Anyone sane has left Xitter already and the crazies stay on their own platform, making the Web generally much more pleasant, as less and less sites link to Xitter.
Twitter is still influencing the rest of the web (look at its influence on reddit since Musk bought Twitter, and Spez started wanting to live in his skin). I don’t think we can just take the good without the bad and assume a net positive.
I used to find it utterly hilarious before I switched to Lemmy, how redditorshated twitterx and twitterx users, then would praise reddit and the reddit community lmfao.
Nah, as someone who came from reddit, we were generally a pretty terrible bunch even before bots basically took over. I don’t feel that Lemmy is much better but the platform’s overall practices seem to be better. My mileage with the community varies greatly from day to day.
I think the common denominator for all these things are people. People are pretty terrible in large numbers behind anonymity.
I joined reddit maybe a couple of years before violentacrez was outed by gawker media. I fully remember what it was like back then, and I wouldn’t say it got worse over time. I’d say that as time went on some things got better and others got worse so that on balance not much changed. I don’t really understand the people who have the rose tinted goggles about reddit. I didn’t leave because reddit users got actively worse so much as I left because the policies that the company were making and the things they were changing made the platform untenable.
I agree with what you’re saying. This is the curse of the anonymity of the internet at large and it happens everywhere. People just like to pretend that it doesn’t.
It’s not dead though, it’s still linked to everywhere, from big news to niche communities because it still has that critical mass and inertia.
And I have to be cynical of the Fediverse, but realistically, what replaces it, at least here in the US? Discord? No, thanks, I’d at least rather have information be public.
I’m speaking as someone who has never used Twitter, but I can’t ignore it, as much as I’d like to.
If you think X is getting linked at anything approaching the level Twitter was back in the day … where have you been? That platform is slowly bleeding out his billions of investment (well, some of his, but lots of other peoples’ money I don’t mind seeing burn, either)…
It’s still everywhere in my news/internet diet.
It’s bleeding, for sure, but it’s big. Its gone bad. But I think its premature to say its collapse is a good thing, because it just won’t go away.
It will be interesting to see where it ends up after the election, one way or another.
The only reason that this is unpopular is that there are a lot of things that happened to the web that are far better than some overhyped group text vomiting website going downhill.
I don’t see this as an unpopular opinion, but I do agree with it - at least here (Brazil) Twitter was evolving into a containment cage for nutjobs and morons, until it was blocked. (And it’s damn easy to find who’s who in the Bluesky diaspora, as the nutjobs/morons miss Twitter while the saner people are glad to see it locally gone.)
Unpopular?
Outside of our very small internet bubble, yes that’s an incredibly unpopular opinion. By and large, people love Twitter, as evidenced by it still being one of the most-used platforms around.
I’m not sure that widespread use of the platform is indicative of widespread love of the platform. People are entrenched, have sunk so much into it, and can’t find acceptable alternatives (cries in Fediverse). I’d guess that most people still using the platform do so out of necessity/ obligation while wishing for something better.
I mean to some extent you aren’t wrong.
If it wasn’t for Twitter going downhill I am not sure if Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse would had become as populated as they are now. While Reddit might had maybe gave some usership, both combined going bad really helped.
I don’t know why you guys keep pretending X is Truth Social levels of dead. Is this just copium or are you really that far removed from reality? X is absolutely in a significant decline but it’s still the dominant microblogging platform by a mile. All politicians, all media organisations, all celebrities use X. And ultimately these are the accounts that will determine whether X remains relevant in mainstream society.
I mean Musk said Twitter was a Bad Thing and problematic.
Then a year or so later bought it, and immediately started doing things which reduced it’s popularity and influence.
I think he wanted to run it into the ground or make it a fashist/rightwing/propaganda site before the US elections and it looks like he’s pretty much there. It’s in a horrible state. Could be worse, but it’s really bad.
I think he had no god dammed idea what he was doing and still doesn’t.
The SCP facility has been breached
Once it finally crumbled, they have to go somewhere
No twatter links sure, but they’ll go to shittier sites
Or worse, the very sites you use
Unfortunately most of our local politicians remained there with the crazies.
At first I read this as “worst” and I was like RUFK?
Imagine thinking that platform only “went bad” recently.
