many people might…

Yeah, part of Twitter's rise to popularity was that it was the response to noisy long-form content that blogs were spamming the internet with.

Blogs are relatively rare now but it seems Twitter is coming full circle to enable blog-like content, in response to Medium and others it seems.

Re: Twitter Notes

#207

Post by Invictus0 »

The text-to-viewport-height ratio of this page on desktop is so low it's just astonishing.

I can't imagine many people will click on a tweet to read it. If you're going to make me click, just link to a real website?

Re: Twitter Notes

#208

Post by darth_avocado »

caycep wrote: post #87
dend wrote: post #76

My reaction to this is that it's an effort to keep users within the "walled garden" of Twitter, which is not the best thing for those that write. Recall the story with Medium - yes, you get broader reach with less effort, but at the cost of giving up control of your content. I know that I am talking with an overly developer-focused lens (a-la "you can reimplement Dropbox in a weekend"), but self-hosting blogs outside…

With the "walled garden" comment, I'm wondering - nowadays, all sorts of discourse seems to depend on these types of proprietary services/platforms, that employ armies of engineers to keep them running, develop new features, etc. Attempts to make things decentralized all seem to be aggregating into central controls, i.e. "Web3/crypto" -> coinbase, kraken, etc Why aren't older decentralized "services" protocols being…

Walled gardens exist because it costs money to keep the garden flourishing.

Keep in mind, in this walled garden, all the walls do is make you log in, everything else is still free.

Decentralization still requires someone to pay for keeping these services alive. You could argue every user somehow be able to own and run their own platform, but in reality most of the users will not opt for the overhead when you can get it for "free" from a provider. And in a semi decentralized world where a few separate providers keep the lights on, the providers would still need to be compensated for the time and resources they invest, which again brings you back to a different kind of a walled garden.

Re: Twitter Notes

#210

Post by j1elo »

lamontcg wrote: post #92
dend wrote: post #76

My reaction to this is that it's an effort to keep users within the "walled garden" of Twitter, which is not the best thing for those that write. Recall the story with Medium - yes, you get broader reach with less effort, but at the cost of giving up control of your content. I know that I am talking with an overly developer-focused lens (a-la "you can reimplement Dropbox in a weekend"), but self-hosting blogs outside…

I would just love to get rid of the obnoxious writing style that twitter thought-leaders use when they're posting a thread. They always start with a fairly obnoxious click-baitey sentence. Then usually a fairly narcissistic hook about how "i'll explain" then "a " and "/1". And then each tweet needs to be punchy enough in 240 characters to keep people reading which produces a particularly annoying writing style. Then…

- "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

For all the horrible UX that Twitter, is, one thing I really appreciate is that the thought-leader (or anyone, really) was forced to sit down and write Pascal's shorter letter; i.e. to take their time and think hard how to convey just the essential ideas they want to express, without fluff or narrative detours (which, if preferred, can be found in other longer form media)

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