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Comment by krapp | Hacker News Reader

A lot of people really care about Twitter. It's the nexus of communication for a lot of marginalized groups. Game development, art and a lot of other independent, entrepreneurial and hobbyist communities network through Twitter. A lot of interesting feeds show content there that isn't centralized anywhere else on the web.

I get being cynical about social media but let's actually maybe care about the baby getting thrown out with the bathwater. Twitter is more than just journalists and political shitposting.

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< It's the nexus of communication for a lot of marginalized groups.

Huh, my impression is that it was used mostly by the ultra privileged elites. Celebrities, wannabe celebrities, politicians, authors, "journalists", marketing executives, and such. I've never met a regular person that touches Twitter.

Twitter had a bunch of people employed to sell Twitter to exactly these cohorts, including the journalists (or their publications)

While I, personally, have never paid much attention to Twitter, I'm friends and acquaintances with a lot of people for whom it has been a lifeline—mostly queer people, people of color, and, indeed, other marginalized groups.

What would make Twitter the place to be for them as opposed to subreddits, Facebook groups, old school forums, and all the other things that exist?

I'm not entirely sure—since, as I said, I don't use Twitter. My main guess, however, is that it's broadcast.

Those other places you have to go looking for. If you're on Twitter, and already following some people within your groups, you're likely to see them retweet other people in the group, and over time build out your network that way. I would presume the algorithm will also notice your preference for such accounts, and recommend others, but without personal experience with the Twitter algorithm, that's also just a guess.

To be fair, that clearly represents a bubble viewpoint of its own and it shows you don't use Twitter. You also may find that a lot of people in your real world social circle do use Twitter but don't publicise it, because they're using aliases and it's not exactly something you mention in most company.

My feed has consistently been full of interesting people doing real things, not those you listed with the exception of authors.

I tried to follow a number of prominent scientists, people doing programming language research, and various other technical topics to experience what you describe. Almost every single one of the people I followed devolved into commenting on politics and niche social issues more so than the technical topics I followed them for, so I gave up. There were only a handful of exceptions like one person that makes commentary about niche literature I enjoy. The format and culture of Twitter seem to inherently discourage thoughtful discussion and amplify politics, rage, and zingers/gotchas.

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