Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Jim Calabro

Jake Gold @jacob.gold · 5h

Looks like X is juicing web visit numbers by opening a browser WebView in the background whether the user visits the link or not.

They've re-invented pop-under fraud (allegedly).

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4580...

Tell HN: X is opening any tweet link in a webview whether you press it or not
247 points by stillatit 10 hours ago | hide | past | favorite | 200 comments
Just saw the CEO of Substack celebrating traffic from X/Twitter shooting up thinking they stopped suppressing tweets with links[0]. Actually, this traffic is because now any time you open a tweet with a link, the in-app webview loads in the background, and displays when you press the link.
I run an ecom store that gets a lot of its customers from Twitter. I was also shocked to see my traffic double or triple overnight and thought the algorithm had blessed me and my business. Soon realized what was actually happening. Thought other traffic-monitors might appreciate this explanation.

Meanwhile Nikita Bier is pretending they never suppressed tweets with links to begin with, offering the alternative explanation: "a common complaint is that posts with links tend to get lower reach. This is because the web browser covers the post and people forget to Like or Reply. So X doesn't get a clear signal whether the content is any good"[1]. A bit of a rewriting of history since Elon and his mom both tweeted about how it wasn't fair to use his platform to promote other links/platforms, even banning people who shared profiles of other social networks (including Paul Graham for a period). They suppressed all links shortly after.

[0] https://x.com/cjgbest/status/1985464687350485092

[1] https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1979994223224209709

26 290 1.1K

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 19h

X-Vibe-Check: chill

8

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 1d

linear, x axis anchored at zero

1 1

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 1d

eastern time

1

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 1d

This is a fun chart!

The green is the main bsky load balancer traffic throughput from Saturday night, and the purple is how much traffic there was 7 days before (the previous Saturday)

The spike is due to the world series - pretty incredible! ⚾

A chart of the main bsky backend load balancer request throughput compared to 7 days earlier (the previous Saturday). There's a massive spike during the world series game.

25 170 1.1K

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 1d

ok thank goodness

4

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 1d

but can it help me forget?

1 1

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 1d

can rust keep me safe from my horrible haunting memories?

2 1 20

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 3d

heavily inspired by endless.horse of course

hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorse

endless.horse

1 8

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 3d

good news! endless.dog is live again!

doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog

endless.dog

8 15 78

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 3d

dudes mention Gandalf on average of 2.6 times per day

3 15

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 4d

hard candies make hard people

4

Jim Calabro @calabro.io · 4d

Oh I definitely have had problems with encoding/json. If you’re at all concerned with performance, JSON is probably not your friend, regardless of parser/encoder implementation. But faster JSON is always welcome

1