YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Shitter – A Nitter Fork

118 points eustoria 2 hours ago 69 comments

BLKNSLVR 2 hours ago | parent

I thought it should be called Xitter, but pronounced Shitter.

weatherlite 2 hours ago | parent

What the hell is this Xit

dewey 2 hours ago | parent

Exit Twitter

leoc 1 hour ago | parent

Out, damnéd xit! out, I say!

lioeters 1 hour ago | parent

Xittier, a better Xwitter alternative

hmokiguess 2 hours ago | parent

can someone explain to me how these things keep popping up and disappearing and how are they able to just spin them up at will somehow?

AdmiralAsshat 2 hours ago | parent

I assume the source code repo is still up somewhere, so I assume it's the domains that are being taken offline, not the code, and anyone can then trivially spin up their own instance.

yoavm 2 hours ago | parent

What do you mean by "how"? The code is freely available, you can spin it up at will too in just a few minutes. When they disappear, sometimes it's because the maintainer doesn't want the headache, and sometimes it's because a they're threatened to remove it.

hmokiguess 2 hours ago | parent

I guess I never bothered reading the code so for whatever reason I assumed it required some extraordinary circumvention to host it that isn't very accessible

what you're saying, if I understand correctly, is that self-hosting this is trivial then

so does that mean I could run my own local instance and never get it taken down since traffic would be negligible? why do people opt to host these for others over teaching how to run your own for example?

fcarraldo 1 hour ago | parent

Because it isn’t magic, there’s still Twitter auth required https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/blob/master/src/auth.nim

Every individual running their own instance would be the equivalent of every individual having their own Twitter account, which defeats the purpose.

cassianoleal 1 hour ago | parent

We need a multiplexer in front of all these instances. One that works like a load balancer, health checking the individual instances and adding/removing them from the pool automatically. That would allow people to create new accounts, serve their own instance and attach them to the muxer.

progval 1 hour ago | parent

That's https://xxcancel.com/

Vaushite 37 minutes ago | parent

And https://twiiit.com/

causesothere 1 hour ago | parent

Well, not totally. It's read only, which changes how people engage. It also lets you control ordering and presentation. It also lets you hide ads.

pamcake 1 hour ago | parent

> what you're saying, if I understand correctly, is that self-hosting this is trivial then

Yes. It comes encouraged.

> so does that mean I could run my own local instance and never get it taken down since traffic would be negligible?

Yes, unless the other end forbids it and really cares about controlling clients. If they do and manage to detect that you are using alternative client they could block based on that. In times where that happens and there are client devs who care, it becomes a cat-and-mouse.

Vaushite 37 minutes ago | parent

Yes all of that. I think it's unwise to share details here, because X's anticircumvention team are reading HN.

grimgrin 2 hours ago | parent

see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49571634 "Nitter has more working instances than before the takedowns"

many working instances right now: https://codeberg.org/shitter/shitter/wiki/Instances

zImPatrick 22 minutes ago | parent

also https://status.d420.de/

assimpleaspossi 1 hour ago | parent

No professional would stoop so low as to name any project such a thing. And HN should never post such low class gutter language.

valicord 1 hour ago | parent

Sarcasm?

assimpleaspossi 1 hour ago | parent

Absolutely not! Such low life gutter talk is not acceptable in polite society and shouldn't be allowed in any professional atmosphere. Or am I again trying to elevate HN?

satvikpendem 1 hour ago | parent

I laughed.

causesothere 1 hour ago | parent

Peepee poopoo.

Maybe your cultural values aren't my cultural values. Maybe you need to consider who you are excluding by suggesting that using a curse word is unacceptable?

Cursing has a long tradition in lower economic class culture, in some minority cultures, in queer culture, heck in mainstream cultures worldwide we say "shit", etc. You want them all to conform to your one view of how professionals should be? The curse word isn't directed at you, it isn't directed at anyone you know, or even at a person.

