I've not been on Twitter for 6 years and, while it didnt take too long to not miss it, it's not so easy to not think about it. If you're even remotely interested in the web it's impossible to ignore, it pervades everything.
I wouldn't go back to using it 1 but I'm still curious as to what's going on. It's like a bad soap opera that you can't stop watching just because you've invested your time and want to know how it all ends. The current feeling is that it's all going to end badly – which is sad.
There have been so many missed opportunities over the years, so many times that Twitter could have built upon its foundations or moved in a different direction but was too hesitant to move at all. It was frustrating from a user perspective when you could see where things should be heading.
Now someone is in charge who is not afraid to move quickly but is doing so erratically and with no apparent plan or reason. Maybe it needs to be burnt to the ground so that something can rise from the flames. But what?
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I created a new account solely for the purposes of trying Dave Winer's FeedLand but will never use it for Twitter itself ↩
@colinwalker You never know, maybe the earatic behavior will speed up the process of making it viable before it burns to the ground. It was sort of stagnet for so long, maybe once the shock and awe chaos settles somthing good will exist.... maybe.
@colinwalker I would dearly love to never have to hear about drama on Twitter, but it seems that it's what passes for 'big news' these days, meaning it's being talked about everywhere. My hope if that enough people who care and can do something about it learn from Twitter's mistakes and build better networks and platforms for the future. But I very much doubt that Twitter itself will survive in the long-term, it has become too toxic for too many people and Musk seems intent on making it practically radioactive to the point that it'll take out everything and everyone around it.
@alanralph I can't look at Mastodon because almost every post is about what's happening on twitter, which kind of defeats the aim of it being an alternative. At least on here there's respite with it already having a decent amount of users.
@BenSouthwood Indeed, it's infuriating isn't it?
@alanralph It absolutely is. Kind of makes me think that Mastodon has little chance of becoming the social media platform of choice.
@BenSouthwood @alanralph I'm starting to wonder if the age of social media is on the permanent decline, including Mastodon.
@pimoore It wouldn't surprise me. As awful as twitter is, it certainly managed to craft something unique. Everything else is, let's face it, just a rough copy regardless of all the protestations that they're ”˜different'.
@BenSouthwood Spot on, we need to stop making things that are just a different coat of paint on the same paradigm.
@BenSouthwood only if you don't use filters. I filtered out "Twitter" and "Musk" and "Elon" yesterday. Guess what? Haven't seen a damn thing. These tools are only what you make of them and it's quite easy to filter out the shit and the losers.
@alanralph as I just noted to @BenSouthwood it need not be. We can make these tools into whatever we want. Or just complain about it.
@jasonekratz I've done it on twitter, with varying success. Problem is there's far too much that annoys me because I'm grumpy.
@BenSouthwood hahaha. Then it definitely could be a challenge ;)