matthewr
spɹɐʍʞɔɐq spɹoɔǝɹ ɹnoʎ sʎɐld
OK, I consider myself ok on the internets there with most things, and I have asked it before, but, how does twitter work?
I don't mean on a philosophical level or what ever, I mean when I click peoples links to tweets, there is like the tweet then perhaps 1 comment then all the stuff below it seems totally unrelated. Is it supposed to be like this? klfrs link above for instance, I guess we all just need to be super intelligent to know what this geezer is on about? everything below it seems totally unrelated, and what is he on about. Also his account and tweet is deleted. Is this part of the excitement of that tweet?
No, I don't tend to use twitter it has to be said.
So the link takes you to a Tweet and beneath that are all the tweets sent in reply. You can tell they are replies as they will say Replying to @OriginalPoster. There can also be replies to replies and if you click on a reply from @ReplyingPoster you would see a tweet marked "Replying to @OriginalPoster, @ReplyingPoster" and so on.
If the replies have little actual text or engagement (likes, retweets, etc) then the algorithm will hide them and give you a "Show more replies" link that will expand them.
There are also adverts which look like tweets but have "Promoted by @EvilCorp" at the bottom. You quickly attune yourself to scrolling past these.
You will get a "More Tweets" section where "the algorithm" will inject a bunch of other tweets it thinks you might be interested in. You almost certainly are not interested in them although it does get better if you use Twitter a lot because its based on who you follow.
All of this is assembled into a single endless scroll because getting people to endlessly scroll through this on their phones is how they make money.