I’ve had a really good time on here. I’ve also had a really bad time.
December 12, 2023 10:06 AM Subscribe
2023 Will Go Down as the Year Twitter Died. A multipart package from The Verge looking at Twitter, for better and for worse.
Extremely Softcore by Zoë Schiffer: The old, pre-Elon Twitter was a workplace full of idealists who believed they were making the world a better place. But were they just naive?
Goodbye to All That Harassment by Sara Jeong: The things that made Twitter a powerful tool of social change were also the things that made it suck.
How Twitter Broke the News by Nilay Patel: For over a decade, Twitter was the most powerful force in news. Why did we let that happen?
The Great Scrollback of Alexandria: This is a preservation effort, attempting to capture the funniest, weirdest, and most memorable posts before Twitter completely burns down.
Extremely Softcore by Zoë Schiffer: The old, pre-Elon Twitter was a workplace full of idealists who believed they were making the world a better place. But were they just naive?
Goodbye to All That Harassment by Sara Jeong: The things that made Twitter a powerful tool of social change were also the things that made it suck.
How Twitter Broke the News by Nilay Patel: For over a decade, Twitter was the most powerful force in news. Why did we let that happen?
The Great Scrollback of Alexandria: This is a preservation effort, attempting to capture the funniest, weirdest, and most memorable posts before Twitter completely burns down.
A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that website
Used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people glance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But November made me shiver
With every favourite I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his SpaceX dive
Something touched me deep inside
The day the blue bird died...
posted by Lanark at 10:20 AM on December 12, 2023 [69 favorites]
I can still remember how that website
Used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people glance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But November made me shiver
With every favourite I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his SpaceX dive
Something touched me deep inside
The day the blue bird died...
posted by Lanark at 10:20 AM on December 12, 2023 [69 favorites]
From Patel's article: "“I don’t believe Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination in 2016 without Twitter,” says Klein.''
And for that they should be thoroughly punished. But this was also the rest of media's fault as they eagerly parroted every one of Trump's outlandish tweets. It was like having the teachers repeat to their classes every bad word the playground bully shouted at recess.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:22 AM on December 12, 2023 [42 favorites]
And for that they should be thoroughly punished. But this was also the rest of media's fault as they eagerly parroted every one of Trump's outlandish tweets. It was like having the teachers repeat to their classes every bad word the playground bully shouted at recess.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:22 AM on December 12, 2023 [42 favorites]
Oooof, that site makes me nauseated to try to read! Is there a plain-text version with no moving graphics, etc.?
posted by maryellenreads at 10:26 AM on December 12, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by maryellenreads at 10:26 AM on December 12, 2023 [10 favorites]
Something touched me deep inside
The day the blue bird died...
So...
So long,
Soon Twit-ter will be gone
I kicked X off my lawn
And switched to Mastodon
Still Nazi boys put their MAGA hat on
Sayin' this will be the hill they die on
This will be the hill they die on
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:30 AM on December 12, 2023 [13 favorites]
The day the blue bird died...
So...
So long,
Soon Twit-ter will be gone
I kicked X off my lawn
And switched to Mastodon
Still Nazi boys put their MAGA hat on
Sayin' this will be the hill they die on
This will be the hill they die on
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:30 AM on December 12, 2023 [13 favorites]
Related: The Great Social Media–News Collapse [The Atlantic; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 10:36 AM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 10:36 AM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
Has there ever been a comparable example where a single owner has just...singlehandedly murdered a popular website/service?
posted by gottabefunky at 10:37 AM on December 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by gottabefunky at 10:37 AM on December 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
Seems to open fine in Firefox's reader view, for those who tired quickly of the layout. I appreciate the creativity but also just want to read
posted by dantheclamman at 10:40 AM on December 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by dantheclamman at 10:40 AM on December 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
To really appreciate the creativity, make you you crank up the "CHAOS" knob in the corner (to animate the glorious Scorpion Dagger background) and also click the flying bird to get the Image Key. On a desktop, anyway... doesn't seem to work on mobile.
posted by oulipian at 11:04 AM on December 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 11:04 AM on December 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
The verge redesigned their site just before the takeover, so that they could embed tweets and other useful things in their site. I have a feeling that they miss the old Twitter as much as anyone.
Personally, I blame Jack Dorsey, even though it’s clear that there’s any number of dudes who are responsible.
posted by The River Ivel at 11:13 AM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Personally, I blame Jack Dorsey, even though it’s clear that there’s any number of dudes who are responsible.
posted by The River Ivel at 11:13 AM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Has there ever been a comparable example where a single owner has just...singlehandedly murdered a popular website/service?
Well, there was del.icio.us, whose owners tried to turn it into Pinterest and ended up pissing off the entire userbase.
posted by credulous at 11:20 AM on December 12, 2023 [16 favorites]
Well, there was del.icio.us, whose owners tried to turn it into Pinterest and ended up pissing off the entire userbase.
posted by credulous at 11:20 AM on December 12, 2023 [16 favorites]
The last article reminds me of the specialness of a predominantly text space for riffing and idle thoughts. So many people have comedic glory in them, Twitter created a space for a non-stop global comedy open mic night. The first showcased tweet:
Steve vs. Ninjas @stevevsninjasposted by spamandkimchi at 11:21 AM on December 12, 2023 [14 favorites]
1.Rage Against The Machine
2.Hold A Grudge Against The Machine
3.Get Over The Machine
4.Sincerely Hope The Machine Finds Happiness
1:09 am • Apr 30, 2016
Didn't Digg implode spectacularly when they made a whole bunch of unnecessary changes that the userbase didn't appreciate?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:23 AM on December 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:23 AM on December 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
Destruction by sellout isn't uncommon. Friendfeed died when its original developers sold it to Facebook and Facebook promptly murdered it.
posted by humbug at 11:28 AM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by humbug at 11:28 AM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Like I know these kinds of delightful replies can exist elsewhere; e.g. Bluesky (I would take an invite, but really the beauty of early Twitter was the no-bar-to-entry, you didn't need to know anyone) and Mastodon (I created an account but haven't committed to it yet).
jes tom @jestomposted by spamandkimchi at 11:29 AM on December 12, 2023 [19 favorites]
the fact that we can even have a lesbian emu farmer influencer who is also a god fearing conservative racist shows the failure of identity based representation politics
10:24 pm • Oct 19, 2022
Waddle Dee @Citizenflaba
@jestom I find it funny that there was 2 emu farmer influencers and I wasn’t aware of the second racist one until now and am relieved it wasn’t “my” wholesome emu farmer influencer
0:43 am • Oct 20, 2022
WAIT WAIT. It's not Knucklebump Farms tho right? (checking)
Oh nooooooooo. : *(
posted by Glinn at 11:49 AM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oh nooooooooo. : *(
posted by Glinn at 11:49 AM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Destruction by sellout isn't uncommon. Friendfeed died when its original developers sold it to Facebook and Facebook promptly murdered it.
