If your posting does much better on X than it does here, then I can understand the pragmatic decision to stay. But (a) that says something profoundly unsettling about your posting, and (b) don’t kid yourself about what the site has become.
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I think a ton depends on what you use these sites for. If you use them to engage with people in actual discourse, Bsky is leagues better than Twitter. If you use it for self-promotion, it's still probably better because the bot count is way lower, and there's no algo to stack against you.
aug 23, 2025, 10:13 pm • 0 0 • view
Against my will, recognizing who Matthew Sitman is telling me he is.
aug 23, 2025, 9:26 pm • 0 0 • view
here's the kicker... it's not doing better on the bad place. basically zero engagement. bsky.app/profile/holz...
aug 23, 2025, 4:21 pm • 7 0 • view
Here’s the weakest part of Demsas’s argument. Twitter *in 2021* was arguably the most influential public square we had. Twitter *in 2025* is, by some estimates, 75% bots. There are still some communities holding fast there. I don’t fault them for it. But let’s not pretend it’s flourishing.
aug 23, 2025, 4:10 pm • 298 36 • view
Towards the end of my time on twitter I got called racial slurs, reported them, and got emails from twitter saying no rules were broken. And I'm biracial/somewhat ambiguous! Maybe she doesn't mind it but that shit is infuriating and eventually psychologically damaging. Insane to stay there
aug 23, 2025, 5:06 pm • 3 0 • view
The argument for staying on Twitter is that you can find CEOs and elected officials still hobnobbing there. If you are the type of person who enjoys interacting with Bill Ackman and Marc Andreessen, then that can be quite a rush. But only if you avoid saying things that get you blocked by them.
aug 23, 2025, 4:13 pm • 252 10 • view
That is what she actually cares about..over everything else.. The sweet sweet tech money and influence
aug 23, 2025, 6:17 pm • 2 0 • view
Proud to be a member of the “Blocked by pmarca” club on the old place. Then again, it’s not exactly an exclusive list.
aug 23, 2025, 4:26 pm • 2 0 • view
He followed me for awhile! …and then he blocked me.
aug 23, 2025, 4:32 pm • 4 0 • view
Well done! It was the “no apartments in Atherton” episode that got me on his list. #noregrets
aug 23, 2025, 4:35 pm • 3 0 • view
lol... it's good for research purposes for these kinds of reasons... but when Elon started doing Nazi salutes this really became not an adequate reason to be there
aug 23, 2025, 4:20 pm • 4 0 • view
That, again, is a CHOICE. You can engage in arguments with people you disagree with. But only the right arguments, and only in the right tones. X is Elon’s propaganda outlet. It is failing and flailing. It is, at this point, unusable for people like me.
aug 23, 2025, 4:16 pm • 241 6 • view
I genuinely don't understand the liberals who think all "debate" is equal. As if arguing over whether McDonalds or Wendy's has better fries holds the same moral weight and relevance as arguing over whether or not the president should be allowed to accept bribes from foreign governments.
aug 23, 2025, 9:13 pm • 0 0 • view
"I can debate with people on X over whether or not civilians are valid military targets!" Why is that even a debate? At least one side of that debate is deeply evil and should not be allowed to exist in a public space! And you're proud that you got into that argument! What the shit!
aug 23, 2025, 9:14 pm • 1 0 • view
What sort of mental contortions would I need to undergo in order to be the type of liberal intellectual who still flourishes on actually-existing-X today? How would that subtly reshape the arguments that I decided were worth making, in order to stay on the good side of the media owners?
aug 23, 2025, 4:20 pm • 213 9 • view
Not just reshape your arguments, but reshape your *thinking.* When you're surrounded by Twitter-style interaction, it *will* alter how you think. I think it's why people who still hang out there seem to have retrograde perspectives on a variety of issues, especially politics/culture.
aug 23, 2025, 10:15 pm • 1 0 • view
😂✌🏼
aug 23, 2025, 4:28 pm • 0 0 • view
I didn’t leave X because I was worried it was too impure. I left because it fell to shit, and I realized staying there would make me a less interesting thinker and person. That was two years ago. Things have demonstrably gone downhill over there. How is this argument even still a thing???
aug 23, 2025, 4:24 pm • 380 26 • view
The question is when will the lazy as F mainstream online news outlets stop crafting articles around six tweets? The inertia of the existing content integration from X has made it feel more relevant than it should over the past year or two.
