So yeah, it’s a toxic cesspit

I dislike the way your feed gets filled with rage inducing clickbaiters and I hate myself for replying to them
But I think it’s important to be open to a wide range of views

But it’s still a great place to find info, I’ve discovered some fascinating threads, follow some great accounts & had some great interactions with people

Musk seems determined to blow it all up

Facebook im not so keen on, you have to join groups to fi d interesting stuff

Instagram is nice but too shallow

Truth social 😝

Anyone on Mastadon?

I dislike the way your feed gets filled with rage inducing clickbaiters and I hate myself for replying to them
But I think it’s important to be open to a wide range of views

I only follow about 80 folk from the political/music/science/philosophy/news and my timeline is set to only show latest tweets from those I follow, I have no wish to change to “twitter recommends feed” as why fill your timeline with regurgitated bile from grifters?

I only follow about 80 folk from the political/music/science/philosophy/news and my timeline is set to only show latest tweets from those I follow, I have no wish to change to “twitter recommends feed” as why fill your timeline with regurgitated bile from grifters?

This.
Twitter, like Facebook doesn’t have to be a cesspit if you control your feed.

Just don’t use it,
The chances are you won’t miss it

I like Twitter but

Musk seems determined to blow it all up

is a problem.

This is an interesting read:

Years ago, before verified accounts were a thing, back when I was on Eastenders, I was contacted multiple times by parents of children who had been “conversing” with me online. 11-15 year old children that had been talking with a fake me.
I was informed one of these children-

— Rob Kazinsky (@RobertKazinsky) November 2, 2022

Twitter, like Facebook doesn’t have to be a cesspit if you control your feed.

There’s been other threads on this, but Facebook gives you pretty much sod all control over your feed. It’s currently filling, and I mean swamping, mine with snooker and football stuff (I have zero interest in either) and, most randomly, loads and loads of clips of a gameshow I’ve never heard of from New Zealand. Occasionally it lets me see what my friends and family are up to.

I’ve found Twitter useful for contacting customer services for some otherwise hard to reach organisations.

But I think it’s important to be open to a wide range of views

But not essential, and it’s mostly rage inducing and polarizing. Deliberately so to keep you raged and engaged to keep the add views up.

Reading Twitter isn’t the same as reading both Marx and Freidman.

Much of my network (law/tech/ethics) is now also on Mastodon, although grumbling about complexity/functionality. Not sure British Airways customer help will have a presence there anytime soon though.

There’s been other threads on this, but Facebook gives you pretty much sod all control over your feed. It’s currently filling, and I mean swamping, mine with snooker and football stuff (I have zero interest in either)

Same, but I’m getting boxing and F1. I don’t watch either.

OP – Have you considered going back to old media? (well journalism anyway, doesn’t have to be on actual paper)

In 30 years time people will look back on things like twitter in the same way we look back on driving cars without seatbelts or smoking in bars.

I take twitter as a medium for people with influence or something useful to say to make available quotable soundbites. The remaining 99.99999% is just guff. Some of it horrible, some of it just banal twaddle.

I allow creditable journalists to edit and curate those quotes into articles I want to read, very much the way they’d do with news conferences. So my consumption of twitter is entirely 3rd hand via a ‘filter’. I don’t need any more of it in my life than that; and that was before Musk bought it. I’m struggling to see why anyone would want any more of it in their lives than that.

I quit FB and Insta a couple of months ago and now just on Vero. Not a place for discussions but great for nice photography (been an influx of photographers fed up with Insta lately).

No adverts, no algorithms and actually a friendly place to be. But yeah, more of an Insta/FB alternative rather than Twitter though

vero.co/kernduro

Edit: should add that it’s not just photos but also sharing music, book, location, movie recommendations too

I like Twitter: there’s loads of interesting stuff and people on it, assuming (as mentioned above) you’re careful to curate your feed. You need to be fairly ruthless unfollowing people though.

There’s WT Social, started by the founder of Wikipedia. I set up an account following a recommendation from Russ Jones (week in Tory) on Twitter.
I’ve just joined, not really looked into how it works yet.

https://wt.social/

I don’t find twitter/instagram too bad, but I’ve deleted the facebook app recently as its just 99% suggested (badly) content.

I follow a lot of academics on twitter, be interesting to see if there is mass exodus soon.

I have sacked off twitter and strava. Still have facebook/instagram only as some relevant info (school,clubs etc) comes out on there, but those both have a fair amount of shit on there too that needs editing out. Other than that it’s online or paper, er papers.

