Twitter Plans To Remove 'Like' Button in a Bid To Improve the Quality of Debate, Report Says (telegraph.co.uk) 185
Twitter is planning to remove the ability to "like" tweets in a radical move that aims to improve the quality of debate on the social network, UK news outlet The Telegraph (paywalled) reports, citing CEO Jack Dorsey's comments at a recent company event. From the report: Founder Jack Dorsey last week admitted at a Twitter event that he was not a fan of the heart-shaped button and that it would be getting rid of it "soon." The feature was introduced in 2015 to replace "favourites," a star-shaped button that allowed people to bookmark tweets to read later. Update: In a statement, Twitter neither confirmed nor denied the report, adding that it was indeed in the process of rethinking "everything." It said, "As we've been saying for a while, we are rethinking everything about the service to ensure we are incentivizing healthy conversation, that includes the like button. We are in the early stages of the work and have no plans to share right now."
Bookmarks to come back? (Score:5, Interesting)
Wonder if the bookmark option will come back. That made more sense to me anyway.
Re:Bookmarks to come back? (Score:5, Funny)
It will be replaced by a selection of other emojis, including mad, laughing, sad, laughing, and woah.
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You forgot the "triggered" emoji.
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Could it be that too many people are liking the "wrong" things?
Perhaps too many people are liking things that go against the political bent of the Twitter owners/management believe in?
Re: Bookmarks to come back? (Score:1)
I assume it is that burning someone may get support from someone else and as such encourage that behaviour.
Also maybe some who write constructive comments get no love and as such feel the world think they are bad and stops.
Re:Bookmarks to come back? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bookmarks to come back? (Score:5, Funny)
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Isn't that what the "Troll" mod option does?
Re:Bookmarks to come back? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm wondering what the problem with the "like" button is?
Could it be that too many people are liking the "wrong" things?
Perhaps too many people are liking things that go against the political bent of the Twitter owners/management believe in?
Who knows. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of Twitter and "quality of debate".
Twitter is not a place for debate, and in no way shape or form does quality of anything have anything to do with the place.
It is however, a fine place for intellectually or emotionally challenged individuals to spout off within the limitations of their ability. Any thing that comes in a nutshell belongs in one.
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It is however, a fine place for intellectually or emotionally challenged individuals to spout off within the limitations of their ability.
Largely accurate, but mainstream "news" is largely becoming a restating of fights on Twitter. So now it's affecting all of us, whether we use the platform or not.
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It is however, a fine place for intellectually or emotionally challenged individuals to spout off within the limitations of their ability.
Largely accurate, but mainstream "news" is largely becoming a restating of fights on Twitter. So now it's affecting all of us, whether we use the platform or not.
Part of why my method of getting my news from multiple outlets is even better now than it used to be. The interesting issue is what the news presenters choose not to report on, and what they belabor.
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I'm wondering what the problem with the "like" button is?
Could it be that too many people are liking the "wrong" things?
Perhaps too many people are liking things that go against the political bent of the Twitter owners/management believe in?
Perhaps too many people, trolls, and bots are liking conspiracy theories and false news, irregardless of the political leaning, causing them to spread and grow like a virus.
Too many people blindly "like" things that fits their narrative and spend no time using critical thinking to check to see if it's true or not, I'm sure that bots are using likes to push narratives to the top of the pile, and we won't get into trolls as they just like to blow things up....
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I'm wondering what the problem with the "like" button is?
Could it be that too many people are liking the "wrong" things?
Wow this is the finest example of narcissistic victim mentality I've ever seen.
Here's a free clue: not everything that happens is about oppressing you.
The like button is crap and always has been. It means everything from "I agree", to "I like the sentiment" to "I'm glad you pasted that" to "hello I'm here like me back". And it's counted so people go fishing for likes because more is bett
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Hmm....it seems to me the radical statements like YOURS above, are a problem too....
It illustrates how there are fringes on BOTH sides. This is some of the first we've seen that is this egregious from the rad
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The bookmark option IS back, at least, on the Android app.
Somewhat confusingly hidden under the share button.
Every browser has bookmarks (Score:2)
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Every browser that I'm aware of already has bookmarks. You should try that feature. It works really well.
We're talking about Twitter users, you insensitive clod!
