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[flagged] Ask HN: Should I Leave Twitter (as a user) ?
25 points by PaulDavisThe1st on Oct 28, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 30 comments
Now that Twitter is owned by (currently) the richest man in the world, is it time to leave the platform or is a wait-and-see attitude more appropriate?



I know someone who didn’t give Tesla consideration because they simply didn’t want to talk about Musk endlessly. (And the auto drive claims…)

It’s not like Facebook is much better. Google plus.. got googleaxed… You could get of social media all together.

Plus I can’t imagine Twitter is going to improve. I imagine it’s a slow slide as it tries to make more money..mastodon and it’s ilk aren’t popular, though I imagine this might push some to it. You end up following people where they’re posting, so to the extent those people are on Twitter you will be.

If Musk can’t keep his operations engineers happy it might be a moot point. I have no idea how they keep a site of that scale working, but I imagine it isn’t easy.


> Plus I can’t imagine Twitter is going to improve.

It's basically guaranteed to get worse what with Musk planning on bringing back more Trumpism, Covid misinformation, etc.


The time to leave was like 8 years ago. If anything it could only get better, but I doubt it.


You shouldn't work at any company where you don't agree with the direction or mission.


The OP is asking, "is it time to leave the platform?". So it sounds like he's asking as a user of the service, not as an employee.


If you don't like working for rich guys, you should find a different industry, bro.


Ha. Doesn't working "for" happen you know usually "under" richer folks? Unless you include govt and non profits.


You can be on multiple platforms. So you should start looking for the best alternative platforms for your interests now and start participating in them. Then if Twitter gets bad drop it.


Twitter was far-left-biased, I thought y'all relieved now


Only in the US would anyone think of Twitter as far left biased.

McCathy left a long shadow and a truly bicameral insanity wrt political discussion.


Yeah, it's crazy how to the right their Overton window is, and it's only going farther right with the new brand of Republican candidates (note: i choose to classify empty narcissistic obviously wrong populism as a far-right thing, simply because it's politicians generally on the far-right that exhibit those traits (same as there's nothing particularly "lefty" about being environmentally conscious, but mostly people on the left seem to care, so "green" is considered "left").

From a French perspective, where there's a literal communist party, and empty far-right populists, and everything in-between, seeing what would be classified as center-right here be labeled as "far-left" is funny. The two party system really is a disaster.


> Only in the US would anyone think of Twitter as far left biased.

Ironically, only people in the US would think it is not.

US politics is pretty dang progressive on the global scale.


Tl;Dr: I'd give about 80% likelihood to a wave of content and community toxicity going forward.

(Edit: I assume the question is about using Twitter; the answer indirectly addresses working for Twitter as well)

Established communities are highly sensitive to tectonic shifts in the underlying power structures.

The new management has come with an agenda to stir said structures, but does not make the impression of being particularly sensible or skilled at nurturing communities at large.

In other words, as soon as a community reaches a certain size, only very persistent policing can keep it bearable for members. Tampering with the moderation will likely upset that, and by the time the new management learns the ropes, it is likely that most communities will disband and move elsewhere. Hence my conclusion.

Proper disclosure: I don't have a Twitter account.


I’ve not seen any evidence of the most influential voices in my network moving now that Musk is running it, but it’s still early I guess.

I really value some of the opinions and discourse I find on Twitter. However, I despise Musk, his brand and vision. I’m torn, but I’m planning to discontinue my Twitter usage and evaluate if there is a successor in 3-6 months.


Do you get any value from Twitter? Really? Or is it just something to do? I doubt you will miss anything important if you ignore Twitter. No one has to join any social media platform. If you have to ask if you should leave Twitter based on who owns it, ask yourself what you get out of it now.


Probably no use unless changes are made to the platform you strongly dislike


Wait and see, but be actively planning your exit strategy.


Is there any downside to waiting and seeing?

I still have an account because I like to connect with other people of similar interests.


The intimidations might be looking for people like you to leave without needing to pay any severance


If you make career decisions from a HN poll, you deserve whatever happens to you.


Isn't this the ideal place to ask such a question? Unless you think HN is as bad as twitter...


I believe that HN is far worse. There are extremely helpful and non-cynical corners of Twitter.


You can leave if you want. I might create an account now. For the life of me I don’t see how anyone can think this is a bad thing, unless you enjoy being in a far left group-think echo chamber.


Yes. But not because of Elon Musk.


No


Why do you want to leave?


I just hope that they keep Trump off the platform. I‘m sort of hoping his bs is in the past.

Can’t take Kanye seriously, I wouldn’t mind if he was allowed back on.


Edit. After seeing the Lex Friedman interview, I see that he is essentially an alt right troll now. Even if his crackpot theories about a Jewish cabal running the media is true (spoiler it’s not true), you’d have to think a people as historically prosecuted are doing it with the intention of protecting themselves. There’s nothing defensible or sane in his rambling rhetoric.

The problem is Kanye’s identity is now clearly bound to his convincing everyone else to do things his way, the man believes he is a prophet.

He really shouldn’t not be given a bullhorn to worsen his disability under the guise of ‘free speech’.


You should.

Elon Musk is a dick head and you shouldn't support his work.


You want to leave because he is rich?




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