Fixing Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: Fixing Twitter

#61

Post by wpietri » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 5:59 AM UTC

T2_t2 wrote: post #56

Twitter's problem is simpler: it is great for power users, shite for everyone else. Twitter needs to curate the content I see better - especially for newer users. Twitter is boring as sin until you follow a few interesting people, then it becomes overwhelming as it adds too many more. Twitter needs to focus on the feed being more malleable, both with and without personal effort from me.

That may be trading one problem for another. The number one complaint I hear about Facebook is how unpredictable the feed is. For power users, Twitter's current approach to their feed is predictable and reliable: strict time order, nothing missing from the people you want to hear from.

At the beginning of the year Twitter started testing out a "while you were away" feature that curates, currently on mobile only: http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/21/twitter-launches-while-you-...

Personally, my initial reaction was instantly negative. I've now come to grudgingly tolerate it; it's not very good, but it's limited to a small number of tweets at a predictable place in my timeline, so I know it's not messing with anything. I've never missed it when at a desktop, though.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#62

Post by jeo1234 » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:03 AM UTC

Twitter need to focus more on developers. The underlying concept behind the site is really solid. Allowing people to build cool things which adds value and brings in new users is good for everyone. So make it easy for them! Their API is not great, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why they don't release official libraries for the major languages?

Re: Fixing Twitter

#63

Post by technion » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:09 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #8

atmosx wrote: post #4

My problem with twitter is that it feels like a desert land more and more. I get more and more bot 'followers' and more ads in my timeline. The signal / noise ratio has decreased incredibly and continuous decreasing, unfortunately.

[deleted]

> Facebook

Facebook has a different problem - sold or hacked accounts.

There was an artist I "liked", let's call him Bob. Bob made maybe a post a week, and it was always worth seeing. Bob also had a lot of followers.

A few weeks ago, Bob's account was suddenly renamed to "BobMemes". It then became a spambot spewing clickbait several times an hour, often not SFW.

I don't know if the account was sold or hacked, but this isn't the way Bob behaves, and several weeks on there's been no change (as I'd expect if there was a hack).

So it's not just about followers, it's about choosing who you "like".

Re: Fixing Twitter

#64

Post by mandeepj » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:25 AM UTC

twitter's default landing page is more interesting than the default page that you see after login

Re: Fixing Twitter

#65

Post by kzhahou » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:32 AM UTC

electic wrote: post #59

There might be no fixing Twitter. The reason Twitter grew imho is because of the rich ecosystem of developers they had. Those developers, time and time again, found new ways to use Twitter and did the development, marketing, and educating of the public. The result was rich engagement and growth. Everyone had a different reason for using Twitter because there were so many apps. Now, those apps are gone. How do you go…

I can believe that the growth was significantly helped by third-party clients, but I wouldn't believe that the more creative twitter integrations had a major effect. That would be a dev/techy-centric view of the world, similar to those that truly believe that the real-name policy was a mainstream issue that killed G+.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#66

Post by semicolondev » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:33 AM UTC

semicolondev wrote: post #30

Twitter like Trello is a tool, a mainstream tool got to be horizontal product [1]. There is no point discussing about it should be this or that. Feel free to use it the way you want it to be. [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2012/01/06.html

Can someone tell what is wrong with this observation and why the downvotes ?

Re: Fixing Twitter

#67

Post by brongondwana » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:40 AM UTC

scandinavian wrote: post #58

dennisnedry wrote: post #55

I love that the author is criticizing Twitter's UI, yet when I tried to find a date of the article, I had to mysteriously hover over the title of the post to see it magically appear before me.

Ehh, it's right there at 0.05 opacity. It just gets opacity: 1 when hovering. Try tuning your monitor, you should really be able to see that.

Nice if you have a big monitor in perfect lighting conditions and good eyes. Grandparent's complaint is legit.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#68

Post by MrJagil » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:44 AM UTC

onewaystreet wrote: post #26

minimaxir wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a non-founder it will be impossible for that person to satisfy all of the major stakeholders. As Twitter is a publicly-traded company , it would be impossible for that person to satisfy all of the major stakeholders.

"Satisfy" was the wrong word but I couldn't think of the right one. What I'm saying is that the CEO of Twitter will never have the same power as say Mark Zuckerberg does.

How come?

Re: Fixing Twitter

#69

Post by smegel » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:45 AM UTC

Disconnecting from twitter was one of the best moves I ever made. Being subjected to a high volume/low quality stream of garbage is not good for the mind.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#70

Post by panic » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 6:47 AM UTC

smegel wrote: post #69

Disconnecting from twitter was one of the best moves I ever made. Being subjected to a high volume/low quality stream of garbage is not good for the mind.

Why not just unfollow the accounts which are posting garbage?