ShitbombAnon
Registered Member
I know this is a very unusual thread but if you've been reading the news, Twitter has implemented a rate limit feature that will limit your account to seeing only a select number of posts per day. This has also broken links to Twitter accounts as well as tweets. But this is one of many changes in a long line of screw ups for Twitter that spans back to its launch in 2006. If you don't know, let me explain.
Twitter is one of those sites that just seems to know how to screw up big time no matter if it's siding with people who go against the terms of service, report systems that look like they were run by bots, or cancel culture, but I think we need to go way back. Back to 2006 when the internet was 23 years old and was slowly transitioning into the modern monolith that we know it as today.
Twitter was founded in 2006 by Odeo (a podcasting company) board members Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, and New York University dropout Jack Dorsey though the site's idea originated from one of Odeo's board room brainstorming sessions. Jack Dorsey was the one who originally pitched the idea to Stone, Williams, and Glass as a small SMS service to communicate with a small group inspired by LiveJournal, Flickr, and AOL Instant Messenger. Dorsey at the time had experience in developing dispatch routing software for couriers, taxis, and emergency services which he got interested in at the age of 14. Fun fact, while studying at NYU in 1997, Jack Dorsey also hacked into the email servers of a New York based courier delivery service called Dispatch Management Services. Twitter's original codename was "twttr" which was given because the twitter.com domain was already in use at that time. On Twitter's launch on March 21st, 2006, Dorsey was also the first person to post a tweet on Twitter saying "just setting up my twttr". 6 months later, Twttr would be renamed from Twttr to Twitter as they had purchased the domain. Twitter would also be spun off from Odeo (which was renamed to Obvious Corporation in 2006) in 2007.
In 2007, Twitter would gain mainstream attention as they appeared at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas. In the weekend of the convention, Twitter usage would increase from 20,000 posts per day to 60,000 and would exclusively stream Twitter messages in the hallways of the venue on two 60-inch plasma screens. Newsweek's Stephen Levy stated on his comments about Twitter at SXSW that "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it." Twitter would also receive the the convention's Web Award prize with the remark "we'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!" In 2009, Twitter won the "Breakout of the Year" Webby award. Later on, the site was named the "Word of the year" by the Global Language Monitor. The site would also be ranked as the third-highest-ranking social media site in the same year by Compete.com and by 2010, Twitter users were sending over 50 million posts daily. Twitter usage would also spike for major events like the NBA Finals, Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, Olympics, E3, NHL Playoffs, pay-per-view events, film and TV show premieres, and many more. On June 25th, 2009, Twitter's servers crashed after pop star Michael Jackson died after users were updating their status to include "Michael Jackson" at a rate of 100,000 tweets per hour.
In 2010, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey would also partner up with Jim McKelvey to create the Square card reader which made it easier for small businesses to do business transactions via. credit cards. The reader would plug into the headphone jack of a device. Square would send out the reader for free, then like most card processing companies, would take a cut of every transaction using the device. That being 2.75% + 15 cents with no complex contracts or additional fees. That was it. Another plus for the Square card reader was that it was also sold at regular stores like Target, Walmart, Sears, Kmart, etc. but also at specialty stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy, RadioShack, Office Depot, and Staples as well as the usual online retailers at the time like Ebay, Newegg, and Amazon.
Breaking Records
During the fall of 2010, Twitter would begin rolling out a revamped version of Twitter that would allow users to see images and videos without leaving Twitter itself as well as shifting links such as mentions and retweets while the messages and log out tab became accessible via. a black bar on the top side of the screen. NASA would also coin the term "tweetups" which first started with the first unassisted off-Earth Twitter post on January 22nd of the same year aboard the International Space Station. Tweetups were essentially VIP AMA/Q&A sessions that gave guests access to facilities and speakers as well as interacting with various NASA members. Tweetups would eventually be adopted by other businesses as a form of advertising. Another record would be broken on August 2nd, 2013 when the anime movie "Castle in the Sky" would air on Japanese TV. Fans simultaneously tweeted the word "balse", which was the incantation for the destruction spell used in the climax of the movie, and would become the most tweeted moment in Twitter's history garnering 143,199 tweets in one second.
