but I feel I can have an educated discussion on/. or even silently read enlightening comments on varied topics. Twitter is based on a different model where reasonable discussions are made impossible, and its major feature is exposing points of view of conflictual minded individuals. There is no sane ways to use it for individuals, it just can be a tool for journalists needing people's raw opinions without much effort, and communication professionals who use it to publish corporate updates or interact with customers.
What you say is true but for any topic there are some who demand that only their opinion counts. Say something considered right wing and watch the comment moderated down, say something nice about Apple/Microsoft products get called a shill for that company. unfortunately even here some people don't respect others opinion or refuse to see their side and comment on merits of the comment. In the early days of Slashdot it was far more enlightened and different opinions were tolerated more. If people were more tolerant of others opinions whether left or right politics or preferred computing platform you might see both sides have good and bad ideas and then you could improve the situation by eliminating the bad ones constructively
"Say something considered right wing " Ie something homophobic , misogynic , racist, etc... Nobody is banned, or suspended for expanding upon the virtues of less government or optimal tax rates.
it just can be a tool for journalists needing people's raw opinions without much effort
If that's actually happening then I think right there is one of the problems we face as a society. The raw opinions of people who post of Twitter are not the same as the raw opinions of the majority of society. All you have is a sampling of extreme opinions of either side of the political divide and when journalists start pandering to those opinions you end up with the divided society we currently have. Just remember: you can't say "Twitter" without saying "twit" and that's whose opinions you are actually getting.
Agree 100%. It eliminates nuance and forces people into siloed bullying hot takes. It's the worst thing that has happened to political discourse in this country in the last 50 years.
I'm not going to attack or defend Musk. If he fixes Twitter, great, and if he runs it into the ground, nothing of value was lost. But the idea that you can build the "digital town square" on top of Twitter seems ill conceived. When I think of all the things that a digital town square should be... politically at arm's length from either party, not taking "sides", promoting long form nuanced discussion, encouraging people to listen to other points of view, making people feel like they have a voice and it's
I agree with your comments, but I think you're missing the point. The internet, itself, is the digital town square that you seek. I run some websites myself. I post political commentary and other things there. I intentionally don't promote them, don't run ads, and don't link to them from other places, including slashdot. I may post similar opinions in other places including slashdot from time to time, but my websites are my voice in the digital town square. If the search engines happen to return them to som
its major feature is exposing points of view of conflictual minded individuals
Is it any wonder, then, that Musk came out publicly in support of Republicans for the mid-terms, not because he believes in their platform, but because there was a democratic president. Twitter is already showing deep, deep revenue drops in just the time he's taken the helm. What does a mixed government do - it stirs conflict.
Which is exactly the way I see Twitter right now. Right on par with conflict diamonds. I used to have a twitter account just for those (dumb) companies that did all support and com
its major feature is exposing points of view of conflictual minded individuals.
This, and it is also a major outlet for narcissism. So Elon may be onto something by asking users to pay. I bet there will be enough narcissists and "conflictual minded individuals", needing to satisfy their urge to cover the bills. I would suggest instead of fixed payment to have a cost scale with matching "perks" that make the users feel proportionally more important. Who knows, this may even be the "holy grail" business model that finally will treat the users as actual clients rather then a product (Nah
The need to be concise also tends to push people toward extreme positions. The world we live in is shades of grey, and expressing anything except for an extreme, absolutist point of view takes time and space. Any nuanced position stated on Twitter doesn't get any attention because it isn't pithy or powerful. And as attention is the overall goal of Twitter, those positions tend to be ignored.
As a result, there is no meaningful dialogue on Twitter - just people with extreme viewpoints yelling at each other.
I took the second option, but more because my usage is episodic rather than because your Subject is too true. These days being a rich scumbug is apparently the career objective of a YUGE chunk of the country.
But his screeching about "free speech" is already hilarious. I was waiting for #heilElon to start trending to expose his censorious heart, but it was the impersonations of his own name that got to him more quickly.
The saddest part to me is that if Musk flushes Twitter it will actually be Saudi money that evaporates. Too soon to say yet, however. Such a cesspool that it's hard to see what could make it worse, so maybe it will wind up becoming better? After all the fan splatter has ended, of course.
A rather tragic aspect of our society is that we promote the most awful people to the top. Musk is one of the very worst, but the same personality aspects could be seen in Jobs. Awful people who really do not deserve any respect.
