Twitter experimenting with new features in prototype app twttr (removal of likes/retweets, new layout, etc.)

[Deleted member 16609]

You know what would be friendlier? Shutting down Twitter

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No. Twitter is very awesome. I choose the narrative on Twitter, not them. I have a great circle of people I follow. My timeline is filled with great horror films, Giallo, Action, French New Wave, comics and art. I post nothing but Martial arts films and poster art. Engaged in your hobbies and fuck everything else.

 

[Stinkles]

What exactly is bad about "the ratio"?

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It's unfriendly!

 

[Deleted member 21]

FWIW the article is not quite accurate: there is no major update coming, these are just the current changes being tested in twttr, a prototype/test environment for experimentation together with the community

https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/12/a-first-look-at-twitters-new-prototype-app-twttr/

A look at the current interface they are testing

Not all these changes will necessarily make their way into Twitter itself, which is why I think that for now people should remain calm about this

 

[Haruko]

removed to not give this twitter acct more attn

 

[No_Style]

In the prototype, they are hiding engagement numbers and buttons. I understand the intent behind hiding the "ratio" but why are they trying to reduce the number of engagements as well?

 

[vestan]

FWIW the article is not quite accurate: there is no major update coming, these are just the current changes being tested in twttr, a prototype/test environment for experimentation together with the community

https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/12/a-first-look-at-twitters-new-prototype-app-twttr/

A look at the current interface they are testing

Not all these changes will necessarily make their way into Twitter itself, which is why I think that for now people should remain calm about this

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Ah, thanks for this! Feel free to change the title to reflect the new information :)

Honestly wouldn't surprise me if they weren't through with it, though.

 

[Deleted member 48897]

I don't see how not knowing how many people replied to a thing is going to stop angry reply brigades. Generally I can tell when a take is bad without seeing a number anyway. Given that one of the reasons the internet sucks in general is people getting engaged over controversy (and to be clear I hate trying to discuss internet discourse in such abstract terms!) a lot of which is courted intentionally because engagement is promotion, I don't exactly get the warm fuzzies when a bad tweet has hundreds of replies vs. thousands.

 

[Icolin]

this is aight

 

[Vilam]

Sounds like garbage.

 

[SeanM]

Twitter comes up with terrible ideas most of the time, but I actually think this is a fantastic move.

The unhealthy obsession people have over follower counts/likes/retweets/views/subscribers and whatever is really the absolute worst part of social media imo. All these lame social media influencers and paid promotions and whatnot. People stealing tweets/videos so they can "go viral." Then you have websites posting the same tweet about ten times throughout the day to "boost engagement metrics" which is annoying af.

I think all social networks should de-emphasize this stuff. People will complain but it's better and more healthy in the long run.

 

[1080peace]

I should add:



https://twitter.com/Babylonian/status/1105902054243864576

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Why are we quoting that perv in a topic about twitter

 

[devilhawk]

This could be a case of a overall good thing happening but it being done for the wrong reasons.

 

[Adam Sadler]

Idk about appearing more friendly, but I think removing the ability to see the number of RTs and Likes is great

 

[LL_Decitrig]

In the prototype, they are hiding engagement numbers and buttons. I understand the intent behind hiding the "ratio" but why are they trying to reduce the number of engagements as well?

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I hate that term "engagement." If you want to say something on Twitter, say it. If you want to reply, do that. A quick look at this new testbed seems to suggest that Twitter are trying to reset some of the crap they've added to that basic model which was so successful ten years ago and more.

 

[Deleted member 48897]

Why are we quoting that perv in a topic about twitter

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Yeahhhhhh.
8 replies, 281 likes
Like, you'd figure he'd be the exact sort of fellow to have a horde of people following him around at all times yelling SHAME! SHAME! in his mentions, but apparently not? And this is why I don't see getting ratio'd as some indications of much

 

[Icolin]

Twitter comes up with terrible ideas most of the time, but I actually think this is a fantastic move.

The unhealthy obsession people have over follower counts/likes/retweets/views/subscribers and whatever is really the absolute worst part of social media imo. All these lame social media influencers and paid promotions and whatnot. People stealing tweets/videos so they can "go viral." Then you have websites posting the same tweet about ten times throughout the day to "boost engagement metrics" which is annoying af.

I think all social networks should de-emphasize this stuff. People will complain but it's better and more healthy in the long run.

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so basically

 

[Haruko]

Why are we quoting that perv in a topic about twitter

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Sorry; I don't follow him and wasn't aware of who he was. I only shared it because I came across it and it was quicker than writing my own statements about these changes not actually "coming in the next update".

I'll take the hit on this one for being lazy.

 

[LL_Decitrig]

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I hate having to do that, so I usually fib a bit and don't tell them that's the size in centimetres.

 

[Zero315]

Trying to get rid of the "ratio"

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[1080peace]

Sorry; I don't follow him and wasn't aware of who he was. I only shared it because I came across it and it was quicker than writing my own statements about these changes not actually "coming in the next update".

I'll take the hit on this one for being lazy.

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No probs, my comment was a bit too off the cuff as well. Sorry!

 

[Daxa]

Clearly people got tired of AOC dunking on them.

Joking aside, I guess it's one way to counteract people gaming the system with burner accounts and whatnot, but it also makes it harder for people to notice how widespread the problem is on Twitter. I feel like a high Like/RT count also means people will be less inclined to dunk on/quote tweet them, so it might exacerbate the viciousness on the platform.

One metric I never understood was the Tweets count, because it doesn't distinguish between replies and public tweets. At that point, a high tweet count might just mean you interact with people without clogging everyone's tl.

