After declining Twitter engagement, a writer games the For You algorithm, which he suspected was using invisible subreddits via Topics to organize tweets
Read to the end for some really good horse content — I Gave Into The New Twitter Algorithm And I Went Way Too Viral
Garbage DayRyan Broderick
Context & Ripple Effects
By early 2023 the For You tab had become Twitter's front door, and this writer's experiment is one of the clearest field tests of what that means: after his organic reach sagged, he reverse-engineered the recommendation feed and went viral by feeding it what it wanted. His working theory — that invisible Topics behave like hidden subreddits sorting tweets into clusters users never chose — matters because it suggests the feed is now organized around machine-assigned communities rather than follower graphs.
That fits the arc the related coverage draws: a TikTok-style algorithm plus pay-to-play reach has been blamed for draining the network's vitality, while X has simultaneously walled off logged-out browsing via a login wall on tweets and profiles and pushed publishers toward bare images instead of link previews. The through-line is a platform deliberately shifting distribution from people you follow to whatever the algorithm — and whoever pays — decides.
First-order effects
Writers and creators on Twitter now face an optimization problem, not an audience problem: reach depends on decoding Topics-driven clustering, so the immediate winners are accounts that game the feed rather than those with established followings.
Second-order effects
As organic reach gets less predictable, paid promotion becomes the reliable alternative — reinforcing the pay-to-play dynamic that coverage already identifies as hollowing out the network's communities.
Third-order effects
If algorithmic feeds fully displace the follow graph, platforms like X control all distribution, and the creator-publisher relationship degrades the way it did at Meta when years of ignoring creators left it leaning on publishers' content during its video pivot.
The trend: Social platforms are replacing follower-based distribution with opaque algorithmic feeds, turning creators into algorithm-optimizers and making paid reach the dependable channel.
The big takeaway for me is that instead of being an app that prioritizes breaking news content or, at the very least, quickly developing trends, Twitter is now Reddit moving at the speed of Tumblr. What goes viral here feels more like what goes viral everywhere else.
back in early 2009 some of my coworkers (we were bloggers, RIP https://bestweekever.tv/) were skeptical about twitter's purpose and staying power. Then “Miracle on The Hudson” happened and I was reporting what twitter was saying, & had more info than CNN. that's when we got it!
Very informative thread. “Reddit moving at the speed of Tumblr” seems about right, imo. Dispiriting for someone who mostly uses this site for breaking news/a handful of niche topics. https://twitter.com/...
fascinating thread, and confirms my suspicions that twitter is not an “experiencing events in real time” platform anymore. I also used to feel tapped into the news just from checking twitter but now I have to go elsewhere (which is probably good) https://twitter.com/...
So my hypothesis went like this: -Twitter is using invisible subreddits via Topics to organize tweets -Because the For You page isn't chronological anymore, viral tweets have to be evergreen -It helps if they're quote tweets of viral posts -They need lots of replies/a thread
A good example of all of this happening all at once would be the picking people up from the airport discourse over the weekend. https://twitter.com/...
Publishers have cared less about Twitter as a growth tool because Twitter has become less crucial for organizations vs much more vital for individuals. IE, Twitter is (was?) crucial for newsletter writers; less so for fully fledged organizations. But what if you're an advertiser?
.@broderick on how to game Twitter's algorithm and, more importantly, what Twitter is becoming is paramount. Publishers/advertisers used to care about Twitter for potential conversion. That's steadily decreased, and Twitter's purpose is even less clear now https://www.garbageday.…
So my working theory became that the For You algorithm initially launched using accounts tagged for Twitter Topics, the sorting tool the platform created in 2019. It also features tweets liked by someone you follow or posted by someone that's followed by someone you follow. https…
I put together a hypothesis about Twitter's For You algorithm and have used it twice now to get a tweet over 1,000 retweets (which is something I haven't been able to do since last November). *Very sad man who pays for Twitter voice* Here's how I did it...
This account from @broderick of how the “For You” tab seems to work feels: (A) accurate (B) bleak AF (C) completely unrelated to how most of use use Twitter https://www.garbageday.email/ ...
“My Occam's razor assumption is that the For You algorithm was cobbled together from existing parts.” “I can safely say I understand how Twitter works now. It's basically just Reddit moving at the speed of Tumblr.” - @broderick https://www.garbageday.email/ ... #Twitter
The way my engagement only comes from commenting on the latest transphobia of the day, and how on the “following” tab all the sports accounts I follow just never break through, is just so depressing. https://twitter.com/...
Knowing now that Ryan was writing this as a cheap way to test how the new “For You” algorithm works makes this tweet even more satisfying https://www.garbageday.email/ ... https://twitter.com/...
“I can safely say I understand how Twitter works now. It's basically just Reddit moving at the speed of Tumblr. Which is pretty sad tbh.” https://www.garbageday.email/ ...
And, ultimately, it's become even less of a useful place for sharing links. Most of what's in this thread you can read in more detail here in Garbage Day, but I don't think there will be much conversion from this. https://www.garbageday.email/ ...
“Lots of Marvel fans were very angry with me because I'm an older millennial that engages in fandom as a way to critique and discuss topics that interest me, instead of how Gen Z engages which fandom, which is more of a mildly-fascist personality cult.” https://www.garbageday.ema…
So @broderick worked out how to game the Twitter For You algo to go viral... ...but the kind of content this works for means it's of zero strategic use. https://www.garbageday.email/ ...