Anyway, I was quite active on Twitter, but scaled back in April and have completely stopped now. I'm not going back to using a site run by that psychopath.
Anyway, I was quite active on Twitter, but scaled back in April and have completely stopped now. I'm not going back to using a site run by that psychopath.
Are you doing that because you hate Musk and don't want to be involved in something he owns, or because you think he's going to turn Twitter into something even worse than it already is?
I created a twitter account ages ago as a joke. I posted an @reply, got and @reply, sent a DM, and received a DM. Then I told my friend I beat twitter, and the last boss wasn't even hard.
I used the account to contact Dell support outside local business hours and open a ticket once. I really don't see the point of twitter.
I once tweeted "Isn't Randy Newman dead yet?" and he retweeted it. This made me realize Twitter is just a bizarre and pointless echo chamber where all meaning and context get lost pretty much immediately. I basically abandoned my account after that.
It's actually going to take a lot to make me walk away from 15 years of my random thoughts. I've made friends through Twitter, and even gotten jobs through Twitter connections.
But I've been on many other platforms that have either died, like Google+, or "pivoted" like Foursquare. Or which I have been taken over my nefarious forces. Livejournal was bought by Russian interests, and a few years later explicitly banned all LBQGTI+ posts of any kind. Which, to be fair, was forced upon them by draconian Russian laws. At that point, myself and most other users migrated to Dreamwidth.
So I'm yet to see which scenario will unfold here. I've (re)joined a Mastodon server as a precaution.
And I do wish that Elon would stick to building electric cars and interesting space rockets. And stop acting like a rich entitled spoiled petulant teen. Oh, and the army of Techbros that adore him make me throw up in my mouth a little.
I don't have an account, but I sometimes use it to read the public transit alerts from local agencies, since it's often updated quicker than other sources. But I don't think this really makes me a "twitter user" in the spirit of the question.
I've always used Twitter more or less as a read-only newsfeed, and, for years it has been usable only via third-party apps using the Twitter API. But if that API disappears, or is changed to prevent the apps filtering out ads and 'algorithms', I'll stop using Twitter immediately.
The only thing that I use Twitter for is to get alerts about high speed chases that are live on TV. It's good for that, and to get a link to a feed of the chase. Anything else, it's a total shit show, and I feel like the UI is fighting against me every step of the way.
Well, this poll already seems to have outlived its usefulness. Not that I'm hating on the topic, but it's pretty clear almost no one much cares. So I got to thinking about a new poll question, which is linked to this poll if you take it as a poll about the "effective" lifespan of Twitter. (And I confess I'm hoping Musk will earn a #heilElon for killing Twitter.) Though (as usual), I am coming at the topic sideways:
How long should a program (or a company or a Constitution) be maintained?
And don't forget the implications for the data created and manipulated by the program (or Cons
I do use twitter, I follow several creators that I like and read the news updates from several media I follow.
However, I dislike the increase in advertisement presence, and if it continues to grow, I'll end up quitting, or just leave my handle as testimonial but not enter the site anymore. I've been phasing out Facebook for the same reasons, and I do not enter other social media sites because of the ads. I barely watch Youtube videos.
That's also the reason why I stopped watching regular TV and embraced st
It's a great place for sports news, at least at present. But in order to fix Twitter's very real problems, Musk will likely need to set his ego aside and think of it as a business - and I expect he'll have trouble with that.
Never have, and never plan to use; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or most other social media platforms out there..
I do find all the people screaming about leaving Twitter now that Elon bought it to be humorous though.
I had gotten so bored of Twitter before Elon Musk bought it. The whole thing was a news echo chamber that amplified stories retweeted by the same mass media journalists that pick what we see on the news every evening. Far-left + Far-right = not interesting. Nobody was doing anything but reinforcing their friends and ignoring everybody else.
With Musk shaking the snow globe and refusing to put it down the results are amazing. President Biden talks about investigating Saudi stakes in Twitter, shares they
At one time I had an account for my small publishing business but deleted the account about two or three years ago. I just wanted to sell my funny, non-political cat books, but discovered twitter was just a dumpster fire of hate and a political echo chamber.
I will never use Twitter in a million years. It's become a toxic political war zone that I want no part of. Frankly, I don't use any social media, and I intend to keep it that way. If someone really wants to contact me, they can call, text, or email me. If I had to use a social media service, it'd be Myspace, since less people use it, meaning less potential for arguments online.
