I think anyone who uses Twitter will agree on two things this week.
One is that they are worried about its future.
The second is that it is behaving very strangely. Heaven knows what Musk has already done to its algorithms, but I am not now seeing the stuff I expect.
I instinctively want to stay there. I want to be around to see Musk humiliated in retreat. But, just in case, I am also in Mastodon now:
My address is https://mas.to/@RichardJMurphy .
I am not using it nearly as much as Twitter, as yet. But I will wait and see what happens.
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I don’t use either, but on a point of principle I really would like you and millions of others to leave Twitter. The idea of one individual who has acquired billions by exploiting other people – that is the only way anyone can acquire billions- can buy something like Twitter and use it to a) destroy a lot of people’s lives, at least in the short term, by sacking them immediately and b) give voice to all the extreme right wing hate under the guise of free speech is utterly abhorrent.
Please leave and don’t look back.
Read what minority groups say about this
They emphatically want people to stay
Ali – from someone who doesn’t use Twitter to ask us to up and leave and not return is a bit rich. My own use as an information source of a wide range of subjects pertinent to me would be hard to replicate on other platforms as they exist presently. Never mind the social framework of supporting some quite vulnerable people there who need assistance and love ( if that’s not too soppy? ) Twitter is fast and responsive in a way others are not. I have used others and for now Tweeting is my preference.
btw it IS possible to mute the irritants from your timeline and just get what you want. I’ve even managed to ban the distracting ‘trending’ bit of my page ( I use it on a desktop mostly )
Whatisname might get tired of his new toy all too soon anyway.
I suspect it will be up for sale soon
It’s possible that Twitter will make Musk a millionaire!
🙂
How much longer might Twitter be around for?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/10/exodus-twitter-elon-musk-possible-bankruptcy
And why is Musk bankrupting what he has just bought?
I know little or nothing about this – but it seems you can post on both Twitter and Mastodon simultaneously??……….
https://thenewleafjournal.com/reviewing-the-mastodon-twitter-crossposter/
I am going to investigate it
Moa Party is the name of the Twitter crossposter that I came across: https://moa.party/
I am trying it and it seems to work
It obviously should be possible to set up a Masterdon server so that it forwards posts to Twitter. After all Twitter won’t be able to tell the difference between it and any other computer.
The software has been around for over 5 years so I would have expected someone to have added this facility by now. Software like this us developed by its users and I would have expected someone to have wanted it enough to add it.
I think Moa is doing that for me now
Mastodon isn’t really a “platform” in the sense that Twitter is.
First it is two pieces of software a client and a server, both of which you can download and install, both of which you can alter for your own use, both of which are completely transparent in that you can access the software. In other words it is Free Software in the sense of respecting your freedom. If you are interested in getting involved the following link will be useful:
https://github.com/topics/mastodon
It is quite possible for you to run your own Mastodon server in your own house and use it for communication within your own family. I know of one company that has its own internal Mastodon network, there are probably others. However the Mastodon server software implements the inter-server communication protocols ActivityPub, which is now a W3C standard, and allows Mastodon servers to form “federations” of independently run servers these may or may not be available to the general internet user. It also allows communication with older federated systems such as GNU Social and Diaspora.
The first such federation was set up in 2016 by the primary author of the Mastodon software, Josh Hseih, what people mean when they say they are on Mastodon or have joined Mastodon is that they are using this particular federation of servers.
If more people are using Mastodon that is all to the good and is one more win in the fight against proprietary software. If Twitter goes bust then so be it. Let Apple, Google and Microsoft be next I, for one, wouldn’t miss them and none of them do anything that cannot be achieved using free (as in freedom) software.
Very much agree with your last paragraph Bernard; I certainly wouldn’t miss Twitter. At the rate he’s going, musk will kill it off anyway. I’ve never used Apple, and I got so fed up of Win10 bringing my moderately powered home PC to a crawl that i’ve taken the plunge into Linux, which has been mostly succesful.
What can you replace Google with though? I’d love to know in case I decide to get away fro it.
Thanks.
I haven’t used the Google search engine for over 20 years ever since it started tracking users and sharing the information with other sites. As for other Google software, my browser blocks such things as Google analytics. If you want a decent search engine DuckDuckGo is quite adequate for most purposes although there are other more sophisticated ones.
