The ongoing X and Elon Musk Transgressions Thread

[kermitology]

He didn’t understand what the purpose of verified is. All he’s offering now is visual proof that you’re paying for Twitter blue. It has no meaning. Trevor Noah had a great summary of this. Everyone should be able to be verified to know you’re working with a real person.

I mucked with the birth year on my account and accidentally set it so that I was under 13 years of age. It automatically locked my account until I provided them with photos of my ID, proving my age. In theory that should have verified me.

He’s literally offering a badge to show you pay for twitter like that carries any value.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by kermitology

He didn’t understand what the purpose of verified is. All he’s offering now is visual proof that you’re paying for Twitter blue. It has no meaning. Trevor Noah had a great summary of this. Everyone should be able to be verified to know you’re working with a real person.

I mucked with the birth year on my account and accidentally set it so that I was under 13 years of age. It automatically locked my account until I provided them with photos of my ID, proving my age. In theory that should have verified me.

He’s literally offering a badge to show you pay for twitter like that carries any value.

EXACTLY.

Dating Apps have a verification process on their platforms, for obvious reasons. But to get verified there isn't an actual cost, it's a process of submitting additional pictures in prompted poses. That has value. Just paying for a blue check doesn't.

[kermitology]

Here’s what it looks like with verified vs official. Hank likely won’t get verified because he got in a fight with Elmo.

[JohnnyB]

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk’s Twitter may be getting into the payments business.

The social media company last week filed registration paperwork to pave the way for it to process payments, according to a filing with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, which was obtained by The New York Times. The move comes as Mr. Musk seeks to transform Twitter after purchasing the company last month for $44 billion.

Mr. Musk has moved rapidly to overhaul the social media service, laying off half its work force last week and adding subscription features to boost revenue. A self described “free speech absolutist,” the billionaire has also said he would roll back many of Twitter’s content rules, though he has changed nothing yet and plans to form a council to help make those decisions.

Businesses that conduct money transfers, exchange currency or cash checks are required to register with FinCEN, and to report suspicious transactions to the agency. A FinCEN spokeswoman said the agency does not comment on specific businesses. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Turning Twitter into a payments processor would be a return of sorts for Mr. Musk to his early days in the tech industry. In 1999, he helped found X.com, an online bank that later became the digital payments company PayPal. Mr. Musk, 51, has often mused about incorporating payments into Twitter, saying he planned to transform the social media service into an “everything app.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/t...-business.html

As expected. Kind of been expecting that dogecoin gets integrated into the app at some point too.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Have the "official" checks suddenly disappeared?

[photon]

Yup, Musk just tweeted that he killed it.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1590383366213611522

[Wormius]

He must be an absolute piece of crap to work for.

[photon]

I mean in theory trying a bunch of different things and seeing what works and what doesn't isn't a bad idea.

But usually you want to have criteria to measure the success or failure, and time to measure it.

Otherwise trying different things looks a lot like flailing.

[Wormius]

It gives the distinct impression of flailing. I imagine a poor underling being told by Musk to change this and that on a whim.

It’s bad form to roll out changes in such a clunky manner. I think like Fuzz said, they’re probably going to go with colour, but they’re fumbling their way there. Hell, even shape would work. Circle versus flowery thing.

[photon]

Change the inner icon to a bird for purchasers, the check mark for verified.

[kermitology]

If Twitter was still a public company, and I was on the board with Elmo as the CEO, I'd be asking him pointed questions about what the purpose of this endeavor with verification is? Because he seems to be making a problem out of something that wasn't a problem, and his efforts to solve the problem are only creating new ones.

How does he not understand that he's creating unplanned work with this nonsense. Now Twitter moderation has to deal with trying to figure out who is the real verified account?

And let's say for example, someone creates a Paul Rudd Twitter account and it's verified. Paul Rudd doesn't do social media, so this person is impersonating Paul Rudd and gathers a huge following, now the REAL Paul Rudd comes to Twitter and says: "Hey, that's not me, why is it verified?"

Now if he creates an account he can't be the real Paul Rudd on Twitter. This was jokingly pointed out to Elmo when other verified accounts impersonated him and his only understanding of the problem was to get mad at the people who are toying with him.

He's a moron. This is so simple and he doesn't get it. It's been directly explained to him and he's got the mentality of a child here.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Payments on twitter could be a very good business move. I just wonder if this idea was already researched or reviewed previously? I mean, his buddy Jack was CEO of Square at the same time he ran Twitter. He and the previous board never thought of it?

[Ozy_Flame]

Elon made his second round of money on PayPal. I'm sure he can figure something out.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Elon made his first round of money on PayPal. I'm sure he can figure something out.

I am not a fan of Musk, but I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this part. What I have trouble believing is that he will be willing and able to pick a lane on what Twitter should be. A successful Ad supported model, IMO requires moderation (and connected to this to grow the audience). Subscription might help with the bots, but it might drive users away as well, which I think makes the payment app less viable. Any of which needs to happen with a massive debt load which didn't exist prior.

My main point being that I think Musk greatly overestimates his own talents while also greatly underestimating the prior management/board. This ain't going to be easy.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

Payments on twitter could be a very good business move. I just wonder if this idea was already researched or reviewed previously? I mean, his buddy Jack was CEO of Square at the same time he ran Twitter. He and the previous board never thought of it?

What would anyone want to buy through Twitter?

[flames_fan_down_under]

What would a payment app on twitter accomplish? Square, clover etc are all easy to implement for small business owners. I don't see the utility.

[JohnnyB]

Musk just did a space on Twitter to discuss his thoughts on what they're doing with it. The space had 110,000 listeners in it by the end. I didn't really hear anything that concrete in what I was able to catch, but that's a pretty big audience to pull on an event held out of the blue.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Wormius

What would anyone want to buy through Twitter?

Can off the rails racist hate speech be somehow monetized?

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

What would a payment app on twitter accomplish? Square, clover etc are all easy to implement for small business owners. I don't see the utility.

Become what WeChat is in China

[Wormius]

I wouldn’t read very much into Musk being able to draw a crowd. He could call a meeting about anything and get at least 100k to participate.