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The tyranny of the supertweeter

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Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#21

Post by snarf21 »

Bakary wrote: post #7

The part about journalism is particularly troubling because Twitter is like crack for journalists and has thus played a big part in decreasing the credibility of the profession. The platform is a journalist's fantasy brought to life. The ability to exist as an individual and have an audience independently of their publication. Blue check-marks. As the article mentions, the capacity to find stories with little effort.…

I agree that this is true but don't just blame Twitter. Look at the major "news" networks. Look at the poor quality of "reporting". The bigger cause is the engagement above all else mentality of generating advertising. Click-bait, faux outrage, sensationalism, half-truths, posting 5 year old images out of context as "just in", creating scary fake crises, etc.

Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#22

Post by analog31 »

crmd wrote: post #14
Bakary wrote: post #7

The part about journalism is particularly troubling because Twitter is like crack for journalists and has thus played a big part in decreasing the credibility of the profession. The platform is a journalist's fantasy brought to life. The ability to exist as an individual and have an audience independently of their publication. Blue check-marks. As the article mentions, the capacity to find stories with little effort.…

>finding a great source for a story is as easy as finding the right combination of search terms. This is the true poison in my opinion. Journalists can in seconds find random tweets stating any conceivable narrative they want to create, and then launder their personal opinions by pretending to "report" on "what sources are saying".

>finding a great source for a story is as easy as finding the right combination of search terms.

I'm struck by the parallel to typing the right prompt into GPT-3.

Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#23

Post by fortran77 »

I keep my twitter politics-free. And I follow tech/hacker people and routinely mute/block those who think I want to hear their inane/naïve political opinions.

And you know what? Twitter is pretty nice! It keeps me in a nice tech filter bubble where the biggest argument is 8080 vs 6502.

Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#24

Post by jbuhbjlnjbn »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #2

A classic on this topic, more general: Most of Most of What You Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People [1]. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/9rvroo/most...

There is a different explanation about the 'power posters' - not that they are "insane", but that it's their job. They get good amounts of money for doing what they do.

As an addition, for the extreme cases it's most likely not a single person, but multiple people, posting under the same name.

Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#25

Post by Pxtl »

tlholaday wrote: post #20

Is this tool feasible? Block user @A, and also block any user who has chosen to `follow` user @A. Ideally: > twitprune --block --recursive --depth 2 @A Edit: API Review Time!

Well, there's a similar action:

https://megablock.xyz/

> Don't like a bad tweet? Block the tweet, its author, and every single person who liked it—in one click.

Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#26

Post by MisterTea »

jiggywiggy wrote: post #3

Twitter is one of the worst places I've ever visited. In general makes me feel bad after just reading 1 to 3 tweets. It thrives on snarkiness, rage, anger and outrage. Even though there are some gems in the mud. In this case it would be best to shut it down and start over.

> In this case it would be best to shut it down and start over.

How about leaving it at shutting down and be done with it.

Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#27

Post by brezelgoring »

tlholaday wrote: post #20

Is this tool feasible? Block user @A, and also block any user who has chosen to `follow` user @A. Ideally: > twitprune --block --recursive --depth 2 @A Edit: API Review Time!

The idea is nice and technically possible using the Twitter API but the system will clock you and ban you instantly if you try blocking 100 people at once.

I used to have an add-on that blocks people with NFT PFPs, and it queued the blocks to be done at random so the system wouldn't be able to tell it was a robot doing it.

Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#28

Post by tomcam »

fortran77 wrote: post #23

I keep my twitter politics-free. And I follow tech/hacker people and routinely mute/block those who think I want to hear their inane/naïve political opinions. And you know what? Twitter is pretty nice! It keeps me in a nice tech filter bubble where the biggest argument is 8080 vs 6502.

Same, and with Reddit too (for me).

Re: The tyranny of the supertweeter

#30

Post by nradov »

Bakary wrote: post #7

The part about journalism is particularly troubling because Twitter is like crack for journalists and has thus played a big part in decreasing the credibility of the profession. The platform is a journalist's fantasy brought to life. The ability to exist as an individual and have an audience independently of their publication. Blue check-marks. As the article mentions, the capacity to find stories with little effort.…

Substack is trying to provide an intermediate channel where journalists can develop an audience independently of publications, but allowing for long-form content. It will be interesting to see if that works but I suspect only a small number of journalists can be successful in that model.
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