#269

drafts/Twitter Blue Review.md

@@ -6,42 +6,41 @@
 
 ![Twitter Blue Brand Image](https://i.snap.as/F4AODRKo.png)
 
-## Gargantuan, ridiculously avoidable (yet entirely unsurprising) misses in Little Blue’s Blue.
+## Gargantuan, ridiculously avoidable misses in Little Blue’s Blue.
 
-Incredibly, the second most powerful social web company in the world has finally managed to implement a paid subscription model, as I’ve been begging them to do for [at least 5 years](https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/696094018862718976), now. For three U.S. Dollars a month, “[Twitter Blue](https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2021/introducing-twitter-blue)” is [now available](https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/9/22766286/twitter-blue-subscription-service-scroll-nuzzel-undo-tweets-ad-free-articles-us) for all United States users. Aside from [a relentless, rude, two and a half hour-long rant](https://apple.co/3wVZs3v) at two new friends on *End User*, I should confess that I haven’t spoken adequately to peers at length about their Twitter use - understandably, busy independent artists don’t seem to find themsevles with the spare time to hypothesize methodically about what they might want from the service, going forward. From the mass of commentary on Twitter Blue I *was* able to gather, a resounding sentiment refrains: *these features should be available to everyone*.
+Incredibly, the second most powerful social media company in the world has finally managed to implement a paid subscription model, as I’ve been begging them to do for [at least 5 years](https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/696094018862718976), now. For three U.S. Dollars a month, “[Twitter Blue](https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2021/introducing-twitter-blue)” is [now available](https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/9/22766286/twitter-blue-subscription-service-scroll-nuzzel-undo-tweets-ad-free-articles-us) for all United States users. Aside from [a relentless, rude, two and a half hour-long rant](https://apple.co/3wVZs3v) at two new friends on *End User*, I should confess that I haven’t spoken adequately to peers at length about their Twitter use - understandably, busy independent artists don’t seem to find themsevles with the spare time to hypothesize methodically about what they might want from the service, going forward. From the mass of commentary on Twitter Blue I *was* able to gather, a resounding sentiment refrains: *these features should be available to everyone*.
 
 https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ImyC2Twm5qyx9lxmcKmkP
 
+`![Twitter in Jorts Dock, 2021](https://i.snap.as/zp5uCNwa.png)`
+
 Frankly, after all these years, there’s not all that much to actually say about the product, itself. Thanks to Spaces, I happened to catch a chance to ask my favorite sage of late - Jason Scott, original creator of textfiles.com - for his thoughts. 
 
 “Well, I bought it.”
 “Yeah, same.”
 
-Then, we talked for 45 minutes about self-actualization. 
-
-![Twitter in Jorts Dock, 2021](https://i.snap.as/zp5uCNwa.png)
-
-As I’ve recently honed my understanding of the significance behind my own personal extraordinary dependence/investment in this one service, I have also - in parallel, ya might say - refined wholly a set of expectations which I do not ever again expect to be usurped in any way by Twitter, Incorporated’s decisions. Believe it not, these thoughts of mine really *do* have real potential to add value to your life, especially if you’re still reading. The next time you find yourself wondering what Twitter might do next, try to internalize the utter inanity of that whole pursuit. Not one second can be concretely spent in that endeavor because the organization is defined singularly by its outrageous negligence. They are not villains or demons like [Big Blue](https://github.com/extratone/bigblue) - they are through and through a village of idiots, and no manner of user action can possibly budge them.
+Then, we talked for 45 minutes about self-actualization. As I’ve recently honed my understanding of the significance behind my own personal extraordinary dependence/investment in this one service, I have also - in parallel, ya might say - refined wholly a set of expectations which I do not ever again expect to be usurped in any way by Twitter, Incorporated’s decisions. Believe it not, these thoughts of mine really *do* have real potential to add value to your life, especially if you’re still reading. The next time you find yourself wondering what Twitter might do next, try to internalize the utter inanity of that whole pursuit. Not one second can be concretely spent in that endeavor because the organization is defined singularly by its outrageous negligence. They are not villains or demons like [Big Blue](https://github.com/extratone/bigblue) - they are through and through a village of idiots, and no manner of user action can possibly budge them.
 
