How Twitter?

[seebs]

Well, he claimed the old URL cards were too busy, and up next, he's eliminating all the interaction widgets on tweets, so you have to click through to them to do likes or retweets.

Which sounds stupid, but... apparently the reason is that they want to stop making ads visually distinct from non-ads, but if ads don't have those buttons and real tweets do, it gives the game away. SO.

[viscousmemories]

This is the best argument I've seen yet for why Musk seems to be trying to destroy Twitter.

What was Elon Musk’s strategy for Twitter?

On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright.

Musk’s purchase of Twitter, the 3,000-word anonymous article said, would amount to a “declaration of war against the Globalist American Empire.” The sender of the texts was offering Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, a playbook for the takeover and transformation of Twitter. As the anniversary of Musk's purchase approaches, the identity of the sender remains unknown.

[seebs]

https://www.tumblr.com/neil-gaiman/730622504182431744

Post on tumblr, original topic being Cory Doctorow presenting arguments that the gradual push towards making Twitter stuff not link you elsewhere, etc, is focused on trying to make the site worse so they can charge people for the privilege of having their posts shown to their followers, and also charge people for the privilege of seeing the posts of the people they followed, so they can try to bring in money from their remaining userbase.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Christ complex guy in action

This book is an excellent explanation of why capitalism is not just successful, but morally right, especially chapter 4 https://t.co/SZuiGRu5Va

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 23, 2023

[viscousmemories]

His very existence disproves his thesis.

[ShottleBop]

From today's comics:

[ShottleBop]

Coincidentally, also today:

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

This'll be the ponzi of the century.

[viscousmemories]

The idea that there is a non-zero number of people who might be willing to give Elon Musk control of "their entire financial life" is deeply disturbing.

[seebs]

Yeah, he's established that he can't run a social media site for shit, so he's going back to his vision of "x.com" being the Do Everything Financial Thing that people use for everything they do in their lives, without understanding the many reasons for which this cannot happen.

[Ari]

It's a solution to a problem no one has. I'm not sure about anyone else here but the only issues I have with banks is they're greedy bastards who make unauthorized accounts in people's names and prey on the poor with predatory loans. But the actual banking part of their service has been great, especially combined with the federal government, I don't even need to worry about a bank run!

Everytime Musk speaks about the amazing new things just on the horizon all I hear is the Fyre Festival guy, "Let's just do it and be legends!"

[seebs]

He does not understand why all-in-one apps became popular where they did (which is usually "they didn't have viable banking services and institutions, but lots of people had mobile phones").

[fragment]

I can't think of any use cases an everything app has for me which I don't already have satisfactorily covered, except for a fun and exciting way to have an account hack wreak absolute havoc on my life.

[seebs]

So, the idea is that if you're used to "this does everything" and you spend a lot of time in it, then it's Super Convenient. You can tip people in your social media app using the bank account that is inextricably part of the app, you can use it to pay for things, you can follow a company and get a coupon which is automatically applied when you buy from them, things like that. And... that's not nothing, but I think it's a lot less than Elon thinks it is.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I really need everyone to come to terms with who Elon Musk actually is and then make some hard decisions about how much you need to keep supporting him and his empire pic.twitter.com/YO7sMKok06

— Feminist Proper Gander (@dappergander) October 28, 2023

[fragment]

Originally Posted by seebs

So, the idea is...

Oh yeah it's not from lack of imagination. Just they're either not at all compelling for me or things I can already do easily.

The "things I can already do easily" category might be different for people in a country where people didn't stop paying by checks last millenium.

A bunch of these also depend on high levels of uptake among those one might interact with for the convenience to kick in.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by fragment

The "things I can already do easily" category might be different for people in a country where people didn't stop paying by checks last millenium.

Ooh, burn.

[seebs]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I really need everyone to come to terms with who Elon Musk actually is and then make some hard decisions about how much you need to keep supporting him and his empire <a href="https://t.co/YO7sMKok06">pic.twitter.com/YO7sMKok06</a></p>&mdash; Feminist Proper Gander (@dappergander) <a href="https://twitter.com/dappergander/status/1718087497102639169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Oh this one gets worse!

There's a later reply where the person says "It's almost like you're from a place with lessons to teach us". Because like, definitely, South Africa has great lessons we should all learn about the viability of white supremacists.

[seebs]

Originally Posted by fragment

Oh yeah it's not from lack of imagination. Just they're either not at all compelling for me or things I can already do easily.

The "things I can already do easily" category might be different for people in a country where people didn't stop paying by checks last millenium.

A bunch of these also depend on high levels of uptake among those one might interact with for the convenience to kick in.

It's actually mostly in the other direction with regard to the checks thing; these things have historically taken off in places where people never started paying by checks.

Ironically, I recently started paying people by check because patreon was too fucked up to continue using.

[fragment]

Banks here don't even issue cheque books (yeah that's the spelling we roll with) any more, and I suspect most retail stopped accepting them a while back. Apparently older folk haven't loved the switch.

I remembered I received my wages by cheque up till 2003, so the last millenium quip was exaggerated, but not by a lot.

[seebs]

I use checks sometimes, like, we have a handyman come by sometimes to do stuff and I write him checks, I guess? And I have a housekeeper and I pay her by check because direct deposit costs money.

[fragment]

Originally Posted by seebs

direct deposit costs money

Yikes.

I think I pay an annual NZD10 fee for a debit card and that's it for bank charges. There may be a limit on how many transactions are free, but if so it's large enough to be well over ordinary household use.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

For various contractors this was my summer of etransfers.

[JoeP]

I still have a chequebook somewhere. With the date box preprinted as __ of ____ 19__.

I haven't had a credit card in a decade or two. Zero-fee debit cards all the way.

It's still not common, or possibly even viable, for contractors to have card terminals, so emailing account details and setting up a transfer is the norm. I've done it on my phone in the kitchen while the guy is still there, though the line "no rush, I know where you live" also applies.

[JoeP]

But, to stay vaguely on topic, only through the apps of traditional banks. Never PayPal or whatever other payment networks might exist.