The service XCancel is stopped until further notice
xcancel.com96 points by bio-s 2 days ago
96 points by bio-s 2 days ago
I really don't think this is going to have the effect that X thinks it will have. I've always said that if XCancel and Nitter get taken down, I'm not going to suddenly decide to make an X account--I'm just going to stop reading their content.
Same for old.reddit.com. If they kill it, I'm not going to give in and create an account--I'm just going to stop visiting.
They have killed old.reddit now. It forces you (or at least me) to login. Same with regular Reddit. Most threads I get an authwall after the top comment.
(Im now entirely on HN and Lemmy)
I use proxy software like redlib and teddit. The browser extension LibRedirect[1] makes these easy to use without conscious thought. They're read-only, but if you were going to post something, you'd have to sign in anyway.
I agree. I think of these alternatives as off-ramps, not replacements. In 2023 I ditched my Reddit and Twitter accounts thinking it would be very difficult. Today, the idea of losing the off-ramps no longer bothers me.
I started using Reddit after the Digg 4 fiasco. I mostly lurk. I like things like the localllama subreddit. If I log in to contribute it’s a high effort post with good information.
Reddit can go ahead and extract as much value as possible by turning their site into a slop factory. I won’t be around to see it. I haven’t visited for a week after near daily use for 15 years.
Reddit 4 isn’t for me.
But a few other people will make an account to continue reading
Still a major net loss in "eyeballs".
If I was an advertiser on twitter I would be out of there too unless they proactively lowered ad fees real quick.
They aren’t gonna care because they aren’t making any money off of you anyway
They make money selling data with your info in it. That is why they care. They will eventually limit you to app only usage where they can grab more information.
Read-only mode is a great way to entice new users to your platform. If you want to share or comment, you need an account. Blocking ALL access will not have that effect. I went from an active Twitter user to simply having a dozen X accounts bookmarked via xcancel. I can live without them.
It is apparent that HN users do not comprehend how useful X is to normal and ordinary people who are not terminally online, and who are not "influencers" and are not "junkies" of social media.
X, and Facebook as well, are homes to companies, politicians, news outlets, government organs, and non-profit orgs. Any public service is going to have an X account to pump out announcements and updates about whatever is within their remit.
For example, you can follow local law enforcement agencies, local and national weather services, your senators and congresspeople, your health care providers, and much more. You can get urgent updates about traffic construction, accidents, and emergency response in your area. You can receive updates from your respresentatives in government, about their campaigns, about current issues and legislation, about good news and bad news.
The network effect here is strong. Even if all ordinary users and individuals decided to pack up, delete their X, and move to BlueSky or Mastodon, the official mouthpieces will stay on X and stay on Facebook. They will be there, and be available to the ordinary individuals. They'll be sending out updates to everyone who follows. That's the utility of X, and it's only become stronger and more robust over the past decade.
So it doesn't matter how the techies feel, it doesn't matter if there is no longer a viable "read-only mode" and it doesn't matter if you stay or if you leave, because the "normies" are there, the "normies" have legit accounts, and they're monitoring the accounts that have something to say to them.
Just so you know – if you are reading this – X is no longer an effective form of publishing as I will not, now or ever, create an account just in order to read something that you have written on there.
X is the perfect named because it describes the core interaction after trying to view something on the site. Lmao.
On Monday 24th August at 8PM EST, we received at letter from X Corp. asking to cease and desist the service XCancel. The service XCancel is stopped until further notice. We are seeking legal advice and won't share more details for now. Thank you for the trust you have put in these two years of XCancel.
Have you considered reaching out to users who actually create and own the material published on Twitter to work out a deal whereby xcancel.com would be permitted to publish their posts (regardless of what the cease and desist says)?
Moves like this are nearly always a precursor to a user hostile change of some kind. I suppose anybody who didn't leave already are likely so rusted on they still won't budge, but people should definitely look for open alternatives at this point.
I don’t get why ai labs and staff didn’t move to Bluesky or something more open.
Grok searching across x/twitter is too valuable to ignore or silo.
X is effectively a high signal comment layer for the entire internet + quasi internet (arxiv) + real world.
Same applies to any data silo I suppose, X just seems more straightforward to beachhead.
I think the signal on X has been deteriorating for years. Many valuable communities that existed purely on Twitter have scattered across the internet after Elon's transformation, often to many disconnected small communities across X, Mastodon instances, BlueSky, and reddit.
> I don’t get why ai labs and staff didn’t move to Bluesky or something more open.
Why would they, specifically? There's nothing particularly open about them.
The labs might not be open. But they would want access to data. More open platforms (the web at large, but bluesky in particular has made open access an explicit goal) tend to provide that, relative to x/threads/facebook/reddit/youtube.
Some labs will be able to buy access. Not every platform will offer it. There are many more labs than the big ones.
If X is a high signal comment layer, than X must be able to tell real from fake bot posts while not sharing that info with users.
There's always bluesky, great app and vision there.
And an equally polarising and delusional userbase, like X, just on the other side of the spectrum.
No thanks.
Still though, if I had to pick... I'm sure there's great communities on either really.
Im surprised they let it run for 2 years. Still not going back to X though.
I guess I'll just never read another tweet again.
For the past year or so I've only ever read them (rarely, and only when tipped off about something worth reading from an external source) via xcancel.
Would rather just not read anything on twitter ever again than be forced to the actual site.
Odd move on Twitter’s part. This will only hasten their demise. It’s like a restaurant that isn’t getting enough customers raising their prices to make more money.
Shouldn't be using X at all, even via proxy. Should have anticipated this happening eventually :shrugs:.
Gabe Newell said it eloquently about gaming piracy that it is a service problem not a money issue.
Twitter has a UI/UX issue, and instead of fixing the clusterfuck, they decide to nuke sane alternatives. Maybe they live off of people's pain, and without that they can't function.
Interesting times we live in.
I agree with Gabe Newell's take, however it absolutely is _also_ a money issue (which Steam went a long way to alleviating with regional pricing). Median PPP ratios for other continents are: Asia ~2.76x, Africa ~2.76x, Europe ~1.58x, etc.
Currently new AAA titles debut for 60 to 80 USD. I'm wondering what the piracy situation would look like in the USA, if this was, say 160 to 220 USD; because that is what paying US prices feels like to the median person.
sot we dot comm