There has the question been raised recently if iNat will leave Twitter, opinions pro and contra were uttered.
As I understand, every thread is closed two month after the last contribution.
This question, though, was shut down after merely a day in existence by the beachcomber in Sidney.
I wonder why? On the first glimpse it looks for me for censurship, trying to avoid discussion.
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It is also possible that they were trying to keep this site apolitical. The twitter thing is really only a US thing for the most part and iNat is more global. And to be honest it is refreshing to be on a site that doesn’t get into all the political stuff.
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Threads do automatically close two months after the last reply, but they can be closed earlier which isn’t an infrequent occurrence. In this case, the thread was “solved” due to a response from iNat staff answering the OP’s question. Solved threads are closed somewhat frequently in general (though some are left open too). As someone who didn’t participate in the thread and wasn’t involved in closing it, the OP seemed to be asking a question directly of staff/iNat’s plans not asking for a broader debate about the merits of using Twitter or not, so a closure once a clear reply was given that addressed the topic seems reasonable.
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The staff response concluded with
Subsequent posts moved in that direction, and so a moderator rightly closed it. There are plenty of other Internet sites where the merits of other social media platforms can be discussed, but the iNaturalist Forum is intended for topics related to using iNaturalist.
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Since I don’t tweet, I wasn’t even aware that iNat had a presence on twitter. Seems this forum does a pretty good job in keeping users informed.
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When this happens
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalist-is-down/34889
(Comments 66, 67, 72 and 73 mention Twitter)
We need alternatives - like other social media too.
We - don’t tweet - we use it as a breaking news source.
(Had to Google to find that thread, since in forum search didn’t find it?)
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There are still logical followup questions, though, and shutting the whole thread down instead of just moderating a few posts seems a little abrupt. Now we get duplicate threads asking about Mastodon again today. (Though I am a grouchy opponent of closing threads anyway-- it seems to cause more hassle than benefit.)
Since Twitter now seems to be flailing around a system where anyone can get a verified check mark just by paying a small fee, knowing which account is actually the official iNat one to follow for news (say if the servers crash again, Diana is right) could be tricky. Bad actors will spoof official accounts-- it’s already been reported happening with airline help accounts, like here. Does iNat have a plan for this?
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Always good to do a quick search before creating new topics. Whether or not a topic is currently open, it’s still visible in the list of latest topics and in searches.
If people have other questions about iNaturalist and their social media accounts, messaging them directly at help@inaturalist.org or starting/continuing in an existing topic in #general makes more sense than continuing here in #forum-feedback.
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