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Finally (Score:1)
Re: Finally (Score:1)
Say what you will about Reddit's voting system, but being able to vote down flamebait is essential to a functioning conversation. The main issue there is when someone makes a witty remark which de-rails the serious conversation.
From what I've seen, Slashdot has one of the worst systems, as flamebait ends up stickied at the top, with the original shit-post long since deleted, but it's up there because of the string of butthurt replies that continues to grow.
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Say what you will about Reddit's voting system, but being able to vote down flamebait is essential to a functioning conversation. The main issue there is when someone makes a witty remark which de-rails the serious conversation.
"Please protect me from any ideas I disagree with. Such hate speech triggers me, and I need a safe space". Hey, if all you want is NPC scripts agreeing with your ideas constantly, you might tell Twitter to stop blocking those guys.
Twitter already has the ability to block people you don't want to hear from, and to follow people you do want to hear from. People already abuse that with "block lists" to allow others to think for them, and block people pre-emptively. Seems any set of tools will devolve into
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Complaining about people not liking their ideas whilst referring to people who he disagrees with as "NPC". Trying to dehumanize people he disagrees with.
Hypocrite much?
Slashdot: Groupthink up, facts down (Score:3)
> It may work out well, if most of the community is sensible and there's impartial moderators that do their job. But I've seen the opposite happen often enough, where dissenting opinions which are factually more correct than the simplistic bullshit get 'downvoted into oblivion' while the simplistic bullshit stays on top (using standard sorting).
That's a problem on Slashdot.
Somebody will post "the boss / execs will never go to jail!" and that's instantly plus five. I point out that the boss was arrested a
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That's a problem on Slashdot. Somebody will post "the boss / execs will never go to jail!" and that's instantly plus five. I point out that the boss was arrested a few months ago and is looking at ten to twenty years, and provide a link, that gets modded to -1.
Very often what's modded up the most is the opposite of the plain facts, while a link to thr actual facts gets modded down because it doesn't fit the narrative.
And? If I post something a bit contentious, my emails show me that it gets a lot of Plus and minus votes. And some have ended up in the basement. So what? People don't have to agree with me.
Rather, it is interesting to note how some of the downvotes seem to correlate with different time zones, and the times showing who is likely awake, and who is likely not.
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>> while a link to thr actual facts gets modded down because it doesn't fit the narrative.
> If I post something a bit contentious, my emails show me that it gets a lot of Plus and minus votes. And some have ended up in the basement. So what? People don't have to agree with me.
Facts like I'm talking about aren't an opinion to agree with or disagree with.
Someone will say 'Obama never said anything like that" and it'll be voted up.
If you post "yes, Obama did say that, here's the link", with a link to
Agreed, it's one of the better systems (Score:1)
I agree, Slashdot's mod system is better than most.
Perhaps it would be helpful to have a "-1 I disagree" or "-1 fuck this guy", along with "+1 I believe this too" that are decoys - they don't actually do anything. Lol
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I agree, Slashdot's mod system is better than most.
Perhaps it would be helpful to have a "-1 I disagree" or "-1 fuck this guy", along with "+1 I believe this too" that are decoys - they don't actually do anything. Lol
I've thought along the same lines, maybe adding a -1 dafuq? and +1 Brutal.
But yes - Slashdot's mod system should be adopted by others. It isn't perfect, but I haven't seen anything better.
Re: Agreed, it's one of the better systems (Score:2)
We need a -1 Fake News AND a +1 Fake News.
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I've thought for a long time that there needs to be a Sarcasm option. I often mod Funny when I sense sarcasm, but it's not the best option, as sarcasm is usually a dry, wry, witty comment.
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Says the person on a site with a voting system
Please copy bookface (Score:4, Interesting)
It's like to be able to say 'like' or 'don't like' or 'funny', 'sad', etc, similar to what Bookface do. Add more option, don't take the option away. Learn from how your users want to use your product, don't dictate.
Re:Please copy bookface (Score:5, Insightful)
You are the product.
Exercise for the student: who are the users?
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It's not that simple. We are the product, but we are also the users. Everyone who continues to use these services gets something that they value, otherwise they stop using them and disappear.
Yes, advertisements are shown and any personal data we provide is likely to be sold in order to pay for the service. We all have free will, however, and we all decide for ourselves whether what we get out of the service is worth that exchange.