No, I think maybe I'd rather live in a world where people are colorful, use language that's authentic to them, and include more people in the dialog.

es1kl 1 hour ago | parent

Cursing in a comment is fine. Expecting people to use a tool, perhaps daily, named after a curse word is different.

causesothere 1 hour ago | parent

No one is expecting anyone to use a tool. Someone is offering a tool. Fork it and rename it. What a load of nonsense "expect".

cwnyth 32 minutes ago | parent

Dude created his account 30 minutes ago. He's just a cowardly troll, probably paid by Twitter.

assimpleaspossi 1 hour ago | parent

>>Maybe you need to consider who you are excluding by suggesting that using a curse word is unacceptable?

I am. Thus the complaint. I would think the general audience here is of a higher caliber than low-class cultures whose values and education can't rise above profanity.

causesothere 1 hour ago | parent

Ah, so racism and classism it is then. Can't be having those "poors" here on our spotless orange site. Want to say something homophobic and or sexist before we continue?

1ajhg 52 minutes ago | parent

If you fight like that against Musk, he'll win again at some point. Maybe not in 2028 but in 2032.

causesothere 35 minutes ago | parent

LoL, what are you on about?

krapp 1 hour ago | parent

>I would think the general audience here is of a higher caliber than low-class cultures whose values and education can't rise above profanity.

My person in deity "enshittification" is a technical term of art around here, and "Gimp" is both a popular graphics software and a sexual fetish term.

No one besides children and people with low emotional IQ care about such things.

causesothere 1 hour ago | parent

Hopefully this person doesn't see your username! A homophone of "crap"! They'd be scandalized!

BigTTYGothGF 39 minutes ago | parent

> Cursing has a long tradition in

By and large the hacker news moderators and commentariat have demonstrated that they do not welcome those cultures here.

causesothere 36 minutes ago | parent

For sure. This site is definitely not welcoming to everyone. Lord help you here if you are trans.

jimmydoe 1 hour ago | parent

somehow i feel this reflects if not also enhances the cultural position of x.com.

SomeonesAccount 1 hour ago | parent

I made a thing that uses Nitter to have a revchron timeline of people in the tech space. No algorithm, every post shows up (unless you filter out an account). Feedback is appreciated: https://techtwitter-lime.vercel.app

DavCreator 1 hour ago | parent

Would love to redirect more often to shitter instances with https://xxcancel.com. But there seems to be a bug loading images (e.g. profile pictures or attached pictures to tweets) in Firefox.

Example: https://shitter.thepixora.com/search?f=tweets&q=elon+musk

Wont show any pictures in Firefox for me. Works in Chrome. Can this be fixed? Thank you!

ibejoeb 1 hour ago | parent

It doesn't proxy the images, so they won't load with enhanced tracking protection enabled.

wolvoleo 6 minutes ago | parent

I wonder if a bridge could be built that would bridge the few accounts that still matter on X to something like mastodon or blue sky

draw_down 1 hour ago | parent

I am begging these things to use a normal fucking name for once

extraextra 46 minutes ago | parent

LOL

Vaushite 36 minutes ago | parent

What would you consider a normal name, though? Alternative Twitter Front-End? It'd be taken down for trademark infringement.

moopie 1 hour ago | parent

There’s really no reason to bother with social networks owned by literal far right supporters

add-sub-mul-div 1 hour ago | parent

For someone who's been on Twitter for a long time, these alternatives function as a good off-ramp that's easier than quitting entirely and abruptly. I deleted my account a few years ago knowing I'd still be able to see some of the content without viewing their ads or contributing my own content.

afpx 1 hour ago | parent

Not a very helpful comment for someone not in the know. I couldn't find anything political on their landing page.

lambda 43 minutes ago | parent

This tool is for accessing Twitter/X, owned by Elon Musk, a far right billionaire.

afpx 24 minutes ago | parent

oh the parent comment sounded like a criticism of shitter, not x

stronglikedan 55 minutes ago | parent

Of course there is, don't be silly. There's also no alternative at the moment, or for the foreseeable future. Sure, there's some knockoffs that try hard, but they're still jokes.

