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XCancel service is suspended until further notice

xcancel.com

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Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#731

Post by mitxela »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #684
hyperman1 wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very well said, and I'd like to extend the idea much further: Old reddit, Windows debloater, youtube adblock, ... There are plenty of services that turned into customer disrespect, but people do huge efforts to keep them a bit less abusive. Huge kudos to these people, but isn't it time to just let the bad businesses die? If the power users are just as unhappy as everyone else, the exoduses start much faster.

Nobody needs social media of any sort. Everyone should just turn it off and stop making excuses for yourselves to stay addicted. That said, it's easier said than done. Trust me, I know. I'm not sure I would class Youtube as social media. It can be, but some people just watch it on their TV's and never engage in a social way at all.

HN is social media.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#732

Post by mitxela »

1659447091 wrote: post #668
phforms wrote: post #434

I know it’s hard for some people (for understandable reasons), but at some point we have to ignore the X site completely and make politicians and public services/institutions aware that some people do not have or want access to the site. That is the only way anything might change someday. Maybe I’m just being naive here, but what else can you do? xcancel was amazing and I hope they can continue in some way. But since…

> but at some point we have to ignore the X site completely [...] xcancel was amazing and I hope they can continue in some way To ignore the X site completely would mean to ignore the xcancel site aswell otherwise the 'politicians and public services/institutions' will stay aware that even people who don't use x/twitter still read whatever quips they come up with through xcancel, thus mission accomplished. Same for t…

Wouldn't this also apply to people who use X telling people who don't use X what happened?

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#733

Post by chadgpt5 »

ryandrake wrote: post #726
kelnos wrote: post #717

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect that the percentage of politicians and public services/institutions who have even heard of xcancel is incredibly small. The real way to combat this is to write to your representative. The best way is probably to ask questions about something you care about, and when they reply "I've posted about this on X", tell them you are unable/unwilling to use that platform, and as a government official they should not…

> The real way to combat this is to write to your representative. I always kind of chuckle at this advice. Is there any case of a representative changing their mind on an issue because someone wrote to them about it? I've written to representatives in the past and you are always going to get one of two outcomes: 1. If you are writing in support of something the representative already agrees with, you'll get a form le…

Well, there's one or two more ways, but I think it's illegal to even say them.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#734

Post by cjkaminski »

triceratops wrote: post #719
cjkaminski wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. Show your work. Which social network has larger reach than X? Which social network has stronger influence on humans who make policy decisions than X? Which internet provider can deliver reliable access to remote regions than Starlink? Which internet provider has manipulated access in contested regions than Starlink? Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong. I don't know. What I do know is that your baseless asserti…

How do you define "reach" and "influence"? Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube all have more users, more daily active users, more aggregate data transferred.

Excellent question. My definition is admittedly qualitative. I spend a fair bit of time listening to commentary by people who are connected to policy decisions at the state and federal level (in the USA). An unusual amount of people admit to relying upon X as their barometer of public sentiment, despite their intellectual understanding that Elon Musk has his thumb on the scale. Most of them have admitted they understand the "water has been poisoned" but they also claim that all alternatives are inferior. This might not apply to YouTube as much as the others, but I haven't seen evidence that disproves this theory. I'm open to the possibility, for sure. This said, I believe that Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have a profound affect on large swaths of the population. The evidence I observe suggests that X is doing more work among the people who can text someone who makes decisions. Curious to know more about your POV. What am I missing?

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#735

Post by nozzlegear »

simondotau wrote: post #41
Kotlopou wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a standard coordination problem: I don't like X, but some discussion happens there (e.g. plenty of competent mathematicians responding to the Navier-Stokes situation) and I cannot force people to move elsewhere.

I think Wikipedia has become a cancerous blight on world politics, and I would love to see Wikipedia die so that a Mastodon-like distributed alternative could rise from the ashes. But I still use Wikipedia.

> Wikipedia has become a cancerous blight on world politics

Genuine question: why? I don't understand how Wikipedia is relevant to world politics, are people reading it as a news source?

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#736

Post by donio »

usernomdeguerre wrote: post #608
phforms wrote: post #434

I know it’s hard for some people (for understandable reasons), but at some point we have to ignore the X site completely and make politicians and public services/institutions aware that some people do not have or want access to the site. That is the only way anything might change someday. Maybe I’m just being naive here, but what else can you do? xcancel was amazing and I hope they can continue in some way. But since…

The unfortunate part is that each individual who attempts to leave is fighting the Network Effect[0]. It's fighting against the human organism's basic social nature. If every person wants to leave the platform but X person stays because Y person is there, and Y person stays because Z person is there, and Z person stays because X person is there then it's a feedback loop. Each person wants a better solution or platfor…

I have a solution for this problem: just delete the fucking account anyway.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#737

Post by RIMR »

phforms wrote: post #434

I know it’s hard for some people (for understandable reasons), but at some point we have to ignore the X site completely and make politicians and public services/institutions aware that some people do not have or want access to the site. That is the only way anything might change someday. Maybe I’m just being naive here, but what else can you do? xcancel was amazing and I hope they can continue in some way. But since…

I don't think ignoring is the right choice. This site has power that must be challenged.

One of the biggest issues I see is that governments still use X as a primary form of communication with the public. We need to push back on this with lawsuits.

There is absolutely no reason I should have to agree to a private company's TOS to receive communications from the government. It is a violation of my rights that refusal to agree to the X TOS would cut me off from public information.

It's fine if they post to X, but we need to demand laws that the government isn't allowed to have special private clubs where the general public isn't allowed without giving up some amount of their speech rights.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#738

Post by seki285 »

donio wrote: post #736
usernomdeguerre wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unfortunate part is that each individual who attempts to leave is fighting the Network Effect[0]. It's fighting against the human organism's basic social nature. If every person wants to leave the platform but X person stays because Y person is there, and Y person stays because Z person is there, and Z person stays because X person is there then it's a feedback loop. Each person wants a better solution or platfor…

I have a solution for this problem: just delete the fucking account anyway.

problem solved

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#739

Post by cjkaminski »

mitxela wrote: post #729
cjkaminski wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. Show your work. Which social network has larger reach than X? Which social network has stronger influence on humans who make policy decisions than X? Which internet provider can deliver reliable access to remote regions than Starlink? Which internet provider has manipulated access in contested regions than Starlink? Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong. I don't know. What I do know is that your baseless asserti…

Why does Starlink matter in a Conversation about X?

Because they are both part of the SpaceX Company. They are intimately tied together.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#740

Post by panopticon »

asdff wrote: post #439
sureglymop wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because X is chosen (wrongfully) as the main communications channel of all kinds of important public institutions and people (police departments, city administrations, politicians, etc.). Of course that's a real issue since the whole thing is login gated and inaccessible. But unfortunately it is the reality. So I think something like XCancel is needed.

I have no clue what my local government or any such authority could possibly tweet that would be relevant to me. I have not checked their twitter feeds ever and I am none the worse for wear.

The mountain passes near me have government-run twitter accounts, and it's usually the fastest way to get rich information on their status during storms.

There is a state government website with some of the same information, but it's usually more coarse (sometimes just the open/close status) and updated less frequently.

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