I agree that Twitter is the closest thing we have to an open commenting system so far. But it's still pretty far from could be. It's not open at all. It's controlled by a centralized company which manages an API which was recently shut off to 3rd parties with no warning: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/20/twitter-bans-third-party-apps/
I agree that Twitter is the closest thing we have to an open commenting system so far. But it's still pretty far from could be. It's not open at all. It's controlled by a centralized company which manages an API which was recently shut off to 3rd parties with no warning: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/20/twitter-bans-third-party-apps/
Instead of relying on users to use sophisticated search/filters we should be able to just use the web and get the information assembled in custom ways we want.
Definitely not arguing that Twitter is the best solution here or the right kind of open. By "open" I meant free for anyone to use in any form. Ultimately, centralized + low activation energy will win over decentralized + high activation energy.
The ingredients have existed when Twitter had an open API or even Disqus. My guess about a commenting system is that it is missing an audience you have ties to, and hence all the commenting activity goes to where that audience is. Perhaps a Twitter-clone on nostr might be the right middle ground solution.
Yes, users shouldn't have to search+filter themselves: was suggesting website owners could do the search+filter on top of another social network if this commenting activity already exists there.
yeah, that makes sense. I think we basically see this the same way. But the main reason I think there's opportunity is all the new ways you could filter the information to make it more useful now. Maybe it can encourage new applications/clients and more open experimentation around how/when/what-context it published back to the global feed and/or how it might be consumed on a global feed. So many degrees of flexibility... I don't have the specific winning proposal in mind, but I'm optimistic it can be done.
Yeah — it opens up a very interesting design space.
Where we might disagree is the feasibility of applications that are really appendages to a common feed : comments, reviews, etc. Something that aggregates attention / engagement / status / various incentives is quickly going to attract all such activity, whether centralized or decentralized.
the appendages to common feeds should work differently here. since it’s not the centralized application maker’s decision about what to share/show. new structures/consumption interfaces allow for a lot of ways to rethink how data flows and where it shows up. the tweet you shared seems to be describing how fitting subordinate features into a centralized app would suffer from discoverability/understanding. but we’re talking about something different here: other primary surfaces composed of data assembled based on other activities from other apps. really have to restructure assumptions around these new primitives.
we haven't seen a good foundation for this kind of experimentation in decentralized publishing before now so we don't have a lot of example to point to w.r.t. this change. but new primitives happen all the time and then we just get used to them and forget they were new/awkward at an earlier time. e.g. disappearing photos/"stories" in social networking totally broke all previous assumptions about curating your profile, storehouse for your memories, showing off your best self. but now that we've had it for years it just seems obvious.
it's a tale-as-old-as-time in technology. problem is, once we've broken those old assumptions with a new/better way and new habits we almost always forgot how the old way worked.
e.g. there was a time when eBay appeared like a real threat to Google. there was a time when Blockbuster seemed like a real threat to Netflix
I agree that Twitter is the closest thing we have to an open commenting system so far. But it's still pretty far from could be. It's not open at all. It's controlled by a centralized company which manages an API which was recently shut off to 3rd parties with no warning: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/20/twitter-bans-third-party-apps/
Instead of relying on users to use sophisticated search/filters we should be able to just use the web and get the information assembled in custom ways we want.
Definitely not arguing that Twitter is the best solution here or the right kind of open. By "open" I meant free for anyone to use in any form. Ultimately, centralized + low activation energy will win over decentralized + high activation energy.
The ingredients have existed when Twitter had an open API or even Disqus. My guess about a commenting system is that it is missing an audience you have ties to, and hence all the commenting activity goes to where that audience is. Perhaps a Twitter-clone on nostr might be the right middle ground solution.
Yes, users shouldn't have to search+filter themselves: was suggesting website owners could do the search+filter on top of another social network if this commenting activity already exists there.
yeah, that makes sense. I think we basically see this the same way. But the main reason I think there's opportunity is all the new ways you could filter the information to make it more useful now. Maybe it can encourage new applications/clients and more open experimentation around how/when/what-context it published back to the global feed and/or how it might be consumed on a global feed. So many degrees of flexibility... I don't have the specific winning proposal in mind, but I'm optimistic it can be done.
Yeah — it opens up a very interesting design space.
Where we might disagree is the feasibility of applications that are really appendages to a common feed : comments, reviews, etc. Something that aggregates attention / engagement / status / various incentives is quickly going to attract all such activity, whether centralized or decentralized.
Fragmentation doesn't work. Nikita said it well here: https://twitter.com/nikitabier/status/1618294904538685446
the appendages to common feeds should work differently here. since it’s not the centralized application maker’s decision about what to share/show. new structures/consumption interfaces allow for a lot of ways to rethink how data flows and where it shows up. the tweet you shared seems to be describing how fitting subordinate features into a centralized app would suffer from discoverability/understanding. but we’re talking about something different here: other primary surfaces composed of data assembled based on other activities from other apps. really have to restructure assumptions around these new primitives.
Aye, that's the dream! Curious if you've seen any early examples of breaking old assumptions / new primitives being applied in the social space?
we haven't seen a good foundation for this kind of experimentation in decentralized publishing before now so we don't have a lot of example to point to w.r.t. this change. but new primitives happen all the time and then we just get used to them and forget they were new/awkward at an earlier time. e.g. disappearing photos/"stories" in social networking totally broke all previous assumptions about curating your profile, storehouse for your memories, showing off your best self. but now that we've had it for years it just seems obvious.
it's a tale-as-old-as-time in technology. problem is, once we've broken those old assumptions with a new/better way and new habits we almost always forgot how the old way worked.
e.g. there was a time when eBay appeared like a real threat to Google. there was a time when Blockbuster seemed like a real threat to Netflix