Fixing Twitter

#1

Post by rkudeshi » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 3:56 AM UTC

Re: Fixing Twitter

#2

Post by HappyTypist » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:32 AM UTC

Very interesting point regarding the illusion of interaction that Instagram provides. I do find Twitter's displaying of replies and retweets (to the first 100) questionable.

As for how Twitter can improve in that aspect, how about a horizontally-scrolling feed of users who retweet, and a less-annoying version of such for comments? They seem like relatively easy design choices.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#3

Post by steckerbrett » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:34 AM UTC

> Twitter has turned into a place where famous people and news organizations broadcast text.

That's not unexpected given their signup flow, it's pages and pages you have to click through where it automatically follows hundreds of celebrities unless you uncheck the boxes.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#4

Post by atmosx » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:40 AM UTC

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.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#5

Post by hackaflocka » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:48 AM UTC

Great points all. Especially #5.

One of the strangest things about Twitter is that its search seems broken. Sometimes when I'm trying to locate past tweets authored by myself or by someone else, I can quickly find them on Topsy, but almost never directly on Twitter.

Twitter has begun to feel stale. Considering how much I love learning from people like pmarca and pg through it, this is something that worries me.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#6

Post by honksillet » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:49 AM UTC

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.

It is incredibly easy to set up a bot in twitter. (Slightly hard since the API v1.1, but still easy.) If an account is attached to a bot, there should be a small icon in all it's tweet to indicate that.

Re: Fixing Twitter

#7

Post by aethos » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:49 AM UTC

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.

Another thing on the "desert island" effect is that, from the perspective of a artistist or creator, it seems oddly difficult to get discovered on Twitter. Maybe it's something about the interface or recommendation system?

Re: Fixing Twitter

#8

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:51 AM UTC

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]

Re: Fixing Twitter

#9

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:53 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Fixing Twitter

#10

Post by minimaxir » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 4:56 AM UTC

My main issue with Twitter now is the recent (undocumented) change to the mobile apps for "suggested tweets." (example: http://i.imgur.com/AfsmQgW.png )

As mentioned by the commentators, Twitter has a discovery issue. Twitter's solution is to put "suggested tweets" below the normal replies, but without any clear discernible division. (just "Suggested by Twitter" in light gray color). Way too many times I accidentally read suggested tweets instead of normal replies while instinctively scrolling to the bottom and I get very confused.