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I don't pay anything for Linux, gcc, LibreOffice, KDE, Firefox, VLC, Python, MAME, FreeBSD, Blender, Thunderbird, etc., etc.
Am I the product?
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Yes. The developers of those programs are paid in proportion to how popular the programs are. Thus your usage is what they're selling.
Some, like Firefox, also sell ads.
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Interesting point of view. Professional actors are paid in proportion to box-office draw; are they the product, or is the movie they act in the product? I get a profit-sharing bonus every year proportional to how well my company performs; am I the product, or are the items my company sells the products? A manual laborer is paid proportional to the time he spends laboring; is he the product, or are the fruits of his labor the product?
Are there any endevours in which people are not the products, in your opini
Re:Please copy bookface (Score:4, Insightful)
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What with today's censorship - mandated by the state, self-imposed, AI driven, whatever - and political correctness, perhaps it makes more sense to remove the ability to tweet, and only have buttons to like / dislike pre-approved tweets from "authorized authors"
Careful there, buddy. You're about to be inundated with the ususal BS about "it isn't censorship unless it's being done by the government."
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Simple likes do have some advantages. The fact that you can't down mod prevents a lot of trolling and control of the narrative by censorship. It forces people to post a reply instead of just modding down. You see both sides of the argument.
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Here's the problem with your idea though. It also doesn't give a barometer to how shitty a post/point/view is. So you get some feminist spouting "Kill all men" or some politician saying "Trump supporters are white hicks with no teeth(sic)." And you'll see plenty of likes, the dissenting posts will be buried(if they're not buried by bot posts/algorithm tampering), and the option to "vote down" those shitty posts which doesn't exist, really isn't showing that the person is out of their mind.
Rather it reinf
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The shit-o-meter is how many up-votes the dissenting reply gets.
Often on Twitter the best posts are replies, and you can see them as a thread with the original post and any subsequent discussion. The original poster can't bury them down down-votes.
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Often on Twitter the best posts are replies, and you can see them as a thread with the original post and any subsequent discussion. The original poster can't bury them down down-votes.
Before or after Twitter was operating the word/phrase ban? Or before or after it actually started banning bots that would automatically dump replies, then favorite it so it gets to the top of the post?
The original poster can block a person replying, and that person shows up as "unavailable" in their feed. So they can indeed bury them.
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What is this "word/phrase ban"?
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> The fact that you can't down mod prevents a lot of trolling and control of the narrative by censorship.
Bullshit.
Over in /r/minecraft it is "illegal" to discuss the history of famous minecraft servers such, as 2B2T, because one can't discuss server names. WTF??? Who knew discussing history was "illegal"! *facepalm* (I'm assuming the intent was probably to stop server spam.)
The lack of downvotes is idiotic. How do you convey that the information is mis-leading or incorrect???
Both upvotes, downvotes are
You need a "smiley face"? (Score:2)
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You need a "smiley face" to indicate that you "like" something? Are you functionally illiterate? Mentally challenged? A child under the age of 4?
Nope. Just President of the United States. :-)
[ Note the smiley face. It's a joke. Sure it hits *really* close to home, but a joke none-the-less. ]
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That's not the intent, IMO. Removing the like button will allow them to promote the tweets they want and hide their gaming of the system, because nobody will know if the tweet is actually popular.
Bingo, it removes one more aspect of user control
woah (Score:3, Interesting)
The feature was introduced in 2015 to replace "favourites," a star-shaped button that allowed people to bookmark tweets to read later.
You don't have enough time to read a tweet now, but you do have enough time to realize that you should read it later?
Re:woah (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know what any of you do with Twitter, but marking things for followup seems reasonable enough. It's not necessarily just for reading the tweet, but for the content linked in the tweet or as a reminder to revisit it later to see how the conversation has progressed or to comment yourself.
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I don't know what any of you do with Twitter, but marking things for followup seems reasonable enough. It's not necessarily just for reading the tweet, but for the content linked in the tweet or as a reminder to revisit it later to see how the conversation has progressed or to comment yourself.
That makes sense. Bookmarking a tweet just struck me as funny at first sight. (But then, I don't use twitter.)
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My only use for it is to control Cheerlights :)
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My thought exactly!
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I wouldn't, because I don't use Twitter. But if Twitter were the center of my universe, I might find it easiest to do that so that I can go and read the articles and not have to search back through my twitter feed to comment. The browser workflow would include two bookmarks - one for the content and one for the tweet.
