Twitter C/D

Apart from all the other dumb reasons to rebrand Twitter as X, I feel like it's frayed whatever lingering attachment I have to the app. Twitter was a place where I used to have fun, who knows what the fuck X is.

I accidentally retweeted something the other day and found I couldn’t undo retweet. Don’t know if it’s just an issue with my phone app but I can’t be bothered to log in on desktop to check - either way, it’s just one more thing that no longer works on this stupid site

i open threads multiple times a day and can't say it's a very engaging experience, but I should maybe hunt down more people to follow. problem is I liked a lot of the people I followed on Twitter and it doesn't seem that most of them have migrated elsewhere.

Elon Musk has said large block lists have been a resource drain for Twitter, because they – for some reason – significantly increase their server costs.

Elon has asked that you don’t block people in an effort to save Twitter expenses. If you block lots of ppl, it costs Musk $$$

— LeGate (@williamlegate) March 9, 2023

I'm still kinda using fka twitter out of habit, because I'm generally not seeing a lot of garbage (I really only follow musicians), and because at least a few of the regular posters that I follow are still using it. Kinda wish I could fully quit it out of principle but it's not totally unusable for me yet.

No interest in Threads, bluesky seems fine in concept but right now there's basically nothing of interest there.

What are you talking about, I'm there, ergo it is of interest uh wait hold on.

I heard a lot of people are calling it ex now

I could only talk to these people if irony were dripping off of these xs

jfc the contract between what's in my "following" feed and the "For you" one is insane! like why would any algorithm feed me this crap?

*Contrast not contract

there's an algorithmic list of things it thinks you like. on mobile it's under...

Settings and Support > Settings and Privacy > Privacy and Safety > Content you see > Interests

and is often laughably inaccurate. i find going through that once in a while helps.

still gives me a fuckton of articles about Arsenal though. just them, no other teams.

admittedly I still go on every now and then because some genuinely amusing things are happening, like right now a bunch of people are getting themselves banned by claiming the "free speech absolutist" Babylon Bee guy is a pedophile and human trafficker. idk the "dying forums" vibe is kinda fun

but yeah it's just unusable now, the timeline's all fucked up and the recommendation algo is now shit. as I've said Twitter's one biggest strength I thought was for following sports, now it's real shitty at that. like something that happened in the 3rd inning will pop up on my timeline, then I'll put the game on and find it's already in the 7th. you click on too many Brewers vs. Orioles updates and suddenly it thinks you're a fan of both teams and shows you a bunch of Orioles updaets even weeks later. feel like old Twitter actually figured this stuff out but it just seems to get notably worse here every week.

lol Those interests are so specific.

Am I interested in Sanda Bullock? Not really.
Am I interested in ramen? I don't know. Maybe?

i have four different The Walking Dead entries

Top tip! Things I’m supposed to be interested in beginning with H: Handstands, Hard Rock,Hip-Hop, His Dark Materials, Hungarian Grand Prix, Holby City, Historic Drama and Horror films.

May need a bit of culling.

Confirmed: Yes, Apple and Google require social media apps to have a block feature:

From Apple App Store guidelines:
"The ability to block abusive users from the service."

So, X/Twitter should not be able to remove the block feature.

— scott budman (@scottbudman) August 18, 2023

Yet another thing that *should* get dialled back.

That "server costs" story seems like utter bullshit.

A lot of ppl saying their goodbyes tho'

That "server costs" story seems like utter bullshit.

My immediate impression of that story was that it was obviously designed to get X users to use the block feature even more extensively, because who in their right mind would respond positively to a plea to help one of the world's richest humans 'limit his server costs' by voluntarily denying themselves the ability to block abusive or annoying content?

I think some ex-Twitter employees have confirmed this is the case actually, I think the way block lists are set up they actually do have to make a bunch of server calls so apparently users with large block lists do use a lot of resources. my impression was it's just old code that needs to be refactored, sadly Elon fired everyone

yeah seems like particularly paired with the algo feed blocklists cld have a lot of overhead

apparently users with large block lists do use a lot of resources

could easily be true; the crazy bullshit part is responding to an internal management issue by making a public plea for users to help out the poor multi-billionaire save a few million in annual costs

users with large block lists are basically killing the planet is what I hear

I mean I'm a web dev myself and can think of some similar issues in our system, not uncommon for large lists of things to have to be iterated over and potentially have to make a database call. and yes refactoring this shit can take forever. that is why you don't mind being overstaffed as a software company, because this shit can easily cascade and one bad process can fuck with so much on the other end, in fact you can see this happening right now with Twitter in real time

Perhaps he'll discover that people who post are using too many resources, and shut down posting altogether.

Bro when u block ppl it costs Elon money please bro think of the Elon money, it's so sad sitting there blocking people when it could be sending rich people to Mars

Guys, shame on u, my man can't even afford to pay his rent

(for his apartment on Mars)

elon always seems to choose the worst, most unnecessary solution to any issue that gets brought to his attention

"Elon, we're almost out of coffee..."

"Interesting. Perhaps we can ban employees from desiring coffee in the first place. Put the engineers on designing shock collars to zap our coders whenever their energy sags!"

"Or we could just make more..."

"Disrupting means creating new solutions, not relying on old ideas."

"But those shock collars will cost us millions!"

"Ah, yes, but think of the thousands we will save on coffee!"

Incredible logic pic.twitter.com/9r2eGSQkSZ

— coolpinp (@coolp1np) August 18, 2023

My block list was a gigantic behemoth of arseholes, so I'm kinda glad that (before I bailed) i was costing that dick head more wonga.

Whichever Chrome extension one of you recommended months ago still works for me. I exclusively view Twitter on my laptop, and it remains only people I follow and posts I want to see, no ads, no suggested garbage or anything. I don't post, but the second that changes is the second I stop even lurking.

wonga

this may be what finally gets me to start a twitter account, just so i can block every other user

definitely one of the top three features

I don't block. I use all my argumentative juices on people in this place.

Very funny.

X will begin to have users verify their identity by having them submit a selfie alongside a government issued ID. The process requires users to consent to X storing their information for 30 days and sharing it with AU10TIX, an identity verification company based in Israel. pic.twitter.com/0NrDNEguWU

— PCMag (@PCMag) August 18, 2023

Apparently, Twitter has deleted every photo posted before 2014.

Could be a bug, but it doesn't seem like it at first glance. There's a reproduction search you can try in the comments. https://t.co/fkvGSpWZEQ

— Mosquito Capital (@MosquitoCapital) August 19, 2023

“Guaranteed this is to save on storage costs.” - former Tweep https://t.co/SwkT6yRRl9

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) August 19, 2023

By the way - in 2014 Ellen Degeneres posted a selfie from the Oscars and it became the most retweeted photo of all time. That photo is now gone from Twitter. https://t.co/fbH11wzbDV

— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) August 19, 2023

whole site is fritzing right now. spinning blue rings. hilarious

jesus

love to watch business genius in action

hope this is it, the site needs to die ASAP

It should live. I want more business tips.

https://x.com/junlper/status/1693285962938261791?s=46&t=56pvpJvqL5GRtMdLh4N49g

Lol didn’t he buy the site just to impress this guy

about what you'd expect from a petulant child

I havent seen beef this petty since the auld IRC days of people taking over channels and kicking everyoen they didnt like out.

If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars

why on earth would anyone, let alone >2M people, retweet this?

it was the best photo ever