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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

#961

ITT. Non-X users complaining that they can't use X. If you don't like the content on X enough to make an account, I don't see how this is a big loss. And yes I've on occasion had the same thought with TikTok - it'd be nice to see the vids that people send me, without making an account. But I'll just have to live my life without having seen that one super funny/interesting/enlightening video, or have to ask for a summ…

It's more that tons of local services (like firefighting updates) directly post their latest updates there

Time to pressure the local place to do the right thing.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#962

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Optics and logic are two different things. The optics seem to be working out well for him, for some reason.

Sure but my point is the Twitter experience is trash and not required like, say, paying an evil ISP or interacting with Google (for 99.9% of people abandoning and fully dodging Google is incredibly difficult). It’s working out for him because people won’t leave (even though engagement and user numbers are still below pre-acquisition numbers). It only has value because of his acquiring it with his other company. Prior…

> You can all walk away. You don’t need it.

Except some people still want it, thats the uncomfortable truth that lots of people cant accept. I see lots of comments giving different reasons people think that other people cant leave twitter, but at the end of the day millions of people still like and use it all the time. Thats why its still there.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#963

ITT. Non-X users complaining that they can't use X. If you don't like the content on X enough to make an account, I don't see how this is a big loss. And yes I've on occasion had the same thought with TikTok - it'd be nice to see the vids that people send me, without making an account. But I'll just have to live my life without having seen that one super funny/interesting/enlightening video, or have to ask for a summ…

Indeed. I have the same... tons of links to tiktok or instagram... which I happily ignore. The fact that governments or other groups are not able to properly disclose important information through actually public channels is the problem.

I often run into businesses or events that only publish information on facebook. There was also a time (not sure how prevalent this still is) that people organized parties solely through facebook. I wish them well.

Although overall I agree that we basically dug a very deep and nasty hole for ourselves. xcancel or nitter not working anymore is quite irrelevant imho.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#964

ITT. Non-X users complaining that they can't use X. If you don't like the content on X enough to make an account, I don't see how this is a big loss. And yes I've on occasion had the same thought with TikTok - it'd be nice to see the vids that people send me, without making an account. But I'll just have to live my life without having seen that one super funny/interesting/enlightening video, or have to ask for a summ…

The primary difference of course being that not a single worthwhile thing has ever been posted on TikTok, while X is a "public space" used by politicians, governments, public figures, news agencies, et al. I'd like to see the fire department's tweet without having to sign up for X on the spot right now and do a 20 round captcha, followed by a prompt to install the app to verify my age, because suspicious activity was…

> Twitter is a public space used by politicians, governments, public figures, news agencies, et al.

I'm quite happy that something like LinkedIn is separate from general purpose social media (imagine the self-aggrandizing spam otherwise, or having to sift past someone's holiday photos when wanting to see what's new in the corpo world).

What's missing is something the same for any and all official messaging - imagine something like Twitter, but for governments, various institutions, politicians, public figues and all that, a degree more separated from the regular and more individual content you often see on the "unprofessional" social media, almost like a news feed.

Tbh that could be a Mastodon instance, it boggles the mind that fire departments and police precincts and all of those institutions are on such a user-hostile platform run by someone whose motivations are at best unclear.

It's sad that such a distinction never developed, especially cause a lot of the orgs just want broad reach (especially when you're a politician or something), so network effects are once more kicking everyone's butt and we're held hostage and no competitors can gain enough steam. So if you want to see those posts, guess you'll have to make that account and get datamined or whatever.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#965
post #882

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, Comcast is not an "activist group" and the study literally got awarded by the Royal Statistical Society. As a cherry on top, they do owe researchers in the EU (though this was done in the UK, I know Sky has an EU presence as well) API access or similar under Article 40 of the DSA.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700433 https://www.allsides.com/news-source/sky-news-media-bias You’re just being brazenly disingenuous at this point. The publication is left-leaning, regardless of the distant parent company. The experts they used to design and run the study were literally left-wing political advocacy groups, and a self-declared left-wing disinformation researcher. The award is an empty appeal…

Ever so slightly left leaning by your source.

