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Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

bbc.com

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Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#211

Post by blackearl »

sojmq wrote: post #153
rahuldottech wrote: post #10

I wonder what will happen to the twitter accounts of folks who have passed away? Eg. Aaron Swartz: https://twitter.com/aaronsw https://twitter.com/aaronsw_hv > The cull will include users who stopped posting to the site because they died - unless someone with that person's account details is able to log-in. Yeah, this is bad. EDIT ---- Archive Team is making an effort to archive twitter accounts of dead users. Please…

Why is it bad? Why should dead people take up usernames? What will happen in 50 years, half of good usernames will be taken by graveyard dwellers?

Twitter won't exist that long

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#212

Post by ForHackernews »

rahuldottech wrote: post #10

I wonder what will happen to the twitter accounts of folks who have passed away? Eg. Aaron Swartz: https://twitter.com/aaronsw https://twitter.com/aaronsw_hv > The cull will include users who stopped posting to the site because they died - unless someone with that person's account details is able to log-in. Yeah, this is bad. EDIT ---- Archive Team is making an effort to archive twitter accounts of dead users. Please…

Why is that bad? Most people probably wouldn't want their twitter account to be their most lasting legacy.

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#213

Post by thisguyuknow »

Darkstryder wrote: post #192

Reading this news, I remembered I had an old secondary account (for a musical project) that I hadn't used in years but wanted to keep. I logged in using this old account, and Twitter asked me to prove I was not a bot. It required I would fill a recaptcha but also that I would give them a phone number for SMS verification. So in order to keep this old account, I have to disclose my phone number to Twitter. I'm furious…

I also refused and replied to the email saying so and they enabled the account. This was a few months ago.

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#214

Post by WA »

Apparently, I'm the only one who likes the move. Two reasons:

1. I actually think services should store less about people. It's good that stuff gets removed from parts of the internet.

2. I fully understand the idea of archiving a part of history. But in a way, I treat the websites more like a shopping window and less like articles and artifacts of time: They will be rearranged, stuff is removed, new stuff is added. Nobody would argue that redecorating a shopping window somehow destroys culture or history. If that is important to someone: go ahead and take pictures of store fronts. Make an archive if you want. But don't expect the store owner to keep an accurate history of their shopping window.

After all, most websites are actually the fronts of shops that are open 24/7.

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#215

Post by makerofspoons »

wging wrote: post #163
ralfd wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The AWS free tier will expire 12 months from the date of when you first sign up."

Some AWS usage is part of the free tier even after 12 months. "The Lambda free tier does not automatically expire at the end of your 12 month AWS Free Tier term, but is available to both existing and new AWS customers indefinitely." - https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/pricing/

I made some Alexa skills years ago that are still up running on Lambda. They've never been used enough to get me charged.

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#216

Post by austincheney »

roywiggins wrote: post #208
austincheney wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what would the consequences be? Twitter is not and has never been an officially sanctioned government press release channel. The consequences to government and policy would be trivial to none. Since most of the tweets from Trump are void of fact/research or are bizarre conspiracy theories I suspect a troll taking over the account would go largely unnoticed.

DoJ lawyers have argued otherwise in court. http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/government_says_trump...

But what did the court confirm?

In a more practical context I was in CENTCOM supporting troops in Syria when news of complete withdraw stunned the world via Twitter. The military did not act on a tweet. No formal change in policy in the government occurs via tweet.

In a more clear example remember back when Trump ordered, via tweet, the military will ban all transgender persons from military service? The military ignored that tweet without repercussion.

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#217

Post by Frondo »

jacquesm wrote: post #186
alkonaut wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The removed handles should be quarantined for say 10 years after the removal I think. That makes it at least no harder to create a fake account that's similar to the original than it already is.

x@y should be unique, forever. It's not as though we're running out of bits.

Why should it be?

We might not be running out bits, but keeping those bits maintained takes effort; it doesn't happen by magic.

and I can't think of any form of identifier that guarantees uniqueness; even the stone markings on graveyards eventually weather away.

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#218

Post by Frondo »

sircastor wrote: post #73
rb808 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked with a guy who died of a heart attack. Every year LinkedIn asks me to congratulate him having worked X+N years at the company. You have to wonder when they'll give up.

I have a friend who passed away from cancer a few of years ago. I still get these notifications for him. I was trying to call someone recently and my phone suggested my dad who has been gone for a couple of years. We need a better mechanism to gracefully transition accounts of individuals.

I realize you probably don't want to for personal reasons, but have you removed your father from your phone book?

I didn't remove mine for the longest time, though his number has long been reused by someone else; I only did when I finally got a notice that that person joined Signal and Telegram. Too spooky to see "[your father] has joined Signal!"

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#219

Post by syshum »

vthriller wrote: post #176
syshum wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would is mess with Screen readers? the Alt tag has been a thing for a long time.

Why then embed tweet as an image if you're going to copy its text anyway?

Same reason we use Archiving services

Re: Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

#220

Post by nimajneb »

raldi wrote: post #188
strict9 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my first thought at reading the headline before clicking through. Thank you for sharing the form from archive team. My first thought was Hal Finney, whose account I occasionally browse for a reminder of what twitter was like 10 years ago. https://twitter.com/halfin >Harold Thomas Finney II (May 4, 1956 – August 28, 2014) was a developer for PGP Corporation, and was the second developer hired after Phil Zimme…

"working" "Just back from walking the dogs" "Running bitcoin"

This is kind of how I use Twitter, lol. I use it as a place to post a random thought, what I'm thinking about, what I'm doing, etc. I don't post much, but I've been trying to get in the habit of posting more.
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