There are a few posts or links that I do look at on twitter but not very often. I don't have the app anymore and half the time when I do actually look at something I am not even signed in anymore. Not sure how long it's been since I have tweeted or even responded to a post, not much point in offering your opinion to bots.
I messed with the service when it was new out of laziness. I wrote an enterprise tool to manage all aspects of motorcycle racing in a very large series in the US. The one piece I did not code was the actual timing tool but I wanted a way for racers and crew members to get lap times live and via their devices instead of a board somewhere. I coded a little module that took the “crossing records” from the timing module and then tweeted them immediately with a hashtag for the racer’s number an
It's insane for any government to use social networking for information dissemination. The security is not great enough. The moderation has always been questionable.
By I used to use Twiitter it was a long, long time ago when there was interesting information to be found there. I haven't logged in to my Twitter account for a decade.
I follow two or three things, they follow the headlines and use Twitter to post headlines. Occasionally they post video worth watching. I'm more of a casual user at best. But Twitter uses me as a active monthly user, even though I don't think I've seen the Twitter main feed more than once or twice a year
Thereâ(TM)s so much irrational screeching atm itâ(TM)s hard to make sense of it. One thing is for sure the posts attracting the most likes and comments are usually just muck taking attention seeking with very little verifiable although often even confirmed as âoejokesâ.
In terms of how I use twitter. I read whatâ(TM)s on slashdot via twitter rather than coming to slashdot.org. I use twitter to see news headlines. I use it to read hackernews highlights etc.
Mostly the current twitt
I might not agree with everybody here (Score:5, Insightful)
but I feel I can have an educated discussion on /. or even silently read enlightening comments on varied topics. Twitter is based on a different model where reasonable discussions are made impossible, and its major feature is exposing points of view of conflictual minded individuals. There is no sane ways to use it for individuals, it just can be a tool for journalists needing people's raw opinions without much effort, and communication professionals who use it to publish corporate updates or interact with customers.
Re:I might not agree with everybody here (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
"Say something considered right wing " Ie something homophobic , misogynic , racist, etc... Nobody is banned, or suspended for expanding upon the virtues of less government or optimal tax rates.
Too Many Twits (Score:4, Insightful)
it just can be a tool for journalists needing people's raw opinions without much effort
If that's actually happening then I think right there is one of the problems we face as a society. The raw opinions of people who post of Twitter are not the same as the raw opinions of the majority of society. All you have is a sampling of extreme opinions of either side of the political divide and when journalists start pandering to those opinions you end up with the divided society we currently have. Just remember: you can't say "Twitter" without saying "twit" and that's whose opinions you are actually getting.
Re: (Score:3)
Agree 100%. It eliminates nuance and forces people into siloed bullying hot takes. It's the worst thing that has happened to political discourse in this country in the last 50 years.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not going to attack or defend Musk. If he fixes Twitter, great, and if he runs it into the ground, nothing of value was lost. But the idea that you can build the "digital town square" on top of Twitter seems ill conceived. When I think of all the things that a digital town square should be... politically at arm's length from either party, not taking "sides", promoting long form nuanced discussion, encouraging people to listen to other points of view, making people feel like they have a voice and it's
Re: (Score:3)
I agree with your comments, but I think you're missing the point. The internet, itself, is the digital town square that you seek. I run some websites myself. I post political commentary and other things there. I intentionally don't promote them, don't run ads, and don't link to them from other places, including slashdot. I may post similar opinions in other places including slashdot from time to time, but my websites are my voice in the digital town square. If the search engines happen to return them to som
Which makes Musks's political statements egregious (Score:1)
its major feature is exposing points of view of conflictual minded individuals
Is it any wonder, then, that Musk came out publicly in support of Republicans for the mid-terms, not because he believes in their platform, but because there was a democratic president. Twitter is already showing deep, deep revenue drops in just the time he's taken the helm. What does a mixed government do - it stirs conflict.
Which is exactly the way I see Twitter right now. Right on par with conflict diamonds. I used to have a twitter account just for those (dumb) companies that did all support and com
Re: (Score:2)
its major feature is exposing points of view of conflictual minded individuals.
