“I am constantly insulted on this platform”
– Elon Musk¹⁾

X, also called 'X, the Everything App',²⁾ Twitter, Twix, and Xitter,³⁾ is the microblogging, social networking service, co-founded by four Odeo employees⁴⁾ on March 21, 2006,⁵⁾ went public,⁶⁾⁷⁾ then it went private after Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition on October 27, 2022.⁸⁾

With the Twitter, Inc.–X Corp. transition,⁹⁾ rebranding efforts started around July 23, 2023,¹⁰⁾¹¹⁾ and concluded with the domain change that rolled out on May 17, 2024.¹²⁾ Over the years, Elon Musk would become a highly contentious and openly reactionary figure.

The service revolves around short-form posts,¹³⁾ which users can attach media, a poll, or a location to, then other users may like your post, share it to their account, or leave a reply if willing. Users may change their timeline by following or unfollowing accounts, except the website pushes the highly algorithmic 'for you' timeline by default, which you can instead manipulate by simply liking and bookmarking posts.

A chronological timeline is available, the 'following' tab, but the website defaults to the 'for you' tab unless you use a third-party extension or client. While 'likes' are no longer public,¹⁴⁾ making 'bookmarks' redundant,¹⁵⁾ please be aware that your following is still public.¹⁶⁾ Everything else is just UI bloat: the annoying news widget, the AI named Grok, communities, spaces, premium upselling, etc.

• Control Panel for Twitter [@controlpanelft]
  Gives more control over the Twitter experience, adding features and general UI improvements.
• Minimal Twitter [@typefully]
  Simple extension to make Twitter minimalist (less cluttered), offers a resizable timeline.
• Old Twitter Layout [@dimden]
  Emulates the 2015 or 2018 layout, on top of a bunch of other features. Manual install for Firefox.¹⁷⁾
• Shadowban Scanner [@keita_roboin]
  A tool that scans posts and profiles to see if their outreach is limited. For the paranoid.

• Privatter [@privatter] - An off-site blogging service with a handful of privacy features, including password-protected posts and restricting posts to only be viewable by followers.
• Skeb [@skeb_jp] - It's an artist 'commission' service¹⁸⁾ that uses a lot of wasei-eigo terminology, so please read the client guidelines and be very specific with your paid drawing request.
• TwitLonger [@twitlonger] - An off-site blogging service which has allowed people to write longer posts since 2008. Due to the recent API changes, it hasn't returned yet.

The platform is rather misanthropic(human-hating) and stress-inducing, causing people to become reluctant to use it or quit, which isn't helped by the character limit making it easy for people to misinterpret posts. A malicious person could easily instigate fights with complete strangers because it's just so open.¹⁹⁾ Despite all of this, the platform oddly persists, even with the whole post-acquisition uptick in blatant reactionary drivel.²⁰⁾²¹⁾

For most of its history, the platform has been a Western propaganda outlet, starting with Jack Dorsey's initial visit to Occupied Iraq²²⁾ and the Iranian Twitter Revolution.²³⁾²⁴⁾ After the FEI fearmongering, Twitter hired a former PsyOp officer,²⁵⁾²⁶⁾ increased FBI communications per Twitter Files,²⁷⁾²⁸⁾ and hired many former FBI and Atlantic Council personnel²⁹⁾ to help curate propaganda.³⁰⁾

Their worst offense was the unbalanced 'state-affiliated media' label³¹⁾ where they consulted the pro-defense ASPI,³²⁾ a think tank with a clear agenda^33)34)35) to be hostile towards Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Venezuela, etc.³⁶⁾ With the 2022 acquisition, most of these operations were torn down,^37)38)39)40) a temporary reprieve,⁴¹⁾ until we realize that Elon Musk is a reactionary stooge working for the government.⁴²⁾

On January 12, 2023, the platform changed its API, breaking third-party clients in the process,⁴³⁾ and began enforcing “long-standing API rules”⁴⁴⁾ to clamp down on third-party clients⁴⁵⁾ since the company was in a noticably tight spot.^46)47)48)49) The platform tried to end free API access,⁵⁰⁾⁵¹⁾ but the backlash caused them to cede a limited form of free API access.⁵²⁾⁵³⁾ Oddly enough, Reddit followed suit.

• Please keep the following points in mind when dealing with the platform:
  1. The platform is not anonymous. This is a basic lesson of the internet, but don't announce or post about your illicit activities on the platform or its app, unless you know what you're doing.
  2. The platform does not always reflect reality. It's infested with bots who intend to manipulate public opinion, but crypto nerds and the politically obsessed are kinda rare to find.
  3. The platform is poorly coded. Personally, I really dislike when people obsess over follower counts and start getting paranoid about the algorithm or how they are allegedly shadowbanned.
• Under the original administration, a verified badge (blue checkmark) application required you to have three news articles written on you in the past six months from 'verified' news outlets.⁵⁴⁾
• The former 2010–2023 mascot of Twitter was called Larry the Bird,⁵⁵⁾ named after Larry Bird.
• Despite their long history of selling user data,⁵⁶⁾⁵⁷⁾ accounts must have a phone number, so users who wish to circumvent this must use a burner phone⁵⁸⁾ or borrow someone else's phone number.
• Some hashtags will have a paid custom emoji next to it. These were called 'hashflags' which first debut for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2014 FIFA World Cup, then stuck around ever since.⁵⁹⁾ With the acquisition, the 'hashflags' were officially rebranded to 'hashmojis' instead.⁶⁰⁾
• In the past, Twitter would suppress trends after some time to keep the news fresh, approximately three days, but activists and bots would start gaming the system by making typos of the original tag trend.
• By 2019, the platform became a home for cryptocurrency discussion,⁶¹⁾ and it seeped into the company.
  • During the NFT craze, Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet for $2.9 million. It's worthless.⁶²⁾⁶³⁾
  • In an October 2022 report, it was reported that 13% of Twitter was NSFW content, supposedly next to cryptocurrency, but the report curiously did not provide an estimate for this.⁶⁴⁾
  • Binance reportedly gave $500 million to Elon Musk,⁶⁵⁾ which makes up 1.13% of their $44 billion.
• You can always mute people if you don't want to give them the satisfaction of being blocked. :V
• If you applied for the gold checkmark, intended for businesses and verified organizations,⁶⁶⁾ please be aware that your application may be denied and they will not refund your $1,000.
• With the Japanese community, “FF-gai kara shitsureishimasu” (FF外から失礼します), or “FF-gai” (FF外) for short, is an overly polite preface for “neither of us follow each other, so pardon my intrusion.”

• Bluesky - An independent initiative that later became a Twitter alternative.
• 'State-affiliated media' label - A former feature that was in use from 2020 to 2023.

• Twitter (X) - The front page of Twitter.
  • @X, @Support, @XEng, @API - A handful of official accounts to keep an eye on.
  • X Developers - The official forum for API development.
• Nitter - The alternative, privacy-focused front-end. It was sadly discontinued around 2024.⁶⁷⁾⁶⁸⁾
  • X Cancelled (xcancel.com) - One of the few working forks of Nitter.
• Twitter Shadowban Test and Shadow Bird - A tool for the extremely paranoid.