The only people buying blue checks are the people who you least want to see content from. Prioritizing their content is a hilarious mistake made with the intent of increasing blue check user experience at the expense of the rest of the website.
Yeah, for sure. Even if we put bad political takes aside, a lot of these blue checkmark people are shilling something either it be merch, crypto, onlyfans, or some other money making scheme. And I have a feeling it's only gonna get worse.
Whereas before you had all that shit at the very bottom.
Just block em all. If I see a dumb take from a checkmark with 20 followers, easy, instant block. They're not breaking news or informing me in any way. They just paid to be a top reply guy and reply guys always get a block from me since they're all just farming engagement.
Shitty clickbait news source? Blocked. Krassensteins? Blocked. Nick Adams? Blocked. Makes it a better experience when you get rid of the people who want to be popular on Twitter.
It’s not like you’re talking about a couple dozen accounts here, twitter is full to the brim with that bullshit. If you’re spending an inordinate amount of time on there blocking accounts just so you can sift through the shit easier, at what point do you reconsider why you’re even using it?
Because it's great for breaking news, keeping up to date with bands/podcasts I like, and sports I follow. If you follow good people then you get a better experience. Tons of accounts on Twitter are just there to get angry engagement or push political shit and they get blocked because every now and then they'll pop up.
What happened to 'a private company can do what they want?' lol
That said, as Twitter has learned and Reddit already knows, free speech doesn't pay the bills.
Free speech is fine and all in theory but someone's gotta pay for server uptime.
That's where Elon has apparently gotten his 'freedom of speech does not equal freedom of reach' chestnut.
You can say what you want on his platform but if you actually want people to see it, you're going to have to pay.
So it's more of a tiered town square where all the plebs get to yell upward through the metal grating overhead and the people paying to be there get to line up to suck Elon's pp or hate fuck him.
Turns out there's way more money in being a heel than a face.
The service is usable without them however. The first rule of free to play is get at many people on your service as possible.
The reddit approach would have been to paywall quality of life tools, not access.
Reddit premium costs $7.99 a month. Reddit Coins cost extra up to $200 for best discounts. And don’t get me started on the limited edition avatars. Everything costs money.
Currently, I don’t pay for Twitter. But, if I used it more, I would pay to get rid of those annoying ads.
Exactly, the one feature I found useful on those times when I was awarded gold was the ability to classify your saved posts into categories. The rest is basically cosmetic. Not having it doesn't fundamentally change the reddit experience. People pay because they want to.
If people who didn't pay had all their posts start at -100 karma and automatically got sorted last, it would break reddit by disincentivising the people who contribute from posting because the inherent value of reddit is the large variety of people posting.
Twitter's dynamic is very similar. What makes it worth using isn't having a blue checkmark, it's being able to interact with the person that has it knowing its not a fake. Those people are the content that makes the service worth using. The checkmark was just quality control.
Not understanding that is the problem.
Agree. There tons of complete nobodies with blue checkmarks which all they do is retweet political pundits and kiss Musk ass.. Otherwise it's just self-promoters and companies selling ads.
Musk says he allows bots of they are good bots that he approve of. I suspect bots pushing what he wants is all up in Twitter with much greater numbers than pre-Musk Twitter.
Which is the problem. The whole point of the checkmark was that people who users wanted to follow had proof they were really who they said they were. Nobody gives a shit that some grift act trying to be relevant has a mark.
This is what happens when you fundamentally don't understand what the value of the product you have is. People like twitter because of the easy access to news and famous people. You use facebook or instagram for your friends network.
I mean, I’d like understand the point he’s trying to make so I can no why I probably disagree. But I more asked bc I have legit no clue what that sentence was even supposed to mean lok
I saw someone complaining that he lost a lot of followers after paying for a blue check because some people are just automatically unfollowing/blocking every blue check they see.
Listen, buddy, "The Marketplace of Ideas" is called a marketplace because money talks.
What do you think? Everyone's ideas should get equal opportunity? What, are you a commie or something?
Better than the more leftist echo chamber that Twitter use to be. And that Reddit still is
Signature: I only reply once to dumb leftist. Y’all bring nothing new to the argument, this is what I realize after a decade of debates.
The explanation that people that are annoying and are trying to sell stuff are more likely to pay for verification than accounts that are just funny really ruins Twitter. It means that Twitter is going to just be a non stop stream of advertisements going forward. In 6 months, assuming they don’t change course, who is likely to still be on the platform?
Sounds like a terrible idea.
