Justin TImberlake is reportedly planning a major solo tour, meaning NSYNC won't be going on the road together.

The development comes after Bryan Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial earlier this week

Hand? Check. Vibrator? Check. Random thought about your boss who you’re not attracted to whatsoever?

This year's MLB All-Star Game jerseys are no bueno, per most of Twitter. Here are fans' reactions to the 2023 All-Star Game jersey design.Every year, the MLB comes out with a new design for its annual All-Star Game jerseys, and every years, fans get ready at their keyboards to unleash ...

'Sister Wives' star Christine Brown and David Woolley exchanged vows in an intimate wedding ceremony

As negotiations towards a new pandemic treaty pick up pace, observers warn of watered-down efforts to ensure equitable access to the medical products needed...

What is your sense of security worth? For me, it’s priceless, which is why I

Twitter has been plunged into chaos in recent days, amid new “rate limits” and rules that actually stop people from using the site. The changes have been dramatic enough that they have led to speculation that they could be the thing to finally doom Elon Musk’s takeover of the social network. What are the ‘rate limits’? It is a somewhat technical term for a complex process that has a simple effect: users are rationed on how many tweets they can see. If people and the apps they use make too many requests too often – in this case for tweets – then the service will stop providing them. On Twitter, the new rate limits are different depending on what kind of user is on: someone who pays for the premium “Twitter Blue” service will get more than a normal user, for instance. They are also changing all the time, with the limit being increased recently. Twitter has long had rate limits, which ensure that malicious actors cannot send huge number of requests to the site and bring it down, for instance. But they would previously only have been hit by people using specific tools, since they were much higher. What happens when you hit the limit? Users will see a warning telling them they have received the rate limit. The site will then stop working properly, because it will refuse to load any more tweets. Why has it happened? The official explanation is that Elon Musk is concerned about how many artificial intelligence companies are scraping posts from Twitter in order to feed to their systems and teach them more about how to use language. In an attempt to stop that, Mr Musk placed the limits to make it harder for that scraping to happen. But there is no proof that is actually the case. The problems at Twitter may well be infrastructural issues caused by the site’s engineering, and its lack of staff, that have made it incapable of serving normal requests. Or it might be a mix of the two. There is no doubt that the site is being scraped, but rate limits of this kind are an unusual way of responding to it, and other sites that are being scraped have not needed to do the same thing. Are there other changes? The other major change instituted recently by Elon Musk is to ban people who are not signed into the site from seeing posts. This is ostensibly for the same reason, since it means that scrapers cannot just gather up posts from the site from the outside. It already means that some things about Twitter are not working as they used to. If someone sends a tweet within a messaging app, for instance, then the posts’ preview won’t show, since the app cannot access the tweet. Will this change how people use Twitter? Almost certainly. Much of Twitter’s value lies in its high-profile and high-commitment users: the celebrities, organisations and big brands who use it to post, and the engaged users who follow them. That is much of what sustains its place in culture, even as it gets fewer users than much bigger social networks such as Facebook. The recent changes have directly antagonised those users. Big organisations cannot rely on tweets as a way for anyone to see what they’re posting, since users have to be logged in; engaged users cannot rely on being able to use the platform, since they are set to be rate limited. What’s more, the recent changes could cause problems for advertisers, given how important it is for users to stay engaged and see their posts. Companies are already using Twitter less for advertising, as a result of other controversies, and that may just continue. Is this the end? Some people have been predicting an end to Twitter since long before Elon Musk took it over; when he did, those predictions got louder and more regular, but they have still been largely wrong. It appears that no matter what Mr Musk does, people keep logging on and using the site. That might well be largely due to network effects: the idea that the value really comes from the number of people using the platform, which also makes it very difficult to create a new one. People might be unhappy on Twitter, but the network effect means they might feel lonely or that they are missing out if they move elsewhere. But all of that doesn’t mean that this time around won’t be the end. Certainly the latest problems have the most obviously problematic effect, of forcing Twitter’s most engaged users to not use the app, which might finally encourage them to go elsewhere. In the end, the discussion is often based on the idea that there will be some big moment that causes everyone to leave Twitter, or for the app to die. In fact, social networks have tended to decline slowly before they are finally shut down; something that might already be happening on Twitter. What are the alternatives to Twitter? Again, people have been trying to replace Twitter for years, for reasons including everything from protests against its content management rules to opposition to its centralised nature. Attempts to create a new Twitter have only increased since Elon Musk took over the original one. But they have almost always failed to take off. Network effects and the relative maturity of Twitter as a platform mean that they have always faced a challenge, and never really met it. As such there are a number of alternatives to Twitter. Notable among them are Mastodon, which is decentralised and has become perhaps the most discussed new alternative, and Bluesky, an effort to build a new kind of Twitter that originally began with the company. But the most promising alternative might be about to launch. Meta is launching Threads this week, an app linked to Instagram that aims to allow people to post text updates that might have the might to actually take over from Twitter. What is happening to TweetDeck? TweetDeck also went down along with Twitter over the weekend. It’s unclear how the two are connected, though they happened at the same time. Now Twitter has announced that TweetDeck is coming back. But it comes with some changes, and the most notable of them is that people will have to pay for Twitter Blue to get access to it. Read More Twitter to stop TweetDeck access for unverified users Meta’s Twitter alternative Threads to be launched this week How Elon Musk finally broke Twitter – and why it might just be the start Twitter rival Bluesky halts sign-ups after huge surge in demand Twitter is breaking more and more Twitter rival sees huge increase in users as Elon Musk ‘destroys his site’