Twitter's userbase would increase dramatically in the 2010s and as this userbase increased, there was bound to be trouble. Politics discussion would increase during the 2016 US Presidential Election when Donald Trump won the presidency with former first lady and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton being the runner up in the election. Twitter would become a breeding ground for harassment, misnformation, as well as the rise of cancel culture. Twitter cracked down on this by banning accounts belonging to extremist group members as well as cracking down on accounts belonging to hackers. Though this often didn't work as the Twitter report system is extremely faulty. So much so that accounts exploited this report system to flood Twitter with reports that they would have no choice but to ban the user on the receiving end. Accounts like the ThreatSlayer and ThreatDestroyer accounts would be notorious for antics like this. The OurMine hacker group would also break into various Twitter accounts using backdoors and vulnerabilities in Twitter's coding. Twitter would also be used to organize protests like the 2019 Hong Kong protests as well as protests for other political movements such as BLM, QAnon, Antifa, Proud Boys, and Extinction Rebellion. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many businesses to halt their in person operations or limit them in compliance with quarantine mandates. This, coupled by the chaos of 2020 would also result in intense competition by alternative platforms as a result of censorship by Twitter and the result of them banning various accounts. Platforms like Parler, Mastodon, Gab, and TruthSocial would also spring up in 2021 and 2022 after several notable users were banned from Twitter. On October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, X Corp., The Boring Company, and SolarCity would buy Twitter and absorb it into X Corp. This would also see the return of several notable users who have been unbanned after the acquisition. Twitter would make several changes including adding a subscription service called "Twitter Blue" in which users could access exclusive features for $8 per month. This was heavily exploited by trolls and impersonators looking to get some extra clout. Twitter would also implement livestreaming features like "Twitter Spaces" during this time.
As much as people would want to criticize Twitter, what a lot of people know is that Twitter has become one of the most influential websites on the internet as it has integrated itself into the course of history for a decade and will continue to do so for years to come. I don't know what the future of Twitter will bring but what I could expect amidst the current controversy is either it gets sold again or it closes down due to Elon Musk's incompetence. Just wanted to make this thread because of the controversy on Twitter so you guys can discuss it here. Also I know I'm a few days late. Anyways, peace out and take it easy.
Twitter is one of those sites that just seems to know how to screw up big time no matter if it's siding with people who go against the terms of service, report systems that look like they were run by bots, or cancel culture, but I think we need to go way back. Back to 2006 when the internet was 23 years old and was slowly transitioning into the modern monolith that we know it as today.
The Hatching of the Bird
Twitter was founded in 2006 by Odeo (a podcasting company) board members Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, and New York University dropout Jack Dorsey though the site's idea originated from one of Odeo's board room brainstorming sessions. Jack Dorsey was the one who originally pitched the idea to Stone, Williams, and Glass as a small SMS service to communicate with a small group inspired by LiveJournal, Flickr, and AOL Instant Messenger. Dorsey at the time had experience in developing dispatch routing software for couriers, taxis, and emergency services which he got interested in at the age of 14. Fun fact, while studying at NYU in 1997, Jack Dorsey also hacked into the email servers of a New York based courier delivery service called Dispatch Management Services. Twitter's original codename was "twttr" which was given because the twitter.com domain was already in use at that time. On Twitter's launch on March 21st, 2006, Dorsey was also the first person to post a tweet on Twitter saying "just setting up my twttr". 6 months later, Twttr would be renamed from Twttr to Twitter as they had purchased the domain. Twitter would also be spun off from Odeo (which was renamed to Obvious Corporation in 2006) in 2007.
The First Flight
In 2007, Twitter would gain mainstream attention as they appeared at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas. In the weekend of the convention, Twitter usage would increase from 20,000 posts per day to 60,000 and would exclusively stream Twitter messages in the hallways of the venue on two 60-inch plasma screens. Newsweek's Stephen Levy stated on his comments about Twitter at SXSW that "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it." Twitter would also receive the the convention's Web Award prize with the remark "we'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!" In 2009, Twitter won the "Breakout of the Year" Webby award. Later on, the site was named the "Word of the year" by the Global Language Monitor. The site would also be ranked as the third-highest-ranking social media site in the same year by Compete.com and by 2010, Twitter users were sending over 50 million posts daily. Twitter usage would also spike for major events like the NBA Finals, Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, Olympics, E3, NHL Playoffs, pay-per-view events, film and TV show premieres, and many more. On June 25th, 2009, Twitter's servers crashed after pop star Michael Jackson died after users were updating their status to include "Michael Jackson" at a rate of 100,000 tweets per hour.