There's a difference between buying something and sunsetting it vs buying something and running it into the ground while ostensibly not wanting to be doing that.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:52 AM on December 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
There's a difference between buying something and sunsetting it vs buying something and running it into the ground while ostensibly not wanting to be doing that.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:52 AM on December 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
One of my favorite twitter moments was when Susan Orlean got hammered and (against everyone's recommendation) tweeted about how shit-faced she was and yelling that her stupid cat wasn't showing up to comfort her. When asked if this was the real Susan Orlean she said "I have SO NOT BEEN HACKED".
Unfortunately she posted these as separate tweets, so I can't easily link to them.
Then you get random bullshit like a twitter nobody professing her love for Hosier, having a guy reply to her saying "I'm not Hosier, but I was in a band", dating the guy, marrying him, and having Hosier congratulate her when she posted she was no longer single.
Oh, and then a retired Army General shitposting about a Russian warship with a massive hole in the side and saying "I'm not a boat person, but that looks bad" and getting a response from a retired Navy Admiral (?) saying "Yes, holes in boats are bad. They let water in. Can you comment on this tank? It looks broken". "You are correct. Tanks are not supposed to have their turrets 50 feet away. That will need some repair". (all quotes approximate).
A genuine "only on twitter" interaction.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:55 AM on December 12, 2023 [33 favorites]
Unfortunately she posted these as separate tweets, so I can't easily link to them.
Then you get random bullshit like a twitter nobody professing her love for Hosier, having a guy reply to her saying "I'm not Hosier, but I was in a band", dating the guy, marrying him, and having Hosier congratulate her when she posted she was no longer single.
Oh, and then a retired Army General shitposting about a Russian warship with a massive hole in the side and saying "I'm not a boat person, but that looks bad" and getting a response from a retired Navy Admiral (?) saying "Yes, holes in boats are bad. They let water in. Can you comment on this tank? It looks broken". "You are correct. Tanks are not supposed to have their turrets 50 feet away. That will need some repair". (all quotes approximate).
A genuine "only on twitter" interaction.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:55 AM on December 12, 2023 [33 favorites]
And I know there are theories that Musk wanted to destroy twitter and that is why he bought it, but even so...
A normal person might buy a laundromat, decide they don't want a laundromat to be there, and so they'd close down the laundromat and renovate the inside and find another tenant or whatever.
Musk bought a laundromat, then bit by bit put ink in each machine and broke the doors off a few, moved families of raccoons into the dryers, and changed the operating hours to 15 minutes per week.
Like yes, the end result is the same, no laundromat. But one thing is basically within the norms of business and the other is fucking unhinged.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:00 PM on December 12, 2023 [42 favorites]
A normal person might buy a laundromat, decide they don't want a laundromat to be there, and so they'd close down the laundromat and renovate the inside and find another tenant or whatever.
Musk bought a laundromat, then bit by bit put ink in each machine and broke the doors off a few, moved families of raccoons into the dryers, and changed the operating hours to 15 minutes per week.
Like yes, the end result is the same, no laundromat. But one thing is basically within the norms of business and the other is fucking unhinged.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:00 PM on December 12, 2023 [42 favorites]
Obviously he thinks the changes he made are improvements... but most of the world seems to disagree.
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:13 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:13 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
> there are theories that Musk wanted to destroy twitter and that is why he bought it
He didn't buy it to destroy it (remember that he tried every trick he could to break his purchase contract), he bought it because he's a narcissist and addicted to Twitter. It's not "Man buys amusement park and closes it to spite the kids" but "Local drunk buys favorite bar."
posted by riotnrrd at 12:20 PM on December 12, 2023 [43 favorites]
He didn't buy it to destroy it (remember that he tried every trick he could to break his purchase contract), he bought it because he's a narcissist and addicted to Twitter. It's not "Man buys amusement park and closes it to spite the kids" but "Local drunk buys favorite bar."
posted by riotnrrd at 12:20 PM on December 12, 2023 [43 favorites]
Buys bar, hangs Nazi flag, mocks everyone concerned about Nazi flag and meetings
posted by Jacen at 12:27 PM on December 12, 2023 [17 favorites]
posted by Jacen at 12:27 PM on December 12, 2023 [17 favorites]
Alex Jones is a fucking piece of shit who raked in money over the bodies of children and the pain of their parents. That Musk believes he's a silenced voice that needs to be replatformed on Ex-Twitter should be the God damn stake through that hellsite's heart. If you have a million Twitter users and one of them is Alex Jones, you have a million Alex Jones supporters.
I left as soon as Musk replatformed Orange Fool-ius and am never, ever going back. Most of the people I missed from Twitter are now on Threads. Musk can go cry into his blood diamond money.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:29 PM on December 12, 2023 [22 favorites]
I left as soon as Musk replatformed Orange Fool-ius and am never, ever going back. Most of the people I missed from Twitter are now on Threads. Musk can go cry into his blood diamond money.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:29 PM on December 12, 2023 [22 favorites]
Fuckin' racoons.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:40 PM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 12:40 PM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I maintain my theory that Elon is a secret hero of the working class. He decided early in life to reveal the hollowness of the capitalist system from the inside while disproving the myth that the very rich are better/smarter/etc. To do this he had to join the very rich. He invested in a promising internet startup (Paypal), made a bunch of money, then completed his prank by demanding a series of unfocused, stupid, destructive changes - call it X! It'll be the Everything App!
