Sometime earlier today - and it all happened all at once - a number of things happened to the GETTR desktop user interface.
Snowflakes started falling down the screen
User widgets such as the search bar became 100% dysfunctional
The code for internal account settings was savaged
Background
GETTR is an alternative to Twitter and Truth Social. Unlike Truth Social, which David Nunes seems to have limited to the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, GETTR is available worldwide, and has considerable patronage from Brazil and the UK.
GETTR takes a nonpartisan approach. They claim there is no censorship and no slant.
The GETTR backend is impressive. They have wedded a number of technologies to rival that of YouTube and Rumble. Podcasts are very popular. Live streams as well. And the basic designs are good.
The GETTR support team are beyond incredible. This is mirrored in the inspired diagnostic messages the site produces. It's always 'please' this and that, always a focus on user consideration. Even in their brief interchanges with users, the members of this team exhibit the type of class that would make any major company blush. They should write the book on customer service.
The one place where GETTR fails - time and again - is in the user interfaces. And that fail is not minimal. It's a flat drop to the floor. One of the worst we've ever seen.
We're trying to imagine what owner Jason Miller is up to. Is he overly confident in the quality of his teams? In the case of the front end, yes, absolutely. So what's going on in the front end?
Good question. As soon as we arrived, and some people evidently recognised us, they began to tell us about all the UI bugs. We hadn't yet seen any, but we made a note. It didn't take long before the bugs started popping up.
These bugs are often very simple bugs, bugs that happen because there's no proper testing of code changes, no adequate protected environment in which to test them. Regardless: these bugs are too numerous and ultimately nasty to mention here. Suffice it to say we've reported them all.
But that's the thing: GETTR frontline normally expedite a report forthwith. Then... nothing.
Over the past two years we've seen perhaps one bug fix out of the hundreds upon hundreds that remain to this day. 'We're forwarding this to our programming team', write the ever-inspiring front-liners, then it's crickets.
Some things work, a lot of things do not work, a lot of things stopped working. It's not the fault of the frontline. It's not the fault of Jason. It's the fault of whoever's leading that programming team into perdition.
Snowflakes
For Thanksgiving, GETTR offered a parade of Mama Turkey and three of her children who could march either left to right or right to left. A number of other critters also appeared onscreen. Naturally this made computing impossible, but clicking on each one made them go away, at least until the next full page refresh.
Did GETTR have a bash last night? Is everybody hungover over there? Or still drunk? For there's no escape from this snowfall. The snowfall is only found on one's homepage, but that's almost invariably where one wants to be.
And there's no way to turn it off. No notices on official accounts. No new setting. It's just very annoying, in very bad taste.
Settings
Delving into account settings provided no new information about the snowfall, but it was noticed that someone - the same genius perhaps - had been rooting around in there and destroyed a thing or two. Listings weren't completing. And so forth. But it's not for us or any user to point out where the bugs are, especially if it's more than obvious that the programmers typed in the code with one eye open and never bothered to test the code before moving it into production.
Search Bar
GETTR made a good move by putting a universal search bar atop every page. In contrast to Twitter where users must first click in the left column to get there.
The before and after GETTR search bars are depicted above and below. There's not much of a difference to see there. But in the after version there's no keyboard input area. You simply can't click in there, enter a search key there, or anything.
This applies across multiple web clients (browsers).
Stupid Useless Doodads
Below: a screenshot of what can be today’s ambitious dimwit’s lovechild. That this is obscene UI design goes without saying.
Where Is Everyone?
Where is everyone? Normally a GETTR response comes within minutes, if not seconds. But today there's nothing at all.
It'd be another matter if the site worked well, but it's not. Right now, things are a mess, and nobody's home.