This is especially going to be a problem because so many organizations (companies, projects, even governments) have started treating Twitter as the main way they release announcements and updates....
This is especially going to be a problem because so many organizations (companies, projects, even governments) have started treating Twitter as the main way they release announcements and updates.
It's bothered me for a long time that I'm more likely to find things like game company news on their Twitter account than their own website, especially when they also use their Twitter account to constantly retweet memes related to their game or something, so it's almost impossible to find anything more than a few hours old. That's a relatively minor annoyance though, not a very important case. Twitter is often the first place that governments and other significant organizations post anything too though, like updates about COVID numbers/restrictions. It's going to be much worse if all of that will be effectively inaccessible to everyone that doesn't register.
Also, the last time I registered a Twitter account (one for Tildes that I don't really use), it got blocked immediately as "suspicious" and wouldn't allow me to use the account until I gave them a phone number. I've seen many other people mention a similar thing happening to them. So unless they've improved that, this is a heavier requirement than "just register a random account quickly".
Hopefully some of my alternative methods of following Twitter will continue to work, like my RSS reader (Inoreader) being able to follow a user's tweets as a feed.
This is already an irritation I've already experienced with a state governor providing more detailed information about emergency lockdowns on his personal facebook page than was provided to the...
This is already an irritation I've already experienced with a state governor providing more detailed information about emergency lockdowns on his personal facebook page than was provided to the media including even the state broadcaster.
Embrace, extend, extinguish play seems to be going apace. But the problem for them is that once they extinguish they can't actually generate any content themselves.
It's bothered me for a long time that I'm more likely to find things like game company news on their Twitter account than their own website, especially when they also use their Twitter account to constantly retweet memes related to their game or something, so it's almost impossible to find anything more than a few hours old.
Embrace, extend, extinguish play seems to be going apace. But the problem for them is that once they extinguish they can't actually generate any content themselves.
Nothing Twitter have done since day one has suggested to me that they are anywhere near as smart as Microsoft (say what you like about their business practices, they were spectacularly effective),...
Nothing Twitter have done since day one has suggested to me that they are anywhere near as smart as Microsoft (say what you like about their business practices, they were spectacularly effective), or have anything approaching a long term plan. They seem to just flail around pissing away ungodly quantities of other people's money on a vague promise of making some of their own later.
Along these same lines, for a lot of companies, Twitter and Facebook have become the only easy way to contact customer support. This is really the only reason I still have a Twitter account....
This is especially going to be a problem because so many organizations (companies, projects, even governments) have started treating Twitter as the main way they release announcements and updates.
Along these same lines, for a lot of companies, Twitter and Facebook have become the only easy way to contact customer support.
This is really the only reason I still have a Twitter account.
Here's my list of chats on Twitter
Humana (dental insurance)
I signed up, but the first invoice wasn't showing.
Blue Cross Blue Shield (health insurance)
I paid my first invoice, but it wouldn't let me create an account for their website.
Sinema (defunct movie ticket subscription service)
Multiple instances of the app check in not working and having them do it manually hours after the fact.
Ubisoft (videogames)
I was locked out of my account due to lost 2FA.
The Pragmatic Studio (Elixir programming courses)
I found some issues with code from one of their courses no longer working and sent them the steps I used to fix it.
On this one I don't really fault them since it's just two people and not a large company.
Spectrum (internet)
Reporting internet outages.
Most of those have other ways to contact them, but they usually require calling an 800 number and sitting on hold for half an hour after going through an automated menu.
I used to have low-4-digits of followers on twitter, before I deleted the heck of my account. That's not a flex; I never felt like I had many followers in the grand scheme of things. And even so,...
I used to have low-4-digits of followers on twitter, before I deleted the heck of my account. That's not a flex; I never felt like I had many followers in the grand scheme of things. And even so, I only had accumulated that many followers because of quite how long I had been on there.
But, it was more than enough to get meaningful replies to my customer service complaints when something went wrong - and to get weirdly performative amounts of action taken: because I might RT it to my followers. #clout #clout #letitallout
After deleting my account, I soon found that Twitter is the only platform that corporate customer service teams pay attention to. At (really bad) times, I've even tried to create a Twitter account and speak to them that way - but without any twitter clout, it's completely futile - I don't even get a reply.
I actually think this is the main value of Twitter (insofar as social media has value); it's good for quick brief news updates, be that companies/governments, or news reporters. So it's a pity...
This is especially going to be a problem because so many organizations (companies, projects, even governments) have started treating Twitter as the main way they release announcements and updates.
I actually think this is the main value of Twitter (insofar as social media has value); it's good for quick brief news updates, be that companies/governments, or news reporters. So it's a pity this will hit that particularly badly. But you can question that value (encourages hot takes, simplification/compression of info, leaving out nuance, etc etc)
Sadly ,this was one of the "low effort" benefits of reddit that I miss most. I constantly try and find official sources to answer questions with (often gaming related), and googling for a tweet is...