But it wasn't enough! The board or whatever threw him out, and because he was only quite rich and not very extremely rich, the story never made it beyond industry talk. So he set off to make even more money: he invested in even more promising startups, this time making sure to leave actual control up to competent people so he couldn't be retroactively accused of being intelligent. He crafted a brash public persona to gain a cult of personality and ensure his next prank wouldn't be ignored.
He sees that Twitter is a hellsite and probably got us the 45th president, and he recognizes an opportunity to both destroy it and pull off his grand satire of capitalism. He gets a bunch of banks and supposed tech industry geniuses to throw in money to make sure no one can pretend they didn't go along with it. He buys Twitter and begins dismantling it from the inside with idiotic changes to destroy the rumor of his own expertise. He loses more money than anyone else ever has in order to show the fickle and illusory nature of capital. He befriends all the worst Nazis he can find and brings them along as fellow travelers to undermine an entire political party's supposed moral standing.
Twitter will burn to the ground. Elon will have sacrificed his own good name, now and in the history books, to secretly further his ultimate goal: to show us that the mythical figures of capitalism are empty ghosts, and we must find a new path to the future. It's kayfabe, right from the beginning! An incredible work of satire!
I mean, that's the only way it makes sense to me.
posted by echo target at 12:48 PM on December 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
But it wasn't enough! The board or whatever threw him out, and because he was only quite rich and not very extremely rich, the story never made it beyond industry talk. So he set off to make even more money: he invested in even more promising startups, this time making sure to leave actual control up to competent people so he couldn't be retroactively accused of being intelligent. He crafted a brash public persona to gain a cult of personality and ensure his next prank wouldn't be ignored.
He sees that Twitter is a hellsite and probably got us the 45th president, and he recognizes an opportunity to both destroy it and pull off his grand satire of capitalism. He gets a bunch of banks and supposed tech industry geniuses to throw in money to make sure no one can pretend they didn't go along with it. He buys Twitter and begins dismantling it from the inside with idiotic changes to destroy the rumor of his own expertise. He loses more money than anyone else ever has in order to show the fickle and illusory nature of capital. He befriends all the worst Nazis he can find and brings them along as fellow travelers to undermine an entire political party's supposed moral standing.
Twitter will burn to the ground. Elon will have sacrificed his own good name, now and in the history books, to secretly further his ultimate goal: to show us that the mythical figures of capitalism are empty ghosts, and we must find a new path to the future. It's kayfabe, right from the beginning! An incredible work of satire!
I mean, that's the only way it makes sense to me.
posted by echo target at 12:48 PM on December 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
Funny how Musk justified replatforming Orange Julius by singling out Alex Jones out as the one guy he'd never let back on the platform.
I guess Elon Musk does havemercy admiration for people who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:50 PM on December 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
I guess Elon Musk does have
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:50 PM on December 12, 2023 [7 favorites]
I think it was during the Sandy Hook shooting that I realized how dangerous Twitter was. Everybody wanted to know what was going on, and the traditional media have a rule that information has to be corroborated before it gets reported. But rumors could fly on Twitter. And then the media decided they COULD report about the rumors on Twitter (all it really takes is one outlet to make that call, and then everyone else has to follow or they get scooped).
During a big dramatic story, people are so desperate for information that they'd rather have wrong information than no information. People got hooked on the 24-hour news cycle, and Twitter provided. It's already corroded democracy to a point we might not come back from. Twitter SUCKED HARD way before Elon came by and made it openly alt-right.
posted by rikschell at 12:51 PM on December 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
During a big dramatic story, people are so desperate for information that they'd rather have wrong information than no information. People got hooked on the 24-hour news cycle, and Twitter provided. It's already corroded democracy to a point we might not come back from. Twitter SUCKED HARD way before Elon came by and made it openly alt-right.
posted by rikschell at 12:51 PM on December 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
Twitter had its moments of brilliance but even early on they were getting drowned in a sea of awfulness. All the Muskrat has done is take the awful up to 11, it was always there, waiting.
posted by tommasz at 1:23 PM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 1:23 PM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
As ever if anyone wants to relive that Twitter circa 2011 experience I have Bluesky invites.
posted by Artw at 1:30 PM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Artw at 1:30 PM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Mastodon + a Lisa Melton follow gives you the same 2011 vibes. Been away a year now and can't be happier. Fuck Elon.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:32 PM on December 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:32 PM on December 12, 2023 [6 favorites]
Oooof, that site makes me nauseated to try to read! Is there a plain-text version with no moving graphics, etc.?
Yeah, same- I normally love a good moving layout, but this one...yeah, no.
Try the archived version: https://archive.is/20231212193251/https://www.theverge.com/c/features/23928461/best-tweets-archive-twitter-x-funny
posted by LlamaHat at 1:45 PM on December 12, 2023
Yeah, same- I normally love a good moving layout, but this one...yeah, no.
Try the archived version: https://archive.is/20231212193251/https://www.theverge.com/c/features/23928461/best-tweets-archive-twitter-x-funny
posted by LlamaHat at 1:45 PM on December 12, 2023
If Artw runs out of invites, I have a few too.
I feel like there won't be one replacement for Twitter. Mastodon is for people who value signal over noise; Bluesky is the new hangout for celebrities; I guess Threads is for people who already are on Instagram?
I think ultimately Twitter will be remembered as yet another central internet culture place that died. The edgy users flowed from Something Awful to 4chan to Twitter. I don't know where they'll go now, I kind of hope it's nowhere.
posted by JHarris at 1:58 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I feel like there won't be one replacement for Twitter. Mastodon is for people who value signal over noise; Bluesky is the new hangout for celebrities; I guess Threads is for people who already are on Instagram?
I think ultimately Twitter will be remembered as yet another central internet culture place that died. The edgy users flowed from Something Awful to 4chan to Twitter. I don't know where they'll go now, I kind of hope it's nowhere.
posted by JHarris at 1:58 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I made so many friends on Twitter, had so many great times, could instantly find out what those helicopters or sirens were all about, got to share a bunch of silly projects with people who appreciated them, got to enjoy the projects of others, and basically had a blast with a ton of other people for years.