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You are aware of twitter threads?
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Often Twitter is used as a poor man's RSS, with tweets just being links to the main article.
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The feature was introduced in 2015 to replace "favourites," a star-shaped button that allowed people to bookmark tweets to read later.
You don't have enough time to read a tweet now, but you do have enough time to realize that you should read it later?
Exactly what I was thinking. Bookmarking tweets is like collecting fortunes out of cookies to make into a book you might read later.
Besides, let's be honest; The FOMO Generation is obligated to read and/or respond right fucking now. You're some kind of loser if you're 15 minutes behind everyone else.
How can you improve the quality of debate... (Score:1)
After you've banned all the dissenting voices?
Or, as a certain ideological orientation is wont to do, are we redefining debate to mean obedient agreement?
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You have to remember, @Jack is getting a lot of heat right now. Congress is breathing down his neck, stock analysts, too. The echo chambers have lots of fake users, and there are now apps to tell how many fake followers you have and rate them.
So times are tough for him. He wants to take the steam out of his kettle. This was a messaging app without a business model, but folks like hizzoner-the-prez gives ad views lots of momentum. Eyeballs wait to see what the fearless leader of the USA will babble next.
If y
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Were only this true. Everyone can post. The preponderance of views against non-progressives is a statistical truth, rather than a case of lack of representation.
Conservatives have created conservative buckets. Those buckets include: fiscally, tea-party holdovers, alt-right, orthodox-inclined/evangelicals needing numeric strength, and many diverse, even opposing views attempting to unite around "non-progressives" as a rallying cry. Anyone can use Twitter, and so the representation argument is flawed.
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Your paranoia is not my paranoia. If you live in such fear, you should spend your time embracing what you can't control and the civility that ensues.
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Wasn't looking for paradise. Don't believe that a preponderance of users feel one way or another, although certainly some feel marginalized. Go ahead and dissent your brains out.
Your view of "socialist paradises" outs you as a Russian troll. Lots of that going around these days.
Re: How can you improve the quality of debate... (Score:2)
Oh they haven't banned ALL dissenting voices. They're quite happy to let three Democrats dissent with each other over whether refusing to sleep with transsexuals makes you transphobic, homophobic, or a literal Nazi.
"Improve Quality of Debate" (Score:1)
Let's face it, Twitter debates look like this [pics.me.me], removing a 'like' button will do little to improve the situation.
don't like (Score:3)
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Me too!
So? (Score:2)
Right. So? Does clicking a little "smiley face" or a "thumbs up" indicate something deeper than "yes", "agree", or "OK"?
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It doesn't clutter up genuine comments that are written as replies. Scrolling through 3 yesses for every real comment sounds like a terrible replacement.
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I prefer Haiku
Rather than the sonnet form
Use what you like though
Improve Quality of Debate? (Score:3)
Gimme a break. Twitter sells rage while attempting to maintain a certain agenda.
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Twits (Score:2)
Their product turned against them. (Score:5, Insightful)
false (Score:3)
The minority in every context has to face the results of peer pressure. It's subjective as to how horrific that pressure may be. You special isolated snow flakes might freak out over relatively nothing. You also might be anti-social and need that popular peer pressure to trigger EVOLVED emotions so you either adapt to function in the social group or you leave and try to survive alone (which is easy in our modern disconnected abstracted society.)
The majority power sets the guidelines... unless authoritaria
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Up/down voting can be used by bullies. And, really what is the social value of up/down voting? Why should your response to anything I saw be binary? Let's say I post a simple statement saying I like the color red. Is that something that should have a binary response? Or let's extend and say trinary because you can always not respond. Is there really value in you giving me a thumbs up or thumbs down on the liking of red. if I truly like the color red and everyone else I know gives me thumbs down is th
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The definition of bully needs work because people are using it too broadly. I've learned it by context which until recent times has always been an intimidation tactic used by the weak or lazy who at least can project a perception of power/confidence.
Pressuring somebody is normal and being assertive is good thing. Today, somebody FEELING stress from another who is merely being assertive or pushy is being labeled as bullying. The shades of gray of reality are hard to put into words (easier to use numbers in
The only winning move (Score:3)
The only winning move is not to use twitter. :)
Because it is the perfect medium for twats.
