I'm not going to download this because there's no web application.
It's clear that they intentionally did not release a web application in order to maximize app installs and thus maximum control over their users (eg. scrape your contacts, push notifications, and most importantly to show you ads).
In 2023 nobody wants to install yet another app, so this is a clever strategy to optimize for app installs. Not going to work on me though. If it's just a Twitter clone only accessible to mobile users, then content quality is going to be low because nobody is typing thought provoking, in-depth analysis from their mobile phones.
Sadly I think that's just you and me. If something requires an app then I'm most likely not going to use it. I can't/won't deal with more apps (or subscriptions).
I actually far prefer for companies to be straight up with their "Here are our hard requirements on how you use our service, take it or leave it" over the previous iteration which was "We're going to do whatever you want us to do until we have leverage and then we're going to screw you". This is exactly the pain point that reddit continually goes through where the company is laissez faire, the shit hits the fan, they change the rules and everyone screams. I'm fine downloading an App, I used the twitter App, one in one out seems fine to me.
Oh and also, the vast vast majority of the time there was no thought provoking in depth analysis on twitter. That's not what's driving engagement in these sites.
latest versions of iOS is actually pretty good about this, at least for Facebook Messenger. It will let you choose specific photos to upload, and the app can only read those. And afterwards you can even revoke those permissions.
Based on reading the Institute for the Study of War's daily updates, I got the impression that they rely a lot more on Telegram. E.g. the most recent post https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offens... has 90 t.me links and 22 twitter.com links.
Since for the ISW folks, following the war in Ukraine is kind of their job, I think that's a pretty good approximation of the two platforms' relative importance in that area.
The ISW folks maps tend to not really reflect reality so well.
Every time someone lands troops somewhere they mark it as a territory gain, even if the area is still ‘disputed’.
It’s deeply annoying - small thrusts and retreats or probing attacks by either side get marked as territory gains/losses, which is entirely inaccurate and usually the situation has changed by the time ISW posts it.
It's clear that they intentionally did not release a web application in order to maximize app installs and thus maximum control over their users (eg. scrape your contacts, push notifications, and most importantly to show you ads).
In 2023 nobody wants to install yet another app, so this is a clever strategy to optimize for app installs. Not going to work on me though. If it's just a Twitter clone only accessible to mobile users, then content quality is going to be low because nobody is typing thought provoking, in-depth analysis from their mobile phones.