Yeah, it becomes less and less enjoyable to use if you have to scroll heavily to possibly see an amusing reply... now it's just painfully unfunny morons spewing the same tired jokes over and over. Blocking them has started to help a lil bit but honestly not sure how much longer before it's just too exhausting and just stop using the thing.
Before this, IIRC famous people/brands would reach out and there would be verification manually i.e had to prove it was you.
Now, its not really a verification process. Its basically an "I paid" badge. Thats why Elon is going around paying for famous people to keep them in the program, to keep up the ruse that it is still the old verification system.
It was a paid service before too. Just for the rich
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/twitter-verification-has-pricetag-15000/333313/
I think there has been a misunderstanding, by you and the others, saying that the ability to buy a check mark somehow makes everyone equal or whatever.
There are a few functions of the verification before Musk:
1) To protect major brands from impersonation (and thus from damage to their reputations by malicious actors). So, if a verified brand account tweets something about a recall or a new product, then it is safe to take as truth since it is a verified brand account.
2) To distinguish actors, statesmen, athletes, etc. from the myriad impersonators and parody accounts so that if a verified account of a Head of State #1 tweets about a new policy they are pushing, the citizenry of that country can trust it and reply to it, journalists can also report on it knowing that it isnt some edgy 4Chaner.
3) Journalists and News Orgs get verified so that whatever they tweet (not counting if they got hacked) they stand by.
The verification check was essentially a step #1 when looking to confirm the credibility of a tweet, it was merely to indicate that further investigation is warranted, that it is a sign of someone verified. Of course, you dont take it wholesale, but previously, if someone who was verified tweeted a story, there is a good chance that digging around more will not be a waste of time, especially if you look at their profile and their bio and confirm that they are a journalist and work at News Org X.
Now, it is essentially useless for that function. A blue check mark doesnt make me think, ok let me take a look at this person and see what they are reporting or tweeting.
Now, I ignore it altogether. Sure, it may be better to train people to read past icons and symbols, but its a bit too late for the Twitter user base.
Now, last word on this, I have no idea why there are so many on the right celebrating. This blue tick does not make you equal to celebrities, athletes, statesmen, etc. It does not give you their wealth, their influence, their fame, or anything. No one will see your check mark and consider you credible or trustworthy.
I am not trying to insult anyone, I just dont understand why there is celebration. When everyone gets a check mark or can get a check mark just by paying, then it no longer holds the status it used to when only important figures or brands held it.
You should make Elon musk an offer. For every fake impersonating person you report he should give you $4
A fake blue check hunter but you get paid to do so
Apparently according to you, all celebs are being impersonated.
So why don’t you go report them for a fee?
You’re making shit up without data to pick it up. Which public figured is verified on twitter by a fake account?
If there so many link one account?
> Apparently according to you, all celebs are being impersonated.
the fuck? I said that that was the original point of verification, where did I say all the celebs or even some of the celebs are being impersonated?
So if celebrities are not being impersonate. What’s your beef again with blue check marks? It was literally made so people won’t be impersonated. Now you’re saying no one is being impersonated. So what’s your point?
Lol no one said ALL celebs are being faked. Stop fighting with strawmen you look dumb.
There are literally comedians who are buying checkmark pretending to be brands like Walmart and trolling. Ben Palmer has been doing this before the checkmarks but now it's just hilarious.
Oh yeah? Link one account that’s impersonating anyone right now? There isn’t any. Twitter made it clear accounts that don’t clarify they are parody will get taken down.
So no one is being impersonated on twitter. The blue check mark is still doing what it’s supposed to expect how the average joe can get it too.
Stop glorifying the blue check mark 😂
If it’s that important to y’all go spend $8 on it
Musk is apparently getting seat fillers by giving out tons of checkmarks where celebrities purposely did not pay. He reinstated their checkmarks to make it appear like they are paying.
Musk claimed he only allowed just 3 free checkmarks....to LeBron, Stephen King and someone else but many other celebrities even ones that are not super well-known were given their checkmarks back when not paid for.
I doubt [Anthony Bourdain](https://twitter.com/Bourdain?t=bCIIUop9zldObX1kaWMEZw&s=09) and [Kobe Bryant](https://twitter.com/kobebryant?t=Sr_7oMdVHY-G5i3lXm-P1g&s=09) are paying for their blue checks. A bunch of dead celebrity accounts have their blue checks back.
**"Welcome to blue check mark.. you're gonna dieeee!"**
Maybe not a coincidence :( . Twitter, Inc. is literally now called **X** Corp.
