How Twitter?

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Twitter to start charging $20 per month for verification - The Verge

Of course he'll be flopping around like a one legged air dancer in a car dealership for awhile yet, but if there's going to be Free Speech, someone still has to pay for the bandwidth.

[Stephen Maturin]

What with the Free Speech and all, I think it would be irresponsible of Twitter users not to speculate wildly about how many underage girls Musk sexually abused on Jeff Epstein's pedo island.

show spoiler

[Ari]

$20 a month is premium netflix. Once people are spending premium netflix money to have a check mark they’re going to want something for it.

I can’t wait for the new rule that only a blue check mark can block another blue check mark. Blue check marks get promoted to the top of the thread or even better, threads where only blue check marks can reply.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Appoint your horse director, elon:

What could possibly go wrong⁩? ����*♂️ https://t.co/WRPAVdTS8w

— Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) October 31, 2022

[Stephen Maturin]

But hey, tip button.

[-FX-]

$20 a month is nothing for a respectable actual person to have a worldwide platform.

But it will kill the troll farms and bots in a heartbeat.

Unless they are being bankrolled by a wealthy person.

Either way, profit!

[erimir]

But a blue check doesn't give you a worldwide platform.

Or at least, no more of a worldwide platform than I have as a unverified user.

Unless you're suggesting that the $20/mo should grant you additional promotion? Like do I get a certain amount of free promoted tweets with my $20 subscription?

What the verification does is make Twitter a more attractive place for musicians, journalists, newspapers, and other media companies, because they know that fakes are more easily distinguished. But this also helps attract me, a regular user, to the site, because I'm more easily able to distinguish phonies from official accounts.

NYT and NBC and Taylor Swift provide free content for Twitter, and that attracts users, which can then be used to justify advertising rates. Advertisers are a better source of revenue than people chasing the minor clout of having a blue checkmark.

Elon Musk spent months criticizing Twitter for bots and fake accounts, claiming this as a basis for backing out of the deal. This proposal makes it harder for users to distinguish bots and fake accounts!

I also saw one of Musk's toadies (Calcanis or whatever his name is) responding favorably to the idea of allowing businesses to pay to send unsolicited DMs to users. Which would be the innovation of what... adding more spam to the experience? Oh wow, so great.

I mean, this whole thing is ridiculous given that we saw Musk trying to wriggle his way out of the deal for months. Now that he's gone through with it, he and his idiot followers like FX are acting like this is some great triumph for Musk and he's owning the Twitter execs and so on, rather than something he spent the better part of a year trying to avoid and a deal which will make those Twitter execs tens or hundreds of millions of dollars richer, having sold their stock at a premium over the market price!

Oh god, those Twitter execs are so owned by Musk completing the purchase that they literally were suing Musk to ensure he went through with. Musk folded, he fucking lost.

The saddest part is that I don't think a lot of his cultists understand that Musk is in pure cope-mode right now.

[Sock Puppet]

Oh, yeah, but wokemob something something.

[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by erimir

But a blue check doesn't give you a worldwide platform.

Or at least, no more of a worldwide platform than I have as a unverified user.

Unless you're suggesting that the $20/mo should grant you additional promotion? Like do I get a certain amount of free promoted tweets with my $20 subscription?

What the verification does is make Twitter a more attractive place for musicians, journalists, newspapers, and other media companies, because they know that fakes are more easily distinguished. But this also helps attract me, a regular user, to the site, because I'm more easily able to distinguish phonies from official accounts.

NYT and NBC and Taylor Swift provide free content for Twitter, and that attracts users, which can then be used to justify advertising rates. Advertisers are a better source of revenue than people chasing the minor clout of having a blue checkmark.

Elon Musk spent months criticizing Twitter for bots and fake accounts, claiming this as a basis for backing out of the deal. This proposal makes it harder for users to distinguish bots and fake accounts!

I also saw one of Musk's toadies (Calcanis or whatever his name is) responding favorably to the idea of allowing businesses to pay to send unsolicited DMs to users. Which would be the innovation of what... adding more spam to the experience? Oh wow, so great.

I mean, this whole thing is ridiculous given that we saw Musk trying to wriggle his way out of the deal for months. Now that he's gone through with it, he and his idiot followers like FX are acting like this is some great triumph for Musk and he's owning the Twitter execs and so on, rather than something he spent the better part of a year trying to avoid and a deal which will make those Twitter execs tens or hundreds of millions of dollars richer, having sold their stock at a premium over the market price!

Oh god, those Twitter execs are so owned by Musk completing the purchase that they literally were suing Musk to ensure he went through with. Musk folded, he fucking lost.

The saddest part is that I don't think a lot of his cultists understand that Musk is in pure cope-mode right now.

What part of “tip button” do you woke lefties not understand?

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by erimir

Oh god, those Twitter execs are so owned by Musk completing the purchase that they literally were suing Musk to ensure he went through with. Musk folded, he fucking lost.

The saddest part is that I don't think a lot of his cultists understand that Musk is in pure cope-mode right now.

