Show HN: Add what Twitter's missing - good thread editor, edit tweets and more | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Add what Twitter's missing - good thread editor, edit tweets and more

getchirrapp.com

48 pointskossnocorp42 comments

I may be alone in this, but I genuinely think editing is bad a feature in the context of the way twitter works. Considering the problems it already has a platform, the last thing it needs is for people to be able to edit tweets after they have reached critical velocity.

You're right, and I suppose that's why Twitter doesn't add it. But when you write a thread and then spot a typo right in the middle, it's a disaster. You don't have to deal with clunky Twitter UI but also have to recreate the content (images, text).

Chirr does not update the content but removes the edited part of the thread and republishes it, so it's impossible to abuse.

Another thing I working on is delayed publishing ala Gmail.

Probably would be best to put a time limit on it - first five minutes you can edit and then you're done. I know I've sent more than my fair share of tweets only to realize I'd misspelled something and have to decide if I want to live with the shame or try and fix it before it's noticed.

Anything longer than that is probably going to get into the historic revisionist problem.

They should have an Edit feature and ALSO display edit history. So, you will see the most recent version of the tweet but can also see the edit history. Nothing will be hidden this way.

Nothing will be hidden except the edit history in the screenshot...

Anyone can edit a screenshot.

This is it. All we need is the truth, and sometimes edits are the truth.

I'm completely with you. Editing tweets would be a disaster.

The only way I could see it working is if you opt in to say a 5 minute grace period where you can edit. But then your tweets won't actually show up on anyone else's feed for 5 minutes.

What I need is not editing but delayed publishing.

Add that and a read-mode, where the tweet you just typed appears word by word, so you read your goddamn rant before you post it ;)

Adding a way to add "addenda" to a Tweet could be cool; have a little note under the tweet to say "aw fuck, I typo'd Michael Fassbender's name" but leave the original tweet otherwise pristine

Hey, the Chirr App author here!

I released the initial version of the app in 2017 as a free and open-source tool (https://github.com/kossnocorp/chirrapp) even before Twitter threads become a thing.

Later that year, Twitter gave me a lot of trouble when they added 280-chars support but didn't update API and the twitter-text library. I was about to close it, but thanks to Firebase, the running cost was $0, so I fixed the issues and kept it alive.

With time, the app accumulated authority and users. Since 2017 when I first launched the app, it has been used by 9.5K people to publish 22K threads and 330K tweets! Happy users started coming to me with thanks and features requests more and more so I decided to rewrite the app and added tons of new features, like:

- Drag-n-drop images

- Editing published threads (yes, the edit button!)

- Drafts

- Scheduling

- And much more!

In case if anyone curious, the app is built with TypeScript, Preact, on top Firebase platform.

How does editing work given Twitter doesn't support editing tweets?

Looking at the demo (https://twitter.com/chirrapp/status/1282608419321643009) I think it removes the tweet you edited AND any later tweet in the same thread, and republishes those - the first with updated text, and the rest with the same content as before. Is that right?

Yes, you got it right!

I'm also working on adding a delayed publishing like in GMail, so you can edit typos even before the thread got published.

Have you considered adding a very short link into each tweet (or into the first/second tweet), whose contents (as a Twitter card) could be later updated to provide corrections?

I didn't. It sounds like a fun idea but not sure if the content consumers would understand it, and also Twitter caches the card content (not sure for how long though), so it might just not work.

So it does lose the likes and retweets of the tweets after the edited tweet?

Why not just write a blog and post a link to it?

Threads is an excellent and unique medium that is easy to consume and share, take a look at these examples:

- https://twitter.com/dannypostmaa/status/1282952961857970176

- https://twitter.com/robhope/status/1265278107088347136

Of course, you can make a blog post from such threads (and probably should, if the thread got traction), but it would look and read differently.

Can you explain why? Your reply is "it's better because it's better".

I never said that threads are better than blog posts. It's a different format and provides its advantages.

- First of all, threads are often long-living i.e., authors update it over time. It allows them to surface the content every time they update it.

- Secondly, often every tweet's a self-containing idea. Blog posts usually are worried and need more time to grasp.

- Also, it's not only easy to consume but also to share.

I like, write and consume both Twitter threads and blog posts.

From my personal experience, people are more likely to read and share threads for a number of reasons:

* They don't have to go off platform.

* the base tweet can be much more eye catching that a link, even with social cards set up

* People may be desensitised to links that lead off-platform, because that's how Ads generally appear on Twitter

Then there are other advantages, like the fact that it tends to encourage you to write in a concise and direct way, with each tweet in the thread being like a bullet point. I often see people retweeting and engaging with a specific tweet from the thread; it's harder (relative term) to do that with a section from a blog post.

Depending on what you are doing(!) users stuck on a platform OR users who don't do links might or might not be the desired audience.

Maybe, but the question is: who are they going to share it to?

I think it's primarily because you put actual content right in front of them, increasing the chances of them getting hooked by quite a bit. Before your blog post has any chance of hooking people, they have to first take the plunge of clicking on it. Threads eliminate that friction.

Those look terrible, like powerpoint presentations that you fall asleep in the middle of. And in any case, the link here was to a tool that was basically using blog-like editing tools to write blog-like threads. So, why not just blog?

Agreed, what would be better would to maybe put the engagement stats(faves,replies, etc) to the right, expand replies to each tweet when clicked on pop from the right and then descend, but the thread itself a contiguous block of text/tweets all the way to the authors last tweet in the thread.

for most people tweeting a link to your blog post is going to get WAY fewer eyeballs on the info you want to convey than you would have if you just put the text directly in twitter.

there's a big difference in how they're consumed. There is still value in blog posts, but sometimes a twitter thread is a web better choice if you want people to see / interact with what you have to say.

Also, each separate tweet will now have its own distinct discussion threads instead of everything being mixed into one. Certain tweets can be quote retweeted and included in other threads, making exploration even easier.

However, it can also be argued this makes following the thread and the generated conversation cumbersome and confusing.

Good point! Here is an interesting tool [0] for this purpose, but it's not ideal for back-and-forth discussion . A step in the right direction though.

https://treeverse.app/view/2eVkxbRl

This doesn't work though. Either stuff is taken out of context or you have to read the whole tweet thread for the context...

If the idea is for no one to read, then yeah, that works.

I remember when platform farmers started to enforce comments without links on blogs. How almost everyone just bought into that bullshit. Before you could find blogs and blog postings covering the same topics (and/or personal interests) as your own blog, contribute high quality comments and get rewarded with traffic (depending on the quality of your comments) AND you got high quality comments from people who wrote entire blogs about the topic your article covered which was fantastic for the reader.

Threads is my type of content in Twitter and I got a lot of RTs after writing few good threads.

Completely agree that Twitter’s UI for writing threads is pain.

Cool idea. I'm happy with Pleroma though tbh.... I have a feeling fediverse will win in the long run.

Seems useful, but my feedback is it's almost unusable slow. So much lag on input.

I'm using FireFox on Mac

I have used this app many times. Love it to post larger content to Twitter which had way more value then just a link to a blog post for example. I think it provides a lot of value to Twitter. Thanks for building it!

I saw this the other day, almost bought a yearly subscription. I'll buy it soon though, just whenever I start using Twitter more.

What Twitter is missing: Security

Neat use of ‘backdrop-filter’

Thanks! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

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