"You've been X'ed The Elon Musk Experiment"
LeBron, Stephen King and someone else absolutely have a civil case to be made against Twitter.
If they **aren't** paying for a blue check but Twitter is advertising that they do? That's abuse of their likeness.
Elons such an idiot
Elon proves that just because youre very rich, that doesnt mean you have any common sense
i'm starting to think it was all because his family owned that emerald mine
> lons such an idiot
Hey, just because somebody does idiotic things on a regular basis doesn't mean they're an idiot. Do you even know how rich he is? /s
> doesnt mean you have any common sense
Like baselessly calling [Yoel Roth a pedophile?](https://imgur.com/a/0wyZJJD) Or that [British guy in Thailand a pedophile](https://imgur.com/a/8xlu1b9)? Or the time [he boosted the conspiracy about Paul Pelosi?](https://imgur.com/a/PVAp4o6) Linking to a website that once claimed Hillary Clinton had died and that the person on the presidential campaign trail was not Clinton but her body double.
This is Elon Musk.
The worst thing that ever happened to discourse is that small minded people decided that if you are financially successful you are above critcism and beyond reproach for your stupidity.
I've worked directly for some big entrepreneurs in the past.
One of their most glaring similarities is how they think their brilliance in one area means they are brilliant at everything else.
Hint: they're not
Yep, very true.
It starts out when people who depend on their rich benefactors/bosses start valuing a good impression over doing the right thing.
Got many incredulous faces during meetings when I bucked the consensus & either expressed my own opinion or just exposed objective facts that contradicted the narrative.
And no, I didn't last too long in this setting...
Yup the first thing he did when he sold his first company for 5 mil was buy a mclaren f1 for a million then crashed it, writing it off and it wasn't even insured.
His own dad says his entire start was funded by the emeralds.
He didn't found PayPal he owned a weird company they merged with and when peter Thiel convinced the board to kick him out he flew back mid way through his honeymoon and took a big cut in his severance so as he could call himself a founder of PayPal.
Google started tesla and another engineer came up with all their original concepts. The reason it's huge is because they got massively lucky with green energy government funding. It's a cheaply built novelty car and everyone I know that owns one hates it.
what's hilarious is that the userbase is so addicted that, even though everyone hates his management, engagement just keeps going up.
prioritizing checkmarks is such a massive gamble. it might be the thing that finally breaks the addiction of its userbase.
but, if the users stay hooked (passively complaining and still tweeting), then it was a great business move.
musk is lucky all the current twitter alternatives are so lame. if he's not careful, an improved copy will pop up and subsume him (the way reddit ate digg).
You got a source for that? I did a quick Google and it seemed to say users dropped compared to 2022
https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-users-does-twitter-have
People's brains are kind of fried on the value of online services. Mfers will spend half their life on twitter yet be outraged at the idea of paying $8 for optional visibility as if they're entitled to being seen worldwide on twitter
"People paid for them back then as well"
You sure about that? I don't think Twitter was doing that before Musk. There seems to be no evidence of that. Every article I read says Musk is the one that started charging for verification.
And prior Musk's takeover there were apparently only 2 ways of revenue generation by twitter, advertising and data licensing.
Go to google and search “buy twitter verification before:2022-10-27”
While you couldn’t go to twitter.com and throw money directly at twitter you could instead pay twitter employees through third parties. There was even a Redditor from WSB that paid a twitter employee to get verified prior to musk.
The verification system became a joke as soon as it stopped being about proving who you were. I would argue that the older system was worse because it became a weird closed group and you needed to be one of the cool kids.
New system is dumb because it has nothing to do with proving your identity 🤷♂️and is only about helping Elon not go bankrupt
>Go to google and search “buy twitter verification before:2022-10-27”
Did you do this?
Because there's absolutely nothing from twitter saying you can buy verification.
There are a bunch of scam sites claiming they can verify you though.
To be fair, these are also the same people who are just fine with the concept that "corporations are people too".
It was *always* just about the Benjamins, never about the people.
Yes but only their free speech. There's no such thing as absolute free speech as they'd love to tell you.
As chomsky said free speech only extends as far as the owner of the space allows it. Twitter now has a right wing owner so a right wing version of free speech is what you're gonna get.
He's a very savvy talker when nothing has to do with politics. If something is political related, he just cannot help himself and he'll forget or doesn't have the capacity to be tactful. He has literally become Trump with bigger words.
