Recent decisions made by Twitter are all about optimizing the site for advertising revenues.
I don't think Twitter has any other choice because they chose the free path from the start. I highly doubt Twitter would suddenly switch to a premium/freemium model.
While Twitter has empowered revolutions, I think the quality of the community has degraded though.
I believe that if people pay for being part of a community, people would care to improve its quality. If something is free, people just won't take care of it.
> Recent decisions made by Twitter are all about optimizing the site for advertising revenues.
Sure, well, lets all hope that app.net will not run out of subscription fees. My take is that in a situation where IF this gets more popular and costs to sustain its life-pulse will grow, its plausible Dalton will have to choose between #1 shutting it down if not enough money flows in (and piss off all who still want to contribute and don't care that others won't pay), or #2 find a different way of bringing the money in. Let's hope its nor advertising.
> If something is free, people just won't take care of it.
Sure, that's why the Hackers News group is built upon 99% bots and is constantly filled in with spammers and haters. That's why every day you have high quality content uploaded to YouTube, for free to watch.
People don't care whether something is free or not; people care whether that something brings them any value, then they look at the price, whether they can afford it or not.
On Twitter, you make your own community, right? Most people who have your problem would unfollow people instead of paying $50/year to have conversations with a small portion of their Twitter audience.
I really don't get this "quality of the community" has degraded argument. I hear the same about Facebook.
If the quality is degrading it's because of YOUR friends and YOUR choices about who to follow. Other people including myself simply hide posts or unfollow when the SNR becomes too low.
I don't think Twitter has any other choice because they chose the free path from the start. I highly doubt Twitter would suddenly switch to a premium/freemium model.
While Twitter has empowered revolutions, I think the quality of the community has degraded though.
I believe that if people pay for being part of a community, people would care to improve its quality. If something is free, people just won't take care of it.