It sure had its problems, a lot of which could be avoided through careful curation of a feed and judicious blocking, and of course some of which I was not subject to due to priviledge, but that fucking asshole went and completely ruined it for everyone. He's the evil old man who tore down the playground to build a glue factory. A Nazi glue factory.
I will never understand how he was allowed to do that. I mean, sure, I know it has to do with money and capitalism and all that, but nobody should be that powerful.
I hope he is as miserable on the inside as he appears to be on the outside.
I have about five BlueSky codes. If anyone wants one, just shoot me a mail. It's not quite the same over there, but it's about the closest thing we have.
posted by bondcliff at 1:59 PM on December 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
It sure had its problems, a lot of which could be avoided through careful curation of a feed and judicious blocking, and of course some of which I was not subject to due to priviledge, but that fucking asshole went and completely ruined it for everyone. He's the evil old man who tore down the playground to build a glue factory. A Nazi glue factory.
I will never understand how he was allowed to do that. I mean, sure, I know it has to do with money and capitalism and all that, but nobody should be that powerful.
I hope he is as miserable on the inside as he appears to be on the outside.
I have about five BlueSky codes. If anyone wants one, just shoot me a mail. It's not quite the same over there, but it's about the closest thing we have.
posted by bondcliff at 1:59 PM on December 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
You can drag the slider in the bottom-left corner over to the kittycat to eliminate the moving parts. This is a non-standard solution though and I can understand people not piecing that together, most articles don't make you solve adventure game puzzles to read them.
posted by JHarris at 2:00 PM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 2:00 PM on December 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I have a few BlueSky codes too; drop a line if you'd like one.
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:25 PM on December 12, 2023
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:25 PM on December 12, 2023
There’s a cyclone at the moment about to slam Far North Queensland and I realised what was so great about the Golden Era Twitter was that power to share directly in other people’s preparation, experience, and recovery from disasters.
We’re back now to what we had before: News anchors standing in raincoats. Which is fine, but not the same.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 2:39 PM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
We’re back now to what we had before: News anchors standing in raincoats. Which is fine, but not the same.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 2:39 PM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
Guys, once you get past the vertigo-inducing index page, the individual articles are pretty OK in Firefox reader view. (Mostly plain text, some giant initial caps and a few illustrations.)
posted by maudlin at 2:49 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by maudlin at 2:49 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
> Mastodon is for people who value signal over noise; Bluesky is the new hangout for celebrities
In my experience, Mastodon is great for following science communicators but has the worst busy-body, tone-policing, hall-monitor scolds. Just absolutely terrible levels of "fun fact!", "gentle reminder!" dorks telling you how to post "the right way." Bluesky is a lot like an underpopulated Twitter From The Good Days. Lots of short-form comedy and culture stuff gets posted, but without an algorithm your feed is a little sparser (in a good way) and it's not as useful for raising awareness of causes, publicizing work, or for journalists. Also, and maybe it's specific to my follower list, but it's extremely trans positive and has a very healthy "block the assholes and move on" attitude which seems to keep harassers at bay. (Lack of an algorithmic feed does wonders here, too).
posted by riotnrrd at 3:42 PM on December 12, 2023 [15 favorites]
In my experience, Mastodon is great for following science communicators but has the worst busy-body, tone-policing, hall-monitor scolds. Just absolutely terrible levels of "fun fact!", "gentle reminder!" dorks telling you how to post "the right way." Bluesky is a lot like an underpopulated Twitter From The Good Days. Lots of short-form comedy and culture stuff gets posted, but without an algorithm your feed is a little sparser (in a good way) and it's not as useful for raising awareness of causes, publicizing work, or for journalists. Also, and maybe it's specific to my follower list, but it's extremely trans positive and has a very healthy "block the assholes and move on" attitude which seems to keep harassers at bay. (Lack of an algorithmic feed does wonders here, too).
posted by riotnrrd at 3:42 PM on December 12, 2023 [15 favorites]
I think Twitter is so big and so entrenched in society that even a moron like Elon Musk won't kill it entirely. It will change and morph into something else but it won't really die. I mean, MySpace and Digg are still around, technically, very small and different but not dead dead. Twitter will, and largely already has, turn into a right-wing space, and there are more than a few folks on that side of the aisle that will keep it alive. Think how niche Infowars is, but they get plenty of money. That's where Twitter will be in five years, appealing to wingnut gun nut preppers and the like.
posted by zardoz at 3:48 PM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by zardoz at 3:48 PM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
People keep saying “Lowtax speedrun” and yet something awful still exists.
It’s not entirely a bad outcome for Twitter to drift into a Livejournal style undead state so long as any value it has gets replicated elsewhere - probably a few hangers on will use it for Nazi shit til the end but the lack of normies to antagonize will make it no more appealing than Gab or Truth Social.
posted by Artw at 4:12 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
It’s not entirely a bad outcome for Twitter to drift into a Livejournal style undead state so long as any value it has gets replicated elsewhere - probably a few hangers on will use it for Nazi shit til the end but the lack of normies to antagonize will make it no more appealing than Gab or Truth Social.
posted by Artw at 4:12 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have a handful of Bluesky invites too. Send me a memail if you want one.
posted by Elmore at 4:18 PM on December 12, 2023
posted by Elmore at 4:18 PM on December 12, 2023
> What does “Lowtax speedrun” mean?
Lowtax created and ran Something Awful. He eventually killed himself.
posted by riotnrrd at 4:38 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Lowtax created and ran Something Awful. He eventually killed himself.
posted by riotnrrd at 4:38 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Stop using Twitter.
