I Hope Twitter Goes Away • Hacker News Board

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#121

Post by taude » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 10:20 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #99

penprog wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use twitter for announcements and then for comments on those announcements. Very few people have actual conversations. When a conversation does happen, it's usually the root poster agreeing (or disagreeing) with the person that tweeted at them. I don't see anyone going to twitter with the initial intent of conversing with someone. Nobody goes onto their computer and says "Hey I'm gonna go message this person o…

You're just flat out wrong. That's why there's a tab dedicated to replies. Twitter conversations can be incredibly interesting and benefit all participants by being public. Twitter's setup hugely encourages @ing people in your tweets.

Except conversations are badly broken. So many people don't hit the actual reply, so conversations get cut off, often restarted, and thus become fragmented, which makes them hard to follow and participate in. Sometimes it works. Often it doesn't. I think this is what the OP was talking about.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#122

Post by paulannesley » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 10:24 PM UTC

I completely disagree.

> Twitter is good for two things: engaging with #Brands, and broadcasting messages to whoever wants to read them.

I almost never engage with brands on Twitter.

I do broadcast messages — to anybody who has chosen to follow me and hasn't chosen to unfollow me, both of which are freely done without any social consequences.

On the flip side, I read that which others have broadcast, provided I follow them. And I'm free to shape exactly who's in that set of people, without worrying about circles or unfriending or which IRC channels to sit in.

The author writes about communities, and about moderating IRC channels and making decisions about who can stay and who is banned. Perhaps he prefers to shape and steer communities in a way that Twitter doesn't facilitate.

Personally, the ephemeral and asymmetric nature of the Twitter social graph is the defining feature. The 140 character limit is perhaps just a constraint which helped that feature survive.

The author also mentioned harassment on Twitter. I've never been on the receiving end of it, and I hope I've never been on the other end either. But I believe it's a real problem. I hope there's a solution, but “Twitter going away” isn't that solution.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#123

Post by adnzzzzZ » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 10:26 PM UTC

abhididdigi wrote: post #114

Lots of Negativity here again. Most of the commenter here are saying it is wrong when he says Twitter should die because it doesn't encourage good communication, and then blocks his own comments section. It just means he wants to have a meaningful communication. He says, you can email him, or write your own blog post to refute or add on to what he says. That way you will be facilitating a great communication.

>It just means he wants to have a meaningful communication.

If you want to communicate you don't create barriers for it to happen. There's nothing inherent to comment systems that prevents people from writing meaningful comments.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#124

Post by vacri » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 10:35 PM UTC

cr3ative wrote: post #3

Wait, is this satire? His Twitter account is linked in the header, and it just posted about this article. He claims to want to encourage conversations, but comments are disabled. What is this?

The author probably created the header when he was a twitter user, and hasn't gotten around to reformatting it yet. No great conspiracy.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#125

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 10:37 PM UTC

tux3 wrote: post #21

cr3ative wrote: post #3

Wait, is this satire? His Twitter account is linked in the header, and it just posted about this article. He claims to want to encourage conversations, but comments are disabled. What is this?

>He claims to want to encourage conversations He certainly does not want to encourage conversation. >Twitter has absolutely no way for me to share with others that someone isn't a person I want in my communities; It seems that what this person wants is that everyone he talks to think like he does. That's not a community, that's an echo chamber with no disagreeing, no joking, no comments. It's okay if he doesn't like…

[deleted]

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#126

Post by Emphaticdotco » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 10:43 PM UTC

There's a Dutch saying that roughly translates to: "Life is a party but you've got to hang your own balloons." Twitter can be a fantastic place for community if you know where to look or are willing to organize it yourself. Tweetchats are a great example of this [1], the phenomenon known as "Black Twitter" [2] is another. (Although many ostensible members of "Black Twitter" have legitimate issues with how "it" is being studied and reported.)[3]

Not to mention the ad hoc communities that spring up around events and pop culture happenings. As with many other things, it might just be a matter of what one makes it.

[1]http://janetfouts.com/how-to-participate-in-a-tweet-chat/ [2] http://www.annenberglab.com/projects/dsail-black-twitter-pro... [3]http://io9.com/what-happens-when-scientists-study-black-twit...

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#127

Post by freyr » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 10:44 PM UTC

gameshot911 wrote: post #117

How to make Twitter go away: Stop talking about it, writing about it, using it, thinking about it. How not to make Twitter go away: Write blog articles about how you want Twitter to go away, which are then shared and posted across the Internet.

* then shared and posted across the Internet. *

On Twitter, specifically. He tweeted his article about not using Twitter.

Maybe he just wants people to engage with the @alex_gaynor #Brand.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#128

Post by basher » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 10:47 PM UTC

Why I agree with article

Emailed link to me from twitter redirected to http://imgur.com/uazq6A9 http://i.imgur.com/uazq6A9.jpg

Summary a big slot is dedicated to Westboro Baptists hate tweet.

This was labelled news. In what universe is it ok to have direct tweets from WBC promoted as news content. Free speech is one thing promoting hate speech is another - big fail twitter.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#129

Post by naiyt » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 11:17 PM UTC

fat0wl wrote: post #100

haven't we always known that twitter is just an anechoic chamber to stick narcissists in? i guess its alright for comedians/intellectuals to post amusing stuff (even then I find the tweet value to be inconsistent enough that its not worth scrolling through their history). outside that isnt it mainly a platform for egotists & social climbers to add to their self-importance? i like it cuz it kinda tires them out, maybe…

> haven't we always known that twitter is just an anechoic chamber to stick narcissists in?

That's an incredibly broad generalization of ~300 million users.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#130

Post by xrange » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 11:26 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #67

kylec wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all his posts are links to his blog: https://twitter.com/alex_gaynor/status/524683684180271106 But even if they were, there's a certain irony to decrying Twitter while syndicating yourself on it.

If you criticize the effects of cars on society, are you a hypocrite for driving? How about riding? If you critique capitalism and wish it would end, are you a hypocrite for buying? That's always a low accusation to make primarily because it's ad hominem and completely irrelevant, but secondarily because it's an easy attack that requires a detailed defense. If a person making billions from running tobacco companies d…

Hypocrite:

1.) a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion

2.) a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings