Musk about to hide data on posts as site cleanup continues
Elon Musk is on a mission to make X cleaner and more aesthetically impressive even if it removes post data.
After removing headlines from news articles, Mr. Musk this week announced that the site will remove visible data on post likes, retweets and replies, with only view count remaining.
“Those ugly URL cards with repetitive text were making my eyes bleed. So much better now!” he posted. “Next, we’ll remove all the action buttons with their superfluous interaction counts from the main timeline. Just view count will show, unless you tap into a post. This will greatly improve readability.”
X designer Andrea Conway elaborated on the upcoming change by saying the company is working to eliminate the buttons and post counts.
The change could make information gathering on X less intuitive. Users will have to work harder to see if something has gone viral or if it has just a few likes and replies, an issue made worse now that X Premium users have their posts boosted by the site.
Increasing engagement with the site was one of the motivations behind the change to news headlines, outside of improving readability. Mr. Musk wants to stop people from leaving the site and has even encouraged news outlets to post their articles directly to X.
