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Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

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141–150 of 279 posts

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#141
If you want my opinion, you're not going to "solve" people, especially in the manner you desire. No has, no one is, and no one ever will. There are no philosopher-kings. Twitter is simply today's canvas for social and parasocial interaction. It is no different than the printing press, the landline, the radio, or the television was during their heydays. Throughout the history of the aforementioned mediums, there has been propaganda, polarizing politics, rumormongering, scandals, censorship, public feuds, self-righteous moralizing, pandering, and a bevy of other controversies.

Twitter as a "public square" will solve itself. It may become the greatest thing since the Athenian Agora. It may become another Usenet, WELL [1], or AOL/Compuserve. Or it might join thousands of other no-name services as it barrels into the trash-heap of social media history with its only distinction being a louder thud than all the others as it reaches its final resting place.

In the future I expect the social media or morality wars of the VR/AR era, should the Metaverse become real, to play out in a similar fashion, that is if seeds haven't already been sown on VRChat.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#142
post #48
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certain parts of non-US twitter were "polarized" enough to start the Arab Spring, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine (leading to its current situation), and it seems that through social media of some sort Iran is currently undergoing a revolt against its own morality police. A huge part of Twitter's popularity and success is linked to its role in coordinating anti-authoritarian action.

> Orange Revolution in Ukraine (leading to its current situation) A gross mischaracterization of which you should be utterly ashamed. Responsibility for the current situation in Ukraine lies at the feet of one man, Putin, and those who continue to enable him.

Cause and effect isn't a judgement call. The revolution did lead to the current situation, in that if it hadn't happened then the current situation wouldn't have happened. That doesn't deny that responsibility for the suffering is on Putin.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#143
post #14

I used to agree with you until I created a new Twitter account from scratch. I'm not American and I specifically put non-political things in my interests. Yet, the second I signed up I got the following: 1. A notification about a smug reply a rando made to a Republican Congressman. 2. Posts from a meme page with a Pepe the frog avatar showing homeless people fighting in San Francisco. 3. Somebody I don't follow accus…

> 3. Somebody I don't follow accusing another person I don't follow of being a nazi. I cannot believe how much of Twitter is exactly this.

This isn't just Twitter now. This is mainstream politics, it's all name calling. The UK Home Secretary blaming the "tofu-eating wokerati" from the dispatch box a couple of weeks ago.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#145
post #14

I used to agree with you until I created a new Twitter account from scratch. I'm not American and I specifically put non-political things in my interests. Yet, the second I signed up I got the following: 1. A notification about a smug reply a rando made to a Republican Congressman. 2. Posts from a meme page with a Pepe the frog avatar showing homeless people fighting in San Francisco. 3. Somebody I don't follow accus…

The AT protocol I was looking at the other day has a concept of choosing your own algorithm to aggregate content. I think that’s an important option in order for a dominant platform to be useful to society.

I think the submission is exactly wrong, the culture of an online space is heavily linked to the technology of the platform, interlinked with its business model.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#146
post #66
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord is actually a good example: I think I got 0 notifications about groups I don't follow, so isn't as big of an incentive to aggressively smugpost as in Twitter.

Join any server remotely related to crypto or finance, the spam messages will start rolling in. I get on average about 1 a day, something about "pumps" (whatever that is)

I don't join those servers, though, so I don't get notifications about their @channel messages. Twitter, however, is essentially doing exactly that to it's users. I hate being subjected to shit I don't want to see, so I don't keep Twitter installed on my phone, despite the fact that I an active in a couple of small, niche communities that can only exist at scale thanks to social media (and specifically Twitter). It's frustrating. Discord is (currently) the worst but best solution to this problem.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#148
post #87
post #29

No amount of algorithms can improve human behavior on any platform. You can definitely make human behavior worse using an algorithm just by pushing content that provokes negative reactions in as many people as possible. I don't see why the opposite wouldn't be true. If the algorithm pushed uncontroversial content into people's timelines and didn't reward hateful crap they might get happier. Maybe Elon will give that…

With utmost curiosity, how can making people happy get money for investors and SWE salaries?

You get content which makes people happy and optimistic about something which they now want to buy OR you gather information on what actually makes people happy (or at least engaged in something other than arguing), and sell that information. Less culture wars, more aspirational/fitness/self-care/nature-travel/interior design/organic subscription box/hygge content.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#149
post #13

I disagree. Your points aren't necessarily wrong, but they ignore one big factor. Twitter chooses what content to promote to people. I could use Twitter quite happily not knowing about the latest "scandal" in, say, the knitting world. But Twitter actively promotes that content to me - either with the "trending" sidebar or by showing me content that it thinks will increase my engagement. That is a technical problem. H…

> Twitter chooses what content to promote to people.

Perhaps with default settings and with no client-side filters. But you, the user - especially a technical user - get to decide what you see.

> How do you surface engaging content without also surfacing harmful / polarizing / abusive content?

How do you as the end user? You choose who you follow, and user filter extensions. What Twitter chooses is of no relevance.

Re: Tell HN: The issues of Twitter are not a technical problem to solve

#150
post #14

I used to agree with you until I created a new Twitter account from scratch. I'm not American and I specifically put non-political things in my interests. Yet, the second I signed up I got the following: 1. A notification about a smug reply a rando made to a Republican Congressman. 2. Posts from a meme page with a Pepe the frog avatar showing homeless people fighting in San Francisco. 3. Somebody I don't follow accus…

If you haven't checked out Farcaster (farcaster.xyz) I highly recommend it. There is none of that nonsense, and it's a twitter-like community for builders that reminds me of Twitter ala 2010.
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