It's not that big of a deal. You will be 100% over it in a month and a half. FFS, so much hand wringing and drama (not necessarily here, but over Twitter in general). Yes, I know there have been instances where Twitter was invaluable during natural disasters, wars, etc... but Twitter is gone. It's not there anymore.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:53 PM on December 12, 2023 [18 favorites]
It's not that big of a deal. You will be 100% over it in a month and a half. FFS, so much hand wringing and drama (not necessarily here, but over Twitter in general). Yes, I know there have been instances where Twitter was invaluable during natural disasters, wars, etc... but Twitter is gone. It's not there anymore.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:53 PM on December 12, 2023 [18 favorites]
Can’t, that’s where all the local severe weather nerds hangout. When they move so will I.
posted by jquinby at 5:00 PM on December 12, 2023
posted by jquinby at 5:00 PM on December 12, 2023
Here's something I read this morning that's Today's Twitter™... this is the kind of crap people are supporting every time they use Twitter:
https://balloon-juice.com/2023/12/12/late-night-open-thread-grok-is-woke/
posted by SoberHighland at 5:05 PM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
https://balloon-juice.com/2023/12/12/late-night-open-thread-grok-is-woke/
posted by SoberHighland at 5:05 PM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
Jquimby, you are one of the severe weather nerds. When you move so will they.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:08 PM on December 12, 2023 [18 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:08 PM on December 12, 2023 [18 favorites]
Usually if you're going to invest tens of billions of dollars in something and then change it, you're going to have surveys and focus groups and dry runs and whatnot. It's the extreme arrogance of business types that leads them to believe they can just eyeball these things and their judgement is better than anyone else's.
posted by newdaddy at 6:07 PM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by newdaddy at 6:07 PM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
He didn't buy it to destroy it
He bought it to normalize western neo-fascist talking points and prime society for the coming qanon pogroms.
posted by CynicalKnight at 6:29 PM on December 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
He bought it to normalize western neo-fascist talking points and prime society for the coming qanon pogroms.
posted by CynicalKnight at 6:29 PM on December 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
yup. He knew the stuff he really wanted to post would get him banned from the platform just like the previous governance ejected had so many other similar shitheads, and that was intolerable to him.
His original "free speech maximalist" assertion was concerning the preservation of Russian dezi media generators' access to Xitter.
posted by torokunai at 6:41 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
His original "free speech maximalist" assertion was concerning the preservation of Russian dezi media generators' access to Xitter.
posted by torokunai at 6:41 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
For those still looking for Bluesky invites, and those who have spare Bluesky invites, let me resurface the Bluesky Invite Swap Thread from September in Metatalk. The intro at the top links to a self-serve Google spreadsheet with invite codes; use a code, mark it in the spreadsheet as used. As I type this, there looks to be about 20ish unused codes.
posted by BlueTongueLizard at 7:09 PM on December 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by BlueTongueLizard at 7:09 PM on December 12, 2023 [11 favorites]
That site is way too cute to document the shitstorm Elon Musk caused. (thanks for the post - Zoe Schiffer is a great tech reporter)
posted by bluesky43 at 7:38 PM on December 12, 2023
posted by bluesky43 at 7:38 PM on December 12, 2023
Bluesky is the new hangout for celebrities;
It is? I don't think I've run across any celebrities there.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:26 PM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
It is? I don't think I've run across any celebrities there.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:26 PM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
So who here is still on Twitter?
I admit that I am still using the site, though of course not paying Elmo. Sometimes I say that it is because I figure that the place will go bankrupt soon enough and new owners will come in and try and fix it. But really it is just inertia. I have been blocking blue checks like crazy and if you do enough of that it really does improve the experience somewhat. And for the fuckery, I keep finding interesting people there who I did not know about.
I've played around with Threads and tried to go all-in with Blue Sky. But I have Twitter open in a browser tab right now.
posted by LarryC at 11:02 PM on December 12, 2023
I admit that I am still using the site, though of course not paying Elmo. Sometimes I say that it is because I figure that the place will go bankrupt soon enough and new owners will come in and try and fix it. But really it is just inertia. I have been blocking blue checks like crazy and if you do enough of that it really does improve the experience somewhat. And for the fuckery, I keep finding interesting people there who I did not know about.
I've played around with Threads and tried to go all-in with Blue Sky. But I have Twitter open in a browser tab right now.
posted by LarryC at 11:02 PM on December 12, 2023
In my experience, Mastodon is great for following science communicators but has the worst busy-body, tone-policing, hall-monitor scolds. Just absolutely terrible levels of "fun fact!", "gentle reminder!" dorks telling you how to post "the right way."
I'm not going to dispute that this element exists there, I've seen a little of it, even had to block one person because of it. It feels like the worst thing one can do sometimes is forget to put alt text on an image. But it largely ends up being about the people adjacent to you in what they call the "social graph." My theory is that different people have even more of a different experience on Mastodon than they did on Twitter.
posted by JHarris at 11:06 PM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm not going to dispute that this element exists there, I've seen a little of it, even had to block one person because of it. It feels like the worst thing one can do sometimes is forget to put alt text on an image. But it largely ends up being about the people adjacent to you in what they call the "social graph." My theory is that different people have even more of a different experience on Mastodon than they did on Twitter.
posted by JHarris at 11:06 PM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have been blocking blue checks like crazy and if you do enough of that it really does improve the experience somewhat.
I've got bad news about blocking people....
posted by JHarris at 11:08 PM on December 12, 2023
I've got bad news about blocking people....
posted by JHarris at 11:08 PM on December 12, 2023
It is? I don't think I've run across any celebrities there.
Well, it's where "TV's" Frank Conniff went at least. Maybe my impression is mistaken.
posted by JHarris at 11:09 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Well, it's where "TV's" Frank Conniff went at least. Maybe my impression is mistaken.
posted by JHarris at 11:09 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
In my experience, Mastodon is great for following science communicators but has the worst busy-body, tone-policing, hall-monitor scolds. Just absolutely terrible levels of "fun fact!", "gentle reminder!" dorks telling you how to post "the right way."
This is true. But it's a federated network. It's all about the levels of moderation on any particular server. If a server is over-moderated, people will move away from it. Much like the forums and BBSs of old.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:56 PM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
This is true. But it's a federated network. It's all about the levels of moderation on any particular server. If a server is over-moderated, people will move away from it. Much like the forums and BBSs of old.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:56 PM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Stop using Twitter.
I recommend copying all the twitter handles you follow into a text file, it can be useful for searching in case they re-appear on another platform. Then unfollow everyone, but don't actually delete your account which would make it available to squatters.
