Starting October 10, 2023, we will be removing all Twitter integration from CoffeeGeek. This means the removal of all the “share on Twitter” and “follow us on Twitter” integrations. We will also be ceasing the posting of any new content on the official @CoffeeGeek Twitter account, starting that day.
This decision has been long in coming, given the increasing toxicity and hostility on that platform. The latest changes on the Twitter platform by its owner, Elon Musk, have accelerated this decision. If you want more of the reasons why, please read on.
Social media has been a big part of CoffeeGeek’s interaction with the worldwide coffee community since 2009; it will continue to be, but through other channels going forward.
For our most interactive social media going forward, we are going all in on Mastodon and the Fediverse. CoffeeGeek’s official account in that sphere is hosted on Flipboard’s Mastodon instance, and we can be found here. If you are looking for lively coffee and espresso discussions, have a question about coffee or espresso, feel free to join us and start the conversation!
And as always, I really appreciate it whenever you choose to share our content with others via your own social media channels. It helps immensely, and is the kind of promotion for a content-driven website like ours that simply cannot be bought.
We’re looking at ways to make sharing on alternative platforms like Mastodon, Threads, Spoutible and other venues easier. For now, you have the option of just cutting and pasting our URL to a post you make on these platforms.
So, why are we using Flipboard’s Mastodon Instance for CoffeeGeek? Because we also maintain a popular and ongoing Flipboard Magazine, called CoffeeGeek’ery.
The goal of this magazine is to promote and showcase excellent coffee and espresso related content from all over the Internet (not just CoffeeGeek’s own content). We make sure everything posted is real and honest long form content from actual people who love coffee. That means you won’t find any AI-generated fluffery, any vendor-written reviews, no pay-for-play reviews and articles, and no quick hit video reviews. If you want a daily stream of interesting, fresh and real long form content regarding coffee and espresso, consider signing on as a (completely free!) subscriber.
Not on Mastodon? We also maintain social media accounts with daily postings on Instagram (find us here), Facebook (our main account), and Threads (Instagram’s new Twitter clone).
As the social media sphere continues to fragment and decentralise, you can also find CoffeeGeek on the following platforms, though not with the same level of activity and interaction as our Mastodon account:
- Pixelfed (a decentralized network version of Instagram)
- Blue Sky Social
- Post.News
- Spoutible
Twitter Has Become too Toxic and Dangerous
Elon Musk has given us many reasons to walk away from Twitter, but the real reason we are no longer going to promote that platform or participate on it is because it has become too too toxic and dangerous on too many levels. The platform no longer presents companies like ours a venue to engage in friendly and respectful interactions. The amount of vitriol, bigotry, racism, anti-LGBTQ, anti immigrant, anti Jewish commentary, and all the conspiracy theories, many of which are amplified by the current owner, has increased beyond what we feel comfortable with.
The most recent change instituted by Mr. Musk is the final straw, but by no means the most important reason for us leaving the platform. This latest changes are putting you and anyone using the platform at risk to malware, spyware, phishing attempts and other ways to cause you risk on the Internet.
Twitter’s Decent into Spam Advertising
Just in the past day or so (as of this post date), Twitter has rolled out a new type of advertising: chumbox-style ads. These ads do not have any indication they are ads. There is no way to tell who the advertiser is. There is also no way to report or flag a bad-intentions ad in this format. They could very well host links to malware or other phishing style websites, and there’s no way for Twitter users to report these.
Mashable has more details on these ads.
With Twitter’s traditional revenue tanking, and traditional advertisers leaving en masse because of Mr. Musk’s actions and management, all the owner of Twitter can do, it seems, is work out deals with these chumbox, spammy, click bait advertisers at this point.
I’m not sure about your company or business, but I certainly do not want our company’s tweets to share the same timelines as these spammy, stealthy, potentially grisly or pornographic, unreportable ads.
Twitter’s Card System and Trusting URLs
For a long time, Twitter had what is called a “card” system for hyperlinks posted to the platform. If websites structured their HTML properly, Twitter (along with Facebook and other platforms) would display a “card” showing the identifying image for the content piece, the content’s title, and content’s leading text (or introduction). This showed you, the user, valuable information in deciding whether or not to click a link someone has tweeted to their Twitter account.
Basically three things used to be clickable in a tweet: a URL (or “card” if the linked-to website serves that information); photos and videos posted in a tweet (usually to enlarge the photos and play the videos); and hashtags.
