One year later, the problem with social media is clear: PEBKAC | Hacker News Reader

One year later, the problem with social media is clear: PEBKAC

loudpoet.com

23 pointscdme16 comments

Not everybody is an activist or trades in outrage, and the fact that this is so is a good thing. That’s one reason Twitter remains so popular: the vast majority of people don’t live their lives as a constant orgy of boycotts whereby they deprive people they dislike or find odious or disagree with of their patronage, if that patronage brings convenience and if the user/customer can largely ignore the odiousness (whatever it might be) while deriving the benefits. Most people just ignore Musk altogether while having no related problems using a product he happens to own.

The author, who seems outraged that most others don’t share his outrage (at least in actionable degree) about Musk’s antics, might start clearing up some of his confusions there.

The majority of people find activists obnoxious and annoying and hate them:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.1983

Twitter exodus activists are just a 2023 twist on the same old thing.

If more activists leave Twitter maybe I’ll join it again.

Them leaving is a good thing!

An activist owns Twitter, so that's not happening anytime soon.

Twitter was a cesspool of crap for years. filled with idiots from all over.

Then for a short period of time it was involved in a lot of censorship, a good amount of it politically aligned. and various entirely US based controversies.

Then Musk decided to get in on it. Released some files about the censorship brought some of the idiots back. and it caused some of the idiots to leave. (fired a lot of people)

As I see it, Twitter, is now to some extent where it was prior to all the hissy fits. A cesspool of idiots.

For the vast majority of users, all this was just noise.

Using an uncommon initialism without once explaining it is a poor practice.

> Phrases used by the tech savvy to mean that a problem is caused entirely by the fault of the user include PEBKAC (an acronym for "problem exists between keyboard and chair")

"The problem with society is all these people"

Maybe I am missing the point, but it seems like everyone will leave Twitter when it stops working. At that point, the traffic will be diverted and a few platforms will get most of it. We are just in that transition stage where platforms are trying to stay ahead of the pack so they can be the eventual winner. At the moment, most of them are probably hoping Twitter stays around a little bit longer so they won't shit the bed when the time comes.

Why would Twitter stop working? Do you mean technically/functionally, or some sort of “sustainably” like from ads getting to bad/people leaving?

Its reliability over the past year has dropped quite a bit. But the worst change is one you didn’t mention—it’s not technical, or ads, it’s the promotion of responses based on playing for Twitter Blue. The quality of responses to any popular post has turned into a wave of garbage.

Admittedly, the ads are also much worse. For a while I was getting late night infomercial quality ads, and now the most common ad I get now on Twitter is for a box of tissues. I don’t know what sounds worse—that a company that makes novelty tissue boxes is blowing a ton of money on Twitter ads, or that they’re not blowing a ton of money on Twitter ads because the price floor has bottomed out.

> Why would Twitter stop working?

Are you saying it hasn't stopped working for you? I'd say >50% of my visits to Twitter over the last few months have been met with an error page and a 500 status. A lot of other people who don't have Twitter accounts seem to have the same experience.

> I'd say >50% of my visits to Twitter over the last few months have been met with an error page and a 500 status.

I haven't seen that in many years, personally, either before or after Musk took over.

Maybe Musk shuts the site down because it's not making money anymore/he doesn't want to keep running it?

I personally see that as the most likely cause of Twitter dying.

If you watched his DealBook Summit interview it certainly seems like that's the way it is going.

It doesn't work now, at least for one of its purposes. You can no longer read the thread without being logged in. That reduces its value when it's linked from articles or hn or wherever. For people like myself who'd read the occasional thread but never post so never logged in, twitter links are now pointless. Sure you could say they've put the value behind a log in so people get an account, but I think that's a bit backwards, I just avoid the links now. Which is fine because more and more threads and mastodon discussions are posted, which let you see the thread without logging in or engaging further.

I agree, let the eternal September stay on Twitter for another while. Early adopters and trend setters are mapping out a post-Twitter landscape and that should have time to work itself out organically.

But I don't think it should take the form of a single monolithic winner. I spend my time now divided among more sites than before and I think it's for the best.

As far as I'm concerned, it stopped working when Tweetbot stopped working.

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