Musk fired the legal executive that owned him so badly on both the deal and the lawsuit. If Musk was thinking through the butthurt, he would have kept the person who's provably smart enough to do their job well.

[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

Musk fired the legal executive that owned him so badly on both the deal and the lawsuit. If Musk was thinking through the butthurt, he would have kept the person who's provably smart enough to do their job well.

Seriously, aside from the Twitter execs weeping all the way to the bank, the real winners here are Wachtell and Skadden Arps, the law firms.

Wachtell looks hypercompetent because of the absolute and total victory, abetted by Musk casually agreeing to a no-diligence deal - I assure you, to the absolute horror of his M&A counsel. Skadden Arps basically got to show the world how far they will go for the second-worst* client on the planet after Trump. I don't know if I would call it a hit, but the potential exception is Quinn Emanuel, which looks...weird. They have a litigator all tangled up in a deal before litigation, and now like, running parts of Twitter? I guess it's just plain old startfucking but it's a weird look.

*possibly the best, if he pays his invoices on time

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

Musk fired the legal executive that owned him so badly on both the deal and the lawsuit. If Musk was thinking through the butthurt, he would have kept the person who's provably smart enough to do their job well.

In this case, and also in a lot of cases of giant egos, Musk's priorities are building pyramids to himself, and in protecting his ego. In either case money is no object and only a tool toward those ends.

[-FX-]

If you can transfer money using Twitter X

You can do business, crowdfunding, campaigning, anything that involves money?

The wise man of old said, "Money is the answer to everything". If so, it all might make sense, all of it. All the ratshit insanity might actually just be about money

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

EU's Vestager: Consequences will 'haunt' Elon Musk if Twitter flounts law : NPR

[BrotherMan]

We here at the Free Thought and Chat Forum and Smilie Emporium are dedicated to [Thanks] being free for all members in good standing. Way better and more useful than some silly checkmark no matter the color and worlds more valuable than a [Tip] button.

[JoeP]

I regret that I have but one [thanks] to give that poast.

On Twitter you will be able to [Tip] twice.

[-FX-]

Does Europe monitor all phone calls and emails as well?

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

The further adventures of Incel Jesus:

Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter, a company worth maybe $12 billion, and seems to be trying to get it down to $0 billion as fast as possible https://t.co/7y71eGmC8c via @opinion

— Bloomberg (@business) October 31, 2022

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

[-FX-]

It's the principle of the thing. Wealthy people just HATE paying for shit

They want shit for free, or better yet, you pay me for my shit I type out

(of course poor people also want that)

[-FX-]

My first internet forum experience was on a forum that everybody was requited to use their real name, and payed for the membership by the month, and it had the absolute worst drama of any forum ever in history. (not all the time of course)

Being verified and paying for membership will NOT stop drama. hatred, hacking, hickacking and all the other shit. It actually might make it worse.

BUT








And this is a big BUTT






There were no ads, no bots, no fakes and no worries about getting booted, criminal acts, spoofing or crime.













Until a disgruntled but hilarious member did exactly all that shit. As a prank.

The flamewar/meltdown was being epic. (this was all probably before you were even born)






The irony is the person who broke every last fucking rule was not banned. (he was wealthy and famous)
















Of course I knew nothing about this shit. Zero. Nobody was talking about it.

What happened next ... well that's a looong fooking story

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by -FX-

It's the principle of the thing. Wealthy people just HATE paying for shit

They want shit for free, or better yet, you pay me for my shit I type out

(of course poor people also want that)

I think most people hate paying for shit they don't want or need. Why should King, or anybody else, care how Twitter pays its bills?

[Ari]

Musk: What if twitter does a bunch of services that already exist in competitive market spaces, but with more nazis!

Musk Fans: Genius! I shall tie my bank account and personal credentials to your service that openly courts extremists.

Musk Fans: As a capitalist who now no longer needs to give detailed investor reports I’m certain bots and ads will be removed entirely and not something you pivot to when current plans fail.

Musk 2025: Expand your brand with GPT3 powered bots, can easily pass any 280 character Turin test, people say they love engaging with them more than humans!

[erimir]

Originally Posted by -FX-

It's the principle of the thing. Wealthy people just HATE paying for shit

They want shit for free, or better yet, you pay me for my shit I type out

(of course poor people also want that)

Rich people (as well as everyone else) hate paying for the privilege of helping you make money.

Stephen King having a blue check provides more value for Twitter than it does to Stephen King.

If you think he should pay, then you're probably the kind of sucker who not only would take an unpaid internship, but would actually pay for the privilege of being an intern.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by erimir

Rich people (as well as everyone else) hate paying for the privilege of helping you make money.

Stephen King having a blue check provides more value for Twitter than it does to Stephen King.

If you think he should pay, then you're probably the kind of sucker who not only would take an unpaid internship, but would actually pay for the privilege of being an intern.

Or with an F Bomb:

I'm probably the perfect target for this, use Twitter a ton, can afford $20/mo, not particularly anti-Elon, but my reaction is that I've generated a ton of valuable free content for Twitter over the years and they can go fuck themselves.https://t.co/8zFEqeArnJ

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 31, 2022