Why Twitter Can't Monetize

lukeburrage · December 1, 2022, 8:53pm

Web-scale services are hard. Turns out security is hard too.

“Despite the massive growth, the social media site continued to be staffed by just two people, neither of whom had much of a background in security.”

Churba · December 2, 2022, 3:29am

That seems odd, considering they’ve got 250-300 some employees on paper. What are the others doing, fetching a shitload of coffee?

Dazzle369 · March 31, 2023, 9:56pm

Apparently, Twitter’s recommendation algorithm is now on github.

github.com

twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b928b479b512ec51ac2c3821f5922/home-mixer/server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/home_mixer/functional_component/decorator/HomeTweetTypePredicates.scala#L225


      
          ("has_topic_social_context", _ => false),
          ("timeline_entry_has_banner", _ => false),
          ("served_in_conversation_module", _.getOrElse(ServedInConversationModuleFeature, false)),
          (
            "conversation_module_has_2_displayed_tweets",
            _.getOrElse(ConversationModule2DisplayedTweetsFeature, false)),
          ("conversation_module_has_gap", _.getOrElse(ConversationModuleHasGapFeature, false)),
          ("served_in_recap_tweet_candidate_module_injection", _ => false),
          ("served_in_threaded_conversation_module", _ => false),
          (
            "author_is_elon",
            candidate =>
              candidate
                .getOrElse(AuthorIdFeature, None).contains(candidate.getOrElse(DDGStatsElonFeature, 0L))),
          (
            "author_is_power_user",
            candidate =>
              candidate
                .getOrElse(AuthorIdFeature, None)
                .exists(candidate.getOrElse(DDGStatsVitsFeature, Set.empty[Long]).contains)),
          (

rastergrafx · March 31, 2023, 10:06pm

I heard about a week ago that it was put on GitHub, then quickly taken down.
I’m surprised it’s back up again.

Dazzle369 · April 22, 2023, 11:56pm

All verified accounts have lost their blue ticks, unless they’re paying for subscription.

Some accounts have been allowed to keep their blue ticks, despite not having a subscription.

It seems that, lol, the changes made to verification has mostly made it a lot easier to block shitheads.

If Twitter wasn’t already hell, every passing day brings it closer to Hades.

rastergrafx · April 23, 2023, 12:01am

Twitter Blue is a smashing success.

SkeleRym · August 16, 2023, 2:12pm

Josh · August 18, 2023, 4:21pm

Neo · August 18, 2023, 4:24pm

And, how many people were blocking a large number of advertisers’ accounts.

Apreche · August 18, 2023, 4:48pm

He is right that the way block was implemented on Twitter made no sense.

Blocking someone on Twitter does the following:

Makes it so the blocked user can not see any of your tweets.
Even if someone quote tweets you, they can see the quote tweet, but not your original tweet that is quoted.
The blocked person can not reply to your tweets.
The blocked person can’t DM you.

This made no sense primarily because if your account isn’t protected, your tweets are public. The person you blocked can just logout, or open a private browsing window, and see your tweets.

Also, even if I block Musk, if someone I intentionally follow quote tweets him, don’t I want to see the stupid thing he said that my friend is criticizing?

Here’s how blocking should work.

A blocked person can’t DM you.
The blocked person may not include your @handle in their tweets. They might retweet your or quote you, but you’ll never see or hear from them.

If you have a timeline where you only see tweets from people you follow in reverse chronological order, then unfollowing is as good as blocking. If someone you follow is re-sharing things from someone you don’t like, then unfollow them too!

The problem is the algorithmic timeline where there can be tweets from people you don’t follow. That’s where you need blocking to guarantee certain things never show up there. But the real answer is, that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

The fundamental rule should be that you only see things you explicitly asked to see. If a platform does not follow that rule, do not use it. Figure out which things you want to see, and setup a system whereby you see only those things and nothing else.

Apreche · August 18, 2023, 6:50pm

The end of free TweetDeck finally rolled out to me. It was working until I reloaded. Thus ends my usage of Twitter.

rastergrafx · September 19, 2023, 11:42pm

SkeleRym · November 17, 2023, 3:18am

It’s time to leave Twitter.

SkeleRym · November 18, 2023, 3:12pm

IBM left because it’s Nazis all over again.

Disney also just dropped all ads indefinitely.

SkeleRym · November 18, 2023, 4:36pm

At this point I actively hope Twitter shuts down permanently as soon as possible. I encourage people to not post at all.

This is way beyond the line. Twitter is a Nazi platform.

Coldguy · November 18, 2023, 6:52pm

As someone who knows the power of Twitter to the historical record I hope the Library of Congress can actually grab the servers to finish their project they started back in 2004.

Dazzle369 · November 18, 2023, 11:36pm

Can someone just recreate Twitter, Pre-Apartheid Clyde and call it Bitter or something.

Fund it with actual subscriptions.

If it never gets as big, so what, keep it functional for the users.

Starfox · November 19, 2023, 1:34am

That’s cohost, isn’t it?

Coldguy · November 19, 2023, 1:39am

I am on it and found quite literally 2 people I know that use the platform, could do my trick in following their followers but cohost won’t let me do that for some reason.

Churba · November 19, 2023, 2:27am

Sort of. Bluesky has the look, features and Vibe, and cohost has the whinging about Twitter(or rather, bluesky.)