I'm thinking of removing Twitter links and all mention of the Metal Storm Twitter account from the site.

Elon is a right-wing nutjob, Twitter's remaining community is mostly toxic nazis, and I don't want to expose our users to their tracking on MS any longer.

But I don't want to do this without warning, and if people actually actively use the social buttons we have on articles and such, instead of just copying the URL, I guess here's the place to speak up.

I would actually like to remove Facebook as well, given that it's mostly used by boomers these days, but I feel like we have a group of users who still use it. But I would be interested if that includes any of the functionality included in MS. Because if not, I would prefer to remove that as well.

Basically I just want to see how people feel about this stuff in 2024.

Don't know about other countries, but I saw a chart yesterday showing the most used social media sites in Australia. Facebook was the top by a very large margin, followed by Instagram, then another large-ish margin between it and Twitter, with Pintrist just behind Twitter. So Facebook's still pretty popular here.
I did see spikes on the chart showing Instagram and Pintrist going up the same time as Twitter had a big dip, which I assume was when Musk bought it.

Written by M C Vice on 11.04.2024 at 23:51
Don't know about other countries, but I saw a chart yesterday showing the most used social media sites in Australia. Facebook was the top by a very large margin, ...

I don't doubt that. Question is how many Metal Storm users are on Facebook AND use the share buttons here.

Personally, I couldn't care less about Twitter, I largely agree with your views on the matter for this specific media. As for Facebook though, I disagree, I think it should be kept as I actually think it's useful and don't forget that boomers are still part our community

I don't know about Elon or any nazis, but I've personally considered twitter a nest of lunatics and grifters for a long time now even before Elon bought it. Yeah, maybe the links should be removed just to boycott the rotten platform. I wouldn't probably go that far unless there were actual negative effects for having them or benefits for removing them. If you removed them without asking first, I bet nobody would've noticed anyway.

I've never used Twitter and now that I can't even view anything on the website without an account I'm certainly not going to start. Good riddance.

I agree with Metal Rasputin above saying "I wouldn't probably go that far, unless there were actual negative effects for having them or benefits for removing them".

Twitter has always been completely irrelevant to me, and Zap is right; now that I have to have an account to view anything, it's definitely a "no-fuckin'-way". As far as to what we should do with Metal Storm's Twitter account (I think we have two, and one is for auto-posting news), I cannot say; we may have to discuss this further.

Regarding Facebook, as a Gen Xr (not boomer, but, as Guib said, boomers are a part of our community, especially since Metal Storm is pretty much a boomer platform in internet terms, so let's not be ageist ), I have personally always used it because I follow bands, sports pages, news outlets, and other stuff that is important to me, and Facebook is the easiest way to do that because it allows links, among other things (unlike Instagram, for example). I have never shared anything via the button, because I don't post on social media anyway, but bands may use it to share a review or an interview or something. Almost every band and label out there is on Facebook (even bands with Gen Z members), so I'd be against removing that, since it is also the platform with the biggest amount of active users globally by a vast margin.

Yes do it, don't like that nuttjob owner. I don't like it. Facebook is better, but only good source for metal band related news.

I just pushed an update that removes the social media buttons entirely, and removes the large twitter link in the footer.

I opted to remove all social media buttons, but the removal is reversible if necessary. I want to know if anyone will really miss the Facebook button given that all it did was pass the current URL to Facebook's share controller. It seems like that can be done manually even faster and simpler. Let's see if anyone complains.

It felt kinda weird removing one shitty social network but keeping another, given what we are trying to do here and that one of our goals is not to expose our users to any active tracking.
The Facebook link in the footer remains, as we're still posting our content there.

I dont miss, I have not shared on Facebook anything by ages. I just use fb for metal and other kind news, cool stuff. I don't do anything there, so I don't mind.

The only social media account I have is MS so go for it.

I'd be ok with metalstorm being the only thing on the whole internet in general.

I don't use fb, twitter, ig or any of that crap. But removing twitter because it's full of "right wing nutjobs" is kinda exactly what those nuttjobs would do. What about the people who aren't and enjoy that platform? While politics infiltrates everywhere, this is a music website, not platform for political debates. I agree that NSBM bands should be removed due their radical political views, barring access to twitter seems like a stretch. Removing all social media links seems like the proper action.