 Of course, this new development of mine hasn’t actually managed to delivery any peace upon my person. In fact, because it is impossible to be *constructively* critical in such a situation, I am one of few I know who must continue to be critical, anyway, because my livelihood does not depend on the newsworthiness of my subject matter. I guess I should just be thankful my “must” represents so little time-sensitive consequence, if any, given how long it takes me to finish anything, these days. On that note, please [look elsewhere](https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/14/22778827/twitter-blue-undo-button-paywall-features-paid-free) for the bulletpoints… Come back for at least a second, though, because this Post *does* eventually circle around to a handful of poignant, original comments on the ~~Whats~~.
 
-https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/1462906745458671616
-
-Two major happenings occurred over the course of my “test:” I was granted [my first ever opportunity to speak directly to Twitter employees](https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/1462906745458671616), and Jack Dorsey [officially resigned](https://www.inputmag.com/culture/jack-dorsey-stepping-down-twitter) from Twitter, Inc., [leaving CTO Parag Agrawal in the big chair](https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/29/22807651/jack-dorsey-steps-down-twitter-ceo-parag-agrawal-replacement#post-new-comment). Frankly, the latter has virtually zero impact on the lives of the average Twitter user, as far as I can tell, but if you’re interested in the business side of the story, [Casey Newton’s overview](https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/29/22808979/twitter-jack-dorsey-steps-back-platformer) is a good place to start. If you’re unable to or uninterested in listening to the five and a half minute video embedded above, here are the bullet points:
-- Answering the primary prompt of the Space: I subscribed to Twitter Blue because it’d be hypocritical of me not to, given how long I’ve publiclly begged Twitter to implement a paid subscription tier.
-- In the seven days since I’d first subscribed to Twitter Blue, the native iOS app had not randomly logged me out. (It has since, but only once.)
-- I love the investment in Lists! (I’ll detail the two specific feature additions I was referring to shortly.)
-- I suggested the implementation of a post queue (exactly like Tumblr’s.)
-- I suggested that the team explore implementations of Delete and Re-Draft from Mastodon and Better Tweetdeck.
-- [Isabel Suede](https://twitter.com/isabel__lauren) of Twitter Research asked me to elaborate on the advantages of Delete and Re-Draft.
-- One of the hosts faded my time out by mentioning Twitter’s effort to be “transparent” to which I responded “‘transparent’ is pushing it.”
-
 The peeves aren’t new, but I’ve found my own redundancy within *The Psalms* to be less and less… redundant, if that makes sense. This company’s software is bad and its continued prioritization of the two native mobile applications (neither of which it actually built) over any other clients for *all* user considerations is a spectacular tedium to follow. Its world record breaking inability to understand anything about how its *whole shit* fits into the lives of *any* of its users continues to astound. My peak irritation about the whole situation, lately, is that *you fuckers* continue to discuss alterations to social software, generally, as if they are *inevitable* with a sense of complicity I will *not* allow. I’m not going to argue that you’re *obligated* to speak up and out in a labor sense, but beseeching that you **expect more** from these organizations as a customer, a citizen, and a human being.
 
 ### All Users are Power Users
 
 The episode of *End User* embedded above is one of the only podcast episodes I’ve ever made which I actually find *too painful* to listen back to[^2], but I still think it’s valuable. There’s a specific bit of the conversation between [@alisonbuki](https://twitter.com/alisonbuki) and I in which the term “Poweruser” is actually thrown around regarding my own use of Twitter Lists, Tweetbot, and a few other “”””Hacks”””” to consume content *deliberately*. 
 
+![Thread Reader - Twitter Blue for iOS](https://i.snap.as/SAYPlThr.png)
+
+## Thread Reader
+
+If I’m honest, the majority of the discourse I’ve picked up surrounding Twitter threads in the past few years has been negative. Vaguely, “getting lost” is something I recall being expressed. Twitter Blue’s Thread Reader offers a “reader view”-like experience in three different font sizes - none of which looked particularly optimal, to my eye. If there’s anything to say about it, really, it’s suggest this adjustment be made more variable.
+
+![Voice Tweets in Thread Reader - Twitter for iOS](https://i.snap.as/1ia6xNyv.png)
+
+Also, the appearance of non text-only posts (especially Voice Tweets, which I appear to be the only user to continue utilizing) in this view feels like a bit of an afterthought. 
+
+![Undo Tweet - Twitter Blue](https://i.snap.as/Qfb0rFvf.png)
+
 ## Undo Tweet
 
