X went downhill for me after Musk’s feud with Matt Tiabbi not wanting to leave Substack for X. The Twitter files were the only reason I joined X, and for a while some what informative, but now, it’s excruciating to scroll through.
I mostly follow the AI Artists over there and even then, I get less of their stuff than the junk X wants to force into my feed. Even in my following feed. It's definitely not a writers platform. I think the AI artists would be better served coming over here too.
I could have written this essay, and it would have been almost word for word about the experience on 𝕏. Tried many of the same avenues you did with the Article feature - to no avail. The only thing that seemed to work for eyeballs on the articles was to drop them into relevant threads that monster accounts posted. Pretty sure that's not the way it should have to work. 30-60 impressions with a 2400 Premium+ account. Nothing organic moves. Even a custom link to SS pieces is a bust. Really, I'm only still there just for the GCs and entertainment value. Have you tried Midjourney for images, or is the Night one better?
I think Night Cafe is much more affordable than Midjourney. It gives me the images that I am used to from old Grok.
As far as everything else... algorithm hell. Articles should have been pushed by the algorithm but Musk's words on pushing longform writing is hollow. It's basically a worthless feature over there.
The problem with Elon is that he doesn’t understand Substack’s business model. He doesn’t understand writers or how to create a successful newsletter business. He just doesn’t get it.
That's been my experience too. That said, many who I engage with here are from Chris B's DM group, that 's been a good resource for me.
Once you get the "platform manipulator" label you're toast. So if you use the API with services such as Adobe Express, using the scheduler so you don't have to manually fcking post a photo gets you on the list. It's like Elawn is Dean Fcking Wormer and you get put on Double Secret Probation.
I have a small following, but to hear the mid range accounts complain that they only get 600 views is funny. I wish I had that level now. It's ponderous.
Many of us were wrong on which direction the platform was going to go. It's basically the same thing, but now a different group of people is gatekeeping and censoring. And yes, Grok has gotten worse...it was worth the $8 but now, it is broken....like the rest of the platform.
The fact that they devalue article links and make people post them as rep replies is just stupid. I mean, it’s just absolutely stupid. It’s Elon trying to keep people on eggs all the time. Just dumb.
You mean, after I don't renew my sub, I can't post from that account? LOL! I got the check mark to see the difference... it was a little less soft porn and way more battleground snuff videos. It's a rude site and he encourages uploading "thirst" images. The place is manic.
Haven't been on X since maybe 2010. Like all the rest, it has become a shytshow of censorship and collusion. Do not trust musk as he is part and parcel of the new global tyranny with his holier than thou E/V garbage, endless spy satellites and crusade to invent a bio-human to replace mankind. Visionary my butt!
Dude, if I had seen this before dropping my own piece I could have just posted a link to yours and written about a different topic 😁 Very well put!
BTW did some investigating of NightCafe based on our X discussions; looking forward to exploring it, plan to grab a monthly sub if it performs as I expect. So thanks for the recommendation! 🫡
Samesies. Always been suppressed to near invisible, subscribed or not makes no difference. Then about a week ago account locked out of the blue after posting along the same lines for the last year; no response to appeal.
Twitter/X is a failed app. I can post a story on Substack and get more views than on Twitter.
But the worst is Facebook/meta. I used to have around 500 friends who belonged to various sci-fi and fantasy clubs. Everybody used to get my posts and would respond.
When the algo took over Facebook, almost none of my friends were getting any of my posts.
I wish social media companies didn't depend upon Algos to help the feed. I like hearing from all of my friends and I want them to see my stuff.
No one saw my posts on ZuckBook or Instagram after the vaxx warnings so I ended up deleting both this year. My thought on it is this... If I have no reach, then why I wasting my time with it? There was no reason to post to either anymore. I can see that happening with X too.
That's what happens when AI takes over the algorithm. We used to be able to post, and people would post little thumbs up.
Even here, on Substack, I can't tell if people are reading my posts or simply liking the notes.
I read a lot of good fiction, and I'm always surprised that nobody interacts. I try to leave a little something to show I've read it, be it a heart or a comment.