This, and it is also a major outlet for narcissism. So Elon may be onto something by asking users to pay. I bet there will be enough narcissists and "conflictual minded individuals", needing to satisfy their urge to cover the bills. I would suggest instead of fixed payment to have a cost scale with matching "perks" that make the users feel proportionally more important. Who knows, this may even be the "holy grail" business model that finally will treat the users as actual clients rather then a product (Nah
Re: (Score:2)
Another way to look at it is that it forces one to be concise.
Sometimes it's refreshing to just see people get to the point.
Twitter isn't for extended dialogue; but for concise and focused discussion, it's actually quite great.
Re: (Score:2)
I use too many words in most replies. On the other hand, topics that can be discussed within twitter's limitations aren't worth discussing.
Re: (Score:2)
As a result, there is no meaningful dialogue on Twitter - just people with extreme viewpoints yelling at each other.
It's fine if you mostly follow (Score:1)
Twitter is based on a different model where reasonable discussions are made impossible
I think that depends on the topic though.
I have a few fairly topic specific Twitter IDs (like software development), and one general one.
Each one I find very usable because I mostly use them to follow interesting people, or to make occasional useful comments for others.
Used in that way I have just about never had issues.
The few times I've posting something in support of some controversy, year there were a few idiots respon
Re:Elon Musk is a scumbag (Score:4, Interesting)
I took the second option, but more because my usage is episodic rather than because your Subject is too true. These days being a rich scumbug is apparently the career objective of a YUGE chunk of the country.
But his screeching about "free speech" is already hilarious. I was waiting for #heilElon to start trending to expose his censorious heart, but it was the impersonations of his own name that got to him more quickly.
The saddest part to me is that if Musk flushes Twitter it will actually be Saudi money that evaporates. Too soon to say yet, however. Such a cesspool that it's hard to see what could make it worse, so maybe it will wind up becoming better? After all the fan splatter has ended, of course.
Re: (Score:2)
Day 2 of owning Twitter: "I did not expect you to make fun of meeee! YOU ARE ALL BANNED AND MAKING FUN OF ME IS NOW AGAINST THE RULES!"
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
Anyway, I was quite active on Twitter, but scaled back in April and have completely stopped now. I'm not going back to using a site run by that psychopath.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you doing that because you hate Musk and don't want to be involved in something he owns, or because you think he's going to turn Twitter into something even worse than it already is?
Re: (Score:2)
Speaking for myself:
Both. I don't like musk, don't want to feed his pocket book in any way, and yeah it will get worse.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm of the opinion that people that have amassed that amount of money are evil. He's like Smaug sitting on his hoard.
very little (Score:1)
I'm nobody famous , I post 3 tweets a year that no one will ever read. If I leave or stay nobody's going to care
Re: (Score:2)
But it also means that you won't be reading others' tweets and consuming ads whilst doing so.
Only once or twice (Score:2)
I created a twitter account ages ago as a joke. I posted an @reply, got and @reply, sent a DM, and received a DM. Then I told my friend I beat twitter, and the last boss wasn't even hard.
I used the account to contact Dell support outside local business hours and open a ticket once. I really don't see the point of twitter.
Isn't Randy Newman dead yet? (Score:4, Funny)
I QUIT TWITTER BECAUSE OF ELON MUSK! (Score:3)
Laughing out loud! [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Joined Twitter in 2007 (Score:3, Interesting)
But I've been on many other platforms that have either died, like Google+, or "pivoted" like Foursquare. Or which I have been taken over my nefarious forces. Livejournal was bought by Russian interests, and a few years later explicitly banned all LBQGTI+ posts of any kind. Which, to be fair, was forced upon them by draconian Russian laws. At that point, myself and most other users migrated to Dreamwidth.
So I'm yet to see which scenario will unfold here. I've (re)joined a Mastodon server as a precaution.
And I do wish that Elon would stick to building electric cars and interesting space rockets. And stop acting like a rich entitled spoiled petulant teen. Oh, and the army of Techbros that adore him make me throw up in my mouth a little.
What's "use" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
I've always used Twitter more or less as a read-only newsfeed, and, for years it has been usable only via third-party apps using the Twitter API. But if that API disappears, or is changed to prevent the apps filtering out ads and 'algorithms', I'll stop using Twitter immediately.
