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> the fact that this needs to be explained at all should already be a hint that it will never be mainstream

Ah yes, because users are incapable of learning anything at all

Yes? If you want to compete with Twitter you have to be usable by the bottom 5%, not just the top 20%

The average Twitter user likely does not know what a file is (see: that one iPad commercial where the kid says "what's a file?" or something), and likely uses a mobile device of some kind (tablet or phone) as their daily driver.

Having unusual new concepts you need to explain is a negative point for sure, but that's a world away from the parent comment saying that having any new concept at all means it's doomed entirely.

Twitter had plenty of new concepts with replies, quote tweets, hashtags, threads, ratios. The evidence is that people can figure out this amount of new stuff.

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