There’s been other threads on this, but Facebook gives you pretty much sod all control over your feed.

I find mine is pretty good.

If they push an advert for something I have no interest in, you can block it and tell them why – which it does seem to learn or at least I don’t see any more adverts for betting after blocking a couple etc.

Didn’t trump make his own platform?

TRUTH SOCIAL. Only facts allowed.

I find mine is pretty good.

in browser isn’t too bad. the app is awful now.

On the basis of this thread, and the impending changes, I’ve just deactivated my twitter account. Came off FB 4 years ago and felt it was so cathartic.

There’s been other threads on this, but Facebook gives you pretty much sod all control over your feed. It’s currently filling, and I mean swamping, mine with snooker and football stuff (I have zero interest in either) and, most randomly, loads and loads of clips of a gameshow I’ve never heard of from New Zealand.

on a different thread recently, Cougar mentioned an add-on called FB purity. Got to say, it’s a total game-changer. You can tweak it however you want but mine basically now zaps everything from anyone who’s not a FB friend (of which I’ve don’t have that many) or a Group that I actively follow (which is my primary reason for using FB these days!). No sponsored posts, adverts, “suggested” this that or whatever, and none of those **** pointless videos or “reels” as they call them. Can’t recommend it enough.

(only downside is AFAIK it’s not available for mobile/tablet, works on PC or Mac browser only. Really miss it when I’m scrolling FB on mobile!)

Make sure that you change your feed ordering to ‘latest’ rather than the default setting – otherwise the algo will show you a load a rubbish. You can also mute certain words if you want to avoid particular subjects.

But yes, it is rather a horrible place if you’re not careful. I avoid reading any news or politics on there.

On the basis of this thread, and the impending changes, I’ve just deactivated my twitter account.

I deactivated mine the other day, barely use it anyway – but Musk provided the actual motivation to delete it.

I deactivated mine the other day, barely use it anyway – but Musk provided the actual motivation to delete it.

Yeah, same. It had been unused for years, but now gone. I could do with the facebook shit filter though. Purity? Anything else similar available for android?

Find Twitter useful for gigs, What’s on locally etc but don’t post. No interest in Facebook, Instagram and the ilk.

The pub.

Anecdotally, it seems the folk who have the worst experience with Facebook are those who use it least, have few followers, follow fewer folk and don’t interact with people and subjects they are interested in. I think the Facebook algorithms just then throw random stuff at them.

Not sure British Airways customer help will have a presence there anytime soon though.

lolz, that’s the only reason I have a twitter account. Fat lot of good it did me too, they couldn’t/wouldn’t help!

Ex founder of Twitter is looking at launching another app based on similar principles as Mastodon.  i.e. not capable of being taken over by a bellend billionaire.

https://blueskyweb.xyz/

lolz, that’s the only reason I have a twitter account.

Ditto!

I mostly use twitter to find out about things in real time
Storms, terrorists – all the cheerful stuff – bits of aircraft photography now and again. Have used it to complain at local train provider – their media team is pretty active on Twitter.

It’s useful – but I don’t see or use it as a part of my day to day generally…YMMV

I’m trying mastodon. Set up an account there a while back but of course no-one was on it. It seems that this might be changing. Seems overall a more pleasant experience for sure.

Well after the rise in racist comments I thought I’d try out the moderation by calling out racist farage. Apparently they won’t let me call him a see you next Tuesday and have kicked me off. Im not giving them my email address to unlock the account now its in the hands of Musk.

4days twitter free. Missing fesshole and the b3ta stuff, but other than that much happier!

Twitter, like Facebook doesn’t have to be a cesspit if you control your feed.

Make sure that you change your feed ordering to ‘latest’ rather than the default setting – otherwise the algo will show you a load a rubbish.

This has been annoying me for months, thanks. Now I found how to do it (web version): click the sparkly star at the top middle-right, then choose See latest tweets instead. Had to google it, didn’t even realise that star was clickable.

Bluesky seems promising but is in closed beta. Would it be cynical to suspect that this is viral marketing?

Mastodon… isn’t this just Usenet 2.0?

Here’s a good link that may provide an explanation as to why musk bought Twitter from his friend/co-conspirator Jack Dorsey

Made a couple of updates to this piece since I wrote it on Saturday.

1) Dorsey retained his Twitter shares and owns about a $1bn stake.
2) Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal did the same and is now the 2nd largest shareholder after Musk.https://t.co/9XlB2GjMGp

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) November 1, 2022

Angry **** in front of a mirror whilst Talk Radio plays in the background.