Ahoy mateys!
We are closing the voting on this topic a couple of days early as the result is already conclusive., Our threshold for passing the motion was for 2/3 of voting members in favor. We have far exceeded that threshold (see below) and have a good number of overall responses, so the proposed policy change has now been approved and takes effect immediately.
Our new policy on Xitter links
- No Xitter links are to be posted on this instance from the date of this announcement.
- Workarounds such as link shorteners and alternative front-ends that resolve to Xitter posts are also banned.
- Screenshots will still be permitted as per the overwhelming number of comments in support of this option.
- Exception: In rare cases there may be a need to verify the veracity of a Xitter post. If this need arises, then you may post a https://xcancel.com/ version of the link. Please note this option should only be used sparingly and exclusively for fact-checking purposes.
We will begin communicating this instance policy change to all our users today.
Please try to be helpful to anyone who accidentally posts a Xitter link who may not yet be aware of the policy change, and/or feel free to report in the usual way.
N.B.: For the loopholers - by “Xitter links” we mean any links to content hosted on X (formerly Twitter). Alternative Xitter front-ends are also banned under this policy, unless exception #4 applies. Edit: The ban also applies to other Xitter-owned domains such as their photo blobstore (pbs) domain at pbd.twimg.com
Thanks to everyone involved for participating in the vote!
**The final tally is as follows: **
- For:
(2), 
(7), 
(5), 
(3), 
(2), 
(1) - Against:
- Local Community: +2.6
- Outsider sentiment: Very Positive
- Total: +22.6
- Percentage: 100.00%
To break this down a little differently:
- Home instance users voted 93% in favor of the proposal (284/307)
- External instance users voted 97% in favor of the proposal (70/72 note: these are not counted, but good to know)
- Donating and vouched for users voted 100% in favor of the proposal (20/20 votes).
Gotcha, sorry, that is my bad for assuming bad intentions. I dislike like confrontations that are unproductive.
I am not enthusiastic about the wording of rarely and sparingly for the alternative front end so I still feel pretty dissatisfied with the new rules. I was ok with not linking directly to twitter, just needed a way to see tweets alternatively like in archive or an alternative front end. I’ve seen places where fake tweets are the norm and people don’t know if something is real or not, I want to prevent that. To do that, the alternative front end would need to be used unrestricted. Also someone mentioned a front end can still be modified (?) so archive would be nice at that point as an additional method.
But I don’t think anything I say really matters by now. It feels pointless to complain about something set in stone.
If you feel like you want to always include a xcancel link alongside a tweet screenshot then I honestly doubt anyone would have a problem with it. The “rarely and sparingly” is just to make emphasize that in many cases it’s not really necessary, like for memes. If there’s any doubt as to whether a tweet is fake or not then I’d encourage you to provide the xcancel link.