The ongoing X and Elon Musk Transgressions Thread

[The Fonz]

Charging $2-5/month would go a long way in improving Twitter. I don't imagine many who are using Twitter to read and/or contribute quality would take issue with that minor monthly charge. The morons on the other hand, it would chase a lot of them off.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Sure.

My guess is they would loose maaaaaybe 20% of their current freeloading userbase, including trolls and users who barely come back.

The majority of people on there use twitter for like 2-3 hours a day. They might balk initially, but they would be back.

I'd actually be surprised if they kept 20% of their userbase.

[Ozy_Flame]

The one advantage to having users pay is that it would cut down on the bot/sock puppet accounts. That said, troll farms are big business this days so who really knows if it would clean up the waters.

Personally I think you should have to be a real person on the end of a Twitter account and verify it as such internally with Twitter through an authentication and verification procedure.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Am I dumb, or would it not be palatable to just charge a 2$ user fee per month across the board and leave the blue check as an actual verification?

You might lose a few people, but lets be honest, who out here isn't paying 2$ to be on a platform most people spend hours a day on.

This would also help with troll farms, it becomes far more difficult and less likely a troll farm is going to be able to keep making bots when it actually costs money to do it.

Kill two birds with one stone?

you will lose most of the user base, right off the top 25% will just leave, at that point the platform becomes less interesting to another 10 or 15% who are there to interact with the first 25%, they will leave a few months after, at this point the platform is unable to charge much for anything as it doesnt have the numbers, it's the catch 22 of social media, it's interest is user produced, as the users drop it becomes less interesting, then something else comes along that's free and kills it.

Like Facebook Twitter is already a generation restricted platform, the kids, basically anyone under 30 dont bother with it much, Twitter is basically a legacy platform that Musk is going to kill by not realizing that when he bought it, anything Trump posts on to his 55 year old followers is going to be repulsive or wierd to 18 year olds

[Enoch Root]

Yeah, I think you would lose a large percentage - more than 20%.

You also leave the door significantly more open to a competitive paltform that is free.

[Enoch Root]

And you could argue that 50 million paying users is better than 100 million non-paying users, but the problem with that is that your advertising revenue goes way down with a smaller userbase.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

And you could argue that 50 million paying users is better than 100 million non-paying users, but the problem with that is that your advertising revenue goes way down with a smaller userbase.

Depends on your goal. If you want a better product, 25% of the users but they all pay is certainly better, but there doesn't seem to be any indication that Musk actually wants to make Twitter better.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by photon

Or just charge a fee to remove ads.. Or still charge for verification and blue checkmark as just that and have a different fee for add remove/premium features.

There were tons of more logical ways to do it than what was done.

The biggest thing I didn't like about his vision of the blue check was that he said the algorithms would prefer paying people, so you'd have to scroll way down to see non-payers' opinions.

To me, this is the easy money solution. $10/month with no ads. I’d pay that in a heartbeat, and I’d imagine I’m not alone. Free accounts still see the ads and Twitter gets paid one way or the other. I’m not sure what the drawback is.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by nik-

Depends on your goal. If you want a better product, 25% of the users but they all pay is certainly better, but there doesn't seem to be any indication that Musk actually wants to make Twitter better.

Define better.

It's a business, and he wants to maximize revenue. If a user fee cannibalizes ad revenue, it doesn't make sense.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Define better.

It's a business, and he wants to maximize revenue. If a user fee cannibalizes ad revenue, it doesn't make sense.

Better for the users and society.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Slava

To me, this is the easy money solution. $10/month with no ads. I’d pay that in a heartbeat, and I’d imagine I’m not alone. Free accounts still see the ads and Twitter gets paid one way or the other. I’m not sure what the drawback is.

But you just scroll past the ads, its not like YouTube where you have to watch them to get to your content, why would you pay 10 a month to avoid scrolling on twitter, I dont understand that?

[photon]

Elon fired the developer that defended himself on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592186302379982849

On one hand I get that challenging your boss in a very public way will probably result in that.

On the other hand if my boss was talking nonsense throwing my code or my team's code under the bus without me being able to respond isn't fair either.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

But you just scroll past the ads, its not like YouTube where you have to watch them to get to your content, why would you pay 10 a month to avoid scrolling on twitter, I dont understand that?

Or install an ad blocker. I don't think I've ever see an ad on Twitter, other than where people are paid to mention/promote a product (which a subscription wouldn't eliminate).

[photon]

Heh..

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592020681688244226

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592208880733663233

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by photon

Elon fired the developer that defended himself on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592186302379982849

On one hand I get that challenging your boss in a very public way will probably result in that.

On the other hand if my boss was talking nonsense throwing my code or my team's code under the bus without me being able to respond isn't fair either.

Did he even say anything derogatory towards Musk? Didn’t look like it. Talk about thin-skinned.

[Azure]

It honestly really doesn't matter how he wants to charge people, but there needs to be a verification check done for a user that is verified. And the blue check is what people were using to see if someone is verified.

[BlackArcher101]

Like all horrible bosses I've had like him, you better be a yes man and be on his program or you are gone.

[afc wimbledon]

At some point this is going to be an epic Netflix HBO mini series, like Chernobyl but with more idiots and Porsches

[Slava]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Or install an ad blocker. I don't think I've ever see an ad on Twitter, other than where people are paid to mention/promote a product (which a subscription wouldn't eliminate).

Does that kill all the promoted tweets?

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

At some point this is going to be an epic Netflix HBO mini series, like Chernobyl but with more idiots and Porsches

Probably more like the Uber series, “Super Pumped”.