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The End of Big Twitter

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Re: The End of Big Twitter

#41

Post by nmjohn »

bphogan wrote: post #32

In a completely unrelated matter, I liked the Dave Matthews Band before they were cool. Seriously though, the revelation that the "unwashed masses" now dominate a platform is pretty much commonplace. Twitter has, for me, become a news stream and very little more. I did an experiment where I recorded and released a song a day, and nobody really noticed; I promoted via social media and all that, but really, there's so…

> Twitter has, for me, become a news stream and very little more.

It has for me as well.

I just checked and I have tweeted exactly once in the last year, it was when I was on vacation in march. Before that, it was August 1, 2013.

However I still frequently use twitter. I have a highly curated followers list which results in 70-80% of the tweets I see being relevant to me. When I am waiting in line, or waiting for my food at a restaurant if I'm eating alone, or am just bored, it is a great way to get highly curated content without having to do really anything.

I don't know if I've ever said this before, but some of the comments on the article itself are pretty spot on.

> I can´t see where is the problem with a platform in which you can choose who to follow and what tweets you ignore/pay attention to ??? works just fine for me. I devote some time to "edit" twitter, I mean MY twitter.

> The great thing about Twitter is that if your signal:noise ratio is wrong, you have no-one to blame but yourself: resolute use of the Unfollow button cures all ills!

It's kindof like reddit, if you unsubscribe all the defaults and follow topics you are interested in (some of which get crazy specific niches and have relatively active communities for how specific a niche may be) your experience will increase ten-fold.

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#42

Post by RickS »

colinbartlett wrote: post #26
transpy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's see how (or if) Quora or HN follow that path.

I don't really see Quora ever getting the regular Joes.

I think it has already.

My feed now looks like this:

What should a 22 year old do with $3000

What should a 23 year old do with $2000

What should a 25 year old do with $5000

on and on and on.

A few years ago, it would have been "How can/should spending and saving evolve over a person's life?"

I know that's a specific and perhaps pedantic example, but there's been a definite shift in the vibe on Quora, from a place where users hoped to contribute insight, to a place where users feel entitled to receive it.

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#43

Post by lovamova »

A_COMPUTER wrote: post #39

Twitter is an optimal conduit for narcissism, trolling, harassment, mobbing, astroturfing, demagoguery, and manufacturing consent. The medium shapes the discourse, and Twitter encourages and amplifies bad behavior while inhibiting intelligent and thoughtful conversation. Even if it didn't architecturally push you toward this behavior the scale alone enables every bad behavior you would expect if you scaled a single I…

This bad behavior can be fixed. Take a look at http://sublevel.net

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#44

Post by grrowl »

nmjohn wrote: post #41
bphogan wrote: post #32

In a completely unrelated matter, I liked the Dave Matthews Band before they were cool. Seriously though, the revelation that the "unwashed masses" now dominate a platform is pretty much commonplace. Twitter has, for me, become a news stream and very little more. I did an experiment where I recorded and released a song a day, and nobody really noticed; I promoted via social media and all that, but really, there's so…

> Twitter has, for me, become a news stream and very little more. It has for me as well. I just checked and I have tweeted exactly once in the last year, it was when I was on vacation in march. Before that, it was August 1, 2013. However I still frequently use twitter. I have a highly curated followers list which results in 70-80% of the tweets I see being relevant to me. When I am waiting in line, or waiting for my…

The greatest difficulty is that you may follow someone you like, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll like their stream, and it can be difficult thing to ascertain based on a paltry handful of latest statuses.

Honestly I'm surprised they haven't started influencing the order non-chronologically, I'd love to prioritise certain people I know IRL or bump certain hashtags.

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#45

Post by drivingmenuts »

nsxwolf wrote: post #19

One of the advantages of being a total nobody is that I don't have these sorts of problems with Twitter.

Ditto that.

To be honest, I'm not even sure why I'm on Twitter, seeing as how I only look at it once a week or so.

And it used to be sort of handy for sign-ons.

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#46

Post by jarek »

XorNot wrote: post #40
fineline wrote: post #36

I have never had a Twitter account, nor have I ever posted to Facebook (although I do have a page, so the press have a nice picture of me in case I'm kidnapped or something, as well as 50 or so "friends", although I have no idea who many of them are or where they came from). So I don't quite get what this guy is complaining about. How was posting to a privately owned (by someone else) but publicly broadcasted platfor…

You should have a Twitter account. I have a Twitter account under my real name with a keyboard smash password, just to ensure no one else can take it. Same with Facebook.

Then someone registers @XNot with name XorNot and you're no better off.

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#47

Post by camillomiller »

calinet6 wrote: post #24

This is great. It's just perfect. The service purposefully limited to naturally content-light context-light 180-character quips—whose intent is to broadcast and be broadcasted to unfiltered—achieves its destiny. The result is natural and unavoidable. I'm so happy we're beginning to realize it. Seriously though, this is one of those unmeasurables that's difficult to nail down. Sure you could blame it on changes to the…

It's 140' but yeah, you nailed it. Synthesis ability is a good thing. In longer constructs, that is. We don't base our lives on aphorisms alone. Sometimes we really need to be verbose. Sometimes we really need to read "à la recherche du temps perdu". Twitter is just heading to its natural destination, a place where people share links and headlines and quick comments of little to no value. All the "revolution instrument" narrative is plain bullshit, too. A high percentage of what you'll have on your timeline is nonsense in no particular order. Only thing I save: lists. Useful for news gathering, but not much more.

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#48

Post by egeozcan »

kordless wrote: post #37
liface wrote: post #21

Platform starts, intelligent, well-spoken early adopters sign on. Fast forward 7-8 years. Platform is overrun by normal people. Early adopters leave and move on to the next platform The cycle continues.

Where are we going again?

We don't have to go anywhere. It's the joy of trying new ways to communicate and having feedback.

So we're going nowhere. We're just running in circles. Social circles, I guess.

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#49

Post by voyou »

josu wrote: post #5
snoman wrote: post #3

Twitter is useful and interesting, but your idea of rich conversation is shallow or weak if it was ever satisfied by conversations that were had 140 characters at a time.

Don't undersimate the power of 140 characters. It helps you convey your thoughts. Take Plato's Republic as an example, most of the conversations could have happened in twitter-form, and not much would have been lost (assuming that some replies would be two or three tweets long).

Perhaps The Republic would have been even better in tweet form, because all the bits where someone says "yes, Socrates" could have been replaced by simply favouriting a tweet.

Re: The End of Big Twitter

#50

Post by digitalengineer »

RickS wrote: post #42
colinbartlett wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really see Quora ever getting the regular Joes.

I think it has already. My feed now looks like this: What should a 22 year old do with $3000 What should a 23 year old do with $2000 What should a 25 year old do with $5000 on and on and on. A few years ago, it would have been "How can/should spending and saving evolve over a person's life?" I know that's a specific and perhaps pedantic example, but there's been a definite shift in the vibe on Quora, from a place whe…

Agreed. Killed the e-mails with toplists from Quora some time ago. Too much bs.
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