Twitter

[mik]

I’m not a big Twitter user, but I am a user. Lots of folks seem to be all about the follower and like numbers, but what evah.

The Muskotron3000 seems he’ll bent on making it a pay-platform though, which I’m not interested in.

Death knoll?

[Sundayjumper]

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[Gavster]

Twitter is so caught up in itself that everyone is more concerned with the politics of what might happen rather than what actually has happened.

As for the $8 thing, he’s tripping. At the moment TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube pay creators to post. How on earth Musk expects users to pay is beyond me. He’s obviously forgotten that he’s supposed to sell our data to make money.

[DaveE]

A verified account already cost $5/month

So this is a price increase on an already paid for service

Business 101 = it's easier to get more money from existing customers than generate a new revenue stream from new customers

I don't see what the fuss is about (re: verified accounts)

Everything else is going to shite though!

[Jobbo]

A verified account already cost $5/month

Really? I’ve not seen anyone else mention this.
It is particularly relevant to how much Musk would actually make from an $8/month fee.

[duncs500]

A verified account already cost $5/month

So this is a price increase on an already paid for service

Business 101 = it's easier to get more money from existing customers than generate a new revenue stream from new customers

I don't see what the fuss is about (re: verified accounts)

Everything else is going to shite though!

Yeah, it's a real weird one. If you read the news stories it is buried in there that you already pay and this a just a few dollar increase. It's almost like Musk wants the publicity and the news outlets have bitten, because I'm sure even the rhetoric coming from Musk is of adding in this cost rather than "just asking for a couple more dollars out of our existing paid users".

[ZedLeg]

I hadn’t heard of any fees to get verified currently either. I think most people’s concern is that Elon’s monthly fee is at the expense of checking the account’s ownership and the person’s identity. Thereby removing the main point of verification, it’s not just a status symbol.

I’m going to be there to the bitter end tbh, it’s too entertaining to leave.

[Gavster]

A verified account already cost $5/month

So this is a price increase on an already paid for service

Business 101 = it's easier to get more money from existing customers than generate a new revenue stream from new customers

I don't see what the fuss is about (re: verified accounts)

Everything else is going to shite though!

I don’t think that’s true about a verification costing $5 a month. I’ve never heard of anyone paying for verification on any platform.

[Simon]

The problem is that he's now conflating a verified user tick with paying users. So there's nothing to stop me setting up as Boris Johnson, paying $8, getting a blue tick and going absolutely wild with complete bollox and insults. Lots will think I'm the genuine Boris.

He needs a different system for paying users and verified users, end of.

But then again, the guy is an absolute throbber so none of this is surprising.

[Gavster]

They’re not going to remove the verification process, that would be ridiculous, you’ll still need to provide evidence of your identity, as you always have done.

I like that he’s vying for Substack market with creator monetisation, it’s the perfect market for Twitter to take on.

[DaveE]

Well it looks like you can now add $8 a month to your existing susceptible services if you want anyone to actually find your content

From what I've seen and what Musk was saying, this has zero to do with verifying people and everything to do with just charging to use Twitter

I suspect he sees this as a win-win as he's expecting the prioritisation of paid content to also solve the bot problem too (by hoping the bot masters don't pay and that the bot content gets hidden under paid content)

He really is a hateful person...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... on-service

[Barry]

I'm a very light user on most platforms these days, and getting close to binning them all off. YouTube really testing my patience with the incessant adverts now too.

Musk is playing everyone like a fiddle as always, this'll blow over in a week and he'll find something else to stay in the news.

[V8Granite]

The people I follow will pay anyway so it makes no change at all to me, just less chaff I hope.

Dave!

[Gavster]

As far as I'm concerned Twitter needs shaking up so I welcome his changes. Of all the sites I'm active on, Twitter has provided the most aggressive hate, people literally threatening to come to my home and attack me. I'm not even a particularly provocative person.

Some reports said Twitter was losing $4m a day, which is ridiculous for a service with 200m active users, there obiouvlsy needed to be significant changes. Twitter culture has always been fearful of change, and people seem to be happier watching the site tank then for someone to do what's needed. Jack Dorsey even supported Musk's lay-offs. And besides, nobody seems bothered about LinkedIn charging $29.99 per month for a premium account with a nice coloured LInkedIn badge.

Anyway, it's always going to be free for the average Twitter user, it's not like he's paywalling the site.

[ZedLeg]

The problem is that a lot of changes that Musk is touting will make the experience worse not better.

They’re losing advertisers as everyone is spooked at the prospect of him relaxing the content moderation and inviting back high profile people who got banned.

His corporate strategy bears all the hallmarks of a Gordon Gecko slash and grab but he appears to be doing it by mistake.

[Gavster]

The problem is that a lot of changes that Musk is touting will make the experience worse not better.

Like when everyone said that 280 characters would ruin Twitter?

People cry about the smallest changes on Twitter, as if they’re an attack on their personal integrity. You can tell it’s a left wing dominated site because the idea of turning a loss-making site into a profitable one is being treated like heresy.

[ZedLeg]

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[tim]

A verified account already cost $5/month

So this is a price increase on an already paid for service

Business 101 = it's easier to get more money from existing customers than generate a new revenue stream from new customers

I don't see what the fuss is about (re: verified accounts)

Everything else is going to shite though!

I don’t think that’s true about a verification costing $5 a month. I’ve never heard of anyone paying for verification on any platform.

Dave is referring to Twitter Blue, for which there has been a small charge for a while. It gives you a tick and some other early access stuff. Actual famous people don't pay for the standard blue tick.

I'm fascinated by Musk and this whole process. I will probably pony up £7 for a month or two when they roll it out in the UK as an experiment to see how it changes my twitter experience.

[Rich B]

The blue tick bit is kind of bizarre, and I'm sure there's all sorts of global decisions and changes that may or may not turn out to be correct.

but more importantly, I can't really support someone who lays off half their staff in such a cunty way and breaks all the employment rules out there. That's just the moves of a cunt - plain and simple.

[Simon]

Zed and Rich are correct. How this will make Twitter 'better' is beyond me. This time next year Twitter might be in a death spiral.