As Twitter ditches its iconic branding in favor of owner Elon Musk's favorite letter "X," its open source competitor Mastodon is once again seeing usage numbers soar.

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[–] sundrei@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You could make the argument that all his previous outrageous behaviors were desperate attempts to squeeze more money out of a business he didn't understand. But this... this is unhinged. It's so bafflingly pointless and dumb it's become clear that what was once a reliable dopamine delivery system could, without warning or reason, just... disappear one day. Even the people who rely on Twitter like addicts are starting to come up with exit strategies.

[–] Uno@monyet.cc 3 points 1 year ago

I'd argue as well that all the past dumb decisions, (Twitter Blue, anybody being able to name themselves anything they want, bugs everywhere, not being able to see anything without an account), all of that was just stuff you only had to passively bear. Now, it's a brand change that will at least have you typing something different into Google to reach "X," but it is still an active change you have to make.

If I had a Twitter account that was connected to my business, already had a whole bunch of followers, and was somewhat addicted to Twitter, I could understand having a hard time leaving. At the very least inertia would be a good enough reason for people to stay. But switching the brand recognition?

First off, you've disrupted the Twitter addictions of everyone on the site, because you'd have to know that blue bird logo is associated with a lot of people's dopamine responses
Second off, now that people are already being forced to make a change, there's less opportunity cost to jump ship to elsewhere