Written by nephilim80 on 25.04.2024 at 22:17

I don't use fb, twitter, ig or any of that crap. But removing twitter because it's full of "right wing nutjobs" is kinda exactly what those nuttjobs would do. What about the people who aren't and enjoy that platform? While politics infiltrates everywhere, this is a music website, not platform for political debates. I agree that NSBM bands should be removed due their radical political views, barring access to twitter seems like a stretch. Removing all social media links seems like the proper action.

This change has been long coming. The fact that Elon turned full comic book evil supervillain was just a catalyst.

But as far as the sentiment of that statement: We are first and foremost a community of people. One that is run by people in their free time for free. If we decide that we don't want a social network of nazis and Elon bros on the site we spend almost our entire free time developing, writing for, organizing, and managing, then that's what it's going to be like.

The fact that I do bring this up with the community first, already shows you that this is not how we're running things. The responses to my question, however, told me that Twitter has run its course and is no longer needed in this community. We haven't been able to use our official account or our news account because Elon cut the APIs and the whole thing is completely useless to us. All we did now, is remove their share buttons, that were actively tracking our users and sending their behavior to Twitter whenever they were active on a page. I can for the life of me not understand why anyone would come back days after the fact to argue this should not be political.

Everything is political. This community has members from Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, just to name a few. Every rape or abuse case is political, every femicide and murder, attempted or otherwise is political, every band worshipping a racist ideology is political. As is the music itself, that by its very nature was created to provoke and expand horizons. That is political. Capitalism and the way this music is marketed and sold is political. The fact that some members of this community earn in a month what others make in a year, just because they happen to live in a rich country, is political. This is very much a platform for political debates. It is not, however, a platform for extremism. Hence the ns ban and hence in part the removal of Twitter. Anyone who finds that "too political" likely doesn't have a place here anyway.

I don't think you understood my response or i didn't express myself clearly enough. Removing a social media platform because there's a share of individuals in that platform that we don't agree politically with ends up being unfair to the others whi use it and are not of that political side of the spectrum.
That's why i'm in favor of removing all links altogether, and i'm glad that that was your decision.

As for being late to the party, i just saw this yesterday, thought of sharing my opinion. No agenda.

Yes everything is political, as i said it infiltrates everywhere. But there's also freedom of speech that we need to account for. I do agree that extremism should not have a place in any platform, honestly i don't think Elon and his accolytes fit in an extremist spectrum. Obnoxious, yes. But not exactly nazis or extremists. Basically, what you're saying to MS users is: "if you like Elon Musk, leave". What unites us here is the appreciation for music, either if in your spare time you're a fan of Marx, Adam Smith, Jordan Petersen, Zizek, Elon Musk or the Kardashians. Drawing the line is important, but calling everyone we don't agree with an extremist is not exactly fair.

Imagine logging in a website and getting a message: "if you're a leftist, you're not welcome". Exclusionary behavior ends up creating more conflict. That's just my personal opinion.
I'm ok with what you decide either way, since my interactions here have been scarce.
Kudos for admin MS for us, it's truly appreciated.

Written by nephilim80 on 26.04.2024 at 18:46

I don't think you understood my response or i didn't express myself clearly enough. Removing a social media platform because there's a share of individuals in that platform that we don't agree politically with ends up being unfair to the others whi use it and are not of that political side of the spectrum.
That's why i'm in favor of removing all links altogether, and i'm glad that that was your decision.

As for being late to the party, i just saw this yesterday, thought of sharing my opinion. No agenda.

Yes everything is political, as i said it infiltrates everywhere. But there's also freedom of speech that we need to account for. I do agree that extremism should not have a place in any platform, honestly i don't think Elon and his accolytes fit in an extremist spectrum. Obnoxious, yes. But not exactly nazis or extremists. Basically, what you're saying to MS users is: "if you like Elon Musk, leave". What unites us here is the appreciation for music, either if in your spare time you're a fan of Marx, Adam Smith, Jordan Petersen, Zizek, Elon Musk or the Kardashians. Drawing the line is important, but calling everyone we don't agree with an extremist is not exactly fair.

