What's up with Twitter's sports explore tab?
The sports explore tab on Twitter, once essential for fans, has appeared buggy and slow lately, rendering it all but useless. That's a big problem for Sports Twitter.
I have regularly relied on Twitter for sports information and for tracking games in real time. I wrote an entire article for Mashable about using the explore tab and conversation around games to track the NBA as a casual fan. I wrote about the sports communities on Twitter and, frankly, there is no replacement for the platform for sports fans. Twitter is the primary place to have a second-screen experience during a live game.
That's why it's especially a shame that Twitter seems to be struggling with its sports explore tab under chief twit Elon Musk's new regime. Now, that's not to say it's totally broken. Yet, lately when I attempt to follow a game on the app, the sports explore feature is either laggy or flat-out doesn't work. For instance, I often use this feature to check the score of an ongoing game or catch up on any recent news. This weekend, when I tapped into the icon for an NFL game, I didn't find a score at the top of the feed for the game — a mainstay feature — and the feed itself was full of brand tweets. Missing was the customary commentary from fans.
I wasn't the only person to notice. Tweets from frustrated users rolled in, especially over the Christmas weekend, during which major NFL and NBA games took place.
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)
I know this feature becoming buggy or less useful isn't necessarily the end of the world. However, it is really annoying for sports fans, especially those like myself who want to know both the score and the conversation about the game. Of course, we could Google the score, but that's not a replacement for Twitter's explore tab because you don't get the gist of what's happening. Now it's not reliably giving the score and, anecdotally, not super helpful in tapping into timely conversation either.
Musk has fired at least half Twitter's staff. It highly plausible things will fall through the cracks and problems will grow before they're solved.
Barring some complete financial or mechanical meltdown, it's unlikely Twitter will die outright. Instead, things might slowly get worse until folks have fewer and fewer reasons to use the platform. For sports fans, one major reason for logging on to Twitter is becoming less and less reliable.