Grmp

[marycrawford]

Twitter is now choosing to let me see about five tweets from any account before I get a "log in to see the rest" popup. I can kill the popup, but the entire page freezes so I can't scroll, anyway.

You may ask "why do you care, if you don't want to be on Twitter" but the thing is, all through the pandemic I have kept a single Twitter tab open to wenella's feed of wonderful Zhu Yilong pics and gifs and it has been a real mood-booster. Ditto for the links to fanart and Guardian-related content on twitter that I can click on, thanks to @clevermanka and @plingo_kat posting them here.

So I want to be a ghost on twitter, and clearly they don't want to let me waft around anymore. Anyone got any way around this? (I know, I could open an account and that would solve it, but that is exactly what I want to avoid.)

Related news, I can't believe that Zhu Yilong made a Lenovo ad in 2018 that looks like it was meant to snare Guardian fans, with Z1L saying "I promised you that we will meet again" against a suspiciously glowy, spacy background... (If they hired Bai Yu to make the counterpart ad, fandom would have told me, right?)

Edit: suggested workarounds in comments, thanks all! I haven't tried out Incognito mode in Chrome yet (since I use Firefox and a bunch of ad blockers, add-ons, etc) but what does seem to work is deleting all the twitter-specific cookies from my browser. Which I will probably have to do every day, then.

Edit II, brother of Edit: nitter.net is an open source front end for twitter - very low key, type in the account name you want to look at and go. Thanks to @trobadora for linking me to this!

The developer has also created browser extensions - there's the Nitter one, but there's also a more nuclear option that "redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google Maps, Reddit, Medium, Google & Google Translate requests to privacy friendly alternative frontends for those sites". That is the kind of thing I am here for.

Comments

[cyberbrain]

I've got a twitter account, so I'm not affected but my dear friend who doesn't is constantly annoyed by that new "feature." She hasn't found a workaround yet, sadly.

:o I haven't seen that ad! Do you have a link to it? (I only remember the "boxer lenovo ad" :D)

[marycrawford]

The ad is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6jMOqxj5AU

Sympathies to your friend, bah! I hope there's a workaround or Twitter stops nagging people (unlikely).

[marycrawford]

Small update: deleting twitter cookies does seem to work, it lets me scroll, gives me a popup I can click away and then keep scrolling. Which is a lot better than the frozen page.

[cyberbrain]

Great news! I'll pass them on.

And thank you for the link, it's a cute ad ❤️

[yantantether]

I just tried being logged out in an incognito Chrome window and it worked OK - worth a try?

[marycrawford]

Oh interesting, I will check that out, thanks! A private window in Firefox didn't work, but here's hoping.

[trobadora]

It's so frustrating about twitter! Until recently just clearing cookies worked, but it no longer does. I found nitter.net as an alternative - it lets you access twitter content without the twitter interface. Because we need our Zhu Yilong content!

ETA: Also, I thought the same about that Lenovo ad! We need a Bai Yu counterpart!

[marycrawford]

From your lips to TPTB's ears? Bai Yu's ad could start out with "Long time no see"...

I tried deleting cookies and that did work for me just now, but if it fails I will try nitter.net, thanks!

[nnozomi]

I found nitter.net as an alternative - it lets you access twitter content without the twitter interface. Because we need our Zhu Yilong content!
THANK YOU! Love it.

[trobadora]

It's a life saver, honestly.

[marycrawford]

And now that I've looked into nitter, it is pretty awesome (and open source) and I will install, thanks again!

[trobadora]

Right? I'm so glad it exists. (Would be better if it wasn't necessary, but given twitter's fuckery ...)

[mekare]

Ooooh thank you for the link!

[trobadora]

Twitter has stopped letting me scroll at all now, so I'm really glad I found nitter. *g*

[ivyfic]

I'm having the same problem with Twitter. I don't have an account and am not going to get one, but I keep a tab open for a fan NYT Vertex account that posts the solutions so I can see days I missed.

[marycrawford]

Grrr! There are some suggestions in the comments, for now I've succeeded in clearing twitter-specific cookies and getting access that way.

