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Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

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Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#31

Post by mikkergp »

dcist wrote: post #24

I don't know that Twitter actually needs to be fixed. It's very good for what it is - a microblogging platform that provides instant, timely updates on news and current topics. I think Twitter could, however, capitalize on its platform and offer additional, successful features. Twitter could offer Patreon and Substack-esque features where users could subscribe to additional, richer, and more in-depth content from con…

I don’t think “I don’t think it suffers from inherent problems” is a universal opinion:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-where-did-tweet...

Also, people talk about the bot problem like non-stop, including the new owner.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#32

Post by rr808 »

hackyhacky wrote: post #5

Hacker News has a great community, features informative discourse, and doesn't suffer from the ailments that you list (or suffers from them much less than Twitter). Therefore we should invite all Twitter users to join our healthy community. Everybody wins. Edit: I hoped it would be obvious, but the second sentence of this comment was supposed to be sarcastic.

How is HN viable? There is zero revenue only cost right?

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#33

Post by kyleyeats »

mFixman wrote: post #14

I used to agree with you until I created a new Twitter account from scratch. I'm not American and I specifically put non-political things in my interests. Yet, the second I signed up I got the following: 1. A notification about a smug reply a rando made to a Republican Congressman. 2. Posts from a meme page with a Pepe the frog avatar showing homeless people fighting in San Francisco. 3. Somebody I don't follow accus…

That seems like a pretty good cross-section of the discourse the week before election day. Not sure if it's worth extrapolating.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#34

Post by kodah »

hackyhacky wrote: post #5

Hacker News has a great community, features informative discourse, and doesn't suffer from the ailments that you list (or suffers from them much less than Twitter). Therefore we should invite all Twitter users to join our healthy community. Everybody wins. Edit: I hoped it would be obvious, but the second sentence of this comment was supposed to be sarcastic.

Every time something happens with one of the platforms we get an influx of refugees. Years ago it was Progressives, then more recently it's been more far right people. Each time theres a wave of bans and miserableness as people decide whether they want lifetime shadow bans or whether they want to conform to the culture and guidelines.

They will come, but just know things get a bit miserable in the meantime.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#35

Post by mikkergp »

edude03 wrote: post #6

> only consume the content that aligns with their views And for this reason I believe social media is fundamentally harmful to society.

Say more about this, I’ve sort of come to the opposite conclusion, especially in social media. Generally speaking, the _way_ people express their views in social media has distancing effect for me. In real life? With people talking about their life stories, sure, I may learn more about people and open my mind, but I think better echo chambers in “hot take” spaces online would open my mind and make me more tolerant of opposing views.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#36

Post by mFixman »

kyleyeats wrote: post #33
mFixman wrote: post #14

I used to agree with you until I created a new Twitter account from scratch. I'm not American and I specifically put non-political things in my interests. Yet, the second I signed up I got the following: 1. A notification about a smug reply a rando made to a Republican Congressman. 2. Posts from a meme page with a Pepe the frog avatar showing homeless people fighting in San Francisco. 3. Somebody I don't follow accus…

That seems like a pretty good cross-section of the discourse the week before election day. Not sure if it's worth extrapolating.

This happened in May. It's probably even worse now.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#37

Post by uptown »

mFixman wrote: post #14

I used to agree with you until I created a new Twitter account from scratch. I'm not American and I specifically put non-political things in my interests. Yet, the second I signed up I got the following: 1. A notification about a smug reply a rando made to a Republican Congressman. 2. Posts from a meme page with a Pepe the frog avatar showing homeless people fighting in San Francisco. 3. Somebody I don't follow accus…

My interface to Twitter is through Tweetbot. So I’m not subjected to the algorithmic nonsense that Twitter thinks I should see. However I am obviously influenced by the echo chamber of the accounts I’ve chosen to follow. I think the experience of users who view Twitter’s view of what to see is vastly different from users that use 3rd party clients. If Twitter wants to increase engagement they’d probably be best to kill off the 3rd party clients.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#38

Post by christkv »

kyleyeats wrote: post #33
mFixman wrote: post #14

I used to agree with you until I created a new Twitter account from scratch. I'm not American and I specifically put non-political things in my interests. Yet, the second I signed up I got the following: 1. A notification about a smug reply a rando made to a Republican Congressman. 2. Posts from a meme page with a Pepe the frog avatar showing homeless people fighting in San Francisco. 3. Somebody I don't follow accus…

That seems like a pretty good cross-section of the discourse the week before election day. Not sure if it's worth extrapolating.

I think the problem is why does he a non American get pushed shit from American political fringes at all.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#39

Post by goatlover »

lambic wrote: post #26
edude03 wrote: post #6

> only consume the content that aligns with their views And for this reason I believe social media is fundamentally harmful to society.

I think this might be partly a generational thing. My son and my younger friends follow a wider variety of people and aren't so easily sucked into the echo chambers. The networks are also partly to blame with their recommendation systems.

Then again Reddit skews younger and the main subs are echo chambers.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#40

Post by pj_mukh »

mFixman wrote: post #14

I used to agree with you until I created a new Twitter account from scratch. I'm not American and I specifically put non-political things in my interests. Yet, the second I signed up I got the following: 1. A notification about a smug reply a rando made to a Republican Congressman. 2. Posts from a meme page with a Pepe the frog avatar showing homeless people fighting in San Francisco. 3. Somebody I don't follow accus…

Here's the uncomfortable question though, can a social media platform achieve sufficient scale, so its more useful for discoverability than your group chats, without optimizing for engagement?

Discord is a happy medium (just, really large group chats).

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