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Twitter Is Relaunching the Reverse-Chronological Feed (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the live-in-the-present dept.

Twitter is introducing a new toggle in the app to allow users to switch from the ranked timeline to the original, reverse-chronological feed. "The company says the move comes in recognition of the fact that Twitter is often most useful in real time, particularly during live events such as sports games or the Oscars," reports The Verge. From the report: The latest incarnation of the original Twitter feed can be accessed by tapping the cluster of small stars -- the company calls it the "sparkle" and now so shall we all, forever -- and switching to see the latest tweets. Over time, the company will learn your behavior. If you routinely switch to the latest tweets, Twitter will default you to them. This marks a change from the past, when the app would switch you back to the ranked timeline at unpredictable intervals.

35 comments

  1. Unbelievable by DFurno2003 · · Score: 1

    "The company says the move comes in recognition of the fact that Twitter is often most useful in real time"

    It's almost as if they hired somebody with a little bit of sense.

    How could it take this long to realize, and when will Facebook do the same?

    1. Re:Unbelievable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All of that money from people willing to pay for promoted content was making their vision a little fuzzy. Now that there are multiple large platforms where this model is *deeply* unpopular, they are probably sort of scared about eventual user backlash and abandonment, or they've come up with an alternative monetization model.

    2. Re:Unbelievable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are already being abandoned by users due to political dumbassery on Twitter's part and people actually maturing to realize that the character limit regresses their IQ and EQ in both terms of thought-method habits and discussion ability, so this is probably an attempt at getting some back.
      Well the hole has been already made and an alternative is already picking up pace, as healthy competition should always exist.

    3. Re:Unbelievable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since they started locking accounts due to "suspicious activity" even without anyone doing anything as a tactic to extort phone numbers, similar to what Yandex is doing in all irony, they've pretty much started losing shitloads of users. Anyone with a brain who isn't underage avoids giving out numbers in the day and age of moronism like security being left in charge of purple hair "interaction engineers" and music school graduates, and the age of phone advertising becoming worse and worse. Especially since phone authentication has been proven to only make security worse as a measure, time and time again, by only introducing more loopholes to hack and steal accounts and adding new social engineering levels to the equation.
      As far as e-mails go, tutamail and protonmail and similar are now eating up increasing chunks of the general Internet userbase while gmail and yahoo and yandex are losing.
      Now it's time for Twitter to experience the same.

  2. Too late. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Deleted my account already.

  3. Fed up! by deltaromeo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >> Over time, the company will learn your behavior. If you routinely switch to the latest tweets, Twitter will default you to them.

    I'm fed up of these algorithms trying to guess what I want. Just implement a setting and I will decide!

    1. Re: Fed up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How the hell is this available exactly? Did this innovation just inexplicably slip through everybodyâ(TM)s hands?

    2. Re:Fed up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So the only way to make this the default setting is to manually switch to it a hundred times until eventually it sticks? Fucking lol.

      Also, the goal isn't to guess what you want, it's to *change* what you want by algorithmically manipulating what you see. For example you might not respond to constant, obtrusive "VOTE FOR ___" ads, but making Pro-___ users more visible to you than Anti-___ users will alter your own views long term. Forcing a chronological feed defeats this, and so will be made more difficult and eventually eliminated once the userbase can be conditioned to accept it.

    3. Re:Fed up! by drafalski · · Score: 1

      Also, the goal isn't to guess what you want, it's to *change* what you want by algorithmically manipulating what you see.

      When they switched notifications to not just be when someone actually replied/liked one of my tweets but to include notifying me of posts I might like and missed, I stopped looking at their notifications at all.

      Maybe they will fix that next?

    4. Re:Fed up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      just use a different app. Twidere can be set to show you a chronological timeline. You can also set it so you read from the bottom up.

  4. Get rid of it by ArchieBunker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can make a sane argument that the world is better off without Twitter.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Get rid of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're well past sane arguments, my friend. A notorious Twitter troll was elected the goddamned President of the United States and all it did was make people sue to prevent him from blocking them.