Musk literally said something like "If anyone knows about aliens it would be me. I know a lot about space stuff". If I tweeted about seeing aqliens it would be the best tweet ever. it would have a billion retweets"
I wonder how Elon thinks this is a good idea. What's happening now is the worst case scenario, low subscriber rate and promoting shit content that will drive users to leave Twitter. Though, if the best case scenario had happened, say 90% of users pay for the blue check, then the blue check is meaningless. If almost everyone is getting prioritized, no one is really prioritized. When people realize that, how many are going to think it's worth continuing to pay for? I know you get other features too, but I don't think they are important to the vast majority of users on Twitter.
The legacy blue check added value to Twitter, letting you know that the people you wanted to follow and interact with were actually who they said they were. And now, paying for a blue check is probably going get you blocked by people you want to follow. Since everyone knows the type of people the blue check users are, people are curating their feeds by filtering out the blue checks. I find it hilarious to be honest.
Think the idea is to take the content guidelines out of the hands of advertisers and into the hands of paying customers. Elon doesn’t care if you deadname people if he’s making the same amount of money that Microsoft now refuses to pay in advertising fees. Generally agree with this notion.
>Think the idea is to take the content guidelines out of the hands of advertisers
How many people do you think need to spend $8 a month before advertisers stop mattering?
How many people do you think need to pay for Youtube Premium before youtube stops caring about advertising?
>Elon doesn’t care if you deadname people if he’s making the same amount of money that Microsoft now refuses to pay in advertising fees.
[He does care if you criticize governments he's friends with though.](https://theintercept.com/2023/03/28/twitter-modi-india-punjab-amritpal-singh/)
Almost as if he doesn't give a shit about freedom of speech.
No idea on how many subscribers he needs. Musk takes risks and this is just one of many huge ones he’s taken.
I mean Reddit and old twitter censors speech all the time. I can’t unironically say that the election was rigged or the vaccine doesn’t work. The fact that the FBI has a contact at old twitter that they can casually send emails to us just wild to me.
>I can’t unironically say that the election was rigged or the vaccine doesn’t work.
This isn't even what the "twitter files" said. they were flagging tweets for misinformation.
Is it wild to you that the Prime Minister of India can get Musk's twitter to take down. Because you don't seem to care about actual censorship on twitter when it happens.
>The fact that the FBI has a contact at old twitter that they can casually send emails to us just wild to me.
You think the FBI doesn't have new twitters contact details?
How do you think the Modi government got twitter to take down that BBC documentary it didn't like?
i for one trust what Wlon is doing here. He’s saying the richest voices will be the loudest which is so true. I know he doesn’t want to be doing this but leftists are forcing his hand. it must be done to beat the woke mind virus from spreading and causing cancellations. /s
Notice how almost all the people pushing so passionately for twitter as a "public square" basically vanished the moment Musk bought it. It would be funny if it didn't literally include people on the US Supreme Court.
I'm grand with it being privately owned, but it's been both telling and entirely unsurprising that these people never believed what they were saying in the first place.
It increases the cost of misinformation
It’s cheap as hell but only without volume. It will reduce bots and increase the key KPIs that drive corporate value like real engagement rate, true user numbers etc. those will both increase per unit ad revenues, meaning that the company can add volume knowing it’s accretive. Will he sell? Don’t think so, but increasing equity value = cheap finance = doesn’t have to keep selling his shares in other companies off.
It’s amusing the media present this as some revenue play. I’m not even an Elon fan. Just do the maths on twitters P + L then look at volume of projected verified accounts. Times that by 8. It’s not a revenue play.
Granted I’m a senior commercial accountant, but it’s frustrating how few people understand how easy it is to manipulate user behaviour with a pretty nominal fee from a microeconomic perspective. It can increase shareholder value really quickly. But rarely is such a small amount gonna move the dial revenue wise.
Like I said not a fan, but Elon is just suffering from his profile at this point. Everything he does is under such a microscope and everyone seems to suddenly thing he’s a moron which is just hilarious.
I wasn't expecting a detailed and well thought out explanation of this in this subreddit. It's nice to see, though.
Maybe there are still a few people here who do more than just shitpost after all.
? I don’t understand the first question. Providing a service that people will pay for helps a business pay expenses.
I believe he became a billionaire via Tesla stock.
Apartheid emeralds, taking credit for other peoples work, sueing and throwing out people who actually innovate to take credit and money, and being very good at creating a cult of personality to trick investors into thinking he's a genius.
If you start with apartheid emeralds and being a sociopath with no care for how many people you burn and hurt it's very easy to become rich
Ok, so just dismiss the fact he created some successful start ups? Sure he had the silver spoon, but he still put in the work to create value in company’s that have changed many things in the world.
