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ELON MUSK’S STEWARDSHIP of social media giant Twitter has generated much discussion yet again this week.
On Saturday, the most basic functionality of the microblogging site was throttled as its owner announced ordinary users would be capped at seeing 600 tweets per day, with a limit of 6,000 for subscribed Twitter Blue members paying at least €8 a month.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Twitter and you’re wondering whether that’s a lot, roughly 500 million tweets are posted per day. It’s sort of like – at a bit of a stretch – if The Journal told you that you could only read one word from one headline per day, or pay us some money and we’ll let you read almost an entire headline.
The caps have since been relaxed, though some users are still reporting problems with functionality — problems with functionality have persisted throughout Musk’s entire tenure.
The unexpected change sent many users searching for somewhere else to get their fix of information, content and community, and many migrated to Bluesky which is (for now) an invite-only replica of Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, who you may remember as… the co-founder of Twitter.
Such was the scale of the shift that Bluesky warned of “some degraded performance as a result of record-high traffic”. Anyone who pays close attention to the vagaries of the social media industry will remember that social media site Mastodon experienced a similar migration in November, shortly after Musk first bought Twitter.
After that short-lived surge, Mastodon ultimately went back to its original level of popularity (or obscurity, depending on how you look at it).
Anecdotally, a similar issue could face Bluesky. Social media sites populated only by hardcore users don’t tend to produce the same level of varied content that makes a behemoth like Twitter still so popular despite its increasing problems.
Notes, a microblogging Platform launched by Substack, and Post, a Twitter-like service mainly aimed at publishers like journalists and writers, both experienced short-lived surges before falling by the wayside.
Saturday’s tumult was only the beginning of what promises to be another long week for Twitter.
We have just launched a new, improved version of TweetDeck. All users can continue to access their saved searches & workflows via https://t.co/2WwL3hNVR2 by selecting “Try the new TweetDeck” in the bottom left menu.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 3, 2023
Some notes on getting started and the future of the product…
On Tuesday morning, Twitter Support announced that it was launching a new version of Tweetdeck – an account management tool used by organisations, businesses and individuals to schedule tweets, refine the kind of tweets they see, and manage multiple accounts at once. Essentially, it’s like if you could have 10 Twitter timelines open side-by-side all at once, each one with a different purpose.
It is likely that any large Twitter account you follow uses Tweetdeck in some capacity.
By the start of next month, only paying users will be able to use Tweetdeck – a hard-sell, given that many users don’t seem to like the new Tweetdeck format as much as they liked the old one. Some are already complaining about bugs in the new system — finding once again that there are limits to how many tweets they can see, or that their lists of tweets won’t populate at all (even for Twitter Blue users).
Tried the 'New' Tweetdeck, which removes the ability to have lists from multiple accounts on the same deck, and it appears my lists have been rate limited after less than an hour, even though I have Twitter Blue. My home feed still runs. Is this a bug? pic.twitter.com/wzhgQF1lNV
— iambinarymind (@iambinarymind) July 3, 2023
It appears that much like Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg has also smelled blood in the water.
The Facebook CEO won’t get the chance to show off his jiu-jitsu skills in a cage-fight against Musk (since his mother pulled the plug on their proposed fight), but it seems he’s primed to land a blow on Twitter’s corner of the internet.
The company announced that its Twitter competitor, currently advertised in the Apple App Store under the name ‘Threads, an Instagram app’, will be made available to users in the US and UK on Thursday.
Screengrabs from the app prototype show an interface that is nearly identical to Twitter, and suggests strongly that Zuckerberg is trying his hand at absorbing the Twitter fallout.
Concerns have been raised over whether Meta sharing data between its various apps, like Instagram and Threads, will pose a problem under EU law, and so the company is holding off on its EU launch for now.
This means that Twitter remains the only app that does exactly what its users want it to do – even if that becomes less and less the case with each passing week.
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Two right eejits in the last one
@: Two eejits that got the highest first preference votes of any TDs in the state, some eejits alright to pull that off.
@Lone Hurler: that probably speaks volumes of those who voted for them or is it maybe it could be the quality of those up against them in the vote?
@Lone Hurler: go away out of that
Inheritors of the most envied election machine in the state.
I don’t think either of them are anywhere near as sneaky or sly as plenty of others in the dail.
@: but two eejits that would buy and sell the rest of the oireachtas put together.
why do we have to have more leeches aka TD’s when the population rose but half them are not Irish aka cant vote
no wonder the govt loves open borders
ffs we are giving asylum seekers the right to vote next year
even trump would blush at this “stuffing the ballot box” scam
@empty: you need to be an Irish citizen to vote in an Irish general election. You’re talking out of your hoop
@empty: half the population rise aren’t Irish citizens? Care to post actual proof please. Also asylum seekers can’t vote in Dail elections.
