[andrewla]

I think the walled garden is a flawed metaphor.

I would argue for Twitter over a spotty collection of RSS feeds just because there's ironically more of a democratic aspect -- anyone can start tweeting about whatever. They can go viral and disappear, they can gradually build an audience, etc. They can interact with followers or reply guys or stay aloof; they can recommend content and become a mini content aggregator in their own right. People can be anonymous or they can use their real world cachet to build a following.

Accomplishing the same thing via publishing an RSS feed is a daunting task -- you need to build an RSS feed somewhere, you can't interact with others or be easily boosted by bigger accounts to start to gain a following.

The "walled" aspect of this is basically the limitations of what the platform will allow, which especially under the Musk regime is a good balance of only very light touches of moderation.

People talk about the feed and the algorithm, but no two people have the same feed; the accounts you choose to follow will determine what your feed looks like, together with some generally popular content.

[janalsncm]

A lot of people don’t like the pay to play aspects of Twitter. EM also boosts his own tweets which is the ultimate pay to play.

If you’re talking about the “following” feed that is also an “algorithm” albeit a simple one. But with injected ads it seems strictly worse than RSS.

[andrewla]

My only response to this is that I don't like the even-more-pay-to-play aspects of RSS. To even up an RSS feed requires a commitment that is an effective bar for 99% of individuals that would be interested in participating in public discourse.

The "for you" feed is less transparent in its nature than the "following" feed, but is still extremely customized. I do see content from accounts that I don't follow, but the vast majority is from accounts that I do follow (or that I can reasonably believe were liked by accounts I follow, though that interaction is more hidden now).

I do wish there was a simpler way of "unliking" or "downprioritizing" a post or an account short of blocking/muting. You can do the "see less of this content" but it feels too subtle; I don't know what the actual effect of this is.