 Perhaps unlike you, *I* have never had a problem understanding why “editable” Tweets will never exist, largely thanks to [my conversation with Eugen Rochko](https://hyp.is/znp7tEQJEeySOXvhkqI2DQ/bilge.world/eugen-rochko-interview) about implementing editable posts on Mastodon:
@@ -60,7 +59,21 @@ Here's the full text from [**its subpage**](https://help.twitter.com/en/using-tw
 > - If you turn off Undo Tweet, you won’t see the Undo Tweet prompt.
 > - Read more about [how to adjust the settings of your Undo Tweet feature](https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue-how-to.html#undotweet).
 
-By default, Undo Tweet is turned on for every single post of any kind at 20 seconds' notice. This was my very first change to the default settings ([other than the highlight color and app icon](https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1459235983174639626)): I turned it off for Original Tweets, Replies, and Threads. This makes it tolerable, but still useless, and honestly, I can think of only one instance in which I used it for its intended purpose 
+By default, Undo Tweet is turned on for every single post of any kind at 20 seconds' notice. This was my very first change to the default settings ([other than the highlight color and app icon](https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1459235983174639626)): I turned it off for Original Tweets, Replies, and Threads. This makes it tolerable, but still useless, and honestly, I can think of only one instance in which I used it for its intended purpose.
+
+![Custom Navigation - Twitter Blue on iOS](https://i.snap.as/hu2p7mN2.png)
+
+## Custom Navigation
+
+Intentionally or not, the configuration of Twitter for iOS’ navigation tabs enabled by Twitter Blue membership is a revelation - or it would be, were it the only viable Twitter client on the platform. It’s perhaps the most celebratable feature included in Twitter Blue, if only because it suggests the Twitter team is finally paying attention to Tweetbot. (In case you weren’t aware, I spent a significant amount of time and words writing about just how valuable Tweetbot is, [earlier this year](https://bilge.world/tweetbot-6-ios-review).) Unfortunately for Twitter, [Tweetbot’s had an incredible year](https://www.macstories.net/ios/tweetbot-6-6-gets-support-for-creating-polls-limiting-who-can-reply-to-tweets/). The biggest possible miss, here, was adamantly missed: one *cannot* customize away the “Home” timeline from the first nav bar position, which brings up another huge issue with expecting a monthly fee for an experience within Twitter’s iOS app: *persistence*. 
+
+https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/1467393675579871234
+
+In the clip of the Twitter feedback Space embedded above, my second point of note was that the app had not “randomly logged me out” in the seven days I’d then been subscribed to Twitter Blue. To be clear, this was referring to the experience of opening the Twitter for iOS app to the welcome screen instead of where one left off, which has indeed happened in the interim. The worst bit: after logging back in again, all one’s app preferences are reset to their respective defaults. Without a means of exporting or “backing up” one’s settings - like say, [Better Tweetdeck](https://better.tw) has - this means that one has to methodically explore every single Settings menu and re-select core essentials like posting the highest quality possible images, for instance, all with the knowledge that such a reset could happen again at any time. Suffice it to say, this is not the sort of quality one expects from a premium iOS app in 2021. 
+
+https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/1463658007791812608
+
+As you’ll see in the screenshot embedded above, Custom Navigation offers one a choice of up to 6 tabs from a total of 10, which include [some Bluetooth keyboard shortcut considerations](https://github.com/ExtraKeys/keys/issues/31#issuecomment-986184090) I suspect you’ll not find detailed from any other source. To start, `⌘ + F` will now reliably open the Explore tab and (most of the time) deliver one’s cursor directly to its search field. However, **this only functions when Explore has been selected as one of the bottom nav tabs**, which really misses out on an opportunity for the shortcut to be uniquely useful, in my view. Otherwise, `⌘ + 1-6` will open the bottom tabs you’ve chosen in order, which means - brace yourselves - that Twitter Blue’s Custom Navigation technically includes configurable keyboard shortcuts. 
 
 [^1]: Despite the fact that Tweeting via SMS has [since been disabled](https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/4/20849865/twitter-disables-sms-text-message-tweeting-jack-dorsey-ceo-hack).
 [^2]: I was just… rude. Very rude. “Necessary” is not a term I’d apply to this rudeness, but… Just give me this once, is all I’d ask.