--- title: "Twitter tips and tricks I'm reasonably sure I came up with but I kinda wish more people should use" slug: twitter-tips publishDate: 2022-10-11T21:00:00.000Z lastmod: 2022-10-14T21:00:00.000Z tags: [Rant] description: "Warning: Those are kinda involved and features characters you won't find on your keyboard. If you're too lazy to fetch them from a random website I don't blame you I guess" --- ## 1. How to evade bots and algorithmic censorship Use [Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Alphanumeric_Symbols) and you'll be none the wiser. Example: π–Όπ—‹π—’π—‰π—π—ˆ 𝖭π–₯𝖳 It's indisguishable from basic ASCII, except if you're blind and you use a screen reader. In which case I hope you won't mind for the sake of avoiding bots. Which is why _Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols_ has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. If possible, only use them for this exact use case. ## 2. Mention usernames without spamming them with notifications Some people do for instance `@.juju2143` or `@/juju2143` to avoid sending useless notifications to someone on a tweet they know is going to be very popular or they don't want you to see because they hate you but that's kinda weird (also I don't ever mind if you don't do that send them notifications away ;)) Instead, wedge a zero-width space between the @ and the username! Impress your crowd! How do you do that! Here's a few characters that should work: - `U+200B` _Zero-width space_ - `U+200C` _Zero-width non-joiner_ - `U+200D` _Zero-width joiner_ - `U+2060` _Word joiner_ - `U+FEFF` _Zero-width no-break space_ Example: [@​juju2143](https://twitter.com/juju2143/status/1579984904103677953) Again, indistinguishable from a normal mention, except no link, but it's also hard to copy and paste and will most likely break a lot of stuff, so use cautiously. Have fun!