Lastly change the email address to a non-important/throw-away account because those will surely be sold off or leaked to spammers at some point.
posted by Lanark at 2:26 AM on December 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I recommend copying all the twitter handles you follow into a text file, it can be useful for searching in case they re-appear on another platform. Then unfollow everyone, but don't actually delete your account which would make it available to squatters.
Lastly change the email address to a non-important/throw-away account because those will surely be sold off or leaked to spammers at some point.
posted by Lanark at 2:26 AM on December 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm still on Twitter, though I definitely open it less these days. Having never sent a tweet or paid a penny, and always blocked ads, I doubt keeping my account open even makes into the top 100 ways I'm ruining the planet. Tried dutifully migrating to Mastodon, but it only picked up 20-odd of my Twitter follows, and they were all people who think PGP keys are a pretty neat idea and I'm sorry but man cannot live on earnest nerds sincerely expressing genuinely-held opinions alone. Threads is a slicker platform, but no one knows what it's for so it's just brands and mundanity at the moment. When there's a platform with the right mix of UK politics snark, hyper-local explanations of what that loud bang was, instant football scores, surrealist one-liners, and a truly unhinged Bad Take of the day, I'll move there.
posted by Klipspringer at 3:13 AM on December 13, 2023
posted by Klipspringer at 3:13 AM on December 13, 2023
I eventually dynamited my Twitter. The site is unusable at this point, and I don't want to use it anymore anyway.
I find BlueSky duller than shit, frankly. If you love social media but you hate engagement it's definitely the place for you. Maybe it will be a worthwhile site in time, but right now I feel like you can easily duplicate the Bluesky experience by sitting in an empty room and talking to yourself. If you sit in an otherwise empty room and talk to a cat, you have improved on the Bluesky experience.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:21 AM on December 13, 2023 [7 favorites]
I find BlueSky duller than shit, frankly. If you love social media but you hate engagement it's definitely the place for you. Maybe it will be a worthwhile site in time, but right now I feel like you can easily duplicate the Bluesky experience by sitting in an empty room and talking to yourself. If you sit in an otherwise empty room and talk to a cat, you have improved on the Bluesky experience.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:21 AM on December 13, 2023 [7 favorites]
I was an early user and enjoyed the platform but dumped twitter finally forever after some of Musk's rants repeating Putin's genocidal anti-Ukraine rhetoric.
Using X/twitter is on my list of why-on-earth-would-I-supoort-that-garbage which includes things like: signing up for any random extreme right wingers newsletter; buying q-anon tshirts, going to a trump rally, etc etc. Nooope nope nope no never.
posted by UN at 4:35 AM on December 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
Using X/twitter is on my list of why-on-earth-would-I-supoort-that-garbage which includes things like: signing up for any random extreme right wingers newsletter; buying q-anon tshirts, going to a trump rally, etc etc. Nooope nope nope no never.
posted by UN at 4:35 AM on December 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
So who here is still on Twitter?I quit when Musk started throwing his weight around and I couldn’t bear the thought of helping him make money. Mastodon has largely replaced my usage, feeling like 2006 Twitter but with a much better UI. I’m on two smaller instances, one for professional interests and one local, which I think is good for avoiding some of the issues Twitter had and also reducing the distraction factor – I only check code4lib.social while I’m working, which reduces the “what fresh hell now?” impact of world events.
posted by adamsc at 4:50 AM on December 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
Left Twitter awhile ago and all my closest Internet friends that I was following there have thankfully since moved on to Cohost and/or Bluesky. I can readily keep in touch with most of them via Discord, too; a couple of them have a podcast and many of us are in their show's server on a daily basis, and as a bonus, I've made new friends there. There was one staunch Twitter holdout, but he's since gotten a Bluesky account. I haven't checked to see if he's still tweeting, but he does use Bluesky.
Speaking of, thanks to BlueTongueLizard for posting about that MetaTalk thread! I've since added my own Bluesky codes. Cohost is still my fave due to its Old Internet vibes, but Bluesky is Twitter-esque enough that it does fill a little hole. I'm still resisting Mastodon for now; don't feel a need for it.
As for the OP: that last link is hilarious and I can't stop scrolling through it. Twitter really was the home for short-form comedy for a good decade or so until Elno started slow-motion torpedoing the place.
posted by May Kasahara at 4:59 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Speaking of, thanks to BlueTongueLizard for posting about that MetaTalk thread! I've since added my own Bluesky codes. Cohost is still my fave due to its Old Internet vibes, but Bluesky is Twitter-esque enough that it does fill a little hole. I'm still resisting Mastodon for now; don't feel a need for it.
As for the OP: that last link is hilarious and I can't stop scrolling through it. Twitter really was the home for short-form comedy for a good decade or so until Elno started slow-motion torpedoing the place.
posted by May Kasahara at 4:59 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I quit Twitter some months ago after some really disturbing stuff was showing up in my algorithmic feed. It was bad for me anyway.
When Kissinger died I logged back as a treat and found many of those I follow are still on there but the overall experience felt deadened, like an auditorium without an audience.
At its best Twitter was a place where people’s commentary on life and the world offered insight that could make me feel less alone, a place for high-octane silliness and irreverence, and a place where I learned a lot from really knowledgeable experts. I miss all of that, but I also had to get off the treadmill.
posted by mai at 6:15 AM on December 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
When Kissinger died I logged back as a treat and found many of those I follow are still on there but the overall experience felt deadened, like an auditorium without an audience.
At its best Twitter was a place where people’s commentary on life and the world offered insight that could make me feel less alone, a place for high-octane silliness and irreverence, and a place where I learned a lot from really knowledgeable experts. I miss all of that, but I also had to get off the treadmill.
posted by mai at 6:15 AM on December 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
I still have an account on Twitter. I used an app to delete all my posts, which also removed all my "likes", which had the effect of sending everyone an alert every time it removed a "like" so my friends were getting all sorts of alerts from me all of a sudden. Deleting my 60K+ posts felt like taking all my old family photographs and burning them. It was awful.
I don't post there anymore, I do occasionally reply to someone but that's about it. I still maintain my account because there are still a few accounts over there that are important to me and I don't want to lose track of them. I do not judge the people who are still there because I know they have a good reason why they are not yet able to move on. It's not always easy for people. It's complicated. It's like how we can't always just disown our Trump voting parents. It sure is easy to shame someone else for not doing that though.
