I Hope Twitter Goes Away • Hacker News Board

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#221

Post by edraferi » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 2:24 PM UTC

Avalaxy wrote: post #211

Twitter is awesome! It's so easy to use Twitter to connect with people you usually can't connect with because you have no way of reaching them. I use twitter a lot to find clients, support (e.g. I need someone from Google or Microsoft to help me with an issue), and much more. It's also a great way for me to gather news and updates. I follow the account of most of the tech I work with so I'm always up-to-date with the…

I agree that this is Twitter's best feature. It's very easy to find and reach out to almost any person or organization.

It's easier than looking up a phone number, because you don't need to search through piles of "contact us" pages. It's also lighter and less cumbersome than email.

I just wish it was easier to send private messages. Often I don't want my customer support communications to be massively public.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#222

Post by cenhyperion » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 2:24 PM UTC

How is this not a false dichotomy? The author presents it as "We can either have IRC communities and Facebook groups where everyone agrees with each other all the time or gets banned or we can have an uncontrolled twitter where people might disagree with me in ways I can't control" Both have existed very comfortably for a significant amount of time.

I think (along with hundreds of millions of other users) that there's a lot of value behind a broadcast platform like twitter, and I've made some really important connections on it. It seems arrogant to dismiss that because it doesn't enable the exact types of communication the author wants to have (that are addressed by the other platforms he explicitly mentions).

This is a clickbait article headline for the author's blog to get more attention, if he felt this strongly about communities, conversations, and against twitter he wouldn't disable comments, and tweet about the article.

"This screwdriver is so bad at putting nails in the wall!! We should get rid of screwdrivers!"

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#223

Post by freehunter » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 2:32 PM UTC

davemel37 wrote: post #217

By this authors definition, a community's primary function is to exclude others. While you are free to exclude whoever you want in your own life, it says something about you when you have a problem with others wanting to include the rest of the world. Whether you or anyone else likes it or not, we are in a time where we need to learn to adapt and include, not hide and exclude.

I don't want to talk to everyone, or listen to everyone. That's a simple fact of life, almost everyone can agree to that. I don't want to make an inside joke to the world, I only want my social group to hear it. The world might be confused or not find the joke funny, but my group would. Likewise, I don't want to see someone else's life displayed in front of me, because frankly I don't care about that other person.

Life is too short to try to pretend to be interested in uninteresting people.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#224

Post by coldtea » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 3:01 PM UTC

snowwrestler wrote: post #218

coldtea wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not "obviously ok" for conversations if "millions of people use it that way". What kind of strange thought process leads to that conclusion? It's only "obviously ok" if (a AND b), where: (a) "millions of people use it that way" (b) it's productive and beneficial when used that way. The (a) is only enough to show that Twitter serves a need people have for certain coversational structure (short messages). Does…

People don't generally voluntarily use a service unless it is beneficial to them in some way. It's not like millions of people are being forced to use Twitter for conversations. Edit to add: also, I didn't try to "prove that it's the best tool imaginable tool for the purpose or thats it's the pinnacle where evolution in such networks stops." I just said it's ok.

>People don't generally voluntarily use a service unless it is beneficial to them in some way.

People are not always the best to judge what benefits them. Case in point: everything from Bush, to heroin addicts, to fast food, to Justin Bieber.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#225

Post by ben0x539 » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 3:06 PM UTC

sigmar wrote: post #160

ben0x539 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His Twitter account is linked in the header, and it just posted about this article. Some people link their social media presences together so that posts made in one place get replicated on various socia media things, for the benefit of people who follow them on those social media things. That doesn't mean they have to enjoy that particular social media whatsit's experience, or can't criticize it. The only thing tha…

He isn't just criticizing it. He is saying it shouldn't exist. It is hypocritical to use it and exclaim that it shouldn't be used.

How so? He wants it to stop existing so he stops being compelled to use it. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#226

Post by theorique » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 3:23 PM UTC

SamReidHughes wrote: post #167

codyb wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some quick research and found this [0]. It seems he rewrote some documentation changing "he/she/etc" to "they/them/etc". Doesn't seem like a terrible thing to do really. I had never particularly thought about the issue. The pull request was denied by another guy for some reason. I can't imagine caring if the "he"s get changed to "they"s. Then everyone came out and started criticizing the other guy and it all bl…

If anything was in bad taste, it was the pull request itself. You don't just go to a project you have never contributed to and tell them they're using pronouns wrong. And who talks like this to people: > I'm sorry to hear that. I don't really see why you wouldn't merge it if it's so trivial though. Surely making the library less hostile is worth a few seconds of our time to press the "merge" button? Do you see what's…

sounds very much like a person on /r/stredditsays

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#227

Post by dheera » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 3:56 PM UTC

Weibo (the Chinese "clone" of Twitter) actually does a lot better job with conversations. It has its own built-in instant messenger, as well as a comment dialogue interface similar to what you see on Facebook. Also, you can add your own text to the top when you retweet.

Nevertheless, though, I don't agree with the author's stance of "I hope Twitter goes away". If you don't like something, don't use it. Let the market decide what should exist, let hackers keep building better products, and let the market decide again.

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#228

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 4:17 PM UTC

forgottenpass wrote: post #116

tux3 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

It seems that what this person wants is that everyone he talks to think like he does. You say "seems," but it doesn't just seem like that, it is exactly that. The terminology he uses is "safe space." It doesn't mean zero joking or disagreement, but only the type and levels he approves of (minor point, but I'll clarify because I don't want conversation to degrade to pedantics). Why should he care if others use Twitter…

[deleted]

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#229

Post by ruffles » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 4:23 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #224

snowwrestler wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't generally voluntarily use a service unless it is beneficial to them in some way. It's not like millions of people are being forced to use Twitter for conversations. Edit to add: also, I didn't try to "prove that it's the best tool imaginable tool for the purpose or thats it's the pinnacle where evolution in such networks stops." I just said it's ok.

> People don't generally voluntarily use a service unless it is beneficial to them in some way. People are not always the best to judge what benefits them. Case in point: everything from Bush, to heroin addicts, to fast food, to Justin Bieber.

Back to Bush again. Thankfully we have Gauleiter coldtea to bark out orders...

Re: I Hope Twitter Goes Away

#230

Post by bduerst » Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 4:29 PM UTC

snowwrestler wrote: post #220

bduerst wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agency effect. People would use something else if met their needs better and had as many users. (e.g. Facebook vs. Myspace)

That explains why a new user would choose Twitter today. It doesn't explain why people started using it for conversations in the first place, years ago when the network was new and small.

That's kind of non sequitur, isn't it? Thats like saying Myspace is doing a good job of giving users what they want now, because at some point in the past it did.