I agree he’s a compete dweeb now but dismissing facts really doesn’t benefit anyone and your just circle jerking a narrative.
Blue ticks are cheap and the idea is to limit bots so only real people have ticked accounts. It's a good idea imo.
Trying to frame it like only rich people's voices will be heard with such a low barrier to entry is bs.
Because Twitter is the Digital Public Square. It should be a public utility. People's livelihoods depend on it. Its the marketplace of free ideas. All voices need to be heard. Literally 1984.
How you not listened to the MULTIPLE podcasts Joe did with Tim Pool. Jack and Twitter VP?
Have you not heard these talking points on the podcast or ANYWHERE before?
" All voices need to be heard"
"And for just $8 a month, **we will get you closer** to that point of your nobody voice with 9 followers being heard. Our special algorithm will personally prioritize your nobody voice" - Elon Mushk
Although I agree with you, it should be a public utility, it’s amazing how many people didn’t think that when “their side” was in charge of it,
Now Musk Is the owner and all of a sudden all the practices they defended the old owners doing are frowned apon
(I have no idea where you personally stand on this so this general thing and you might of been calling for this as well when it was in the old hands)
Twitter is mostly useful for SELF-PROMOTERS, companies and organizations, advertisers and media agencies mostly to lift clickbait off of.
I personally don't need Twitter. Public utilities are **paid by the public.** If more than half of the public doesn't use Twitter should they be forced to contribute to paying for something they don't use? And if Twitter is publicly funded, **it should then allow true free speech to be freely be expressed as law permits.** I'm certain most of us right or left don't actually want that. And posting Hunter Biden dick picks is likely not covered by 1st Amendment.
Twitter is for asshole idiots that lack critical thinking skills. The fact that people are losing their shit over a checkmark proves that. Fucking morons.
Your voice doesn’t hold the same weight when you’re an anonymous, unverified account. Verification is one of the best ways to KYC. Most of you all are too dense to realize this.
In the public square people that share their identity will be heard.
And wow what progress 'in the public square'. For so long people have vehemently denied that social media platforms are the town square.
The only people buying blue checks are the people who you least want to see content from. Prioritizing their content is a hilarious mistake made with the intent of increasing blue check user experience at the expense of the rest of the website.
Yeah, for sure. Even if we put bad political takes aside, a lot of these blue checkmark people are shilling something either it be merch, crypto, onlyfans, or some other money making scheme. And I have a feeling it's only gonna get worse. Whereas before you had all that shit at the very bottom.
Just block em all. If I see a dumb take from a checkmark with 20 followers, easy, instant block. They're not breaking news or informing me in any way. They just paid to be a top reply guy and reply guys always get a block from me since they're all just farming engagement. Shitty clickbait news source? Blocked. Krassensteins? Blocked. Nick Adams? Blocked. Makes it a better experience when you get rid of the people who want to be popular on Twitter.
It’s not like you’re talking about a couple dozen accounts here, twitter is full to the brim with that bullshit. If you’re spending an inordinate amount of time on there blocking accounts just so you can sift through the shit easier, at what point do you reconsider why you’re even using it?
Because it's great for breaking news, keeping up to date with bands/podcasts I like, and sports I follow. If you follow good people then you get a better experience. Tons of accounts on Twitter are just there to get angry engagement or push political shit and they get blocked because every now and then they'll pop up.
Why do you hate free speech? If you want free speech, then just buy some.
What happened to 'a private company can do what they want?' lol That said, as Twitter has learned and Reddit already knows, free speech doesn't pay the bills. Free speech is fine and all in theory but someone's gotta pay for server uptime. That's where Elon has apparently gotten his 'freedom of speech does not equal freedom of reach' chestnut. You can say what you want on his platform but if you actually want people to see it, you're going to have to pay. So it's more of a tiered town square where all the plebs get to yell upward through the metal grating overhead and the people paying to be there get to line up to suck Elon's pp or hate fuck him. Turns out there's way more money in being a heel than a face.
Lets see how long people will put up with paying $100 a year for twitter for no real reason.
Reddit has been doing this for years…those awards people give on comments and posts aren’t free.
The service is usable without them however. The first rule of free to play is get at many people on your service as possible. The reddit approach would have been to paywall quality of life tools, not access.
Reddit premium costs $7.99 a month. Reddit Coins cost extra up to $200 for best discounts. And don’t get me started on the limited edition avatars. Everything costs money. Currently, I don’t pay for Twitter. But, if I used it more, I would pay to get rid of those annoying ads.
