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

Message boards as PR + a recruitment feeder system for a larger organization seems viable.

The problem with any global platform where anyone can see anyone else's post and interact with it will be the same. We are humans, with different norms, cultural contexts, lived experiences, senses of humour, etc.

When we try to solve this from any lens, whether it's "we should have egalitarian values" or "free speech" or "safety," we end up compounding this problem.

While I think there are some things that are terrible and objectionable, there are other people who clearly feel differently. Does that make them "right?" and thus I need to be subjected to it? No. Does that make me then get to decide what is right?

When we put people with such different views into the same space, we incentivise those who get attention from creating a rise or reaction from the people who are different, so it's not as simple as 'just don't look at or follow what you don't like.'

There isn't a way to magic OR tech our way out of this.

To me, an optimistic view of the future internet is one in which we find small communities, and spend our time in them, even if other people think they are terrible.

There's a paradox when it comes to how 'echo chambers' work. It turns our that when we feel seen, when we have an actual sense of belonging from knowing others (not one from aligning with this or that "side") we simply become less prone to polarization and anti-social behaviour. What has caused the current problems isn't people hanging out and agreeing, it's putting people in contexts where they feel like they need to signal disagreement or agreement to people who they don't align with (to be 'acceptable to ones they do align with), even to the point where they are agreeing or disagreeing with things that make literally no sense.

So if you are thinking about re-building a global platform, please reconsider and imagine what it might look like if you spent the time you do now on Twitter actually talking to someone or extending a welcoming space.

That sounds like an application of an old aphorism I once heard: "every good filing system has a 'miscellaneous' folder".

Could maybe call it the Godel folder :)

Not to mention the people who have built their careers, personality, and livelihoods on that engagement. "Thought leaders" and "engagement grifters" are a very new (in the digital sense) and very real thing. And we can't forget the professional advocates whose job consists only of shaming, berating, and victimhood.

It's a tough pill to reconcile; make money at the expense of toxicity or find a revenue model that's benevolent. It'll be interesting to see if Twitter changes.

I disagree, though not entirely. You are right about it not being a tech problem at the core. However, tech can easily enable and augment and make the human solutions possible.

Technically, users could be using better tools to manage their interactions.

In a human sense, there is something often overlooked, and that is our current norms do very little to educate people about their options when it comes to speech they don't like.

By far the number one response is righteous indignation and that is by far the most likely wrong thing to do.

People can ignore, mute, block, and potentially use other tools to be created. One handy tool would be to pause for period of time, say an hour, day, week, month, etc... there are others.

A core realization many have yet to have is conversations go bad when we let them go bad!

To that end, people can respond with humor, questions, redirect to topic at hand and more!

The power to do that comes by weighing speech. Consider getting called an ass by a clown. Who cares? They are a clown and that exchange is as laughable as it is useless!

So that is the first thing. We need to weigh speech and gain strength from that. No need to respond from a wounded or harmed point of view. Just how harmful can drivel from someone we don't really know be? Answer is none. We just do not have to take the bait.

When we take ownership of our interactions instead of assuming an entity like Twitter being able to take on that role (it can't)[0], great things happen! One of those is understanding others better. Another is people talking to or with, not AT or PAST one another.

[0] No entity can take that role and leave us with realistic speech in most cases.

What happens is people do not want to be offended, and they expect the entity to handle that for them.

Result?

Disneyland, highly regulated, near useless and insulting[1] speech for everyone. Not good.

[1] Insulting to anyone able to manage their conversations!

Tools that encourage and empower people to do that would transform discourse. Twitter is in a prime position to make a big change in this area and have it stick.

Contact me for more on this. I am dead serious and have many years experience applying these ideas online as well as in the workplace with good results.

I cannot say it loudly enough! Each of us needs to own how we respond to others and weigh incoming speech appropriately.

So far, we have taken the lazy way and look at the mess!

Time to level up. Improve discourse and then talk to one another and reduce the polarization. Most of that is a direct artifact of seriously harmful tools in a "sick" body politic.