El--On Musk...Muskrat..totalitarian Jew brown-noser..the El*-ites fob him off as some sort of neo --jew genius...at the end if the day..musk is the servant son of satanic technocracy..a warrior for technofascism...a servant if the zionist entity..a cheap master if prefabricated ambiguity..just a lying Jew whore who only wants to be on the side that s winning..whether the informed readers of this post are Christian or not..there is less truth in El-*On musk... than an ashtray..*he is the servant of the current iteration of the Synagogue of Satan..a dopeheaded grifter..a made man..a liar..and as a premiere lapdog for the actual New Jew Order ...a front man for the wef--blackrock--trumprat puppets..is as much a free speech absolutest --as Bozo the clown* These mentally ill JEWS ..a schizoid self dividing..multiple sick personality type...hurt a lot of people...just think....rats...millions and millions...of..Rats.*There you have it.
No thanks. I tried Gab for 15 minutes a long, long time ago and it actually was fat right to my middle right positions. Deleted the account immediately. Maybe it's changed but I'm good with Substack.
Out of curiosity, why not try playing the Algo off its bias?
I don't know anything and I don't have any skin in the game. I checked out of social media a decade ago because I didn't want to play its game.
But for work on occasion I have played the game. That's how I approach it. And when I sulk at the results, an internal voice screeches "don't whine".
I had a friend who wanted to be a writer. I've self published a study I did for work and naturally told him everything I had learned from the process. But he said he didn't want to self publish, he wanted to be a writer with one of those fat contracts from a publishing house. So I told him it didn't sound like he wanted to be a writer.
The truth is you're all content producers. You choose to publish text and images. But you're playing the game of content production. That's all it is, a game. All games have rules and cheat codes.
Playing the algorithm would be posting comments to big accounts and the topic would just be politics or current events. That’s way too boring to talk about all of the time.
Notoriety. The Algo will feed content meeting its objectives (user engagement and retention). It doesn't have an aesthetic. If I were playing, I'd have my original body of work (me, me, me) and then I'd be sending out hooks seeking users and engagement (notoriety). No such thing as bad publicity if it doesn't get you banned. Distasteful things can always be deleted in posterity.
People are getting suspended for no reason now. And you can't send out hooks to find an audience when everything is suppressed. You can find people off of X because if they have no account it is a walled garden. You can find people on it because the suppression algorithm and now they have suspension for engagement 'farming'. They got rid of bold and italics I'm the post of the stream because Musk though it would entice people to click on it and people were using it to stand out. So gone.
I hear you. Personally I never bought into the whole 'free speech now that it's X' thing. CJ Hopkins recently had a go at the whole 'banned for no good reason' on X thing. Musk is part and parcel of the farm/machine/cathedral.
For what it's worth I'd probably use the account on X as a brand thing and play by their rules within their sandbox, until it fades into irrelevance. Your post summed up succinctly the in-group crowd issue. I'm sure people will aggregate elsewhere as complaints percolate. A fragmenting social media landscape is a good thing from the user's perspective.
So you’re complaining that it too right wing? And because of that you being shadowbanned? I’m old and don’t get all the shit you explained, but I’ve noticed here on Substack you can generally have some pretty intelligent conversations, me not being one of those contributors.im a moron, compared to those I follow. But is it possible that people on x are just a cross section of the general population, except for the blue haired one armed lesbians that left because they wanted their bias protected? Is it possible that what’s selling on x now is a little right of center, instead of left of the most left leftist lefties?
It's not that it is right of center. That's fine. It's the fact that it still employs the same Algorithms to reward the chosen over the unchosen. If you are not in the club there, you will have no reach. If you talk about anything but politics and the authorized narrative, you will have no reach. You used to be able to gain a following from other topics but now those people have lost reach too because they are not talking about politics or current events.
Definitely. Theirs an hour plus video dissecting the code from. github and the same active algorithms used in old Twitter are still active, they've now just been trained to keep the majority suppressed. Remember the motto of X, Free speech but limited reach. So unless you are chosen for the Musk club, you have limited reach.
Perhaps. Although at the same time, to be fair, trying to filter wokies out of moderating a Big Tech website is like trying not to hire any Swampies in Washington DC… just about impossible at this point.
X went downhill for me after Musk’s feud with Matt Tiabbi not wanting to leave Substack for X. The Twitter files were the only reason I joined X, and for a while some what informative, but now, it’s excruciating to scroll through.
I mostly follow the AI Artists over there and even then, I get less of their stuff than the junk X wants to force into my feed. Even in my following feed. It's definitely not a writers platform. I think the AI artists would be better served coming over here too.