Open Street Maps seems quite adequate for getting around. People tell me it is better than Google maps but I wouldn’t know as I have only use Google Maps when it is embedded in a web page and it has never struck me as particularly impressive.
My phone is a Fairphone 3 running e/os/ and it does not contain any proprietary software except the modem driver. It doesn’t appear to do anything harmful but I would still rather the phone had a different modem.
On the whole I really can’t understand why any sane person would even consider using some proprietary software or why they would carry around a portable surveillance device such as an IPhone.
“What can you replace Google with though?”
Some suggestions here: https://swprs.org/advanced-online-media-use/
I use the Brave browser, which is based on Chrome but without all the tracking nonsense. It also has its own search engine. And at some point I’ll probably ditch Gmail for Proton mail.
I had forgotten that people use Google for email.
If you are looking for a decent email service may I suggest Tutanota. The system is encrypted (end to end when communicating with another user), runs entirely on free (as in freedom) software and the basic service, which would be enough for most users, is free (as in free beer).
Also if you are into saving the planet its servers are located in a datacentre in Norway that runs entirely on hydroelectric power. And, no, I don’t have shares in the company.
I don’t hate billionaires just because they are billionaires, it would be impossible to become one without doing damage to some people ,throughout any career there is damage done surely every time you compete for a job or promotion damage is done to those you beat.
Shouldn’t we wait and see what is done to Twitter , some changes have been made and some of those changes reversed , some staff have been dismissed and some have left , where this is all going is not yet known so I will wait a while yet before making judgement.
More changes will be made to Twitter let’s wait and see what they are.
I too am waiting, whilst hedging bets
Free speech is great but often there is confusion about what free speech is.
Personally I think people should be able to say exactly what they think , always, but and it’s a crucial but , there should always be a very concise description of what they are saying , on the cover, so that those who do not want to read it can avoid it before it’s too late ,not easy to do on Twitter etc.
Sometimes you have read or see stuff before you realise you wish you hadn’t, that has to change I think if they could invent a way of informing you of content briefly before you read or see things on Twitter it would help but is that even possible given the speedy nature of how Twitter works
Some great minds working on it I’m sure that’s why I intend to wait and see.
The internet is fantastic surely deserving of a Nobel prize given the way it has changed lives but it won’t survive if it’s lawless or if it’s content upsets lots of people.
I’m interested in how it will progress I think it’s here to stay and Twitter etc will evolve.
So you would allow hate speech?
I have a response to that. You are banned here.
Someone I know very well was on a call with Musk yesterday, as part of a team from a very large multinational.
Their conclusion was that he is ‘mad’.
Twitter looks like it’s on a downward spiral. Until/unless Musk goes or is bought out.
I think a sale is very likely
The lenders will be desperate to recover anything
Makes me wonder why anyone was willing to finance Musk’s purchase of Twitter?
If Twitter does go bust I wonder if investors in his other business’s might then start to get worried
I am on Mastodon as mas.to/@autisticphotographer, having joined a week ago today. I am long standing follower both of this blog and of your contributions on twitter.
I will search you out
There are a number of issues that trouble me about the Twitter sale that have nothing to do with its use (I don’t use it).
One is that that the previous owners seemed to pursue it (maybe they had no choice?) – what does it say about them? The get rich quick mentality is so unprincipled and allows even more unprincipled fellows to acquire such assets.
Secondly it shows just how much the markets drive these things – as well as the bankers who knew there was a killing to be made.
What was a mad idea became a self-fulfilling prophecy by virtue of some very negative impetus. That is what frightens me. This was the raw power of big money and vested interests at work. And it is ugly and terrifying.
This is where profit maximisation leads
I’m not a Twitter user, so am watching the current events with interest. I am just answering here the comments about Google, which I haven’t used for years. My search engine is Ecosia, which is based in Berlin and runs on renewable energy. 80% of profits go to planting trees, mainly in Africa, which has many benefits in terms of climate and flood management and also employment locally. A search on Ecosia is much ‘safer’ than on Google, who keep hold of your data and sell it. Ecosia searches are encrypted and the data is automatically deleted after a week. It is also very easy to set up – even I managed it without the help of my children!
Ecosia seems rather good