Users criticized X for distorting NYC reality with misleading imagery, arguing its main appeal is legacy network effects rather than accurate or useful content.
As with many legacy systems, X has traction especially from network effects and remaining real uses for some domains.
But providing convenient examples to help people feel morally superior — whatever the pet peeve, small or large — may well have become its strongest attraction.
I know! I hear such dire concerns from people who don’t live here. And I know how false they are mostly because I was out really, really late and went from place to place and then traveled back through many chokepoints. (Coincidence of other social events plus Knicks, then World Cup!)
And like most people who live here, I could immediately see pretty much everything back to usual next morning, and not that much happened that needed fixing anyway, certainly lighter in ratio than say, UNC/Duke game aftermaths back in Chapel Hill when I was there.
It’s like this for most everything NYC (the mayor, ispecialized schools or G&T, the subway or transit, how rent control actually works, etc — I get why). But many other topics as well! A predictable and structural problem, and yet so many people still think they can use it effectively or casually with just a bit of adjustment. It was never perfect, but it wasn’t this.
I’m just posting reminders, I guess.