Branching Out
In 2010, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey would also partner up with Jim McKelvey to create the Square card reader which made it easier for small businesses to do business transactions via. credit cards. The reader would plug into the headphone jack of a device. Square would send out the reader for free, then like most card processing companies, would take a cut of every transaction using the device. That being 2.75% + 15 cents with no complex contracts or additional fees. That was it. Another plus for the Square card reader was that it was also sold at regular stores like Target, Walmart, Sears, Kmart, etc. but also at specialty stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy, RadioShack, Office Depot, and Staples as well as the usual online retailers at the time like Ebay, Newegg, and Amazon.
Breaking Records
During the fall of 2010, Twitter would begin rolling out a revamped version of Twitter that would allow users to see images and videos without leaving Twitter itself as well as shifting links such as mentions and retweets while the messages and log out tab became accessible via. a black bar on the top side of the screen. NASA would also coin the term "tweetups" which first started with the first unassisted off-Earth Twitter post on January 22nd of the same year aboard the International Space Station. Tweetups were essentially VIP AMA/Q&A sessions that gave guests access to facilities and speakers as well as interacting with various NASA members. Tweetups would eventually be adopted by other businesses as a form of advertising. Another record would be broken on August 2nd, 2013 when the anime movie "Castle in the Sky" would air on Japanese TV. Fans simultaneously tweeted the word "balse", which was the incantation for the destruction spell used in the climax of the movie, and would become the most tweeted moment in Twitter's history garnering 143,199 tweets in one second.
Troubled Times Ahead
Twitter's userbase would increase dramatically in the 2010s and as this userbase increased, there was bound to be trouble. Politics discussion would increase during the 2016 US Presidential Election when Donald Trump won the presidency with former first lady and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton being the runner up in the election. Twitter would become a breeding ground for harassment, misnformation, as well as the rise of cancel culture. Twitter cracked down on this by banning accounts belonging to extremist group members as well as cracking down on accounts belonging to hackers. Though this often didn't work as the Twitter report system is extremely faulty. So much so that accounts exploited this report system to flood Twitter with reports that they would have no choice but to ban the user on the receiving end. Accounts like the ThreatSlayer and ThreatDestroyer accounts would be notorious for antics like this. The OurMine hacker group would also break into various Twitter accounts using backdoors and vulnerabilities in Twitter's coding. Twitter would also be used to organize protests like the 2019 Hong Kong protests as well as protests for other political movements such as BLM, QAnon, Antifa, Proud Boys, and Extinction Rebellion. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many businesses to halt their in person operations or limit them in compliance with quarantine mandates. This, coupled by the chaos of 2020 would also result in intense competition by alternative platforms as a result of censorship by Twitter and the result of them banning various accounts. Platforms like Parler, Mastodon, Gab, and TruthSocial would also spring up in 2021 and 2022 after several notable users were banned from Twitter. On October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, X Corp., The Boring Company, and SolarCity would buy Twitter and absorb it into X Corp. This would also see the return of several notable users who have been unbanned after the acquisition. Twitter would make several changes including adding a subscription service called "Twitter Blue" in which users could access exclusive features for $8 per month. This was heavily exploited by trolls and impersonators looking to get some extra clout. Twitter would also implement livestreaming features like "Twitter Spaces" during this time.
Conclusion and Questioning The Future of Twitter
As much as people would want to criticize Twitter, what a lot of people know is that Twitter has become one of the most influential websites on the internet as it has integrated itself into the course of history for a decade and will continue to do so for years to come. I don't know what the future of Twitter will bring but what I could expect amidst the current controversy is either it gets sold again or it closes down due to Elon Musk's incompetence. Just wanted to make this thread because of the controversy on Twitter so you guys can discuss it here. Also I know I'm a few days late. Anyways, peace out and take it easy.