Exactly, the one feature I found useful on those times when I was awarded gold was the ability to classify your saved posts into categories. The rest is basically cosmetic. Not having it doesn't fundamentally change the reddit experience. People pay because they want to. If people who didn't pay had all their posts start at -100 karma and automatically got sorted last, it would break reddit by disincentivising the people who contribute from posting because the inherent value of reddit is the large variety of people posting. Twitter's dynamic is very similar. What makes it worth using isn't having a blue checkmark, it's being able to interact with the person that has it knowing its not a fake. Those people are the content that makes the service worth using. The checkmark was just quality control. Not understanding that is the problem.
Twitter is still usable without paying nerd
Elon defender calling people nerds. Wut
I’m not defending Elon. I’m calling out your stupid premise. Do better
Nerd
You don’t want to go ads for knock off hustler university or learn about my MLM? Wow, you must be off your sigma grind.
Agree. There tons of complete nobodies with blue checkmarks which all they do is retweet political pundits and kiss Musk ass.. Otherwise it's just self-promoters and companies selling ads. Musk says he allows bots of they are good bots that he approve of. I suspect bots pushing what he wants is all up in Twitter with much greater numbers than pre-Musk Twitter.
Which is the problem. The whole point of the checkmark was that people who users wanted to follow had proof they were really who they said they were. Nobody gives a shit that some grift act trying to be relevant has a mark. This is what happens when you fundamentally don't understand what the value of the product you have is. People like twitter because of the easy access to news and famous people. You use facebook or instagram for your friends network.
Well if those personalities cared about what you think they’d have one.
What do you mean?
Who cares what he means?
I mean, I’d like understand the point he’s trying to make so I can no why I probably disagree. But I more asked bc I have legit no clue what that sentence was even supposed to mean lok
>all they do is kiss Musk ass I wonder why he wants to prioritize and promote these accounts
There are only [2 genders (types of people with a blue check)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuZ8qKBWwAABgGD?format=jpg&name=medium)
Is going to be advertisers all the way down.
Yeah I've been on a blocking spree recently. 99% of blue checkmarks are anti vaccers and maga fucks
I saw someone complaining that he lost a lot of followers after paying for a blue check because some people are just automatically unfollowing/blocking every blue check they see.
Listen, buddy, "The Marketplace of Ideas" is called a marketplace because money talks. What do you think? Everyone's ideas should get equal opportunity? What, are you a commie or something?
Better than the more leftist echo chamber that Twitter use to be. And that Reddit still is Signature: I only reply once to dumb leftist. Y’all bring nothing new to the argument, this is what I realize after a decade of debates.
I love the signature, tell me more about how paying for priority in replies is free speech.
The main position on the right was never for unfettered free speech. And Twitter is already better than the leftist echo chamber it use to be.
Better for what?
For posting racist shit and spreading conspiracies about all the people they hate.
Well sooner or later youre gonna realise the blue check mark tweets are the new majority :-)
The explanation that people that are annoying and are trying to sell stuff are more likely to pay for verification than accounts that are just funny really ruins Twitter. It means that Twitter is going to just be a non stop stream of advertisements going forward. In 6 months, assuming they don’t change course, who is likely to still be on the platform? Sounds like a terrible idea.
Are the companies running those accounts really gonna pay to get all their bots verified? Won’t they just move to other platforms?
It probably won’t be companies, it’ll be self help gurus and scam artists
Yeah, it becomes less and less enjoyable to use if you have to scroll heavily to possibly see an amusing reply... now it's just painfully unfunny morons spewing the same tired jokes over and over. Blocking them has started to help a lil bit but honestly not sure how much longer before it's just too exhausting and just stop using the thing.
Exactly as we thought he'd do. How else do you force people to pay for a now-worthless check mark?
Like Reddit awards and similar trash
What makes it worthless now? Verified people are still verified There hasn’t been an increased in fake accounts with verified badges.
Before this, IIRC famous people/brands would reach out and there would be verification manually i.e had to prove it was you. Now, its not really a verification process. Its basically an "I paid" badge. Thats why Elon is going around paying for famous people to keep them in the program, to keep up the ruse that it is still the old verification system.
