Instapundit to Twitter: Drop Dead

Glenn Reynolds is not staying where he isn’t wanted. For all the same reasons that Sebastian pulled the plug here.

Twitter seemed to be much more about filling the niche of an RSS feed than a peer to peer content network. And Facebook is just as good for keeping up with commercial content (and somewhat better because it doesn’t have the message size restrictions, it has publishable calendars and native media storage).

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9 thoughts on “Instapundit to Twitter: Drop Dead”

  2. I really like and still use RSS, which is a great technology. It’s not as easy to monetize as the personal data generated by Twitter or Facebook, so that’s why there aren’t any really big players using the technology anymore (and why Google let Reader stagnate then killed it).

    Generally speaking, I’m skeptical about social media platforms as forums for free speech. The business models seem to point to incentives to clamping down on “incorrect” views or statements that could make investment unattractive. That’s not an environment where honest debate can happen, especially if the prevailing public opinion needs to be challenged with uncomfortable realities.

    1. Social media is miles better than TV and newspaper as a platform for free speech.

      OTOH, Twitter isn’t as “sticky” as Twitter. Twitter doesn’t have 10 years of my cat pictures, for example. (Facebook isn’t the exclusive repository of those, either, mind you). From that point of view, I can’t imagine what Twitter has been thinking in pissing people off by heavyhanded censorship.

      1. I think you meant to say: “OTOH, Twitter isn’t as “sticky” as Facebook.”

    2. So ignoring political bias (which is real), these platforms can only be as free as their advertisers let them be. Proctor Gamble is not going to pay a company to place their ads on a puppy-kickers FaceTwit page. Social Media is one big billboard, and those rules apply.

      Blogs are more free, because at least their curators have the option of ad control. When everyone bailed for the “free” social media centers, RSS, blogs and forums withered.

      I’ve always avoided FaceTwit and the like, so would be more than happy to see blogs pick up where they leave off.

      1. Blogs have a terrible discoverability problem, and they also have terrible usability. And anything that aspires towards the discoverability and usability of Facebook will have all the limitations of Facebook. My in-laws can use Facebook, because all the “work” is done for them. They’re not going to set up a blog, certainly not at the “Self-hosted, self-maintained” level you need to have to be free of advertiser influence.

        At that point, network effects matter.

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