aug 23, 2025, 5:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Surprised you didn't comment on the slug
aug 24, 2025, 9:29 am • 0 0 • view
I agree with basically all of what you said, but the non-English side of Twitter has not fallen to as much shit. You can really feel the increasing presence of bots but it isn’t anywhere as awful as the English side.
aug 24, 2025, 4:09 am • 2 0 • view
Well, this place is even more antisemitic than X, so it's a choice between two absolutely filthy restroom stalls. I know Jewish people who were driven away from this place and find X more accommodating. The Lefties here are bigoted as fuck and completely unwilling to see it.
aug 23, 2025, 8:23 pm • 0 0 • view
"How is this argument even still a thing???" I’d guess because too many people’s sense of identity/financial stability/need for “institutional stability” is bound up in this argument being a thing.
aug 23, 2025, 4:51 pm • 0 0 • view
I stayed on and off sometimes to help rt people who needs helps and one day Elon axed my account
aug 23, 2025, 5:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Thank you for this, Dave. For what it’s worth, I would follow your posts to the ends of the earth.
aug 24, 2025, 5:34 am • 0 0 • view
I’m *still* not changing your grade.
aug 24, 2025, 1:35 pm • 2 0 • view
there's always a new incoming class of sophmores
aug 23, 2025, 7:55 pm • 1 0 • view
"How is this argument even still a thing???" 💯 I don't give a rat's ass about Twitter. I don't miss it. The End.
aug 23, 2025, 4:29 pm • 38 1 • view
I don't even log in to passively lurk any more. I don't miss it one bit. Bluesky is already 100x better, and I almost never see nazi jerkoffs here!
aug 23, 2025, 4:41 pm • 6 0 • view
As in at this point, you don't even get noticed even to be blocked by Bill Ackman and Marc Andreessen without a blue checkmark. So it means giving Musk money to promote your posts.
aug 23, 2025, 10:20 pm • 2 0 • view
What “public square” ever had access to millions of people? It’s apples and oranges to compare Twitter to Ye Olde Towne Commons.
aug 23, 2025, 5:19 pm • 2 0 • view
That’s not even….factually true?? Smith is on here. So is my entire congressional delegation. Tressie McMillan Cottom. Mark Cuban. Ok, maybe not so much with the celebrities, but there are plenty more politics, academics, business examples I could have chosen.
aug 23, 2025, 4:28 pm • 9 0 • view
Without question? I don't know. All the dumbshit Trump voters in my area are on Facebook, and none of them are on Twitter. I'd argue Facebook is still bigger than Twitter. Twitter is just bigger among pseudo-intellectuals.
aug 23, 2025, 5:15 pm • 5 0 • view
there's another weakness: Twitter is STILL a good tool for the entry level journalist or think tank kid to get noticed...for his fascist advocacy, by the fascists in power! so, yes, true, but it proves the opposite of his point
aug 23, 2025, 4:20 pm • 13 0 • view
her
aug 23, 2025, 5:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Everyone's on Twitter, it's the center of the discourse, and that's why I need to publicly announce off Twitter that I'm an iconoclast for staying on there.
aug 23, 2025, 4:15 pm • 25 3 • view
But how does one even know that it “does better” on X?
aug 23, 2025, 4:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Of course, if you look at her tweets, she’s not getting any engagement there either
aug 23, 2025, 4:11 pm • 4 0 • view
The whole idea that somehow she and others would be a counterweight to Nazi arguments is…interesting. Also highly idealistic.
aug 23, 2025, 4:30 pm • 2 0 • view
That's what I keep coming back to: How does one convince themselves that a progressive voice is going to get any traction or change any minds on a site whose architecture is built specifically to prevent that from ever happening?
aug 23, 2025, 4:59 pm • 1 0 • view
There is also FWIW an important distinction between how your posting does ON the sight itself and the degree to which that engagement translates into click through to your site and eventual subscriptions. The evidence right now is that Bluesky punches well above its weight on click through!
aug 23, 2025, 4:14 pm • 2 0 • view
I left because it's filled with assholes. You could watch all the smarter commenters go silent, one by one, while the assholes just kept on doing what they do. What's the point of reading all that assholery?
aug 23, 2025, 4:18 pm • 3 0 • view