I could have written this essay, and it would have been almost word for word about the experience on 𝕏. Tried many of the same avenues you did with the Article feature - to no avail. The only thing that seemed to work for eyeballs on the articles was to drop them into relevant threads that monster accounts posted. Pretty sure that's not the way it should have to work. 30-60 impressions with a 2400 Premium+ account. Nothing organic moves. Even a custom link to SS pieces is a bust. Really, I'm only still there just for the GCs and entertainment value. Have you tried Midjourney for images, or is the Night one better?
I think Night Cafe is much more affordable than Midjourney. It gives me the images that I am used to from old Grok.
As far as everything else... algorithm hell. Articles should have been pushed by the algorithm but Musk's words on pushing longform writing is hollow. It's basically a worthless feature over there.
The problem with Elon is that he doesn’t understand Substack’s business model. He doesn’t understand writers or how to create a successful newsletter business. He just doesn’t get it.
That's been my experience too. That said, many who I engage with here are from Chris B's DM group, that 's been a good resource for me.
Once you get the "platform manipulator" label you're toast. So if you use the API with services such as Adobe Express, using the scheduler so you don't have to manually fcking post a photo gets you on the list. It's like Elawn is Dean Fcking Wormer and you get put on Double Secret Probation.
I have a small following, but to hear the mid range accounts complain that they only get 600 views is funny. I wish I had that level now. It's ponderous.
Many of us were wrong on which direction the platform was going to go. It's basically the same thing, but now a different group of people is gatekeeping and censoring. And yes, Grok has gotten worse...it was worth the $8 but now, it is broken....like the rest of the platform.
The fact that they devalue article links and make people post them as rep replies is just stupid. I mean, it’s just absolutely stupid. It’s Elon trying to keep people on eggs all the time. Just dumb.
Yup.
The goal is to keep users on the platform at all times.
Exactly why, he wants people to post long-form articles on the platform, and he wants to make it the everything app.
But, they're hurting for revenue. Ad revenue can only go so far, and that's why they are pushing verification.
Basically, it's an MLM scheme with growth hacking at the upper tier accounts.
You mean, after I don't renew my sub, I can't post from that account? LOL! I got the check mark to see the difference... it was a little less soft porn and way more battleground snuff videos. It's a rude site and he encourages uploading "thirst" images. The place is manic.
Haven't been on X since maybe 2010. Like all the rest, it has become a shytshow of censorship and collusion. Do not trust musk as he is part and parcel of the new global tyranny with his holier than thou E/V garbage, endless spy satellites and crusade to invent a bio-human to replace mankind. Visionary my butt!
I don’t read X anymore. I only posted 5 times or so, in like 12 years.
Dude, if I had seen this before dropping my own piece I could have just posted a link to yours and written about a different topic 😁 Very well put!
BTW did some investigating of NightCafe based on our X discussions; looking forward to exploring it, plan to grab a monthly sub if it performs as I expect. So thanks for the recommendation! 🫡
Samesies. Always been suppressed to near invisible, subscribed or not makes no difference. Then about a week ago account locked out of the blue after posting along the same lines for the last year; no response to appeal.
Twitter/X is a failed app. I can post a story on Substack and get more views than on Twitter.
But the worst is Facebook/meta. I used to have around 500 friends who belonged to various sci-fi and fantasy clubs. Everybody used to get my posts and would respond.
When the algo took over Facebook, almost none of my friends were getting any of my posts.
I wish social media companies didn't depend upon Algos to help the feed. I like hearing from all of my friends and I want them to see my stuff.
No one saw my posts on ZuckBook or Instagram after the vaxx warnings so I ended up deleting both this year. My thought on it is this... If I have no reach, then why I wasting my time with it? There was no reason to post to either anymore. I can see that happening with X too.
That's what happens when AI takes over the algorithm. We used to be able to post, and people would post little thumbs up.
Even here, on Substack, I can't tell if people are reading my posts or simply liking the notes.
I read a lot of good fiction, and I'm always surprised that nobody interacts. I try to leave a little something to show I've read it, be it a heart or a comment.
