Live data from Hacker News

XCancel service is suspended until further notice

xcancel.com

991–1000 of 1001 posts

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#991
post #924

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically impossible to not engage with any corporate products at all. It's trivially-easy to not engage with specific corporate products. I don't engage with Twitter, because I won't sign up and that makes it useless to me. I'm not missing out on anything I care about.

Just one example: Facebook is mandatory for school/university in large parts of Asia. You cannot trivially block them. They should be considered an utility.

How did facebook make its way into education like this? Can you explain to an outsider?

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#992
post #842

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public communications from government entities really should be legally required to be disseminated on public forums (ideally properly hosted on .gov domains for easy verification, with RSS feeds) Cross-posting on other platforms should be allowed (with backlink to the .gov), but the .gov should be authoritative.

Unfortunately that requires a level of technical competence that most government entities don't have in the US. Not to mention the ridiculous requirements/processes that are placed on official govt software.

Technical competence can be acquired as needed. Or more likely the other way around, the government creates an entity that provides this competence to other government entities.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#993

Regardless of the legality of the service: I always use xcancel instead of X. I don't have a twitter account and I don't want to sign in. I just occasionally want to read what some people had to say about something. Even this is usually a mistake. It's probably better taken as entertainment. My point is: companies stop making your product suck, and people won't have a reason to try and fix it for you.

I hate when companies do this. Instagram is a black box for me. Whenever someone sends me a link the web app is completely nonfunctional; clicking links just reload the page, it constantly tries opening the app, etc The last time I signed up for an Instagram account (2016) it got immediately flagged as a bot account. I think I was supposed to appeal it to have it reinstanted, but why bother if this is how badly they…

> immediately flagged as a bot account

You have to disable all ad-blocking (either extensions or Pi-Hole) in order to make it past that "feature".

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#994
post #796

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, most of the people are upset because they're Democrats politically on Twitter, and the old one catered to them.

As far as I can tell, the only way Twitter has substantively changed over the past few years is that a small (but non-trivial) number of politically obsessed left-wingers have voluntarily self-exited. Everything else is narrative.

It's also become a whole lot more hostile to anonymous visitors, hence the topic under discussion. That's not just narrative but a fact.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#995

Regardless of the legality of the service: I always use xcancel instead of X. I don't have a twitter account and I don't want to sign in. I just occasionally want to read what some people had to say about something. Even this is usually a mistake. It's probably better taken as entertainment. My point is: companies stop making your product suck, and people won't have a reason to try and fix it for you.

Indeed, with the best will in the world, nothing on X is that essential. XCancel is the only way I read it.

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#996

Regardless of the legality of the service: I always use xcancel instead of X. I don't have a twitter account and I don't want to sign in. I just occasionally want to read what some people had to say about something. Even this is usually a mistake. It's probably better taken as entertainment. My point is: companies stop making your product suck, and people won't have a reason to try and fix it for you.

I hate when companies do this. Instagram is a black box for me. Whenever someone sends me a link the web app is completely nonfunctional; clicking links just reload the page, it constantly tries opening the app, etc The last time I signed up for an Instagram account (2016) it got immediately flagged as a bot account. I think I was supposed to appeal it to have it reinstanted, but why bother if this is how badly they…

I'm sorry that I keep posting this but it gets said often enough that I'm just going to hopefully kill it permanently

People say repeatedly Instagram was a 'great acquisition' (it was. It destroyed Facebook's competition. Great for them, not for users). That Zuckerberg bought it when it was 'barely a company'. That it's somehow not antitrust (Zuckerberg in emails: "Instagram can hurt us"). People loved Instagram. Not anymore, not for a long time. Stop giving him the benefit of the doubt

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#997
post #968

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same reason is wrong to require a Google or Apple phone to exercise basic civil duties within government services. You are gating the service, or information, behind a 3rd party ToS, a login, and basically stating that you are not allowed to have it until you hand over personal data to such companies.

I've made this same comment several times now. To live in our 'free' western society, you need to register your birth, get a social security number, and attend state dictated education. Life in general is now gated, and if you do not abide by the rules you do not get the benefits of society. How is this any different to "you are not allowed to have it until you hand over personal data".

Gated by a provate company where they have no recourse if they ban you is an issue. Also they just repeatedly boil to frog with anti user experiences. No, I won't install your app!

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#998
post #965

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

If you’re going to take the time to respond, could you please at least attempt to answer the clear and straightforward question I asked?

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#999
post #61

I don't see how any government or business (especially the former) can justify using X at this point when it doesn't serve the public interest or the interest of customers who deserve at least some choice. It's as unreasonable for them as using Instagram or a dating app for something intended for broad reach and accessibility. I don't particularly like Bluesky, but it's publicly readable and has RSS. Any real solutio…

[dead]

Re: XCancel service is suspended until further notice

#1000

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1 is true: if you control the web server, you control whether the content is published as readable by anonymous visitors. 2 is true: if you disagree, provide the name of that singular corporation. To be clear, you're always relying on corporations, but there's no single gatekeeper. 3 is not the same: if I see something published on "www.water.dcceew.nsw.gov.au" I can be reasonably confident that it is published by my…

1. You don't control the wordpress.com or tumblr.com web server 2. Wordpress or Tumblr respectively 3. but it's not, it's dcceew.tumblr.com or dcceew.wordpress.com

Assuming this is a goodfaith argument for a second !

You can host a wordpress wherever you like with whichever provider you like or even on a potato in a closet. The format and data are open and can be switched to any platform at any time without an account or login.

RSS !

Post reply on HN