Porn legend-turned-Twitch star Adriana Chechik has revealed that she’s being so badly swatted, she’s going to have to move house. On Saturday, the adult entertainer issued a damning rebuke of “beyond childish” pranksters, who have been blighting her life for months. In a furious tweet, Chechik, 31, explained that the emergency services had been called to her house on 12 separate occasions, as she urged the culprits to “grow up”. “Y’all suck so hard. I’m gonna have to move with this swatting sh*t,” she wrote. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “You are literally taking police who should be helping people and having them swat me? 8x and 4x for firefighters to come is beyond childish.” For the uninitiated, “swatting” refers to a nefarious trend which largely targets streamers like Chechik. It involves a troll finding out their victim’s address or location and then making a hoax phone call to the emergency services, claiming that there’s extreme violence taking place there. The idea is to make the lie sound as urgent and threatening as possible to prompt an armed response – hence “SWAT”. The perpetrator then keeps their fingers crossed that the police will raid the home during the streamer’s broadcast so that they can watch the dramatic action unfold live on camera. And whilst some would argue that swatting is just an elaborate prank, most will tell you it is, in fact, a dangerous crime that puts lives at risk. In one high-profile instance back in 2019, a teenage Call of Duty player swatted an opponent after losing a game. Police showed up at the wrong address, then shot and killed a totally innocent father-of-two. It is also, as Chechik pointed out in her tweet, a complete waste of the emergency services’ time, that should be dedicated to legitimate crises. One of the most horrific aspects of the 31-year-old’s plight is that she was attacked by swatters even as she recovered from a near-life-threatening injury. In October last year, she broke her back in two places after jumping into a foam pit at TwitchCon, San Diego, which left her facing months of surgery and gruelling rehabilitation. She also lost her unborn child as a result of the accident – later revealing that, unbeknownst to her, she was pregnant at the time. And yet, some of her followers – who seem unfamiliar with the very concept of human decency – decided it would be fun to ambush her. In December, as Chechik lay bedbound, she tweeted: “Tell me how some internet trolls are gonna swat a person whose back is still healing from being broken. Some twitch chatters are a whole different breed of small d**k idiots. “The cops know me now. We legit talk about our life because this happens so much.” Based on her latest complaint, the situation has only escalated since then. But, at least, she suggested action is being taken to find those responsible. One of her fans responded to her tweet, saying: “Moving I think would only give you a brief respite from the bampots, and then it would start again. Time to get a lawyer and PI involved and start to sue the c**p out of both the city for having inadequate response to being repeat called and the people calling them on you.” Chechik replied simply: “[Already on it!!]” Of course, this is not a game, but we hope she nails those swatters once and for all. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Funding for drug treatment centers in Oregon, financed by the state’s pioneering drug decriminalization policy, stands these days at over a quarter-billion dollars

Miami Dolphins rookie wide receiver Daewood Davis was released from a Jacksonville hospital Sunday morning after he was carted off the field during the fourth quarter against the Jaguars Saturday night

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 17, 2023--