Twitter now requires an account to view tweets • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#341

Post by GolfPopper » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:45 AM UTC

RoyGBivCap wrote: post #227

jamesgreenleaf wrote: post #7

Musk commented on this: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1674865731136020505 "Temporary emergency measure. We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!"

"Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience. What should we do to stop that? I’m open to ideas." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1674898695534309378 "1. Scraping is already disallowed by T&C. 2. The scraping orgs dgaf & mask their IPs through proxy servers or through orgs that appear legit. For example,…

If he wants to be taken seriously, perhaps Mr. Musk can post the data somewhere others can read it? Maybe a Mastadon server?

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#342

Post by tedunangst » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:46 AM UTC

Terr_ wrote: post #245

darknavi wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's extremely rough around the edges but getting into fediverse content (mastodon, kbin, lemmy, etc) has been extremely rewarding to me. It's like twitter and reddit but 15 years ago (and by that I mostly mean it's janky and full of bugs. Just like the web was 15 years ago!)

For me the main barrier is that I want to have portable/roaming control over my IDENTITY , even if the content hosting is (for now) entirely through a system administered by someone else. If I control the identity, I can at least keep local copies and rehost/repost content later. Instead, it feels like the current Fediverse demands that I make a blind choice to entrust not merely a copy of my content but also my whol…

Fediverse identity is based wholly on URL. If you want to own an identity, you own a domain.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#343

Post by jonathankoren » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:46 AM UTC

Jenk wrote: post #246

akira2501 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This version of the Internet is starting to suck. :( The internet is fine. The highly centralized businesses that built themselves on the technology are meeting their inevitable end.

> This killed nitter. I suspect that was the intent.

Yeah. Honestly, at this point you have to think the ketamine isn’t being microdosed[0], or the whole Twitter escapade is an intentional op to burn down an account independent forum that has frequently been a source of pain for those in power.

I suspect the later. We’ve seen billionaires do it countless times.

[0] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families...

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#344

Post by gcr » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:47 AM UTC

Terr_ wrote: post #245

darknavi wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's extremely rough around the edges but getting into fediverse content (mastodon, kbin, lemmy, etc) has been extremely rewarding to me. It's like twitter and reddit but 15 years ago (and by that I mostly mean it's janky and full of bugs. Just like the web was 15 years ago!)

For me the main barrier is that I want to have portable/roaming control over my IDENTITY , even if the content hosting is (for now) entirely through a system administered by someone else. If I control the identity, I can at least keep local copies and rehost/repost content later. Instead, it feels like the current Fediverse demands that I make a blind choice to entrust not merely a copy of my content but also my whol…

I've been able to switch mastadon instances without any problems; most instances seem to handle whatever activitypub machinery transfers followers.

So as long as both your source and destination support account transfers, you can usually switch and even seamlessly bring along most of your followers without them noticing.

No idea about your admin question. All bets are likely off with a bad admin. If you want actual cryptographically guaranteed communication, that doesn't exist in a usable form (except for Secure Scuttlebutt, and that's reeeeally stretching the "usable" part)

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#345

Post by recursive » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:47 AM UTC

dkokelley wrote: post #134

Honest question, should services that host user generated content be obligated to provide that content "for free" through APIs or scrapers? On one hand, users created the content "for free" for the platform to use and monetize. On the other hand, providing the content through an API without any ad/monetization potential doesn't make good business sense. Is there an acceptable threshold of free viewing before it becom…

No one's obligated to do anything. All else being equal, people prefer convenience. If the service is less convenient, less people will choose to use it. If the content is freely available, it will be scraped.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#346

Post by photonerd » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:47 AM UTC

Jenk wrote: post #246

akira2501 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This version of the Internet is starting to suck. :( The internet is fine. The highly centralized businesses that built themselves on the technology are meeting their inevitable end.

> This killed nitter. I suspect that was the intent.

Likely more of a bonus. I doubt anyone at Twitter factored nitter into any business decisions.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#347

Post by GolfPopper » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:48 AM UTC

sakopov wrote: post #215

activitypea wrote: post #73

I just ran into this problem -- not being able to view tweets without logging in. As much as I hate Musk, this is clearly the trajectory of all platforms. Without a unified push towards self-hosting or the fediverse, the internet as we know it is over :(

I like how we keep pretending that any of this complicated shit is better than good old phpBB. There are no modern inventions for social interactions which made actual interactions better. They're all incomprehensible UX nightmares used mostly by the loud minority of users on the web (i.e. Twitter actively engages with only 7% of the entire internet user base) who censor each other and then fight over how to make it…

The most useful parts of the internet for me lately are focused hobbyist forums. The rest of it keeps becoming increasingly difficult to use.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#348

Post by gcr » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:48 AM UTC

twicetwice wrote: post #300

Terr_ wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the main barrier is that I want to have portable/roaming control over my IDENTITY , even if the content hosting is (for now) entirely through a system administered by someone else. If I control the identity, I can at least keep local copies and rehost/repost content later. Instead, it feels like the current Fediverse demands that I make a blind choice to entrust not merely a copy of my content but also my whol…

This is basically the entire point of the Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT Protocol), which powers Bluesky. I think it does a ton of stuff right, including portable identity backed by solid cryptography (no blockchain or "crypto"!) and has a lot of promise. It's still in development, but I am hopeful that it will live up to its promise.

can't a malicious bluesky admin steal/MITM users' private keys by messing with whatever frontend javascript users interact with?

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#349

Post by rodolphoarruda » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:48 AM UTC

gbear605 wrote: post #199

tourmalinetaco wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, nature is healing. I’ve noticed at least 1 community return to forums due to all of this ( https://mholdschool.com/ ), and while unfortunately AFAIK there isn’t any good FLOSS software for it, it’s certainly a start.

PhpBB is GPLv2, and it still works just fine. Discourse is also GPL, if you’re looking for a more modern look. There are a number of others too ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_s... )

The UI looks the same after all those 20 years.

Re: Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

#350

Post by jonathankoren » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 12:48 AM UTC

thomasahle wrote: post #339

gumby wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To paraphrase Gilmore, “the net interprets [mandatory login and other access fuckery] as censorship and routes around it” If Twitter locks out more readers, people will stop posting and move elsewhere. If Reddit ejects the mods that made it successful, communities will evolve elsewhere. The forest will regrow and different paths will form, routing around the dying patches.

This is the main reason I don't use quora and pinterest. But I guess they are still around.

At least Google Images is no longer just Pinterest results.

The only time I run into this Fuck You pattern is Instagram refusing to let you replay a video.