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Ask HN: Are there viable alternatives to Twitter?
18 points by vaguetruth on April 25, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 22 comments



I still don't get what Twitter's value proposition is. What do you get out of it as a consumer?

I remember how Twitter started. It was this obscure alternative to RSS feeds, that many news channels suddenly started pushing (why?). I remember how they would actively include a segment in nightly news on talking about what has been posted on Twitter, back when it wasn't really anything newsworthy. It did not seem like organic growth to me.


- Breaking News - FinTwit - If you are into investing and trading - Almost everyone is on Twitter. I follow some interesting people on philosophy, art, painting, cyber security etc. - Memes

If you spend some time and mute all the politics, it is a must-have media.


I'm not endorsing it at all, but on Twitter at the moment people seem to be talking about https://counter.social


Depends, what you want in the alternative that Twitter is lacking, or what's on Twitter that you don't want on the alternative?

I use Mastodon as a secondary social network. But way less than Twitter


Mastodon, scuttlebutt


Other than Facebook and Instagram, There are no serious or viable alternatives to Twitter


I'm not sure why I'd want or need one. Socializing with (often hostile) strangers has always been the worst part of social media to me, and Twitter is almost exclusively that.


but why?

I don't understand why people are upset with Elon's takeover


I am sure many people don't like Elon and that a billionaire who isn't so nice at times is going to control a platform they love.


People want to keep doge off their screens.


DOGE is a problem, but global warming pariah BTC, and WEF project ETH are fine?


Supposing this is about Elon Musk buying twitter, what specifically are you afraid of?


People want to be able to criticize Enron Musk without being doxxed or worse. He has done it in the past and didn't even own twitter back then, so it's only logical to think that there'll be a huge collection of info on critcs.

He's the most thin skinned person in the world, takes everything personally and he's all around mentally unstable.

Also Musk PR dept. will be able to leverage twitter infrastructure.

Basically what Putin wants to do with Ukraine, Musk will do with Twitter, it's only natural that the digital outflow of people is going to replicate the real one we are seeing in Eastern Europe.

People are repulsed by autocrats. And if they have an opportunity, they leave. It's a win-win because it both improves one's life and diminishes the relevance of the autocrat.


> Basically what Putin wants to do with Ukraine, Musk will do with Twitter

This is your brain on propaganda folks


[flagged]


Yea see, Elon opening the floodgates to shit like this is why people want to run for the hills.


What is preventing anyone from posting the comment word for word on Twitter? I don't even use Twitter much and I've seen worse.


[flagged]


No. Unlike the right wingers, I don't actually want to delete people I disagree with from the world.

But my timeline would definitely be improved without "speech" like that.


>But my timeline would definitely be improved without "speech" like that.

So you think the original comment is ban worthy? Or that any speech that "would definitely improve" your personal timeline should be banned?

If you're going to say no, then what exactly do you think is going to change with regards to Twitter? Is it because you think that comment would be banned today?


[flagged]


>Your timeline in life would be improved with dialogues like this helping resolve your cognitive dissonance.

Meh. You haven't even attempted to engage in good faith dialogue in this thread, so much as try to dunk on a strawman that seems to be living rent free in your head.

No, I'm sorry to inform you I'm not the frightened, cognitively dissonant, hypocritical whatever you seem to think I am. You can't read my mind, you haven't seen my soul, you're not onto my game. I have no issue engaging in dialogue with people with whom i disagree politically - I do it all the time in real life, as I tick a lot of boxes that my community and family disagree with. But online it just isn't worth the effort anymore to keep dealing with people who haven't grown past the 4chan mentality.

Besides, everyone already knows what the right wing believes. Their views aren't radical, or even novel. They haven't had a new idea in this or the previous century.


Extremely brave.


Today’s Twitter is left wing biased and a vast purveyor of false information. Musk can’t make it any worse.




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