Bluesky is slower than Twitter was, but if you find your people it's a pretty good experience. It needs some better user-based controls and some DMs though.
posted by bondcliff at 6:41 AM on December 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't post there anymore, I do occasionally reply to someone but that's about it. I still maintain my account because there are still a few accounts over there that are important to me and I don't want to lose track of them. I do not judge the people who are still there because I know they have a good reason why they are not yet able to move on. It's not always easy for people. It's complicated. It's like how we can't always just disown our Trump voting parents. It sure is easy to shame someone else for not doing that though.
Bluesky is slower than Twitter was, but if you find your people it's a pretty good experience. It needs some better user-based controls and some DMs though.
posted by bondcliff at 6:41 AM on December 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm still on twitter. I only posted programmatic messages, never anything personal, but since they shut down their API I haven't posted anything, and I have never followed anyone but I do have a list of people I regularly check accounts for. I think 2 of the 20 have left. I don't block ads either - the ad level is currently hilarious. It's bottom of the barrel stuff, and a fair amount of porn posts get through, which require community moderation to hide.
I do notice a slight worsening - twitter now adds 'you might like...' accounts below the person you search for now's content, kind of mixed in at the bottom. Those are all basically the worst - generally pushing right-wing views like people say YouTube and other sites do, but don't for me. They also keep wiping out my twitter account search history, so I had to put the list of people I want to search for in a text file to remember the names of the people I want to find. That's happened 3 times in the past month.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:27 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I do notice a slight worsening - twitter now adds 'you might like...' accounts below the person you search for now's content, kind of mixed in at the bottom. Those are all basically the worst - generally pushing right-wing views like people say YouTube and other sites do, but don't for me. They also keep wiping out my twitter account search history, so I had to put the list of people I want to search for in a text file to remember the names of the people I want to find. That's happened 3 times in the past month.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:27 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Stop using Twitter.
This. But, all too easy to say for people like me who stopped using big-corp social media years ago anyway. Far less easy for those who are heavily invested in Twitter.
xlast.org is a decent idea, and one which I hope gains traction. (tl;dr: 'A commitment to posting to X-alternatives first, and posting to X, if at all, last.')
posted by Cardinal Fang at 9:07 AM on December 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
This. But, all too easy to say for people like me who stopped using big-corp social media years ago anyway. Far less easy for those who are heavily invested in Twitter.
xlast.org is a decent idea, and one which I hope gains traction. (tl;dr: 'A commitment to posting to X-alternatives first, and posting to X, if at all, last.')
posted by Cardinal Fang at 9:07 AM on December 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
All of the MeFites I follow on Bluesky are delightful. Thank you for letting me peek into your worlds.
Bluesky is where I've parked for my social media fix, even if it's too slow in terms of usage. But I follow excellent comics artists, trans writers like Niko Stratis (she is the bomb diggity, y'all), my fellow Barbelithers, and other assorted weirdos I've picked up along the way. The only celebrities I follow are James Gunn,Neil Gaiman, and Mike Flanagan. If the other famous people on there, I guess whomever I follow doesn't follow them so if they're there, they're well hidden.
posted by Kitteh at 9:17 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Bluesky is where I've parked for my social media fix, even if it's too slow in terms of usage. But I follow excellent comics artists, trans writers like Niko Stratis (she is the bomb diggity, y'all), my fellow Barbelithers, and other assorted weirdos I've picked up along the way. The only celebrities I follow are James Gunn,Neil Gaiman, and Mike Flanagan. If the other famous people on there, I guess whomever I follow doesn't follow them so if they're there, they're well hidden.
posted by Kitteh at 9:17 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
If there’s anyone from comics Twitter who isn’t on Bluesky I’m not aware of them.
posted by Artw at 9:19 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 9:19 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've got bad news about blocking people....
Yeah, Elmo threatened to remove blocking back in August but has not done so yet. Elmo says a lot of things.
Pundit Josh Marshall pointed out (sure he wasn't the first) that for the alt-right edge lords who are Elmo's bestest buddies, the opportunity to troll and offend normal people is the whole reason they are on social media. They hate blocking. But the site quickly becomes unusable without it.
posted by LarryC at 9:58 AM on December 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yeah, Elmo threatened to remove blocking back in August but has not done so yet. Elmo says a lot of things.
Pundit Josh Marshall pointed out (sure he wasn't the first) that for the alt-right edge lords who are Elmo's bestest buddies, the opportunity to troll and offend normal people is the whole reason they are on social media. They hate blocking. But the site quickly becomes unusable without it.
posted by LarryC at 9:58 AM on December 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
Threads is a slicker platform, but no one knows what it's for so it's just brands and mundanity at the moment. When there's a platform with the right mix of UK politics snark, hyper-local explanations of what that loud bang was, instant football scores, surrealist one-liners, and a truly unhinged Bad Take of the day, I'll move there.
I opened accounts in most places to try them all out but have found myself spending most time on Threads. My BlueSky experience was as some above, just a bit of an empty room and I just bounced off a lot of the posts I could see and couldn't find much sense of my community. Masto did the community stuff much better, and I'm finding it hard to put my finger on why I drifted from checking it very often, but I did.
At first I spend more time on Threads because it was where most people I knew went, and why would I go elsewhere, but more recently it's because it's starting to feel more like Twitter. UK politics stuff seems to be coalescing now that hashtags-without-a-hash are a thing, and the number of amusing surreal posts is definitely on the up.
Still too many people talking about their engagement on there, how they've left Twitter, 'algorithm please connect me with other weasel-fanciers who like hot-air ballooning and atonal music of the 1950s' posts and shameless shilling for more followers, but that might settle down.
posted by reynir at 11:26 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I opened accounts in most places to try them all out but have found myself spending most time on Threads. My BlueSky experience was as some above, just a bit of an empty room and I just bounced off a lot of the posts I could see and couldn't find much sense of my community. Masto did the community stuff much better, and I'm finding it hard to put my finger on why I drifted from checking it very often, but I did.