[marycrawford]

Okay, deleting twitter-specific cookies worked for me, but I'd have to do it daily, and there are also browser extensions that solve the problem: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Extensions

[satsuma]

I've been having the same issue & no solutions yet that I'm aware of :/

[marycrawford]

I appreciate the shared grrr feeling! There are some suggestions for workarounds in the other comments, for now I've succeeded in clearing twitter-specific cookies and getting access that way.

[satsuma]

Good to know, thanks! Clearing twitter-specific cookies has only worked for me as a temporary fix but it's better than nothing for sure

[marycrawford]

I may post about this when I have more time, but check out these browser extensions that will kill the popup problem - https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Extensions

[klia]

I'm surprised clearing cookies did the trick. I have the same issue with IG and had no luck clearing website/private data from multiple browsers -- kind of seemed like IG was reading device fingerprint and/or ISP-assigned IP address, even in "private" mode.

I'm really glad you can still enjoy Wenella's feed, though!

[marycrawford]

I am very hopeful about these open source browser extensions trobadora linked me to, that includes an Instagram option: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Extensions

[klia]

Cool -- fingers crossed. I pretty much only sm on use mobile, so... limited options because few or no extensions.

[marycrawford]

Looks like there's something for instagram in website form - https://bibliogram.pussthecat.org/ - "Bibliogram is a website that takes data from Instagram's public profile views and puts it into a friendlier page that loads faster, gives downloadable images, eliminates ads, generates RSS feeds, and doesn't urge you to sign up."

[klia]

Oooh, thanks!

[elenothar]

Me, stalking wenella's twitter page every couple of days? More likely than you'd think. It's always a mood boost. (I have a ghost twitter account that I literally just use to read things, but I totally understand the urge not to even concede that much because urk.)

[marycrawford]

Oh, your icon is attacking me, I am so weak for Z1L in profile (with the pony tail, in B/W, AYIYI 😻) Wenella's feed is good for what ails us, and I wish she had a patreon or something.

[elenothar]

I'm very weak for the ponytail and not very subtle about it - always nice to make other people suffer with me XD

[marycrawford]

I feel like we need to start a support group called Sir: Your Face!

[elenothar]

Membership: me, you, everyone who has ever encountered said face

[mekare]

Haha, true, also yes to the ponytail weakness

[elenothar]

See, we're a whole club already XD

(I will always be disappointed that the only show where he had the ponytail is one I don't really want to watch...)

[mekare]

Yeah, I started the show and then just. couldn't continue....

[elenothar]

I've got the unsubbed Z1L cut, which at some point I may peruse for the visuals, but I don't expect I'll even attempt to properly watch the show (sad shrug)

[marycrawford]

Ooh, can you perchance link me to that? I am also interested in the visuals, and if someone has made a folder of screencaps from it, I want to know :D

[mekare]

I think it was linked to at some point in sid_guardian....

[trobadora]

Too, too true. Also, your icon is excellent. :D

[elenothar]

I use every excuse to trot that icon out :D

[nnozomi]

I have kept a single Twitter tab open to wenella's feed of wonderful Zhu Yilong pics and gifs and it has been a real mood-booster.
same same, and thank you for this post which put me onto the nitter.net thing (I have absolutely no understanding of what this is but as long as it works and isn't evil I don't care). Thank goodness for the blessèd Wenella.

[marycrawford]

Yeah, nitter and the additional browser extension options (https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Extensions) look really cool, and I dig an open source developer. I installed the extension and here's hoping it'll keep working.

[ratbones]

Thank you so much for this post, I have just met Nitter and I am already in love with it. (I'm the person cyberbrain mentioned, lol. I refuse to get an account no matter how often I look at stuff on twitter. Solidarity.)

[marycrawford]

Oh I'm so happy to hear that! 👻 fistbump from me, and long may Nitter last.

[tinny]

OOoooooh, thank you!

I have observed the same problem, and heee looks like we're the same about twitter. The only thing I do is look at single posts other people link me to (so no scrolling required thus no problem) AND look at wenella's twitter.

So far, I just resorted to using the one old twitter account I have, but nitter sounds like a much better alternative!

[marycrawford]

Haha, 👻 fistbump! I am very pleased with the browser extension, but having the simple nitter website available is also very handy for mobile.