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I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter: While I love having access to interesting articles, journalists, and famous people, I hate how the algorithm skews towards negativity and horrible design.
I wish someone smarter than me would just fix it. How hard could it be to borrow from other platforms and incorporate some of their unique features?
Thankfully, I was excited to hear that AI scientist and podcast host Lex Fridman announce that he is creating a “Better Twitter.” While he hasn’t released any details about this new project, he may be the right person for the job. Here are my suggestions for Lex:
Allow verified and anonymous registration.
Better Twitter could encourage users to provide their real name and some identification in return for verification and the ability to monetize (see below). This will ensure some accountability when posting and keep the trolls at bay. Anonymous users could still use the platform, but with some limitations.
Only allow replies from verified users.
Verified users can post comments, chat, and engage. Anonymous users can do the same, except not on verified accounts. Trolls can only comment on troll posts, verified users can comment everywhere.
Two types of posts: Short and Long.
Posts can be the traditional 280 characters or longer blog posts, with a short preview. This will eliminate the unreadable “tweetstorms” which need to be crafted outside of Twitter then cut and pasted in reverse.
Nested, sortable comments directly below posts.
Reading Twitter replies and trying to determine where a conversation thread started, is arguably the worst part of the current user experience. Better Twitter should borrow heavily from Facebook Page commenting: Nested comments that are accessible with one click and easily sortable by time posted, most popular, etc. No need to reinvent the wheel here.
Fix monetization by allowing tipping.
All users would have the option to fund their accounts directly and reward posts they like with micropayments, also known as tipping. This would be similar to how Medium.com pays its writers, without requiring a monthly subscription. Verified users could monetize all of their content, short and long. The platform could process payments and take a small percentage of the tips. This would replace the need to sell advertising.
Allow users to control the algorithm with a “tolerance” setting.
Why not allow users to set their personal tolerance level for controversy? A simple sliding scale setting, balanced between positivity and negativity. The algorithm determines the general “tone” of a post or conversation and displays posts based on your preferred tolerance setting.
Lex Friedman, if you are reading this, please feel free to steal all these ideas. All I ask in return is the bettertwitter.com/chris username.
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