El--On Musk...Muskrat..totalitarian Jew brown-noser..the El*-ites fob him off as some sort of neo --jew genius...at the end if the day..musk is the servant son of satanic technocracy..a warrior for technofascism...a servant if the zionist entity..a cheap master if prefabricated ambiguity..just a lying Jew whore who only wants to be on the side that s winning..whether the informed readers of this post are Christian or not..there is less truth in El-*On musk... than an ashtray..*he is the servant of the current iteration of the Synagogue of Satan..a dopeheaded grifter..a made man..a liar..and as a premiere lapdog for the actual New Jew Order ...a front man for the wef--blackrock--trumprat puppets..is as much a free speech absolutest --as Bozo the clown* These mentally ill JEWS ..a schizoid self dividing..multiple sick personality type...hurt a lot of people...just think....rats...millions and millions...of..Rats.*There you have it.
Might want to give Gab a try.
No thanks. I tried Gab for 15 minutes a long, long time ago and it actually was fat right to my middle right positions. Deleted the account immediately. Maybe it's changed but I'm good with Substack.
Gab is so much better than X. It's not even close.
Out of curiosity, why not try playing the Algo off its bias?
I don't know anything and I don't have any skin in the game. I checked out of social media a decade ago because I didn't want to play its game.
But for work on occasion I have played the game. That's how I approach it. And when I sulk at the results, an internal voice screeches "don't whine".
I had a friend who wanted to be a writer. I've self published a study I did for work and naturally told him everything I had learned from the process. But he said he didn't want to self publish, he wanted to be a writer with one of those fat contracts from a publishing house. So I told him it didn't sound like he wanted to be a writer.
The truth is you're all content producers. You choose to publish text and images. But you're playing the game of content production. That's all it is, a game. All games have rules and cheat codes.
Playing the algorithm would be posting comments to big accounts and the topic would just be politics or current events. That’s way too boring to talk about all of the time.
Notoriety. The Algo will feed content meeting its objectives (user engagement and retention). It doesn't have an aesthetic. If I were playing, I'd have my original body of work (me, me, me) and then I'd be sending out hooks seeking users and engagement (notoriety). No such thing as bad publicity if it doesn't get you banned. Distasteful things can always be deleted in posterity.
People are getting suspended for no reason now. And you can't send out hooks to find an audience when everything is suppressed. You can find people off of X because if they have no account it is a walled garden. You can find people on it because the suppression algorithm and now they have suspension for engagement 'farming'. They got rid of bold and italics I'm the post of the stream because Musk though it would entice people to click on it and people were using it to stand out. So gone.
I hear you. Personally I never bought into the whole 'free speech now that it's X' thing. CJ Hopkins recently had a go at the whole 'banned for no good reason' on X thing. Musk is part and parcel of the farm/machine/cathedral.
For what it's worth I'd probably use the account on X as a brand thing and play by their rules within their sandbox, until it fades into irrelevance. Your post summed up succinctly the in-group crowd issue. I'm sure people will aggregate elsewhere as complaints percolate. A fragmenting social media landscape is a good thing from the user's perspective.
So you’re complaining that it too right wing? And because of that you being shadowbanned? I’m old and don’t get all the shit you explained, but I’ve noticed here on Substack you can generally have some pretty intelligent conversations, me not being one of those contributors.im a moron, compared to those I follow. But is it possible that people on x are just a cross section of the general population, except for the blue haired one armed lesbians that left because they wanted their bias protected? Is it possible that what’s selling on x now is a little right of center, instead of left of the most left leftist lefties?
It's not that it is right of center. That's fine. It's the fact that it still employs the same Algorithms to reward the chosen over the unchosen. If you are not in the club there, you will have no reach. If you talk about anything but politics and the authorized narrative, you will have no reach. You used to be able to gain a following from other topics but now those people have lost reach too because they are not talking about politics or current events.
So you really think “ they” control what is seen and not seen, by an algorithm. And Elon is good with this?
Definitely. Theirs an hour plus video dissecting the code from. github and the same active algorithms used in old Twitter are still active, they've now just been trained to keep the majority suppressed. Remember the motto of X, Free speech but limited reach. So unless you are chosen for the Musk club, you have limited reach.
So much for free speech I guess.
Elon clearly didn’t clear out all the woke busybodies from his moderation team.
He knows how it works and what it is doing. He can't blame this on the woke anymore.
Perhaps. Although at the same time, to be fair, trying to filter wokies out of moderating a Big Tech website is like trying not to hire any Swampies in Washington DC… just about impossible at this point.