New Techdirt Policy: No More Embedded Tweets
from the thinking-more-long-term dept
I sent this notice around internally here at Techdirt, but figured it might be useful to state this publicly. Historically, Techdirt would often embed tweets using the embed feature from Twitter. This was always somewhat risky for a few reasons, including that people could (and often did) delete tweets. Though Twitter’s embed feature had a somewhat graceful failstate, where deleted tweets would still show the missing text.
There’s always a risk with embedding anything that the service you’re using will disappear. We’ve had plenty of old embedded content disappear around here. For years, we used Docstoc to embed legal filings and other documents, and that disappeared. There are tradeoffs with any approach.
However, the erratic and unpredictable situation with Twitter right now is proving to be too risky to continue trusting that embedded tweets will survive. The new owner’s insistence that the company might need to declare bankruptcy, while he continues to drive advertisers away in droves, and comes up with “subscription” ideas that don’t seem poised to move the needle very far (not to mention firing a huge percentage of the workforce without a clear understanding of who was needed to keep the site running) all contribute to this uncertainty.
In response, I’ve asked everyone on the team that if they want to include tweets going forward that they should post screenshots of the tweet (which can link back to the original tweet) and then include the text (or a clear description) of the tweet in the text of the article.
I’m disappointed that we need to do this, as embedding is a nice feature, and a core part of how the internet should work. And while I’m not expecting Twitter to just disappear overnight (or, really, disappear at all), the odds of it happening have jumped up to a degree that we need to plan ahead, and this is how we’ll be doing it going forward.
Filed Under: elon musk, embeds, screenshots
Companies: twitter
Comments on “New Techdirt Policy: No More Embedded Tweets”
links to post that is unavailable is called “linkrot”
And this is the reason why web archiving exist. Embedding content that is prone to disappear must be archived.
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Wiley & Sons and three of the legacy conglomerate publishers have have covered.
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The Cloud Service Corollary
“If you don’t host it yourself, you can’t guarantee its availability”
And the Self Hosting Corollary:
“If you don’t back it up, you will lose it at the most inconvenient time.”
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Which is why you should always Self Host your Cloud Service.
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In this case, I’m thinking it might better be called “link arson”.
Yay! Now I can enjoy TechDirt articles without having to give Twitter more traffic.
Two words...
THANK YOU!
This is best thing to come from the Musk acquisition.
Seems like a perfectly sensible move to me, if you’re not sure if a particular source of quotes is going to be reliable moving forward it just makes sense to find workarounds to doing so.
I suspect that the reports of the imminent demise of Twitter are greatly exaggerated.
If any bookmakers are taking an Over/Under on how much longer Twitter will be relevant, I’ll take the over.
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Yeah, i mean, it could be just fine, so let’s just pretend everything is normal while Twitter runs in circle on fire. That’s a good plan for any occasion, right?
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Twitter is not going to completely die any time soon.
However, with its haemorrhaging advertisers, staff and users recently, I wouldn’t be putting any real money on it remaining as relevant as it was before a petulant baby bought it. MySpace and Tumblr didn’t die, after all, maybe Twitter is following them where they went.
Maybe it’ll collapse far enough so that a reasonably sized GoFundMe could get it back in the hands of saner people?
Why both?
I never have seen any reason to post a screenshot of a tweet that you’re going to provide the text for, right below.
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The screen shot is evidence that the tweet is as quoted, not something made up to suite an agenda, (a favorite tactic of right wing trolls).
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Why wouldn’t you provide proof of what you’re quoting?
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I am glad you have no vision impairments. However, a screen reader can’t read the text in a screenshot. Other errors may prevent images from loading, particularly as long term data can be lost. The embed/screenshot is evidence of the tweet, proof you aren’t just making it up. The text below it is immune to link rot, less susceptible to corruption than the image, is accessible to those with low or no vision, and back when tweets were embedded, could have served as a buffer against the promised edit button. Why wouldn’t you do both?.