It's one thing trying to try to create an inclusive space and suggesting people to leave if they don't want to play by community rules and another to exclude people outright. Twitter, as I said, is beyond saving. It has pretty much only Elon bros and the crowd they draw while the rest of the world, including several large international companies have moved on and cut ties with the platform. I'd say we're late to the party there and, while appreciating your argument, don't really see how this is an exclusionist move.

Conservatives have all the platform they need in the world right now and trying to build something where people can even bring themselves to not outright judge a possible victim of harassment based on their gender is hard enough as it is. When we took over the site, we knew we'd have to follow the resilient society path. Meaning we'll tolerate opinions and views until we feel like they might hurt the community. That kind of "both sides are equally valid" reasoning is currently doing a lot of damage to societies all around the world and I wouldn't want to work on a platform where smaller, more careful, or simply less often heard views are drowned in a flood of set phrases, rage baiting, and polemic distraction.
That's also where the argument that we have to take freedom of speech into account stops working. We simply don't. Freedom of speech has a very simple definition that only applies to persecution by a state actor. This is not that, this is accountability. We are working on and constantly re-working community rules and if people continue to violate them, despite warnings and explanations, they will be removed for the good of the community.
We're trying to be as transparent as possible there and even warn people out in the open to make it clear where the lines are. But at the end of the day, this is not a democracy. This is a managed, moderated community. Freedom of speech does not apply here.

I was one of the few people who voted "No". For most bands, as well as non-music artists in general, Twitter serves as a promotional vehicle telling fans about upcoming tour dates, new merchandise being released, new music, etc. These bands obviously don't have millions of dollars to spend on advertising, so for many, Twitter is a site that allows bands to promote themselves for free.

I just clicked on Enslaved's Twitter page, for example, and the first five posts are them promoting a limited-edition vinyl, new tour dates, and new t-shirts available. I wouldn't have known about any of these if not for Twitter.

Ultimately, it's your website and you can do whatever you want, but I do think there are benefits to a site like Twitter, even if it is a cesspool of stupidity for the most part.

Written by Frasier Crane on 03.05.2024 at 12:45

I was one of the few people who voted "No". For most bands, as well as non-music artists in general, Twitter serves as a promotional vehicle telling fans about upcoming tour dates, new merchandise being released, new music, etc. These bands obviously don't have millions of dollars to spend on advertising, so for many, Twitter is a site that allows bands to promote themselves for free.

I just clicked on Enslaved's Twitter page, for example, and the first five posts are them promoting a limited-edition vinyl, new tour dates, and new t-shirts available. I wouldn't have known about any of these if not for Twitter.

Ultimately, it's your website and you can do whatever you want, but I do think there are benefits to a site like Twitter, even if it is a cesspool of stupidity for the most part.

I fully agree with you, but still, I voted "Yes". And that's not even a contradiction.
Confused? Yes, I was initially too, because I also originally understood that the poll was about deleting all Twitter links. However, it's only about the link to Metal Storm's own Twitter account and the "tweet/share on ..." icons below each article. They have already disappeared, and hardly anyone will have even noticed.

The social media links in the band profiles are all still there, and we don't intend to change that.

Written by Frasier Crane on 03.05.2024 at 12:45

I was one of the few people who voted "No". For most bands, as well as non-music artists in general, Twitter serves as a promotional vehicle telling fans about upcoming tour dates, new merchandise being released, new music, etc. These bands obviously don't have millions of dollars to spend on advertising, so for many, Twitter is a site that allows bands to promote themselves for free.

I just clicked on Enslaved's Twitter page, for example, and the first five posts are them promoting a limited-edition vinyl, new tour dates, and new t-shirts available. I wouldn't have known about any of these if not for Twitter.

Ultimately, it's your website and you can do whatever you want, but I do think there are benefits to a site like Twitter, even if it is a cesspool of stupidity for the most part.

I am sorry but best way whit out log in to get all such information is Facebook. Much better as X and insta together.