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posted by janrinok on Sunday October 30 2016, @08:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the did-you-use-it? dept.

From the BBC website:

Twitter announced on Thursday that it was cutting 9% of its workforce following slow growth of the social network.

"In the coming months we'll be discontinuing the [Vine] mobile app," the company said in a blog.

When he learned of the change, Rus Yusupov (one of Vine's three co-founders) - tweeted: "Don't sell your company!"

A quick search revealed that it's not just a rumor - it appears to be confirmed


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by julian on Sunday October 30 2016, @08:37PM

    by julian (6003) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 30 2016, @08:37PM (#420631)

    Twitter is a decent concept, if they were apolitical

    Indeed, and I think the Internet needs something *like* Twitter, but it can't be controlled by a for-profit business. That will inevitably lead to a boom-bust cycle of users having to move every decade to something new as the business model of the previously dominant platform collapses through desperation leading to anti-user "features" being implemented. Although Facebook and Twitter might have gotten so big now that there's literally no way for an up and coming competitor to ever dislodge them. At a certain point the network effect becomes impossible to overcome and it doesn't matter that your new product is better in every conceivable way--it's another contradiction that anarchic free-markets are fundamentally unable to solve even theoretically.

    What we need is a protocol, not a website/platform. For-profit businesses should be able to leverage the protocol into a service, but what we really need is something like e-mail. There's no company that controls "e-mail". It's an open standard that anyone can write software for and run a service and it'll interoperate with everyone else. There's no separate Gmail community, and a separate Yahoo Mail system, and an ISP-based system. It's all just e-mail and it all works together and it doesn't matter who you're paying for access or if their business model is ad-supported. If Gmail ever gets too onerous you can leave. If you want privacy there's Proton mail or dozens of others. You can even build your own e-mail server. IRC is another example.

    My dream would be something like Usenet but reimagined with modern technology; faster, more responsive, with the real-time relevance of Twitter's hashtag system, and all without a corporate overlord putting their finger on various scales from behind the scenes.

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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday October 30 2016, @09:37PM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday October 30 2016, @09:37PM (#420655) Journal

    Indeed, and I think the Internet needs something *like* Twitter,

    Really? Because i can't see a single thing it brings to the table.

    Seems like you are saying there needs to be a place where people can shout into the wind where nobody listens, and nobody cares.
    You can accomplish as much standing at your front door and addressing the world at large in a drunken rage.

    And all of that assumes that anything of value traverses twitter, when the majority of it is STILL after all these years, people tweeting their lunch and bowel movements, devoid of meaningful content.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:05PM (#420665)

      Twitter is like the loudmouth guy or gal in the social group who can be counted on to say something provocative at the restaurant table or gathering, thus providing plenty of conversational fodder for the others long afterwards.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Appalbarry on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:24PM

      by Appalbarry (66) on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:24PM (#420676) Journal

      Analogy: Hammers are stupid, Every time that I use hammer to change a light bulb the bulb breaks.

      Nobody should ever use a hammer, for anything.

      Or, closer to home,: Libraries are stupid. Almost every book in the library is something that I find boring or offensive.

      Nobody should ever use libraries.

      The truth is that for an awful lot of people Twitter is very useful, very entertaining, and is probably the single most valued social media platform.

      However, like any tool, you need to know when it's the best choice, and use it intelligently.

      • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:38PM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:38PM (#420683) Homepage

        Try going to home depot only to find that they banned hammers, or nails, or a specific size of nail, or a specific size of drill bit; arbitrarily.

        That is why people hate Twitter.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @08:29AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @08:29AM (#420811)

          But is it possible to ever have apolitical Twitter? The whole sole purpose of that tool is to show the pulse of society. I propose that any tool which shows the pulse of society is the most important tool to keep the nerves of society under control.