Here’s my opinion about the quality of English-language tech discussion on the Internet.
| Service | Quality | Tech communities |
|---|---|---|
| Blogs | 3 | Everything, but author population is older. |
| Bluesky | 4 | Nothing |
| Commercial Web | 3 | Android, iOS, Mac, PC |
| Forums | 3 | Tends to older, PC-centric tech, so web, PC. |
| Mastodon | 3 | Limited iOS, Limited Open Source |
| Newsletters | 4 | Business |
| Podcasts | 3 | iOS, tech news |
| Threads | 4 | Limited, Meta centric. |
| Twitter (X) | 3 | Everything, especially iOS, Graphics, and ML |
| YouTube | 4 | Android, iOS, PC, ML |
Not listed, but also a source of tech discussion, are broadcast TV, magazines, and books. I also hear that there’s tech discussion on Instagram, Snap, TikTok and Twitch, but I haven’t tried them.
The net net is that my best tech information comes from:
- Ruthlesly curated topic lists on x.
- Newsletters by Matt Gurman, Matt Levine, Benedict Evans and Ben Thompson.
- Forums like Hacker News and Reddit.
- Commercial tech news sites like techmeme and The Verge.
- Tech YouTubes like MKBHD, and Joanna Stern
- Tech podcasts like Accidental Tech Podcast and Macbreak Weekly.
X is in a downward spiral. But it is still the best site for tech news, especially in fast-moving fields like Machine Learning. I keep my X experience sane by:
- using the web interface with an ad blocker.
- using hand-curated lists
- blocking off-topic posters
- muting all words and phrases related to politics.
It would be nice if the tech communities that are currently on X moved to other services, but so far that doesn’t seem to be happening. The vibrant iOS community that used to meet on X was greatly weakened when it split between X, Bluesky and Mastodon. Now no site has critical mass, and iOS discussions are suffering.
I enjoy the non-X sites that I have tried. They each have their niche communities. They generally have much better UX than X. And they are less toxic than X. Unfortunately none of these other sites have developed significant tech communities for the topics I follow.