Users A platform overhaul made some users famous without warning. They’re baffled by it too. Photo illustration/animation by Slate. Photos by Twitter and Getty Images Plus. Among the bugs, glitches, and confounding UX choices that have plagued Twitter since Elon Musk’s October takeover of the company, there’s one particular algorithmic shift that’s rattled many a remaining user: the transformation of the main Twitter stream into the For You feed. Where once Twitter put the tweets of the accounts you followed in the order its system deemed most engaging, the platform now served you tons of random stuff from people you didn’t follow. And some of those people seemed to be in everyone’s feeds. That Twitter’s changes had produced a new generation of “main characters” became apparent in January with the viral fame of “menswear dude,” aka fashion blogger Derek Guy, whose @DieWorkwear account had been recommended to many tweeters with little interest in fashion. It was both a positive and surreal development for Guy: a bigger audience and tons of new followers, but also a lot of cluelessness and hostility in his mentions, ultimately affecting the way Guy approached the platform (mostly with bemused glee). As just one of the
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What Happens After You Become a Main Character on Elon Musk's Twitter
