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Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

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Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#501

Post by ncr100 »

Nas808 wrote: post #331
AlexandrB wrote: post #20

I've viewed twitter wayyyyy less (only when someone links something) since Tweetbot stopped working and I think it's been good for my mental health. A login wall will take that usage down to zero, so good news overall.

I find Twitter really annoying to use now, since they made it so all of the replies from blue checkmark accounts get boosted to the top of the feed. I have to scroll past all of them just to find "normal" comments. The BlueBlocker browser extension is helping, but it can only block 1 account approximately every 15 seconds, or it triggers a rate limit and I have to sign-in to Twitter again.

Just goes to show you why some startups fail. It's on musk, who is changing Twitter to have the characteristics of a startup that would have failed.

Yes it's enormous and popular now, but that's in spite of musks product vision.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#503

Post by technofiend »

nunez wrote: post #110

This killed nitter. Fuck. I guess I'm done with Twitter. Reddit is in Eternal September. Twitter is login-walled. If HN is next, I'll probably be mostly done with the Internet. This version of the Internet is starting to suck. :(

I mean I consider this a huge win: delete your Twitter account and never again will you be tempted to go read a tweet. If only I could set an anonymous expat cookie for all the services I've left behind letting them know "No, seriously: I left and I'm never coming back. No reason to track me, show me your content or ask me to login." Where's my restraining order cookie telling Facebook to fuck off outta my life, never to return?

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#504

Post by ncr100 »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #143
jamesgreenleaf wrote: post #7

Musk commented on this: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1674865731136020505 "Temporary emergency measure. We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!"

"Data pillaging", WTF does that mean? Remember when Twitter used to give archives of tweets to the Library of Congress? And had a firehose for folks to consume as many tweets as they could?

Yep. BS artist says more BS.

It's a shame that he's not able to escape his pathological belief that his product approach is the right approach, regardless of the grotesque impact he's making on what was a good thing for all of us.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#505

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

calebcannon wrote: post #463
akira2501 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This version of the Internet is starting to suck. :( The internet is fine. The highly centralized businesses that built themselves on the technology are meeting their inevitable end.

The internet is most definitely not fine. There is an incoming tsunami of chat gpt generated bullshit that is going to make most open discussion sites more or less useless. Twitter requiring accounts and Reddit shutting down apis are both related: chat gpt et al are a threat to the social media business and ironically made possible because of the social media business. TBF I think we should all be exercising extreme…

Social media companies are acting like a drug user who was getting their dope for free but now has to turn tricks behind the dumpster. Easy money (aka low loan rates) has dried up or much harder to justify so companies that have used their user population as a means to profit are realizing they need to charge money for things like blue check marks or API usage when all the VC's won't give them a hit anymore.

Publicly free content from users devolves to garbage content. I think the Chat GPT effect is they're realizing its easier for companies/entities to generate garbage that is at or exceeding the intelligence of comments by actual people (a low bar). Sure there are pockets of usefulness but this is tiny amongst the firehose of garbage.

If all that is publicly available on social platforms is just garbage nonsense, people will just stop going if any barrier is thrown in front of them. The internet as a technology stack is fine. This is how social media dies (hopefully).

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#506

Post by ChainOfFools »

sneak wrote: post #500
zmmmmm wrote: post #337

It always irked me that public institutions embraced Twitter as a primary means of communication in many cases. It never seemed right that a private company was being put in between public functions and the the public which depends on them. Not to mention, since I live outside the US, a private company in another country. I even wrote complaints to one local public body to ask them to set up a communication channel t…

Public institutions now often require agreeing to the Google Account ToS to get public schooling. IMO this should be illegal.

And if it's not Google it's Microsoft. Which is, and I can't believe I'm saying this, the lesser of two evils at this point. There's a 2003 me staring through a time travel portal absolutely aghast that 2023 me is saying something like this.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#507

Post by meepmorp »

threeseed wrote: post #271
andyjohnson0 wrote: post #258

If this is Linda Yaccarino's first major policy decision as CEO then it's not looking good. I really don't know what they (corporate) can do at this point.

Musk is in charge of Product and Technology so this is his decision. She is much more akin to a CEO at Large running around closing ad deals.

Imagine trying to do your job closing ad deals and the owner decides to block public access without prior notice. Nothing says "we're a trustworthy partner who won't damage your brand," like major changes made seemingly at random.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#508

Post by teddyh »

incompatible wrote: post #470
teddyh wrote: post #76

Paul Graham famously started to use Mastodon (but has not written anything there since last year). But the HN Status emergency “is HN down” channel is still only on Twitter. It used to be publicly readable at https://twitter.com/HNStatus >. But now, if HN was to go down, only logged-in Twitter users would be able to see why.

If HN is down, I'll just try again in a few hours, or maybe tomorrow. Maybe I'd start getting interested about what happened it was down for a week or so. Would HN being down count as an emergency for anybody else?

“Emergency” is used here in the sense of “sudden or unexpected occurence”, i.e. “fallback”. Maybe “backup channel” would have been a more appropriate term.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#509

Post by NelsonMinar »

russdill wrote: post #359
NelsonMinar wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Data pillaging", WTF does that mean? Remember when Twitter used to give archives of tweets to the Library of Congress? And had a firehose for folks to consume as many tweets as they could?

I love how the town square model gets completely thrown out whenever it's inconvenient.

[flagged]

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#510

Post by kevinmchugh »

KerrAvon wrote: post #94
kevinmchugh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has been deferential to governments to date, even when that flies in the face of his idea of a free speech platform.

Musk has also been deferential to catturd2 and banned journalists for imagined crimes.

I like to be able to point to times when Musk errs from his stated free speech mission so I'm curious for the journalists in question. I know he upheld the Alex Jones ban explicitly because he found Jones' speech distasteful. It'd be nice to have a more sympathetic person to refer to.
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