 

[Brinbe]

this is stupid

 

[Icolin]

I hate having to do that, so I usually fib a bit and don't tell them that's the size in centimetres.

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lmfao

 

[chrisPjelly]

It's like they only people with haphazard solutions at these social media companies, unbelievable

 

[Daxa]

Maybe some of the thirsty brand accounts will at least calm down a bit.

 

[OtherWorldly]

You know what would be friendlier? Shutting down Twitter

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You might as well shut down era then . Half of era runs on twitter updates for each thread

 

[riotous]

It's like they only people with haphazard solutions at these social media companies, unbelievable

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This is being done in a prototype app that is designed to test new features that may never come to the app/site.

It's sort of the opposite of haphazard.

 

[Deleted member 47942]

You might as well shut down era then . Half of era runs on twitter updates for each thread

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Hell, where are we supposed to take our pitchforks and torches if we don't have a ratio to show us what warrants 20 pages of anger?

 

[Knight613]

Not being able to see the number of retweets and likes just makes it seem like everyone is in their own little silo.

 

[LL_Decitrig]

Not being able to see the number of retweets and likes just makes it seem like everyone is in their own little silo.

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Well isn't that the whole point of Twitter? I follow about 120 influential scientists, broadcasters, journalists and creatives. If I want to look outside that little silo I have to do a Twitter search. The results of such searches are often hilarious, but I wouldn't actually like to live in Qanonville or Nazis Screaming About Brie Larson Land.

 

[Kurdel]

I like knowing when a post is a fringe opinion, liked by only tens of people.

Now it's going to be a more leveled playing field. I am sure that may help in some regards, but Fake News will definitely get worse for this.

 

[Cyanity]

You know what would be friendlier? Shutting down Twitter

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nah, artist and fandom communities live and breathe through twitter

 

[OtherWorldly]

All jokes aside what this will do is that only the initial tweet will have the likes and retweet, the original content

The follow up which has some folks trying to be smart asses to get likes and retweets responding to the original will not have any likes or retweets

This will result in less snarky or smart ass first reply tweets and result in lesser replies as a result.

Most folks on twitter live only for self ego and getting likes and retweets, this will demolish that issue and cause people to only post original posts in order to get likes or retweets

When these folks get no likes or retweets to massage their ego, it will result in only serious folks replying for the most part

 

[SasaBassa]

If you lose retweets how do you find more people and those without a significant following already?

Edit: doh, only removes the counts on it. Got it.

Still delete twitter.

 

[OtherWorldly]

If you lose retweets how do you find more people and those without a significant following already?

Edit: doh, only removes the counts on it. Got it.

Still delete twitter.

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I think that's the point maybe. Twitter what's users to tweet something original for you to get more followers instead of the twitter method of replying quickly to a popular persons tweet which gets some likes retweets attention and follows

 

[OtherWorldly]

Another suggestion I would give twitter is to have a dislike button which would make ratio'd tweets disappear from default view. Every twitter user is only allowed 5 dislikes per 24 hour period

 

[Sai]

mccains daughter got ratio'd so hard we had to remove the numbers

h e lp

 

[Bear]

Idea: They should also get rid of the tweets. Would make Twitter perfect.

 

[Fuchsia]

How about getting rid of the bigotry and bots?

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This is what I'm not-so-patiently waiting for. Step up, Twitter. Make it right.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

god i hope not, ratio'ing morons is the only decent thing about that godforsaken site.

 

[Stranger Things]

Another suggestion I would give twitter is to have a dislike button which would make ratio'd tweets disappear from default view. Every twitter user is only allowed 5 dislikes per 24 hour period

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every social media platform should have this IMO

 

[Deleted member 12224]

Obsessing over the importance of a "ratio" sounds so silly.

 

[Greigor the FellHand]

might also be to hide that active users might be going down.
I also find it supicious they are doing this before the next presidential cycle

 

[New Username]

Edit: Deleted post

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

How about getting rid of the bigotry and bots?

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[hydrophilic attack]

removal of likes is such a bad idea

like, it's one of very few non-confrontational and friendly ways to interact on that damn hellhole. what purpose is served by removing them?

 

[LL_Decitrig]

removal of likes is such a bad idea

like, it's one of very few non-confrontational and friendly ways to interact on that damn hellhole. what purpose is served by removing them?

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I used to like it when the button just added the tweet to your favourites. I don't know how or why this got changed to likes. It was basically just a convenient private bookmark list for tweets you liked.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

I used to like it when the button just added the tweet to your favourites. I don't know how or why this got changed to likes. It was basically just a convenient private bookmark list for tweets you liked.

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that sounds fine too, as long as the person who posted gets some kind of heads-up it was favved so they get some positive feedback

i just want to show appreciation to funny/smart posts, lol

 

[LL_Decitrig]

that sounds fine too, as long as the person who posted gets some kind of heads-up it was favved so they get some positive feedback

i just want to show appreciation to funny/smart posts, lol

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In Twitter as I have used it, you can give feedback by following or retweeting. You can even sent a private message if the recipient permits that function.

My Twitter mindset was fixed in 2009 and I've avoided using the Twitter website or apps for years because I prefer the public web app at dabr.eu which has presented the same very basic interface for years. I don't get extraneous information in my timeline, nor do I get ads and it's all in reverse chronological order as it should be. It's still a great way to follow journalists and scientists.

 

[IrishNinja]

ratios serve a purpose - ban the nazis instead of this shit

god jack sucks, who knew he'd come back from joe rogan & engaging another white supremacist with more dumb ideas