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Ask HN: Where did the tech people on Twitter go?

12 points by stevage ↗ HN
I'm not asking "why did they leave?"

My Twitter/X feed used to be mostly colleagues in tech or tech-adjacent (e-research, GIS, librarians, academics, etc), plus a few other randoms that I was following. Now it seems that the tech people either don't post anymore, or have closed their account.

Where did they go? I have found a few, but not many, on Mastodon and Bluesky. Are people just not using these kinds of platforms anymore? Is everyone in niche Discords?

Where do you go for casual interactions with a broader range of tech-ish folk across disciplines?

14 comments

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JohnFen
I don't know where they went. The devs I personally know who left the platform didn't go anywhere. They just stopped using services along those lines entirely. They're an older group, though. That might matter.

> Where do you go for casual interactions with a broader range of tech-ish folk across disciplines?

I go here.

runjake
I can't speak for others but I just stopped. I still hang out on IRC and in a couple Discords but I mostly scroll through RSS now -- or read books.

I briefly scan X maybe once a week, but its a firehose of brainrot and view farming. My Bluesky feeds seem very politically angry and they talk about Elon more than people do on X. I feel for the anger, given the situation in the US, but it's just not mentally healthy. Mastodon is that, but worst -- share any non-mainstream thought and your replies are full of haters. I follow "famous" tech people and engineers, if it matters.

In many ways, I like it better this way. I'm forced to be bored more, and when I get the urge to check X or something, the mess that it is, curbs that pretty quickly.

rocketpastsix
I am in the same boat, however I dont go on X at all. I deleted my account last year for good and dont miss it. BlueSky for me is a mix of people who are trying their hardest in my city to make improvements but also creating a very insular community and people who are perpetually upset (maybe rightfully so) at just about everything. I have a mastodon account but never go on it. I basically read books, play call of duty (or something else low stakes and easy to put down), and watch youtube videos of DIY stuff I need to learn so I can fix things around the house.

I deleted Reddit, Instagram, and Bluesky off my phone last weekend (coming up on day 9 I think) and its been nice trying to readjust myself to being bored and not grabbing my phone.

ungreased0675
Of all the social media platforms I use, X is the easiest to shape into what I want. Use muted words, unfollow and mute engagement farmers, and follow small high quality accounts. If you’re still seeing gas station fights, your feed needs further curating.
Genego
My own blog, and then having conversations with people through e-mail (strangely enough). I feel that if I just am on my own platform, nobody is going to rug-pull me in a few years to come, contributing online to social media has left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't care for the other platforms either.
mvsingh
I still use it. But frequent algorithm changes is making me lose the motivation to post. No engagement. It's become full of AI slop rage and engagement baiting.

A lot of noise only works if you have a huge audience.

VirusNewbie
I went to threads. I'm not anti-twitter, I just stopped getting engagement from real people. I knew many hundreds of real people who follow me, and I know they're active on twitter, but I just stopped appearing in their feeds.
krapp
I follow plenty of technical accounts on Mastodon, a lot more gamedev accounts on Bluesky (which is where most of the Twitter diaspora ended up I think.) Discovery can be a bit awkward on Mastodon (it seems easier on Bluesky.)
incomingpain
from my pov, tech people are still primarily on X. like 90-95%.

Meta's gemma team was on X recently looking for advice on MOE and reasoning for gemma.

Qwen announces on X: @Alibaba_Qwen or @JustinLin610

Basically all of linux and programming happens on X.

discord for sure has discussions. LM studio pretty much only exists there. Reddit is most just dead internet at this point.

Freenode's hostile takeover during covid pretty much ended irc. An official end to the IRC era.

>Where did they go? I have found a few, but not many, on Mastodon and Bluesky.

The USA dominates tech to be sure, so the USA political polarization would disproportionately impact this sure. But it was temporary as mastodon and bluesky declined and everyone seems to be back to X.

cyrusradfar
I killed all social media a year or two ago other than LinkedIn. Was super burned out and it is great outside of constantly getting sent links to platforms I can't see things.

w.r.t. to Twitter - I was early on Twitter in 2007, deleted the account and just restarted my Twitter last week. Thankfully, got my old handle @cyrusradfar.

Folks shared there's a lot of tech folk on there. I haven't engaged yet but am building up the energy to try. Wish me luck :)

muzani
LinkedIn has quite a few tech people. People are less inclined to bully others on a resume site and so it's a bit less toxic.
codneprose
A lot of my friends in tech have given up on Twitter, but I still find a lot of value there. People don’t want to waste time trying to improve their feeds. They’re tired of doomscrolling and just want signal without noise. Twitter can be incredible at times, but it often feels like trying to find a needle in a noisy, sloppy ass haystack. I’ve been experimenting with building a dedicated site for folks who just don’t want to bother. It’s a curated directory of the best tech-related posts of the day: https://www.techtwitter.com
isodev
My bubble is on Mastodon mainly, but also people generally post a lot less than before. Still interesting discussions every now and then. Many moved to chat groups in messengers all together.

For more BuildInPublic/news/movies/music adjacent things it’s Threads.