Twitter is the Sewer of the Internet (Score:4)
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>I don't use social media but have my hot take on this
Thanks. I use Twitter to follow artists and friends, and because I'm an adult I can filter out what I don't want to see. Agreed on Facebook, though.
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The sad thing is that the news media looks to Twitter to find "news", someone offended by something.
The worst possible thing that the old media has done is "let's see what people say on Twitter".
"If I am outraged enough or offended enough, maybe I get to be in the news"
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Replacement (Score:2)
Twitter is after quality shitposting. (Score:1)
who would've(off) thunk.
Twitter in a sad war with itself (Score:2)
Twitter it seems will not stop until the company is dead.
The fact is that Twitter can never reconcile that to have a popular social network, they will have to allow for people of differing views to make use of it. They keep dancing around that basic fact yet will not embrace it, even though any time they get close it leads to more users.
Debate? (Score:2)
TIL Twitter has debates.
/s (?)
improving Twitter "quality of debate" (Score:2)
I can't help but read this as increasing the rate in which people readily agree with whatever ideas their blue checkmark agitators tell them they are supposed to agree with.
Even North Korean elections aren't this disingenuous.
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Indeed. Or just enforce decent standards of discourse in the first place. Allowing 'personal opinion' posts which are horribly bigoted is a big problem, especially as platforms like Twitter tend to encourage echo chambers of people egging each other on to become more extreme, and also result in these people isolating themselves away from other viewpoints (unlike, say, going to a bar or pub and spouting off, which may result in 'corrective community action' (a fist in the face, say) being applied).
It's not a
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You do realize that you are just as much as a judgmental bully as anyone you are pointing your finger at, right?
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Don't forget the leftwing nutjobs too.
The problem of escalated tensions in discourse (I am going to side recent violence from the rightwing nutjobs, and focus on the normal communication discourse) is there no way to find who started it, and we really shouldn't care who did.
However Post WWII Victory from the US, and with the horrors of war, and horrors of the Holocaust fresh in the generations head, lead to a strong dislike of war, and a feeling of needing increased morality in relations with other people.
Re:Easiest way to improve quality of discourse (Score:5, Funny)
Don't forget the leftwing nutjobs too. I drive a Prius, I recently got cut off by a large pickup truck with a bumper sticker saying they will cut off Prius. I live in a rural areas, Pickup Trucks are common, because they are often needed for their livelihood. My Livelyhood requires me to commute 30 miles to work, so I got a car with the best gas mileage that I could afford at the time. The pickup truck driver sees Prius owners as a threat because Prius Owners has/had a tenancy to be preachy and he probably fears that if we have our way we will push him to get rid of his truck that he enjoys and uses for his livelyhood, and get the same little car that I have. Now that he was clearly targeting me, I no longer like that particular driver, but I always need to be cautious around larger pickup trucks because I know they see me as a threat. This sounds stupid, but it is a sign of our times. We see our differences a threat vs a benefit.
You need a big rear window sticker that reads, "Prius Owners for Second Amendment Solutions to Traffic Problems"
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Except for the fact I hate Bumper Stickers. Have you ever met a person who wen't. Look I changed my outlook on life because I saw that one clever bumper sticker.
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Except for the fact I hate Bumper Stickers. Have you ever met a person who wen't. Look I changed my outlook on life because I saw that one clever bumper sticker.
I hate em too. But the suggestion is to let the Truck driver with an attitude about People who drive Priuses understand that possibly killing a Prius driver or annoying them might end up with a similar result to him. Hopefully it would be a jolt that lets him know that assuming anyone who drives a Prius is not necessarily an anti gun transgender gender issue major looking to implement communism and kill the unborn demoncrat.
I had an acquaintance a few years back who drove a Prius. So far right wing he wan
Re: How then can one measure social worth. (Score:2)
Doesn't say anything about retweets going away. Essentially you can still cast your vote in support of a tweet, but you have to out yourself to your followers as having done so.
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Twitter is often not used as a simple social media platform, it's a publishing platform that enforces odd behaviour in terms of limited tweet sizes, threads of tweets, and so on.
Pretty much this. Twitter is a publishing platform for already famous people to stroke their egos by posting short quips of drivel, and every response is either circle-jerking over it or yelling into a void.