[pteredactyl]

The idea is I have a timeline and am able to choose what's on it. Good, bad, ugly. It's up to me. If I don't like what someone's saying I unfollow, mute or block. Easy.

With Twitter, FB, and modern social media, they let their algorithm decide what I should see. They think they know what people want and ultimately what's best for me. I disagree with this so I opt-out of their services. Sadly. Because there are ( or were ) a lot of interesting and novel voices on there.

Also, I suppose at a certain point those 3XXX employees need to justify their existence.

And yes it's their prerogative to do whatever they want with their product. And yes I know private companies are not bound by the 1st Amendment.

[xnxn]

> Easy.

If you're spectating, maybe. Completely falls apart when you try to engage in dialogue on Twitter, which is what both Twitter, Inc. and I want.

Say I follow someone because I like what they say. And I want to discuss what they're saying, or to explore existing discussions. I'm going into this ready to have a thoughtful debate or two.

So I open the replies, and they're what I consider to be garbage: flamewars, reaction GIFs, propaganda, straight-up bad-faith trolling, and worse. But maybe there's some good in here somewhere?

Assume I'm a typical human with emotions and stuff. Do I:

A) Immediately close the thread! It's not worth it, and I have the ability and willpower to bow out.

B) Scroll through the replies, muting and blocking people. Maybe if I do this enough I'll have a nicer experience on the next thread I open. Wow there sure are a lot of these folks!

C) Take the bait. Someone is wrong on the internet.

You know already, but I'll tell you anyway. I, typical human, tend to rush headlong into option C), which wastes my time, makes me unhappy, and gives me a negative perception of the quality of discussions on Twitter. Twitter, Inc. doesn't want that either, but they've picked these replies to show me. Clearly they don't know what kind of thing I think is garbage. So what can they do?

It's not easy.

[pteredactyl]

Replies with the most upvotes are at the top. That generally filters out the BS. There is a date posted versus upvote count balance that needs to be reached, but ML is not required.

And this all assumes you're trying to have conversation around someone with many many followers. If you're in a small circle, none of your argument applies.

Further posts by the original poster are at the top too.

Yes, you may have to filter through some posts on your own. If you plan on having a conversation with Obama, good luck. And for good reason.

But I don't want Twitter Inc filtering for me. Essentially upvoting and downvoting comments based on their algorithm. Sorry.

At least give users the choice to use their ML algorithm or not. I'd even pay to have it turned off or to tweak how I see my timeline.

So I don't follow.

[nl]

If you're in a small circle, none of your argument applies.

Try being a woman or Jewish and have a conversation on Twitter about - say - gaming.