Re: (Score:2)
I created an account to check it out, but hardly ever login, so I don't count myself as a "user"
Not since it got Gab-ified (Score:1)
Only one thing I use it for (Score:2)
The only thing that I use Twitter for is to get alerts about high speed chases that are live on TV. It's good for that, and to get a link to a feed of the chase. Anything else, it's a total shit show, and I feel like the UI is fighting against me every step of the way.
The lifespan poll? (Score:2)
Well, this poll already seems to have outlived its usefulness. Not that I'm hating on the topic, but it's pretty clear almost no one much cares. So I got to thinking about a new poll question, which is linked to this poll if you take it as a poll about the "effective" lifespan of Twitter. (And I confess I'm hoping Musk will earn a #heilElon for killing Twitter.) Though (as usual), I am coming at the topic sideways:
How long should a program (or a company or a Constitution) be maintained?
And don't forget the implications for the data created and manipulated by the program (or Cons
Bot accounts (Score:2)
I do, but considering to quit. (Score:1)
However, I dislike the increase in advertisement presence, and if it continues to grow, I'll end up quitting, or just leave my handle as testimonial but not enter the site anymore. I've been phasing out Facebook for the same reasons, and I do not enter other social media sites because of the ads. I barely watch Youtube videos.
That's also the reason why I stopped watching regular TV and embraced st
missing option (Score:1)
Missing option: I have an account, but open the site/app once in a blue moon
I use it; waiting to see what happens (Score:3)
It's a great place for sports news, at least at present. But in order to fix Twitter's very real problems, Musk will likely need to set his ego aside and think of it as a business - and I expect he'll have trouble with that.
Don't use most social media platforms (Score:2)
CowboyNeal (Score:1)
Traditions are important :D
Re: (Score:2)
Yes but I won't pay for it (Score:2)
I joined years ago, ironically to follow Tesla & SpaceX.
But not gonna pay for the privilege of Elon's shitposting
Missing poll option (Score:2)
Oblig.... (Score:2)
Where's Cowboy Neal (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
He got impressed into the Russian army.
Yes, It's become super-entertaining (Score:1)
Stopped a long time ago (Score:2)
At one time I had an account for my small publishing business but deleted the account about two or three years ago. I just wanted to sell my funny, non-political cat books, but discovered twitter was just a dumpster fire of hate and a political echo chamber.
I wasn't using it before not using it was cool (Score:2)
Now I'm laughing at the implosion.
Nope. Ain't happening. (Score:1)
5th Option...A few times per year (Score:2)
Mitch Hedburg (Score:2)
I still do, but used to, too.
Got banned from twitter way back when (Score:2)
Old account hacked, new account deleted by twitter (Score:1)
I am very confused (Score:1)
Been redirected to see tweets (Score:2)
But have never had a login or sought to "use" Twitter. Can say the same for Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok...
I do have Facebook account, mostly to keep up with hometown activities and high-school and college classmates.
Goverment Should Not Use Twitter (Score:2)
Where's the option for I use it for tech support? (Score:2)
Many companies have for some unknown reason much better support available by twitter than they do via phone or their native web chat.
Other than that I haven't really had much use for twitter.
A long, long time ago. (Score:1)
By I used to use Twiitter it was a long, long time ago when there was interesting information to be found there. I haven't logged in to my Twitter account for a decade.
Tried to (Score:2)
But Twitter kept locking my account due to "suspicious activity".. Sure is suspicious to not post anything.. Dumb fucking platform.
Obligatory CowboyNeal option (Score:1)
I'm waiting for CowboyNeal to buy it before I try it.
No, never used Twitter and Never Will (Score:1)
No, never used Twitter and Never Will.
Yes, but (Score:2)
I follow two or three things, they follow the headlines and use Twitter to post headlines. Occasionally they post video worth watching. I'm more of a casual user at best. But Twitter uses me as a active monthly user, even though I don't think I've seen the Twitter main feed more than once or twice a year
Re: (Score:2)
Almost the joke I was looking for: Twitter using the user as a missing option for the poll...
But my last tweet was
Where is the #PeanutGallery? I'm just [on Twitter] to find the best place to watch the #ClusterMusk.
And I'm not worried about protecting my Twitter account.
#heilElon !
See. All better now!
And Twitter still seemed to be running an hour ago...
The rabid hate being posted on twitter says more a (Score:1)
Twitter? (Score:2)
Need another answer. (Score:1)
All the world's a stage... (Score:2)
Missing option: "Not really" (Score:1)