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Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#511

Post by pinkcan »

techwizrd wrote: post #268
dbish wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which Twitter replacement are people moving to (edit:looks like Bluesky if they can keep the servers up)? I’m a big fan of Elon and what he’s built so I wasn’t planning on leaving, but can’t even use it now. Mastodon still seems too complicated to get the masses on. Where will non-tech folks go?

I created a Mastodon account yesterday before I even knew about this and it was surprisingly easy and user-friendly. The big thing it's missing, for me, is a way to find the Mastodon accounts for people you follow on Twitter. If more of the AI/ML community switched to Mastodon, I wouldn't have any need for Twitter.

had you done this before the API was closed you'd have had access to a bunch of tools that let you find twitter users on mastodon

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#512

Post by spaceman_2020 »

nperez wrote: post #17
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #15

I refuse to believe that Twitter is so hammered by scrapers that it can’t even serve text content.

I don't think it's about servers getting hammered so much as it's about AI causing them to rethink the value of their data, then deciding user hostility is the best way to extract said value

Can't wait for Elon's AI startup sending me answers in 1/35 threads.

I think Elon's real plan is to ride the AI hype train, and the best way to do that is to pretend that Twitter is their "moat".

With his capacity for bullshit and the market's willingness to give gobbles of money to bullshit, I'm sure he can ride his bullshit AI startup to $50B valuation easily.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#513

Post by choward »

This has to be the dumbest idea I've ever seen any social media company make and that says a lot.

First, I can't find any documentation explaining the rate limits. Just his tweet. Is this a rolling limit? Where do I see how many posts I've allegedly read? Do replies count as posts? Also, you can't go back and re-read the tweets that counted toward your limit.

His tweets are getting over 20,000 replies. That means that if posts count, even if you paid for your account you still can't read all the replies for a single tweet. This also worsens the experience for existing paid users because the whole point of posting something is so that your followers see it. And if he's trying to get new paid users, why would anyone pay to get a far worse experience than they were just getting for free yesterday?

To add to the absurdity, the error you get is "Something went wrong. Try reloading." And once you hit the rate limit you can't even view the Twitter Support account or your own profile. You can however still see Tweets in your notifications.

On top of that, this isn't how you handle bots/AI. That's not the purpose of rate limiting. Wrong tool for the job. This is incompetence no matter how you look at it. None of this makes any sense.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#514

Post by pinkcan »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #487
pinkcan wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a lot of smart people fell for Elizabeth Holmes charm and put their money on Theranos for the purpose of this thread saying “Elon is fundamentally a dumb guy” is a statement of opinion, one that a growing number of people agree with

It's not a statement of opinion, it's a bitter resentful raving.

okay

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#515

Post by croes »

jklinger410 wrote: post #406
user_named wrote: post #230

This is hilarious. It appears that Twitter is DDOSing itself. The Twitter home feed's been down for most of this morning. Even though nothing loads, the Twitter website never stops trying and trying. In the first video, notice the error message that I'm being rate limited. Then notice the jiggling scrollbar on the right. The second video shows why it's jiggling. Twitter is firing off about 10 requests a second to its…

> Twitter is firing off about 10 requests a second to itself to try and fetch content that never arrives because Elon's latest genius innovation is to block people from being able to read Twitter without logging in. Hey, just as an FYI, this comment doesn't make any sense. Why would blocking people from viewing the TL on the home page cause Twitter more stress?

Browser:can I get the tweet?

Server: No

Browser:can I get the tweet now?

Server: No

Browser:can I get the tweet now?

Server: No

Browser:can I get the tweet now?

Server: No

Browser:can I get the tweet now?

Server: No

Browser:can I get the tweet now?

Server: No

Browser:can I get the tweet now?

Server: No

Browser:can I get the tweet now?

Server: No

Browser:can I get the tweet now?

Server: No

You know what I mean?

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#516

Post by blowski »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #485
slawton3 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even funnier when Elon confirmed that scrolling through a tweet counts as a read.

Isn't that obvious though? What else would count as a read?

Yes it's obvious, but it's so bizarre that I assumed the title had to be clickbait or poorly written. But no, it's absolutely correct.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#517

Post by SamReidHughes »

Freedom2 wrote: post #498
valval wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? He’s not the one making claims. Do you have any idea how this works?

He claimed his parent comment is making stuff up? What do you mean he's not the one making claims, there's one right there? Or do you mean claims about Elon? It would suit your comment better to be more specific, please try to do so in the future :)

user_named's post is absolute nonsense.

"Elon thought he'd be able to wiggle out of it because he assumed the SEC would be the regulatory body he'd be up against"

Bullshit like this has no relation to reality whatsoever.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#518

Post by CamperBob2 »

ROTMetro wrote: post #281
__jem wrote: post #39

Incredibly bizarre way to intentionally kill your app, even after all the other nonsense he's been doing. Even if I were willing to pay for something as cringe as verification, 6000 posts a day is laughable for an app like Twitter. I hit the rate limit on my "unverified" account in about 5 minutes. I've been waiting for $newApp to get enough users to be fun, and this only motivates me more to be the change I want to…

Now imagine being on Elon's Mars colony and having your breathing rate limited out of the blue one day. Today switched my vision of that from wonder and hope to seeing it as volunteering to become one of the belters in The Expanse. I'm kinda sad to have moved from the 'let me in' to 'hard pass' on that dream. It was one of that last big future dreams 1990s me had for the 20X0's.

I'm kinda sad to have moved from the 'let me in' to 'hard pass' on that dream. It was one of that last big future dreams 1990s me had for the 20X0's.

Yep. Elon clearly lost his motivation for Mars at some point, either because he was confronted with unshakeable evidence that his goals were impossible to achieve, or because he just got bored and distracted.

My guess is that the latter explanation is closer to the mark. But on the other hand, learning that his dream was out of reach could easily have led to the kind of dissipative, self-destructive loss of focus that we've seen from him over the past couple of years.

For those of us who were on board with his original vision, he's just another Lucy, holding just another football.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

#519

Post by tiedieconderoga »

user_named wrote: post #230

This is hilarious. It appears that Twitter is DDOSing itself. The Twitter home feed's been down for most of this morning. Even though nothing loads, the Twitter website never stops trying and trying. In the first video, notice the error message that I'm being rate limited. Then notice the jiggling scrollbar on the right. The second video shows why it's jiggling. Twitter is firing off about 10 requests a second to its…

You'd think they would at least throw in an exponential backoff. Here, I'll help.

    to = 2;
    while (!request(timeout=to)) {
        to *= 2;
    }
I'm available for a 6-week contract. $1M plus a ride in a Dragon capsule, cash up front.
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