At first I spend more time on Threads because it was where most people I knew went, and why would I go elsewhere, but more recently it's because it's starting to feel more like Twitter. UK politics stuff seems to be coalescing now that hashtags-without-a-hash are a thing, and the number of amusing surreal posts is definitely on the up.
Still too many people talking about their engagement on there, how they've left Twitter, 'algorithm please connect me with other weasel-fanciers who like hot-air ballooning and atonal music of the 1950s' posts and shameless shilling for more followers, but that might settle down.
posted by reynir at 11:26 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've got bad news about blocking people....
Eh, dude said he'd get rid of all the bots too, and they're worse than ever. Wholesale made up accounts with AI photos spamming hashtags repeatedly. The only favorites I get now are from other bots trying to drum up their porn business. Replies now have ads in them- counted toward the number of replies a tweet gets. The only reason I'm still on twitter is because the sports analysts I follow when watching games are there, and they're unlikely to migrate to Bluesky without video. Same with all the meteorology people I follow on twitter.
Bluesky is fine- but it has a lot of people being scoldy and humorless. Without feeds I wouldn't enjoy it at all.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:37 PM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Eh, dude said he'd get rid of all the bots too, and they're worse than ever. Wholesale made up accounts with AI photos spamming hashtags repeatedly. The only favorites I get now are from other bots trying to drum up their porn business. Replies now have ads in them- counted toward the number of replies a tweet gets. The only reason I'm still on twitter is because the sports analysts I follow when watching games are there, and they're unlikely to migrate to Bluesky without video. Same with all the meteorology people I follow on twitter.
Bluesky is fine- but it has a lot of people being scoldy and humorless. Without feeds I wouldn't enjoy it at all.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:37 PM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I am happy to be wrong on the blocking thing. And every time I look in on Twitter (mostly to see if there's any notifications) now there's at least one obnoxious spam message.
I'm also happy to see that we've all decided that Musk's name is Elmo now.
posted by JHarris at 1:58 PM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm also happy to see that we've all decided that Musk's name is Elmo now.
posted by JHarris at 1:58 PM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm partial to "Lone Skum", but it's a bit formal compared to "Elmo".
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:34 PM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:34 PM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Lone Skum is pretty good, but it takes a bit of realization (and preferably a text comment) to piece together that it's referring to that guy.
posted by JHarris at 2:44 PM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 2:44 PM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I am still on Twitter, not because I am feeling any kinship with Lord Snot and his minions, but for a very simple, elemental, basic reason -- despite its steady death spiral, it remains the default. It has no barriers to entry, it is the first place people think of for posting that style of social media, and I feel like I'm much more likely to find interesting randos there than on BlueSky.
I waited until BlueSky finally sent me an invite to consider joining, and all those months later... it finally arrived two weeks ago, and I didn't find myself in a hurry to use it. It has an invite barrier to entry that dissuades casuals. It doesn't support hashtags, which I find to be an important feature of Twitter. From what I've read, it just... FEELS like a niche thing for people in the know, rather than a catch-all spawning pit of good and evil and sensible and inane and celebrities and random insane people that could burst out at any moment.
I understand why so many have left, and I agree with their reasons. I'm just not there yet, and I do what I usually do, which is to treat hardcore assholes as noise and route around them.
posted by delfin at 3:06 PM on December 13, 2023
I waited until BlueSky finally sent me an invite to consider joining, and all those months later... it finally arrived two weeks ago, and I didn't find myself in a hurry to use it. It has an invite barrier to entry that dissuades casuals. It doesn't support hashtags, which I find to be an important feature of Twitter. From what I've read, it just... FEELS like a niche thing for people in the know, rather than a catch-all spawning pit of good and evil and sensible and inane and celebrities and random insane people that could burst out at any moment.
I understand why so many have left, and I agree with their reasons. I'm just not there yet, and I do what I usually do, which is to treat hardcore assholes as noise and route around them.
posted by delfin at 3:06 PM on December 13, 2023
2023 Will Go Down as the Year Twitter Died.
God I fucking hope so.
posted by evilDoug at 8:44 PM on December 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
God I fucking hope so.
posted by evilDoug at 8:44 PM on December 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
we've all decided that Musk's name is Elmo now.
I thought it was Elno, Elmo is a muppet character who doesn't deserve the association.
posted by Lanark at 3:49 AM on December 14, 2023
I thought it was Elno, Elmo is a muppet character who doesn't deserve the association.
posted by Lanark at 3:49 AM on December 14, 2023
i kind of just like calling him "mr. musk", because 1) it's fun to follow the nytimes style guide sometimes 2) it is a really unsettling thing to call someone.
mr. musk!
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 8:14 AM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
mr. musk!
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 8:14 AM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
mr. musk sounds like the villain in a TMBG song.
posted by eckeric at 12:13 PM on December 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by eckeric at 12:13 PM on December 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Elon Musk: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:57 AM on December 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:57 AM on December 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Exclusive: the X Files – how Elon Musk’s new rules allow hate to flourish
- Leaked documents reveal how staff of the social media channel were stripped of powers to remove toxic content from its platform
posted by Artw at 10:29 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
- Leaked documents reveal how staff of the social media channel were stripped of powers to remove toxic content from its platform
posted by Artw at 10:29 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
NYT 2023 Faces Quiz.
Spoiler alert: out of 52 faces, Musk was, at the time I got my results, the most-recognized one.
Me, I said he was Sam Bankman-Fried, and then I said Sam Bankman-Fried was Mark Zuckerberg.
posted by box at 5:09 PM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Spoiler alert: out of 52 faces, Musk was, at the time I got my results, the most-recognized one.
Me, I said he was Sam Bankman-Fried, and then I said Sam Bankman-Fried was Mark Zuckerberg.
posted by box at 5:09 PM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
mr. musk sounds like the villain in a TMBG song.
Mr. Horrible wasn't so bad (the thing that really bothered him was that someone kept moving his chair), it was the Ugliness Men who really came out the worst in that song.
posted by JHarris at 5:33 PM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Mr. Horrible wasn't so bad (the thing that really bothered him was that someone kept moving his chair), it was the Ugliness Men who really came out the worst in that song.
posted by JHarris at 5:33 PM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:15 AM on December 12, 2023 [16 favorites]