NSF Twitter / X account

[ChrisC]

I didn't see a thread here about NSF's (excellent) Twitter / X feed, so here we go

I noticed that sometime in the last couple days, the @NASAspaceflight TwiX account was renamed from "Chris Bergin - NSF" to "NSF / NASAspaceflight".  So I have to ask ... Is this perhaps a sign that Chris B will be reducing his role?  Or just refining the profile to be more professional, focused on the organization rather than the founder?  Handing off the account ops to a team?

Either way, let me say how much I love and appreciate the NSF Twitter feed.  From the dawn of Twitter to about a decade ago, Emily Lakdawalla (@elakdwalla) was the only account that I followed, in order to get her (fantastic) updates on unmanned deep space missions.  She moved on from that activity, and since then NSF has been my #1 goto for space news.  Obviously that is focused on launchers, so several years ago I augmented it with Dr. McDowell's feed (@planet4589), and then Eric Berger's feed (@sciguyspace), and most recently Jeff Foust's feed (jeff_foust).  I personally don't have a Twitter account, so rely on public web access to read, and those four are enough for me.  I have those four account names memorized to key into new incognito browser windows every time I do a platform reset ...

(and if this should be in L2, feel free to move it there)

[Ken the Bin]

I noticed that sometime in the last couple days, the @NASAspaceflight TwiX account was renamed from "Chris Bergin - NSF" to "NSF / NASAspaceflight".  So I have to ask ... Is this perhaps a sign that Chris B will be reducing his role?  Or just refining the profile to be more professional, focused on the organization rather than the founder?  Handing off the account ops to a team?

Chris B. addressed this on X:

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1862618697895928010

Was a bit wrong to be about me (with my name on it), and better to be repping NSF as a whole on here. Also allowed it to become a verified org.

Edit: Removed diety as an attribute of Chris B.

[catdlr]

I noticed that sometime in the last couple days, the @NASAspaceflight TwiX account was renamed from "Chris Bergin - NSF" to "NSF / NASAspaceflight".  So I have to ask ... Is this perhaps a sign that Chris B will be reducing his role?  Or just refining the profile to be more professional, focused on the organization rather than the founder?  Handing off the account ops to a team?

Christ B. addressed this on X:

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1862618697895928010

Was a bit wrong to be about me (with my name on it), and better to be repping NSF as a whole on here. Also allowed it to become a verified org.

I fully support this strategic decision. Chris has taken an admirable approach by involving his team in this initiative, rather than positioning himself as the central figure. For us, as members, this space is also our home, and seeing a post on Twitter reinforces that sense of identity. This decision reflects positively on Chris and his leadership.

Tony

[ChrisC]

Absolutely agree!  Glad to hear that it's not because I missed some organizational change.  Thanks!

In related news, I see that Twitter / X embeds on the right side of the NSF pages (e.g. news site, forum pages) are working again!  After 18 months of seeing the "holy moly" tweet at the top (the July 2022 spin prime explosion) now I see the latest from today.  Of course I realize that that breakage was caused by the whole X transition, but congrats on finally getting it fixed, whether it was you guys or X themselves.

Of course X itself is still quite broken, and 18 months later I'm still having to jump through hoops (nitter / twiiit / twstalker) just to see supposedly public tweets ...

[woods170]

I noticed that sometime in the last couple days, the @NASAspaceflight TwiX account was renamed from "Chris Bergin - NSF" to "NSF / NASAspaceflight".  So I have to ask ... Is this perhaps a sign that Chris B will be reducing his role?  Or just refining the profile to be more professional, focused on the organization rather than the founder?  Handing off the account ops to a team?

Christ B. addressed this on X:
<snip>

Now, I find Chris Bergin to be an absolute saint when it comes to keeping us all informed on all aspects of spaceflight. But referring to him as the son of the highest authority might be a bit too much praise.

I'll let myself out now.

[Ken the Bin]

I noticed that sometime in the last couple days, the @NASAspaceflight TwiX account was renamed from "Chris Bergin - NSF" to "NSF / NASAspaceflight".  So I have to ask ... Is this perhaps a sign that Chris B will be reducing his role?  Or just refining the profile to be more professional, focused on the organization rather than the founder?  Handing off the account ops to a team?

Christ B. addressed this on X:
<snip>

Now, I find Chris Bergin to be an absolute saint when it comes to keeping us all informed on all aspects of spaceflight. But referring to him as the son of the highest authority might be a bit too much praise.

I'll let myself out now.

Thanks. I fixed it. 🤪

[ChrisC]

A few months ago I posted this in some dark corner of NSF, in response to someone complaining about needing to be a member of Twitter/X to access that content.  Of course you don't, but since Elon smashed up the place in 2023 it's a lot harder.   I then wrote up the following explainer, and today decided it's worth posting to this thread, if only for quicker reference.

If you are trying to look at an X.com post, they do indeed make it hard to do without an account (again blame Elon, as all this broke shortly after he stepped in).  But it is possible, with what are called "Nitter" repeaters.  You take the "x.com" part of the long URL and replace it with "twiiit.com" (that's with three letter i's), and it will automatically forward you to the nitter instance that's currently working (X keeps trying to block them, so they shift around constantly).  It's weird the first time you do it, and then soon it becomes natural.  No question that it's a pain, but at least you don't have to get a Twitter account.  (Examples of Nitter instances include nitter.space, xcancel, catsarch, tiekoetter, and so on; generally you can just use "twiiit.com" to forward to one that's working.)

In rare cases, NONE of the nitter instances will work, and in those cases I then use the TWstalker service, which is very much like Nitter but slightly different.  You take the "x.com" and replace it with "twstalker.com", and as above it will show you the content.  The big drawback of this method is that it's extremely aggressive with ads -- the first time you visit the page, clicking anywhere gets you a new browser window with an ad, so you learn to click -> close -> click again to follow links.  Also there are little popup ads.  So, it's super annoying, but works when Nitter isn't working.

It's all a great big pain, especially the first time you deal with it, but it does work.  And of course yes there is valuable discourse going on in Twitter ...

[eeergo]

xcancel.com also works.

mod edit: yes that's a Nitter instance; post above edited.