Vaushite 39 minutes ago | parent

What's the reason?

cwnyth 37 minutes ago | parent

You forget that Twitter is just a joke.

smith7018 54 minutes ago | parent

I generally agree but I'm still frequently linked to X and I'm either unable to view the content because I don't have an account or I don't click because I don't want to visit the site. These services allow me to access the user content without having to go through X, itself. I wish hackers/the tech industry moved off of X like most users but here we are.

moomin 43 minutes ago | parent

I've reached the point where I go "If it's on Twitter I don't need to know". We'll all reach that point eventually.

sureMan6 35 minutes ago | parent

It's not the fault of the users when there's no viable alternative

Bluesky is founded by the same founders of Twitter and is not open and has ridiculous policies, Mastodon is the same, even less popular and even more tyrannical

So the choice for most users, including myself, is tightly moderated spaces run by awful people, or a website run by a literal Nazi, but that at least doesn't ban me on sight

The Musk twitter acquisition (and the sieg heil at the inauguration) were pivotal moments where a good alternative could've surfaced but instead we got twitter 2.0 (and moving from Twitter to Twitter 2 seems entirely pointless even if it wasn't badly moderated on top of that)

Philpax 14 minutes ago | parent

> Bluesky is founded by the same founders of Twitter and is not open and has ridiculous policies

Huh? It is remarkably open and the policies are not really an issue.

wolvoleo 5 minutes ago | parent

Mastodon doesn't have policies. Every instance has their own policies. That's the strength of mastodon.

jjulius 32 minutes ago | parent

>I generally agree but I'm still frequently linked to X...

... so? Being linked to it is not an obligation to bother with it, neither is FOMO.

calvinmorrison 53 minutes ago | parent

What if i am part of the far right?

moomin 43 minutes ago | parent

Then reasons no longer matter to you.

sergiotapia 50 minutes ago | parent

You are the reason Bioware is now dead and scattered to the winds.

moopie 41 minutes ago | parent

Yes, me pointing out that Elon Musk supports far right parties is the reason why EA execs decided to shut down BioWare to pay themselves more

strideashort 31 minutes ago | parent

When you go far left, everything looks far right.

Seriously, we have a problem labeling anything not left “far right”. It is of course by design and has always been (who is not with us is against us). Not that right is any better, but at list they don’t label everyone across “antifa” or whatever.

That said, i do not endorse Musk, especially his infamous gesture.

Steltek 12 minutes ago | parent

You don't need to go anywhere to see that Musk is far right. If you're going to claim otherwise, you're gonna need to bring some solid evidence.

The "left" spans such a huge range right now that to be "not left" is basically far right. A Republican opposing Trump is _extremely_ rare (and usually excommunicates them from the party) while on the left, you have AOC, Omar, etc actively sharing a party with Fetterman and Manchin. Right/far-right was a thing in the 2010's but not any more.

numpad0 26 minutes ago | parent

It's just a gorgeous free lunch tavern if you didn't even understand English through LLM and American right wing politics was just the cash pile for patrons to shovel into the fireplace.

There's some likely made up charts online[1] for country stats of Twitter right now, and Twitter is allegedly 2.5x more popular than it is in the US in the top two countries, which are incidentally known for strong-ish purchasing power and near-nonexistent English literacy.

Musk's ongoing massive self humiliation is largely contained to the US/English speaking space. Other parts of the world with no strong cultural understandings and pathways from the US and its politics, which is quite substantial still, are fine, ish. Things like LLM auto translation haven't made a change to that situation; it only strengthened the reverse of that pathway.

1: https://soax.com/research/twitter-active-users

Markoff 19 minutes ago | parent

Except when tons of gov owned services (police, firemen, emergency services) are using it to communicate with citizens...

hagbard_c 10 minutes ago | parent

In the same vein there is no reason to bother with social networks owned by literal far left supporters, i.e. nearly all the others. Combined these two statements lead to the conclusion that hardly any social networks are worth bothering which is something I can get behind.

nine_k 1 hour ago | parent

Is the code crap? Is it optimized for shitposting? Is it called so to show disdain towards the service formerly known as Twitter?