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Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

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Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#191

Post by adhesive_wombat »

nlowell wrote: post #157
saagarjha wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter specifically positions itself as a space for public conversation, and is sometimes the only place where people like world leaders and government organizations post their content. Blocking posts behind a login wall seems, at least to me, antithetical to their past messaging.

What are the requirements for a twitter account these days? Just an email or also a valid phone?

Last time I tried, they allowed me to sign up without a phone number, but then almost immediately hit with a "we think you're sus and have blocked you, enter a phone number to unblock".

Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#192

Post by jazzyjackson »

nlowell wrote: post #157
saagarjha wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter specifically positions itself as a space for public conversation, and is sometimes the only place where people like world leaders and government organizations post their content. Blocking posts behind a login wall seems, at least to me, antithetical to their past messaging.

What are the requirements for a twitter account these days? Just an email or also a valid phone?

last I tried I could create an account just with email, but as soon as I used it I was flagged for bot-like activity and required to add a phone to prove my humanity (since we all know bots don't have phones)

Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#193

Post by adhesive_wombat »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #5

> Unfortunately twitter is going the direction of quora, pinterest, facebook, and medium Don’t forget Reddit. Reddit’s login pop-ups are more aggressive than Twitter’s for me. > Now you can perhaps read ten tweets or replies to a linked tweet without an account before the same thing occurs Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account.…

It's not just popups, whole subreddits are blocked without an account on the mobile site.

To be fair, it does work, because whenever I crack and register a new account, I end up commenting to avoid someone being wrong on the Internet.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#194

Post by [deleted] »

bmarquez wrote: post #98
f00zz wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. It allowed me to create an account with just an e-mail address, but soon after the account was suspended for "unusual activity" and the only way to unlock it was with a phone number. At this point I gave up.

Had that exact same problem, I emailed customer service via their webform asking what went wrong and a few days later Twitter replied, removing the "suspension" I think they're just fishing for mobile numbers for targeted advertising identifiers.

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#195

Post by tata71 »

drivingmenuts wrote: post #50
GreggHyram wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ackshually we call it "growth hacking". sounds better to investors ;)

> ackshually we call it "growth hacking". sounds better to investors ;) Which is strange, because the term “hacking” used to set jimmies a’rustlin’ and underwear a’bunchin’ whenever it came up.

Hacking only rustles jimmies when it's happening to them.

The first thing a malicious nontechnical investor wants to know about your competition: "Well, can't you just hack them?!"

Russ on Silicon Valley came from somewhere, ha..

Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#196

Post by TillE »

TomGullen wrote: post #70
AutumnCurtain wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old.reddit.com is the only remotely usable form of the website and seems to have none of the obnoxious popups.

The normal Reddit is completely usable - this is complete hyperbole

It's absurdly laborious to have to click "Continue this thread" on any subthread with more than a couple levels of replies, which takes you to a completely new page. A genuinely awful experience compared to the old site, and for what?

Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#197

Post by pseudo0 »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #191
nlowell wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the requirements for a twitter account these days? Just an email or also a valid phone?

Last time I tried, they allowed me to sign up without a phone number, but then almost immediately hit with a "we think you're sus and have blocked you, enter a phone number to unblock".

They seem to require a phone number for all new accounts. My guess is that they A/B tested it, and locking accounts after creation had better metrics than requiring it during the sign up process.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#198

Post by TillE »

npongratz wrote: post #105
nickysielicki wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No company even comes close to the transition that Reddit did that took them from a {clean,simple,dense,power-user friendly} interface to a horrible user-hostile shit show that it is now. The average Reddit user has to reach for a custom third party app on their phone or a browser plug-in that hacks a redirect to the old or third party interface. Quora doesn’t hold a candle.

To be fair, one company did: Digg. And that's why no one uses or remembers Digg anymore.

Digg 4 remains a remarkable example of how you truly can kill a popular site and its entire community with a botched redesign.

I never liked the site, but plenty of people did, and they just accidentally destroyed it. A lesson that you should be able and willing to quickly revert major changes, at the very least.

Re: Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without an account

#199

Post by cxcl »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #5

> Unfortunately twitter is going the direction of quora, pinterest, facebook, and medium Don’t forget Reddit. Reddit’s login pop-ups are more aggressive than Twitter’s for me. > Now you can perhaps read ten tweets or replies to a linked tweet without an account before the same thing occurs Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think any company is obligated to provide unlimited access for free without an account.…

If you were suspended at 18 years old from twitter you are technically banned for the remainder of your life unless you can successfully appeal. Creating a new temporary account will eventually get you suspended again as it's against the rules and they functionally require a phone number as you quickly get flagged after a few follows. Considering twitter often makes the news it isn't reasonable to ban people from looking into what they market as the "public conversation" by blocking logged out read access.
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