Yahoo still had other things like news and stocks once nobody was around for a game of Literati. What does Twitter have when there's no one left to argue aimlessly?
I know what you said. My point is that as long as there is a good supply of people wanting to argue pointlessly on the Internet, Twitter will have no shortage of same. I've had an Mastodon account for years; as others have pointed out, it's just not the same thing. (cf. the bien-pensant arguing over which is the "correct" server to join.)
The only way to fully replicate Twitter's ability for anyone to potentially address the entire world is to, well, replicate Twitter. No alternative (including, meta-speaking, Hacker News) suffices.
