Sunday 16th March 2025

Rather than continue to fight the X algorithm, I have decided to finally abandon my account there.

Topics:

• Rather than continue to fight the X algorithm, I have decided to finally abandon my account there. Let me explain why.
• Back in December of 2024, I wrote a blog entry explaining the reasons why I would not be renewing my Premium+ subscription on X. Ref: https://techleader.pro/a/672-I-will-not-be-renewing-my-X-Premium+-subscription
• My main reasons were the following:
  1. My X feed not being fully ad-free does not bother me.
  2. The reply boost is only relevant if you post a lot of replies to big accounts. I stopped doing this when I realised it was not worth the effort.
  3. I have this techleader.pro blog since 2001 for writing articles, and have no reason to switch to X for blogging.
  4. Radar is a genuinely confusing product that I tried to use only once.
• I also provided some suggestions in that blog entry of what would draw me back to paying for a Premium+ subscription, check out the blog entry for those.
• Recently, my frustration with X has been increasingly dramatically:
  1. The For You algorithm suggests posts to me that are of little or no interest, and some are genuinely horrifying. Definably not "For Me".
  2. In spite of having roughly nine thousand followers, my engagement is terrible. Most of my followers no longer see my posts thanks to "For You" becoming the default view on X, and the algorithm barely recommends my posts there.
  3. X actively reducing the visibility of posts with links in them is just dumb. It goes against the entire ethos of an open Internet.
  4. The fact that if you ask Grok, it will gladly give you the "score" of your profile. What that score is used for is unclear, but if the algorithm is calculating one for each account on X, then it's safe to assume it is being used for ranking.
• The final straw for me came when I recently posted a response to one of my own posts, and the algorithm flagged it immediately with the following warning: "Visibility limited: this Post may violate X's rules against Hateful Conduct".
• Here is the full content of the posts in question, so you can judge for yourself: "My karate teacher drives a Model Y. I'd love to see some crustry try to give him s__t for driving it."
• To further chastise me, X also sent me an automated warning via email.
• Ironically, my post was in support of people who own Tesla cars that are being attacked.
• The threat I implied in my post is purely hypothetical, and not directed at anyone.
• On the contrary, the hypothetical scenario in my post would be an act of defending one's property from the attacks being widely reported in the news presently.
• Again to me clear, it was in response to myself and NOBODY else was mentioned in the thread, so who exactly was I being hateful towards? Crusties?
• I never mentioned anyone my name in the post, or any political or religious group.
• Is this because I'm no longer paying, or because I mentioned a certain car model? Very odd.
• And what ever happened to freedom of speech? That's a joke.
• Regardless, I am done dealing with X. It is not even worth posting links to my blog posts or podcast entries on there, as the algorithm will suppress them for containing links.
• Truly it has become yet another online ghetto, and the best thing to do in any ghetto is to work out your escape plan.
• I will no longer be shouting into the void on X.
• I will no longer be paying for a subscription on X.
• I will no longer be providing training material for Grok via my posts, I have deleted them.
• I am done.
• And not because I dislike Elon, actually I am very neutral on him, but because the service itself frustrates me more than it pleases me. Life is too short for that.

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techleaderpro-2025-week-11.mp3

File details: 9.3 MB MP3, 6 mins 26 secs duration.

Title music is "Apparent Solution" by Brendon Moeller, licensed via www.epidemicsound.com

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