      I fear there is no hope for the human race.

  5. Cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Now do something about the Nazis

    1. Re: Cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoiler alert: the Allies defeat them.

  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Re: I checked out a IT closet cleaner's Twitter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WTF is wrong with half the planet?

  8. You don’t need to learn anything. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don’t need to learn a fucking thing. I’m fucking telling you just give me it in chronological order.

    1. Re: You don’t need to learn anything. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This.

      I cannot stand services trying to predict my behavior.

      I want a robot that does a job perfectly, and I will tell it how to act.

      This cuts down on a service "learning me" because I already know me.

  9. Newest first, always by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is it so hard for tech sites to understand this? Stop trying to predict what I want to see. You are always wrong.

    1. Re:Newest first, always by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because they aren't tech companies. They are all snooping interceptors designed to fill "data lakes" to be used by oligarchs to optimize their enslavement of all of humanity.

  10. life is complete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0



    U tot U . SAWN on SAWN . GLOTTAL us are `JCT on JCT on JCT .
    U `U `U `U . SF `U . SF tot U us are tot JCT on JCT on JCT .
    U `U `U `U `U U `U `U U tot U us are tot JCT on JCT on JCT .
    U `U `U `U U `U `U U `U tot U us are ; `^ U ; `^ U ; `^ U on
    U `U `U `SF . U `SF . U tot U us are `us are `us are `us are
    U `U `U `U on U `U on U tot U us are tot JCT on JCT on JCT .
    -SF SF on SAWN on SAWN ; `^ U us are tot JCT on JCT on JCT .

  11. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  12. Meanwhile in the upper Leftycuck Twitter echelon.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Sent His Beard Hair to a Rapper Who Does Witchcraft to Protect Him From ISIS

  13. Satan take the wheel by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is there any way I can set Twitter to just give me President Trump's tweets? I want to shoot that shit straight into my veins.

    I'm starting to love that crazy old fucker, and part of me will be sad when he's gone. Probably in a couple of weeks, the way he's going.

    He and I have a lot in common, you know. I am to Slashdot what Trump is to Twitter. That's how beloved I am. I'm inclined to wake up in the middle of the night and post all kinds of incoherent shit. Also, I sometimes wake up in a urine-soaked bed, except instead of high-class Russian hookers I have to figure out if it was me or my eight year-old cat.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re: Satan take the wheel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "B-b-but Trump will be impeached this week!" says increasingly nervous and incorrect tranny for the 7th time this month.

    2. Re: Satan take the wheel by stinerman · · Score: 1

      Trump could rape a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl on live TV while burning an American flag and he wouldn't be removed from office.

    3. Re: Satan take the wheel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He could. However he's seen Muslims doing that shit in the cucked part of Europe and since he doesn't like them much he decided he wouldn't replicate their behavior.

    4. Re: Satan take the wheel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      his approval rating would go up

  14. Twitter is Cancer by supercell · · Score: 1

    That is all.

  15. twitter is retarded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i got banned for use of word retarded when someone i was defending from a troll the troll acted retarded so i called them that...got service back posted a FUCKING IMAGE I MADE and they banned me for whatever...im done with the idiots , its too unreliable.

  16. Wildfire coverage by istartedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The utility of chronological vs. their algorithm was very obvious when it came to wildfire coverage. In what world is a story from day 1 of an ongoing wildfire more relevant than anything from today when we're on day 4? Apparently, in the world of their algorithm.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:Wildfire coverage by nashv · · Score: 1

      For all "ïntensive" purposes? Did you mean "intents and purposes" ?

      --
      Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
    2. Re:Wildfire coverage by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      I thought he meant "all intensive porpoises".

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  17. Twitter is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This service is on the fast track out of relevancy...it is a censorship platform for giving out cookies

    Nothing consistent. Nothing logical. Nothing good or free.