Mr. Musk has decided to take away one of those three elements that can be clicked. He has chosen to eliminate the display of cards (or URLs) in tweets; instead, if someone tweets out a url link, all Twitter will display now is an image (if that website serves an image associated with the URL). All context is gone (unless the person writes out the title and information in the tweet, before the URL).
Worse still, millions of Twitter users are used to how images work on Twitter: if you see an image, you may automatically click it to see the full size image. Now, it’s hard to tell apart clickable, enlargeable images, and clickable images that replace a URL.
Mr. Musk has made this decision because Twitter’s traffic has fallen through the floor since he took over the company, and he needs to keep people on the platform, scrolling through tweet after tweet, to appease the banks and investors who fronted the $44 billion used to buy the platform. He believes removing card information will keep people on Twitter, scrolling on and on.
Regardless, this decision opens up the real possibility a Twitter user could be tricked into visiting a malware or phishing site, when they thought they were just clicking an image to enlarge it.
This, for us, is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. We’ve already scaled back our Twitter usage at the beginning of this year. Now, our participation on that platform will end on October 10, 2023.
Other Reasons CoffeeGeek is Removing Twitter
Long before Mr. Musk came along, Twitter was in serious decline in terms of both participation and trust. Mr. Musk’s takeover has just accelerated this decline.
The traffic our website gets from Twitter has dropped over 95% (a rough estimate) since 2015. Active participation amongst coffee folks on Twitter has similarly collapsed (and moved elsewhere online). Other elements of Twitter as to how it pertains to our website have also declined greatly. In 2015, we could count on our new content articles being “shared” by as many as 300-500 people in the first week, on Twitter by readers using our “share” buttons we put on articles on this website. Today, it is very rare that we even see a single “share” tweet whenever new content is posted to CoffeeGeek.
(As an aside, we always appreciate when our readers share our content via these links, and we’ll still maintain share buttons for Facebook, Reddit, Telegram, and other platforms, so hopefully you will continue to use them to help promote what we write and publish).
In that same time span of 2015 to 2023, vitriolic and combative discussions have increased substantially on Twitter with our account. We try to keep our Twitter account 100% coffee related, but even then, we’ve seen an increase in denigrating comments in replies to some of the content we post.
Lastly, and much more important than any of the other elements listed above, Twitter has become a platform that not only hosts an increasing number of racists, bigots, anti-LGBTQ, and anti immigrant voices, but Mr. Musk is actively amplifying these voices, and I cannot be a part of that platform any longer while this continues. Any participation I have on that platform going forward feels like an implicit endorsement of Mr. Musk’s actions and amplifications, and all the loud voices he has given purchase to.
For these reasons, we are shuttering our Twitter Account, @CoffeeGeek. I won’t close or delete it, because I do not want some bad-actor type to gain that handle and impersonate us, or drive people interested in coffee to questionable or downright illegal content and websites. But after October 10, 2023, we will no longer be posting to Twitter or participating there, including in direct messages.
If you are still an active user of Twitter, first, I apologise for us leaving the platform, but I also encourage you to leave the platform for better social media providers, for the exact same reasons we are abandoning Twitter. Mastodon, while more technical and less “adopted” is becoming very vibrant and engaging. Find a good instance to join, and take part in some fresh coffee conversations!
And… if you like any article posted to CoffeeGeek, please consider sharing the URL on Mastodon or your social media network of choice. It helps us in ways you may not even realise!
Mark has certified as a Canadian, USA, and World Barista Championship Judge in both sensory and technical fields, as well as working as an instructor in coffee and espresso training. He started CoffeeGeek in 2001.
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Mark Princehttps://coffeegeek.com/author/markprince/
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Mark Princehttps://coffeegeek.com/author/markprince/
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Mark Princehttps://coffeegeek.com/author/markprince/
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Mark Princehttps://coffeegeek.com/author/markprince/
4 Responses
bravo! twitter in its current state is intolerable in the worst sort of way, but it won’t take too many brands and influencers truly abandoning it for it to collapse — and for better things to emerge in its place.
Disappointing. I understand you want to manage your brand and avoid comments and discussions that are controversial, but being around people with ideas you don’t like is part of being in the real world. The world won’t get any better by cloistering off and pretending things are otherwise.
Hi Jordan.
Just today, Mr. Musk promoted two different anti-semite accounts. Directly. I cannot be a part of a platform where the owner does these kinds of things. Also, I live in Canada, where the right to free speech does not include hate speech. I fully agree with those laws, and am very appreciative that they are in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I couldn’t agree more. You made the right choice.