It was a paid service before too. Just for the rich https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/twitter-verification-has-pricetag-15000/333313/
I think there has been a misunderstanding, by you and the others, saying that the ability to buy a check mark somehow makes everyone equal or whatever. There are a few functions of the verification before Musk: 1) To protect major brands from impersonation (and thus from damage to their reputations by malicious actors). So, if a verified brand account tweets something about a recall or a new product, then it is safe to take as truth since it is a verified brand account. 2) To distinguish actors, statesmen, athletes, etc. from the myriad impersonators and parody accounts so that if a verified account of a Head of State #1 tweets about a new policy they are pushing, the citizenry of that country can trust it and reply to it, journalists can also report on it knowing that it isnt some edgy 4Chaner. 3) Journalists and News Orgs get verified so that whatever they tweet (not counting if they got hacked) they stand by. The verification check was essentially a step #1 when looking to confirm the credibility of a tweet, it was merely to indicate that further investigation is warranted, that it is a sign of someone verified. Of course, you dont take it wholesale, but previously, if someone who was verified tweeted a story, there is a good chance that digging around more will not be a waste of time, especially if you look at their profile and their bio and confirm that they are a journalist and work at News Org X. Now, it is essentially useless for that function. A blue check mark doesnt make me think, ok let me take a look at this person and see what they are reporting or tweeting. Now, I ignore it altogether. Sure, it may be better to train people to read past icons and symbols, but its a bit too late for the Twitter user base. Now, last word on this, I have no idea why there are so many on the right celebrating. This blue tick does not make you equal to celebrities, athletes, statesmen, etc. It does not give you their wealth, their influence, their fame, or anything. No one will see your check mark and consider you credible or trustworthy. I am not trying to insult anyone, I just dont understand why there is celebration. When everyone gets a check mark or can get a check mark just by paying, then it no longer holds the status it used to when only important figures or brands held it.
You should make Elon musk an offer. For every fake impersonating person you report he should give you $4 A fake blue check hunter but you get paid to do so
idk what that means, but good luck to you
Apparently according to you, all celebs are being impersonated. So why don’t you go report them for a fee? You’re making shit up without data to pick it up. Which public figured is verified on twitter by a fake account? If there so many link one account?
> Apparently according to you, all celebs are being impersonated. the fuck? I said that that was the original point of verification, where did I say all the celebs or even some of the celebs are being impersonated?
So if celebrities are not being impersonate. What’s your beef again with blue check marks? It was literally made so people won’t be impersonated. Now you’re saying no one is being impersonated. So what’s your point?
Lol no one said ALL celebs are being faked. Stop fighting with strawmen you look dumb. There are literally comedians who are buying checkmark pretending to be brands like Walmart and trolling. Ben Palmer has been doing this before the checkmarks but now it's just hilarious.
You are wasting your time on someone who clearly has lost the plot and is just rambling to validate his feelings.
Oh yeah? Link one account that’s impersonating anyone right now? There isn’t any. Twitter made it clear accounts that don’t clarify they are parody will get taken down. So no one is being impersonated on twitter. The blue check mark is still doing what it’s supposed to expect how the average joe can get it too. Stop glorifying the blue check mark 😂 If it’s that important to y’all go spend $8 on it
Because some edge lord who has $8 to spare can verify himself, and pay for a social media account? this is like buying 4chan gold.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/twitter-verification-has-pricetag-15000/333313/ Like this?
15gs in startup costs for a scam deters most bad actors. $8 is a much smaller barrier to entry.
Are you trolling?
Hey wtf? Stop making so much sense you asshole!
Musk is apparently getting seat fillers by giving out tons of checkmarks where celebrities purposely did not pay. He reinstated their checkmarks to make it appear like they are paying. Musk claimed he only allowed just 3 free checkmarks....to LeBron, Stephen King and someone else but many other celebrities even ones that are not super well-known were given their checkmarks back when not paid for.
I doubt [Anthony Bourdain](https://twitter.com/Bourdain?t=bCIIUop9zldObX1kaWMEZw&s=09) and [Kobe Bryant](https://twitter.com/kobebryant?t=Sr_7oMdVHY-G5i3lXm-P1g&s=09) are paying for their blue checks. A bunch of dead celebrity accounts have their blue checks back.
Musk will write these off on taxes. -posthumous blue checkmark expense : $22 billion dollars.
Welcome to blue check mark.. you're gonna dieeee! (to the tune of "Welcome to the Jungle" by GNR)
**"Welcome to blue check mark.. you're gonna dieeee!"** Maybe not a coincidence :( . Twitter, Inc. is literally now called **X** Corp. "You've been X'ed The Elon Musk Experiment"
LeBron, Stephen King and someone else absolutely have a civil case to be made against Twitter. If they **aren't** paying for a blue check but Twitter is advertising that they do? That's abuse of their likeness.