@SYaxJ2Ts:
kevin plz keep up
I DIDNT SAY GENERAL ELCCTION
im on about local and Euros
@empty: neither of which apply to the Govt
@Oisin CK:
im on about local and euro
and look up stats, of how many non Irish are living here now
hence why we need more TD’s
@empty: The Journal has actually written a good explainer on this issue recently.
To summarise: non nationals have been eligible to vote in local elections since 2004. They cannot vote in General elections.
So at least they can’t be blamed for the ‘leeches’ of TDs we have.
Might be no harm having a read of it.
@Oisin CK:
the govt brought it in
@The Cearnach:
urkaines can vote in locals and euro’s next year
Holly cairns wants all asylum seekers to have the right to vote in ALL elections
@empty: but Holly Cairns isn’t in government so how can she bring it in?
@The Cearnach:
she wants to be in govt
remember she is the one who made vile anti Catholic tweets and made light of abortion
she is fecked at next G.E. as her rivals will use that against her
she did say sorry thou, the story got drowned out by covid coming here
@empty: so is it the government or the opposition you don’t like? I’m confused.
@The Cearnach:
there is a tiny fig leave between the govt and the opposition as well u know aka they all the same
@SYaxJ2Ts: British citizens who are residents in Ireland can also vote in general elections, European residents can vote in European elections and all residents can vote on local elections.
@Steve O’Hara Smith.: indeed Steve, you’re right. I guess my comment was to counter the ridiculous conspiracy theory posted originally
@empty: not a fan of the SDs, but she was spot on re the vile activities of the Catholic Church
@empty: Read the constituation will you and then you will get the answer. If being a TD is such a handy number, off you go and sign up for the next one.
@empty: Vikle anti catholic tweets and light of abortion. No woman makes light of abortion and as regards the church allshe waould have to do is tell the truth about the church and some of the things they have done to upset some people.
@empty: You really have no idea about politics at all and you have a vote!
Well over paid I know that
@Paddy C: based on what data?
@Oisin CK:
common sense
@empty: We’ll that’s can’t be true. You don’t have any.
@Oisin CK: on the real average earnings most people are on in the real world 20,000-30,000 at best but I suppose most are earning the average 70,000-80,000?
@empty: Which is not seen in any of your posts so far.
On a unrelated article Russell brand. So all these years this girl said nothing now it’s all this. As some posters on here have said the world is going to bits. Every1 jumps on the bandwagon and the accused is a pariah there on in. The wants of a few ie lgbtq are more important than the wider pop now. Even the article yday they not happy and marched to stop a pub changing a name for 1 night. The west is becoming sad won’t be able to look at some1 in near future without been sued or branded something. And for record my 2 girls are gay so nobody try brandish me as anti gay
@Karl Pilkington: I have no idea what you’re banging on about. I also feel for your girls if you think it’s common that women falsely accuse men.
@Karl Pilkington: It is very common for victims to say nothing, especially when their accusing someone famous or influential. The fear of not being believed is strong.
Jimmy Saville’s actions did not come to the light until after his death when his high profile funeral honours incensed some of his victims. That opened floodgates and many people came forward to reveal an incredibly sordid double life.
Start by getting rid of all the above!!
ŔTE line up for dancing with the stars.
All useless unless serving themselves
We always vote for the same dopes. Eijits we are!
@Big D: seems 30+% want to vote for terrorist puppets
@Oisin CK: you really should read more.
@Oisin CK: Are the terrorists in the room with us now?
I have no idea who most of them are, but I can tell you what they believe in! Like all of our politicians, they believe chiefly in their own welfare and that of their families, friends, and cronies. They will, of course, deny this with a straight face, knowing that you don’t believe a word from their mouths while also knowing that you know that they know this. They also know we need them to make the decisions and do the difficult things we wouldn’t want to, and that’s why we elect them in the first place! It’s a symbiotic relationship. Politicians, eh? An unfortunate but necessary blight on society…
Don’t know don’t care who they are
The muppet show
Should have an S before T and D to let people know their contaigon. Precautionary measures in place before approaching any of them
Unfairness you only see TDs or Parties at election time and that goes for All Parties and then there are on Holidays while this country runs its self in to the ground..
How many of these TD’S are bulls hitters
Answer: All of them
Is TD number 4 definitely not Brendan Smith?
Public whinge about quality of politicians. Well there’s a new one.
Moan and complain a=or get involved and be active, locally nationally.
It is easy to be the “hurler on the ditch”
try being an activist and see how it feels and how long it takes toi get anything done.
Oh and watch Yes Minister and Yes Prie Minister, may be the UK but civil servants are civil servants the world over
have your say