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You’re so brave Mike. Thanks for being a hero.
Plus, linking to awful tweets just gives them clicks and engagement, which is all they wanted anyway.
Plus, clicking on awful tweets just gives them engagement, which is all they wanted anyway.
On the contrary, given his behavior since April I strongly suspect Musk knows exactly what he’s doing – burning Twitter down to “own da libs”.
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Musk has an ego the size of Mars and skin thinner than a sheet of notebook paper. If anything, his destroying Twitter isn’t about owning “the libs”, but about getting back at people who criticize/make fun of him in general—including Twitter employees.
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Saran wrap
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Gold leaf
Aside: Saran is a trademark. Generic terms include plastic wrap, food wrap, and cling wrap.
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I’m always interested by how some brands gain recognition and some don’t.
For example, in the UK we’d just call that cling film, we wouldn’t specify a brand name. Meanwhile, we’d usually refer to sticky tape as Sellotape and not by the generic name.
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Typically it’s a combination of marketing, widescale availability, and hitting upon the right brand name. Where I’m from, I’ve rarely heard people refer to bandages as such—they’re almost always called Band-Aids, even when they’re not that specific brand.
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Yes, it’s just interesting how different things gain traction. As another example, people where I’m from with often still refer to “Hoover” instead of “vacuum cleaner”, and even though they’ve been the top brand for some time now nobody’s suddenly saying “Dyson” instead. Whereas, we’d refer to “plaster” or “bandage” and not any particular brand of such things if we cut ourselves.
It’s interesting to note the differences, not just the different terms used on each side of the pond, but which brands seem to stick.
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For a while, all video games were “Nintendo” and sometimes “Sega”, but now the generic “video games” is used, and I’m extremely grateful that it’s not tied up in one company.
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That’s another difference, that didn’t really happen when I was a kid. Maybe it’s because so many kids my age in the UK were using a home computer, like the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 or Amstrad CPC when the NES came out that it didn’t have the same immediate impact. I remember most people just saying “computer games”.
Wise choice. Given Elon’s unstable behaviour and complete inability to grasp what made people use the service in the first place, he’s likely to declare he wants people to pay to embed tweets at any time, and alter all previously unpaid embedded tweets to direct to a blurry neonazi meme jpeg.
“I’m not expecting Twitter to just disappear overnight”
But my God, wouldn’t that be fucking great!?
As if a million voices suddenly cried out in joy.
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Not really. The problems with Twitter are not due to Twitter, so to speak. The problems are the network effects that amplify the voices of bad actors, and the tendency for journalists to go the easy route and just quote mine Twitter for “stories” and easy traffic rather than practice actual journalism.
Twitter dying might remove an easy avenue for such things, but you’re not going to solve the problems of bad journalists and attention whores by killing that one outlet.
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I am hardly surprised that there are people who would, willingly if inadvertently, hope for people’s livelihoods to go poof just like that.
But that’s just people for you.
So What do Techdirt's White Racist Dummies Think of My Litigation Now?
Despite Musk’s avowed free speech policy, Twitter has basically told me to bring it on.
You can read the current draft at: petition to SCOTUS for a writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
You can read a short summary at 9th Amendment Challenge to Social Medium Abuse.
Re: So What do Techdirt's White Racist Dummies Think of My Litigation Now?
Speaking for exactly one person, I have developed some views which I am happy to share in response to your inquiry.
Good
Embedding is a crock. On so many levels,
First, it’s clearly cross site and thus trips, correctly, many security implementations.
Second, it’s temporary. It only exists as long as the source does.
3rd, with active media, it could cause issues with the user by auto-play.
And for me, and million of other non-twitter users, there’s the image-as-a-link issue. Clicking in a picture to expand it, that is linked to the source, brings the page to 🤮 twitter.
Hosting is always the best, most proper choice. When that fails post a link.