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I Hope Twitter Goes Away

alexgaynor.net

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Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#191

Post by prottmann »

vuldin wrote: post #184
ben336 wrote: post #92

Twitter is the best real time news source I've ever seen. Any discussion of it's utility that ignores that is missing how a huge percentage of its users actually interact with it. Yes its bad for conversations. Yes it is poor at building communities. But if you want to know whats happening in Twitter can be a fantastic resource. Especially (but not exclusively) if your area of interest involves sports, tech, or polit…

Ahh, real time news! Yes I think that is the one biggest positive feature of twitter. When I was trying to remember some positive things about Twitter to respond to this with, I failed to remember this one due to all the other not-as-positive things Twitter is used for.

And that things are?

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#192

Post by coldtea »

baddox wrote: post #185
coldtea wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's like "I wish cell phone B would go away" because I prefer cell phone A, and I think cell phone B is POISONOUS to community and discussion, and leads to a worse society.

The trouble is that "worse society" is defined by the preferences of the speaker, not the aggregate preferences of everyone in society including the thousands (millions?) of users contently using Twitter in ways the speaker dislikes.

>The trouble is that "worse society" is defined by the preferences of the speaker, not the aggregate preferences of everyone in society including the thousands (millions?) of users contently using Twitter in ways the speaker dislikes.

Yeah, and what's the issue with that?

The very idea behind a "society" is that its members take certain decisions about whats OK and what's not. Not everybody has to agree, but everybody can try to convince society for what he thinks it's best or what should be stopped.

That "millions are doing it" is also not an argument. 2/3 of Americans did smoke, and yet it's now banned in most public places and looked down upon. Thousands of businesses did "seggregation" too.

What Alex does is start a discussion and voice his dislike and wish for X to stop. He doesn't rule over anybody, and doesn't force people to stop X with violence.

So I see no problem there.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#193

Post by RBerenguel »

taude wrote: post #121
pbreit wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But this is not a problem of the platform, but of how users are using the platform. I rarely have conversations on twitter (i.e. most are just a couple of replies long at most) but I occasionally have a 20+ post. If you hit proper reply, it works. If you don't, it doesn't (or does really badly), but this is a user fault, not a platform fault.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#194

Post by scrollaway »

smacktoward wrote: post #9
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.

Maybe, there's also something to be said for being pragmatic. You may not like the way the world is right now, but you still have to live in it, you know?

Except that his first words in the post are "About seven months ago, I abruptly quit Twitter.", so that's just utter BS.

I may be biased because Alex Gaynor is a prominent member of the Django community and one of the pillars of what made it so elitist and hostile to contributions. But then again, I hate twitter too.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#195

Post by _pmf_ »

AYBABTME wrote: post #14

Alright, so twitter is terrible because its 'broadcast' instead of 'communities', and you don't like 'broadcast' but you like 'communities', so twitter should go away. a) "I hope Twitter genuinely ceases to be." b) "I want a product that enables me to build and participate in communities[...]." Having a product that enables b) doesn't mean a) must happen. Why come to that conclusion. Because you don't like participat…

The article is shallow and points out the obvious characteristics of Twitter. It's a waste of time to read.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#196

Post by scrollaway »

tweakerbee wrote: post #119
jacquesm wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was merely meant as an illustration of why some people hold 'conversations' on twitter. The provider is Vodafone.

One simple solution: send them an old school registered letter. They'll have to read it, or at least sign for it. In that letter you can let them know how displeased you are, and announce that you will a) continue to send registered letters and b) will change telco as soon as you can.

Not so much a solution or even a workaround, more of a way to take a stand.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#197

Post by 72deluxe »

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…

Perhaps the fact that he wants such a thing is a joke? Or a comment on the person himself?

The irony.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#198

Post by 72deluxe »

casebash wrote: post #188

I hate Twitter as well. It is occupying a place that could very easily be occupied by much better products. It's primary purpose is to hold back innovation. I'm sure some people prefer Twitter as it is and it is valid for them to do so. However, the existence of Twitter is still massively harmful in terms of opportunity cost.

I am not sure on your conclusions. I do not use Twitter (I have an account, only scammers and spammers follow me, I say nothing interesting on it) but if there could be much better products, they'd take the position of Twitter, wouldn't they?

Twitter's primary purpose is to allow shouting in the street, not to hold back innovation. How is Twitter's existence stopping you from innovating?

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#199

Post by noamyoungerm »

RBerenguel wrote: post #193
taude wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But this is not a problem of the platform, but of how users are using the platform. I rarely have conversations on twitter (i.e. most are just a couple of replies long at most) but I occasionally have a 20+ post. If you hit proper reply, it works. If you don't, it doesn't (or does really badly), but this is a user fault, not a platform fault.

If users have difficulty properly using the platform, the platform is at fault. An arbitrarily naive user should never have to fight the platform to do what he wants.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#200

Post by noamyoungerm »

saraid216 wrote: post #169
jshevek wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The terminology he uses is "safe space." It doesn't mean zero joking or disagreement, but only the type and levels he approves "Safe space" is a much abused phrase. The meaning of 'safe' as it applies to physical harm is fairly easy for us to agree on. When it comes to emotional and psychological harm, what does it really mean? Where is the line drawn? It seems that some people will not hesitate to demand the comp…

> The meaning of 'safe' as it applies to physical harm is fairly easy for us to agree on. When it comes to emotional and psychological harm, what does it really mean? Where is the line drawn? Offer a meaning of safe as it applies to physical harm. Let's see if we actually agree to that as easily as you presume we would first.

A space where you have no reasonable expectation of any form of personal injury, perhaps excluding self-inflicted harm caused by negligence (e.g. cutting off your own hand in the kitchen, but not somebody else cutting off your hand in the kitchen).
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