It's bothered me for a long time that I'm more likely to find things like game company news on their Twitter account than their own website, especially when they also use their Twitter account to constantly retweet memes related to their game or something, so it's almost impossible to find anything more than a few hours old.
Sadly ,this was one of the "low effort" benefits of reddit that I miss most. I constantly try and find official sources to answer questions with (often gaming related), and googling for a tweet is a pain and a half, especially if it's some small tidbit not worth a full news article. Googling for a reddit post linking to a tweet is ironically much easier.
Hopefully some of my alternative methods of following Twitter will continue to work, like my RSS reader (Inoreader) being able to follow a user's tweets as a feed.
as usual, I'm sure some plugin will be my savior if this gets too annoying. I refuse to make a twitter account, and I especially never want to register my phone number to a non-professional social media ever again. I'm convinced 90% of the spam I get is due to my long deactivated FaceBook account where I foolishly entered that information.
It happens automatically. The only way to work around that is asking support to unlock your account (maybe telling them you don't have a phone number).
Also, the last time I registered a Twitter account (one for Tildes that I don't really use), it got blocked immediately as "suspicious" and wouldn't allow me to use the account until I gave them a phone number. I've seen many other people mention a similar thing happening to them.
It happens automatically. The only way to work around that is asking support to unlock your account (maybe telling them you don't have a phone number).
I ran into this yesterday. I dropped Twitter after the 2016 election (after doomscrolling for several months, to the detriment of my mental health.) But every once in a while someone shares a...
I ran into this yesterday. I dropped Twitter after the 2016 election (after doomscrolling for several months, to the detriment of my mental health.) But every once in a while someone shares a funny tweet elsewhere, and I read it. Now I won't read the occasional funny tweet, and Twitter ceases to have any relevance to me. Oh well.
Yeah, likewise. And unless the tweet was wholly contained, I would always copy the URL, go to threadreader.app, and paste it in and read there. So I never actually used Twitter anyway.
Now I won't read the occasional funny tweet, and Twitter ceases to have any relevance to me. Oh well.
Yeah, likewise. And unless the tweet was wholly contained, I would always copy the URL, go to threadreader.app, and paste it in and read there. So I never actually used Twitter anyway.
Fuckin-A! I love this. It wont take away the screenshots but links to twitter will be useless for me because I don't have an account. It's a nudge I appreciate.
Fuckin-A! I love this. It wont take away the screenshots but links to twitter will be useless for me because I don't have an account. It's a nudge I appreciate.
Ah, the Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram/etc approach. Forget it, I’ll just stop looking at your site, I’m better off for it anyhow. Where this is a huge problem though is when public entities use...
Ah, the Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram/etc approach. Forget it, I’ll just stop looking at your site, I’m better off for it anyhow.
Where this is a huge problem though is when public entities use these sites to communicate important things, and I’m often finding myself unable to read official communications from city entities, state organizations, etc. They should either be required to use open platforms, or demand that the platforms that they use allow unfettered access to their posts.
It's similar to how youtube now requires you to login to watch 18+ trailers and such. There is no way to bypass this (I tried!), it's baffling. And they want a copy of your goddamn passport to...
It's similar to how youtube now requires you to login to watch 18+ trailers and such. There is no way to bypass this (I tried!), it's baffling. And they want a copy of your goddamn passport to verify your age! Over my cold, dead hands, Google.
Tbf that’s not really something YouTube or google wants to do, it’s more something they have to do.
Tbf that’s not really something YouTube or google wants to do, it’s more something they have to do.
In the official blog post announcing the upcoming change, YouTube says it is to comply with EU laws. The European Union’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive requires age gating restricted content. That means users in protected regions must submit their proof of age. Documents include a valid ID or a credit card indicating the user is over the age of 18.
For a long time I've been able to bypass that by just adding nsfw to the domain so a URL looks like https://www.nsfwyoutube.com/watch?v=aaaaaaaaa. Though this has become increasingly useless lately.
For a long time I've been able to bypass that by just adding nsfw to the domain so a URL looks like https://www.nsfwyoutube.com/watch?v=aaaaaaaaa. Though this has become increasingly useless lately.
I quite like Newpipe but it has been giving me some trouble lately. I find it routinely doesn't load comments nowadays, and it doesn't handle restricted videos well at all, simply showing a video...
I quite like Newpipe but it has been giving me some trouble lately. I find it routinely doesn't load comments nowadays, and it doesn't handle restricted videos well at all, simply showing a video not found error.