Centralist and unbiased by another: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/sky-news/

That's quite the achievement for a group that was once firmly a propaganda wing of the global Murdoch PoV.

"brazenly disingenuous" in such context is a ridiculous and emotive over statement.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#966

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very much on the side of xcancel and nitter on this one, but I do think it's fair to point out that Twitter is free of monetary charge. It's not free in the sense that you do have to provide some personal information and data to them in exchange for that free account, but it isn't a huge roadblock for most people, however annoying it may be. Now that said, I sure hope Elon will pivot this and make these services…

The phrase "free speech" does not typically mean "free as in beer," rather it means "free as in freedom," so in this case you're conflating the two meanings of "free" in English. The fact that Twitter is login-gated makes it objectively less free as in freedom.

Generally we in the western world consider ourselves 'free' citizens. Yet to live this life you need to register your birth, get a social security number, and enroll in education etc.

I dont see signing up to twitter any differently to this. You register with an email address and you are granted access. Similarly to registering a birth and being granted access to 'society'.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#967
post #833
post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happened to me this past weekend. I post engineering related things, and out of nowhere blocked, no reason, no email, no communication. I just sent an "appeal" but don't know what the hell I'm appealing. This destroys my trust not just in X, but in social media. If bots are this big of a problem, then I guess I can't use them if there is a risk out of nowhere my account is hit. The network effect is real though.

Had this happen on Reddit, and the kafkaesque injustice rankles. No reason, no communication, just one morning 10+ years of posts and comments all gone as well as anyone who had ever replied. The "appeals" page said my appeal (for ???) was granted, but it's still broken , and the appeals page lies and mocks my by claiming my account is in good-standing as a reason not to let me contact anyone. And good luck contactin…

Yeah that sucks. Social media shouldn't have this power. I don't recall phone companies banning people by the thousands after listening to their calls.

These sites also wait until they are very large to act this way. HN has been pretty good I guess, but it's not quite social media.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#968

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am speaking about free speech (lowercase, in the colloquial sense), not Free Speech (the constitutional right). So am I. If a comedian is doing a bit at a bar and they charge a $5 cover to get in is that infringing on “free speech”. Of course not, that’s absurd. Why would be it any different online?

> if you have two identical posts, and one is behind a login wall and one isn’t, the one not behind the login wall is objectively more free. Do you disagree with this statement? If so, why?

To live in our 'free' western society you must register your birth and get a social security number. You also need to attend education. This is effectively 'registering' for access to 'society'. I dont see giving twitter an email address to view content on their platform as any different to this.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#970
post #882

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, Comcast is not an "activist group" and the study literally got awarded by the Royal Statistical Society. As a cherry on top, they do owe researchers in the EU (though this was done in the UK, I know Sky has an EU presence as well) API access or similar under Article 40 of the DSA.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700433 https://www.allsides.com/news-source/sky-news-media-bias You’re just being brazenly disingenuous at this point. The publication is left-leaning, regardless of the distant parent company. The experts they used to design and run the study were literally left-wing political advocacy groups, and a self-declared left-wing disinformation researcher. The award is an empty appeal…

You keep claiming all these statistical failures, yet you fail to produce evidence for any of them.

I'm sorry, but I trust actual statistics experts more than some guy on HN that makes bold assertions with no proof. To say "nuh uh" and then not back it up with anything is below the standard of debate I expect.

What are these "obvious" failures? Why have you failed to point them out concretely over several comments now? What statistical knowledge do you possess that makes them obvious to you but not to one of the most prestigious statistics organizations in the world? Please, do share with the class.

Your ideological attempts to poison the well by ignoring objective data because you don't like the messenger are not an argument.

To call me disengenous when you spent the last several comments failing to engage with the data and trying to hand-wave it away is ridiculous.

It is getting very hard to assume good intent at this point. This series of comments paints a picture of somebody starting from ideological priors and then trying to bend reality to arrive at their premade conclusion. I would be happy to be proven wrong here, but so far you have failed to do so.

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