Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

antirez.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 80 posts

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#31

Post by sddfd »

supremesaboteur wrote: post #24
feral wrote: post #7

Tech design choices can have profound social impact. This is just a personal theory, but I suspect Twitter's choices have done huge damage to Western Civilization, by forcing, as a medium, a very short 'soundbite' structure onto debate. (Even more so than the media which gave us the term 'soundbite' ever did!) So that sounds like a very overblown assertion, right? But think about Trump. Twitter is his platform, and a…

> But think about Trump. Twitter is his platform, and arguably he is the sort of President a platform like Twitter most directly enables. He gets direct unchallenged access to a mass medium This is actually not true. Many of Trump's claims are challenged on Twitter and outside of Twitter. Maybe you don't like that he can directly talk to the people rather than twist his words to suit your narrative before heading it…

They are challenged, true.

But does this impact his tweets?

More importantly, I do not think Twitter is a good platform to present a statement /together/ with its challenges.

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#32

Post by SwellJoe »

kelukelugames wrote: post #29

My biggest regret is arguing with people on Twitter. It is not productive. Even less so than arguing on any other forum.

My biggest twitter-related regret is that my most liked tweet (by thousands) is a terrible joke about Trump. The reason I regret it so much is that within an hour or two, I realized that people weren't liking it because it was funny in an absurd "nothing matters" sort of way...they were liking it because they thought it was funny in a "yeah, that'd show'em" sort of way. I realized that people who took it as an opportunity to argue with me were really stupid...but the people who were agreeing with me and liking it were also really stupid (so what does that make me?). There should be a German word for that feeling.

But, also arguing with people on twitter. That's bad, too. Let's just go with that.

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#33

Post by subpixel »

supremesaboteur wrote: post #24
feral wrote: post #7

Tech design choices can have profound social impact. This is just a personal theory, but I suspect Twitter's choices have done huge damage to Western Civilization, by forcing, as a medium, a very short 'soundbite' structure onto debate. (Even more so than the media which gave us the term 'soundbite' ever did!) So that sounds like a very overblown assertion, right? But think about Trump. Twitter is his platform, and a…

> But think about Trump. Twitter is his platform, and arguably he is the sort of President a platform like Twitter most directly enables. He gets direct unchallenged access to a mass medium This is actually not true. Many of Trump's claims are challenged on Twitter and outside of Twitter. Maybe you don't like that he can directly talk to the people rather than twist his words to suit your narrative before heading it…

Just yesterday I looked at Twitter to read up about a back and forth between two developers I respect. I was reminded that Twitter makes it well-nigh impossible to follow multiple sides of a conversation. (Of course, calling what happens on Twitter a conversation is a stretch to begin with.)

Much of the time, when a tweet says that it's 'in reply to' someone else, the specific tweet it was meant as a reply to is not displayed to third parties.

If you extend this experience to the Trump scenario, it's a total fantasy to think his followers on Twitter are being exposed to rebuttals of his statements.

You see counter-opinions if you follow the person who expresses them. It's the inverse of discourse, and I agree it's cancerous to civil society.

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#34

Post by orbitur »

nindalf wrote: post #18
SonOfLilit wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it Twitter's choices, or society's choice to use Twitter? i.e. do you think Twitter would have reached the status of presidential communication platform had it not made this choice?

Twitter did what was good for Twitter - becoming fun, addictive and compelling to use. People made a choice to use that compelling product. These choices worked out well for Twitter, but according to the GP, not well for the users, who unknowingly hurt their society.

> These choices worked out well for Twitter

You could say that, since it appears Twitter is now the primary platform for broadcasting outside of film/tv.

But is Twitter even making money yet? How sad and dumb would it be that Twitter had to shut down in a couple years?

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#35

Post by pjc50 »

feral wrote: post #7

Tech design choices can have profound social impact. This is just a personal theory, but I suspect Twitter's choices have done huge damage to Western Civilization, by forcing, as a medium, a very short 'soundbite' structure onto debate. (Even more so than the media which gave us the term 'soundbite' ever did!) So that sounds like a very overblown assertion, right? But think about Trump. Twitter is his platform, and a…

> very short 'soundbite' structure onto debate

But as you say the traditional media do this too - and have been just as instrumental in the rise of Trump. The "false equivalence" media structure, and the direct promotion of right-wing editorial through Murdoch news properties, are also extremely important.

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#36

Post by orbitur »

gkya wrote: post #21

Twitter is annoying. I signed up a couple years ago to follow some local stuff's news, mostly events. Thus I followed 8-9 accounts that initially were of my interest, and started refreshing and reading my feed. All I got was the same 3-4 posts repeated annoyingly often, so that I had to fish for new things that sink below stuff reposted almost hourly since months. I though, well, maybe it's these accounts that I foll…

Maybe I've spent too much time on Twitter, but once you find a decent small group of people/comedians to follow, it becomes easier to find others like them since they tend to all follow each other.

I now follow over 900 people, and my Twitter feed is news I care about, opinions I care about, and great "cryptic punchlines" as you call them.

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#38

Post by sitkack »

pjc50 wrote: post #35
feral wrote: post #7

Tech design choices can have profound social impact. This is just a personal theory, but I suspect Twitter's choices have done huge damage to Western Civilization, by forcing, as a medium, a very short 'soundbite' structure onto debate. (Even more so than the media which gave us the term 'soundbite' ever did!) So that sounds like a very overblown assertion, right? But think about Trump. Twitter is his platform, and a…

> very short 'soundbite' structure onto debate But as you say the traditional media do this too - and have been just as instrumental in the rise of Trump. The "false equivalence" media structure, and the direct promotion of right-wing editorial through Murdoch news properties, are also extremely important.

Propaganda is asymmetric, it takes more energy to communicate and rebut with Truth than it does to fabricate lies. Truth requires precision, clarity and subtlety; lies are a dead-blow hammer.

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#39

Post by jancsika »

So far I'm only convinced the author would have gotten longer, more verbose flow on Usenet or Mailman. I am not convinced the ideas contained in that flow would have been any more valuable.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what insight I would gain in this specific case from reading anything other that a) your post on diskless replication, b) the Stripe engineers' report, and maybe c) a few of the paragraphs of your response in this post.

Re: Why I can’t have conversations using Twitter (2014)

#40

Post by vultour »

SwellJoe wrote: post #32
kelukelugames wrote: post #29

My biggest regret is arguing with people on Twitter. It is not productive. Even less so than arguing on any other forum.

My biggest twitter-related regret is that my most liked tweet (by thousands) is a terrible joke about Trump. The reason I regret it so much is that within an hour or two, I realized that people weren't liking it because it was funny in an absurd "nothing matters" sort of way...they were liking it because they thought it was funny in a "yeah, that'd show'em" sort of way. I realized that people who took it as an opport…

I think you also perfectly described what has been happening on Reddit ever since the election.
Post reply on HN