An interesting response to Twitter’s staged rollout of “you must be logged in to view tweets” surveillance misfeature … would be for sites to ban Twitter links As noted by others, the fall-on...
I’ve been having that discussion with one popular tech discussion forum. They’re considering the option.
On Reddit, such a block could be implemented individually by mods of key forums, as well as by Reddit admins themselves.
On the Fediverse and Diaspora, instance and pod admins can ban links to Twitter, or rewrite those to go through other interfaces (#Nitter and #Threadreader being the most viable presently).
As noted by others, the fall-on impact on organisations relying on Twitter for their own outreach would be significant.
There's speculation that Twitter are testing the waters and will roll this back. I'd say a sharp spanking would be a caution not to even think about this kind of bullshit.
As someone who never really used and abhors Twitter, this feels like a positive to me. People will think twice before sharing tweets with me, and, when they do, I'll have a good excuse not to read it.
As someone who never really used and abhors Twitter, this feels like a positive to me. People will think twice before sharing tweets with me, and, when they do, I'll have a good excuse not to read it.
Twitter would be 99% lurkers. Problem is they have probably signed up every single user on the planet who wants to be writing tweets. But they still have to show constant growth numbers so now...
Twitter would be 99% lurkers. Problem is they have probably signed up every single user on the planet who wants to be writing tweets. But they still have to show constant growth numbers so now they are trying to sign up all the lurkers as well. After that, who knows what they will do.
Twitter's loginwall is implemented with cookies last I checked - after viewing a certain number of tweets, it will lock you out. Firefox Focus works fine because it clears your cache every time...
Twitter's loginwall is implemented with cookies last I checked - after viewing a certain number of tweets, it will lock you out.
Firefox Focus works fine because it clears your cache every time you close the app. Manually denying Twitter's access to cookies in your everyday browser should also work.
My current partial workaround: on iOS and Firefox, if I click on the tweet from someone’s feed, go to the address bar, and hit enter; it usually shows the Tweet and comment chain.
My current partial workaround: on iOS and Firefox, if I click on the tweet from someone’s feed, go to the address bar, and hit enter; it usually shows the Tweet and comment chain.
This is especially going to be a problem because so many organizations (companies, projects, even governments) have started treating Twitter as the main way they release announcements and updates.
It's bothered me for a long time that I'm more likely to find things like game company news on their Twitter account than their own website, especially when they also use their Twitter account to constantly retweet memes related to their game or something, so it's almost impossible to find anything more than a few hours old. That's a relatively minor annoyance though, not a very important case. Twitter is often the first place that governments and other significant organizations post anything too though, like updates about COVID numbers/restrictions. It's going to be much worse if all of that will be effectively inaccessible to everyone that doesn't register.
Also, the last time I registered a Twitter account (one for Tildes that I don't really use), it got blocked immediately as "suspicious" and wouldn't allow me to use the account until I gave them a phone number. I've seen many other people mention a similar thing happening to them. So unless they've improved that, this is a heavier requirement than "just register a random account quickly".
Hopefully some of my alternative methods of following Twitter will continue to work, like my RSS reader (Inoreader) being able to follow a user's tweets as a feed.
This is already an irritation I've already experienced with a state governor providing more detailed information about emergency lockdowns on his personal facebook page than was provided to the media including even the state broadcaster.
I literally get my up to date covid information from reddit because my local health authority is so slow updating their website
Embrace, extend, extinguish play seems to be going apace. But the problem for them is that once they extinguish they can't actually generate any content themselves.
Nothing Twitter have done since day one has suggested to me that they are anywhere near as smart as Microsoft (say what you like about their business practices, they were spectacularly effective), or have anything approaching a long term plan. They seem to just flail around pissing away ungodly quantities of other people's money on a vague promise of making some of their own later.
Along these same lines, for a lot of companies, Twitter and Facebook have become the only easy way to contact customer support.
This is really the only reason I still have a Twitter account.
Here's my list of chats on Twitter
I signed up, but the first invoice wasn't showing.
I paid my first invoice, but it wouldn't let me create an account for their website.
Multiple instances of the app check in not working and having them do it manually hours after the fact.
I was locked out of my account due to lost 2FA.
I found some issues with code from one of their courses no longer working and sent them the steps I used to fix it.
On this one I don't really fault them since it's just two people and not a large company.
Reporting internet outages.
Most of those have other ways to contact them, but they usually require calling an 800 number and sitting on hold for half an hour after going through an automated menu.
I used to have low-4-digits of followers on twitter, before I deleted the heck of my account. That's not a flex; I never felt like I had many followers in the grand scheme of things. And even so, I only had accumulated that many followers because of quite how long I had been on there.
