It always seemed like shouting in a room full of people. Any coherent thought instantly became an unreadable mess due to the post character limit. Never understood live-tweeting. You could DM some company's support person... but why?

And I blame link shorteners' existence on twitter, too.

They used to Tweet.

Now they sXhit.

A while ago I signed into x using a Gmail account. Mostly I was being hasty and careless. Never really used the account even. Forgot about it.

Recently I went and deleted the account, but when I log in, the first thing I see is a ridiculous antisemitic conspiracy theory.

That's the default algorithm.

I think I understand it just fine.

I never understood what compels people to post not-showerthoughts to the showerthoughts community.

Twitter is mainly mental illness.

Me neither. I technically had an account, but only to log in and look around. I found it most useful during things like Floyd protests and riots, for a real time news feed from people with boots on ground on what’s happening. Apart from that, it has always seemed odd and worthless.

Probably unpopular opinion: people hate "the algorithm" but you really need one for websites like Twitter; Mastodon feels absolutely dead due to lack of one. Just hashtags aren't enough, a post looks ridiculous the more you put them.

I wish I didn't have to use them but Reddit and Twitter are the go to for anything about local news and sports, and I occasionally see some absolutely banging content from people I'm not subscribed from their feeds.

this post could've been a tweet

Agree. I don't understand following a person instead of a topic. I did follow a few bars, restaurants, etc. to see happy hours info.

It's quite like reddit, but without threads or subs: just a nearly infinite list of comments made on anything. You only get to see what a comment (tweet) is about when there's a tag on them or when they are a response to another tweet.

Twitter's UX was generally better suited for some stuff like live events where you may want to see other people's comments but only in real time - a 3 minute old tweet in this context is just useless data.

I post post adult content and I follow other people who do the same. There are some extremely niche fetish communities there that you'll struggle finding anywhere else. I also like that since it's not a dedicated porn site there's a lot of people following and messaging me with their personal profiles and getting thirsty comments from closeted gay conservatives, muslims and even extremists is quite fun.

My dad uses X and I have slowly watched his descent into madness. So whatever is done on there, it isn't good

They just fund and spread Nazi hate now, not that complicated.

Masturbating their hindbrain to feel something

it was fun when I felt that I was being honeytrapped

My aunt used to try to convince me to get Twitter, but she couldn't explain what she thought I could do with Twitter that I couldn't do with Facebook

twitter was great in the late 00s and pre 2016. it was just fun. i met plenty of great people in fandoms (same with david karp era tumblr).

after 2016, social media just started getting mean.

There are relatively small communities that have network effects there. For example, folks working on AI research are very clearly not welcome on mastodon or bluesky. So conference announcements, new results (and hot takes on them), and funding opportunities are best found there. Used to be a functional subreddit, but the exodus and spam killed that. I assume there are a dozen similar topics.

To be honest, I've never understood it either, but I've used it in the past to find artists and fanart. Only because I understood Tumblr even less. Twitter was great for artists, or at least for my art enjoyment.

From what i gather, they’re debating whether they are team Hitler or team new Hitler (Netanyahu)