But, it was more than enough to get meaningful replies to my customer service complaints when something went wrong - and to get weirdly performative amounts of action taken: because I might RT it to my followers. #clout #clout #letitallout
After deleting my account, I soon found that Twitter is the only platform that corporate customer service teams pay attention to. At (really bad) times, I've even tried to create a Twitter account and speak to them that way - but without any twitter clout, it's completely futile - I don't even get a reply.
I think there's a concept for this phenomenon: social credit.
I actually think this is the main value of Twitter (insofar as social media has value); it's good for quick brief news updates, be that companies/governments, or news reporters. So it's a pity this will hit that particularly badly. But you can question that value (encourages hot takes, simplification/compression of info, leaving out nuance, etc etc)
Sadly ,this was one of the "low effort" benefits of reddit that I miss most. I constantly try and find official sources to answer questions with (often gaming related), and googling for a tweet is a pain and a half, especially if it's some small tidbit not worth a full news article. Googling for a reddit post linking to a tweet is ironically much easier.
as usual, I'm sure some plugin will be my savior if this gets too annoying. I refuse to make a twitter account, and I especially never want to register my phone number to a non-professional social media ever again. I'm convinced 90% of the spam I get is due to my long deactivated FaceBook account where I foolishly entered that information.
It happens automatically. The only way to work around that is asking support to unlock your account (maybe telling them you don't have a phone number).
I use Feedly to follow Twitter too, hope Twitter does not block alternative methods as Facebook does.
I ran into this yesterday. I dropped Twitter after the 2016 election (after doomscrolling for several months, to the detriment of my mental health.) But every once in a while someone shares a funny tweet elsewhere, and I read it. Now I won't read the occasional funny tweet, and Twitter ceases to have any relevance to me. Oh well.
Yeah, likewise. And unless the tweet was wholly contained, I would always copy the URL, go to threadreader.app, and paste it in and read there. So I never actually used Twitter anyway.
Fuckin-A! I love this. It wont take away the screenshots but links to twitter will be useless for me because I don't have an account. It's a nudge I appreciate.
Ah, the Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram/etc approach. Forget it, I’ll just stop looking at your site, I’m better off for it anyhow.
Where this is a huge problem though is when public entities use these sites to communicate important things, and I’m often finding myself unable to read official communications from city entities, state organizations, etc. They should either be required to use open platforms, or demand that the platforms that they use allow unfettered access to their posts.
It's similar to how youtube now requires you to login to watch 18+ trailers and such. There is no way to bypass this (I tried!), it's baffling. And they want a copy of your goddamn passport to verify your age! Over my cold, dead hands, Google.
Tbf that’s not really something YouTube or google wants to do, it’s more something they have to do.
Jesus, that's even worse.
For a long time I've been able to bypass that by just adding
nsfwto the domain so a URL looks likehttps://www.nsfwyoutube.com/watch?v=aaaaaaaaa. Though this has become increasingly useless lately.Freetube and Newpipe are both wildly under-appreciated.
And youtube-dl, which both (?) are built upon.
Also works for Twitter videos, for what it's worth.
I quite like Newpipe but it has been giving me some trouble lately. I find it routinely doesn't load comments nowadays, and it doesn't handle restricted videos well at all, simply showing a video not found error.
I think these no longer work fort that, either. It's getting really aggressive.
I might give it a try, still, thanks!
An interesting response to Twitter’s staged rollout of “you must be logged in to view tweets” surveillance misfeature … would be for sites to ban Twitter links
As noted by others, the fall-on impact on organisations relying on Twitter for their own outreach would be significant.
There's speculation that Twitter are testing the waters and will roll this back. I'd say a sharp spanking would be a caution not to even think about this kind of bullshit.
As someone who never really used and abhors Twitter, this feels like a positive to me. People will think twice before sharing tweets with me, and, when they do, I'll have a good excuse not to read it.
Kinda sucks, it's the reason I don't use Instagram. Surely Twitter has a lot of lurkers without any accounts?
Twitter would be 99% lurkers. Problem is they have probably signed up every single user on the planet who wants to be writing tweets. But they still have to show constant growth numbers so now they are trying to sign up all the lurkers as well. After that, who knows what they will do.
I'm surprised because I feel like the site has value because you can reach outside it's user base.
Exactly why they’re doing it.
Firefox Focus doesn't seem to give me trouble with Twitter yet, might be something to consider keeping as a side arm.
Twitter's loginwall is implemented with cookies last I checked - after viewing a certain number of tweets, it will lock you out.
Firefox Focus works fine because it clears your cache every time you close the app. Manually denying Twitter's access to cookies in your everyday browser should also work.
Firefox:
Chrome:
(This also works for many news sites paywalls)
My current partial workaround: on iOS and Firefox, if I click on the tweet from someone’s feed, go to the address bar, and hit enter; it usually shows the Tweet and comment chain.