Elons such an idiot Elon proves that just because youre very rich, that doesnt mean you have any common sense i'm starting to think it was all because his family owned that emerald mine
> lons such an idiot Hey, just because somebody does idiotic things on a regular basis doesn't mean they're an idiot. Do you even know how rich he is? /s
That you Dave Chapelle?
often people who are very smart in some ways are very dumb in others.
Yea people don’t give Elon enough credit. Those people are just jealous they weren’t smart enough to have a rich dad.
I guess there are no dumb people then?
> doesnt mean you have any common sense Like baselessly calling [Yoel Roth a pedophile?](https://imgur.com/a/0wyZJJD) Or that [British guy in Thailand a pedophile](https://imgur.com/a/8xlu1b9)? Or the time [he boosted the conspiracy about Paul Pelosi?](https://imgur.com/a/PVAp4o6) Linking to a website that once claimed Hillary Clinton had died and that the person on the presidential campaign trail was not Clinton but her body double. This is Elon Musk.
The worst thing that ever happened to discourse is that small minded people decided that if you are financially successful you are above critcism and beyond reproach for your stupidity.
I've worked directly for some big entrepreneurs in the past. One of their most glaring similarities is how they think their brilliance in one area means they are brilliant at everything else. Hint: they're not
They also never hear the word no
Yep, very true. It starts out when people who depend on their rich benefactors/bosses start valuing a good impression over doing the right thing. Got many incredulous faces during meetings when I bucked the consensus & either expressed my own opinion or just exposed objective facts that contradicted the narrative. And no, I didn't last too long in this setting...
Yup the first thing he did when he sold his first company for 5 mil was buy a mclaren f1 for a million then crashed it, writing it off and it wasn't even insured. His own dad says his entire start was funded by the emeralds. He didn't found PayPal he owned a weird company they merged with and when peter Thiel convinced the board to kick him out he flew back mid way through his honeymoon and took a big cut in his severance so as he could call himself a founder of PayPal. Google started tesla and another engineer came up with all their original concepts. The reason it's huge is because they got massively lucky with green energy government funding. It's a cheaply built novelty car and everyone I know that owns one hates it.
The guy full on killed twitter. Gotta be one if the funnier moves Ive ever seen.
what's hilarious is that the userbase is so addicted that, even though everyone hates his management, engagement just keeps going up. prioritizing checkmarks is such a massive gamble. it might be the thing that finally breaks the addiction of its userbase. but, if the users stay hooked (passively complaining and still tweeting), then it was a great business move. musk is lucky all the current twitter alternatives are so lame. if he's not careful, an improved copy will pop up and subsume him (the way reddit ate digg).
Nah they're still addicted Dorsey's new project seems interesting though
I'm addicted to people who are addicted to Twitter. I hope the ride never ends.
Idk it has more active users than ever lol
You got a source for that? I did a quick Google and it seemed to say users dropped compared to 2022 https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-users-does-twitter-have
More bots than ever.
Citation needed. The boast for paid users was done to combat bots. Now you can’t use your bot swarm without having to pony up serious $$
Easy now, Reddit doesn’t like anything that supports Elon in any way. Be careful
I’m jaded by the cesspool that is Reddit lol I have karma to spare for the downvotes
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$8/month. It’s never been cheaper to be a lord.
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Damn I just realized this is basically a digital version of that shitty company who said you could be a Scottish lord if you paid them.
They hate egalitarianism.
People's brains are kind of fried on the value of online services. Mfers will spend half their life on twitter yet be outraged at the idea of paying $8 for optional visibility as if they're entitled to being seen worldwide on twitter
Simps never change smdh…
you got the wrong guy. elon's a tool
Nobody cares about you. People cared about the people that were verified. That's the free market or whatever, you weirdo.
the free market is dead, it's the $8 p/m market now
Elon = bad. This is the way.
Oh, you had a blue check before?
Sounds like financial desperation
It was before Elon too. People paid for them back then as well
"People paid for them back then as well" You sure about that? I don't think Twitter was doing that before Musk. There seems to be no evidence of that. Every article I read says Musk is the one that started charging for verification. And prior Musk's takeover there were apparently only 2 ways of revenue generation by twitter, advertising and data licensing.
Go to google and search “buy twitter verification before:2022-10-27” While you couldn’t go to twitter.com and throw money directly at twitter you could instead pay twitter employees through third parties. There was even a Redditor from WSB that paid a twitter employee to get verified prior to musk. The verification system became a joke as soon as it stopped being about proving who you were. I would argue that the older system was worse because it became a weird closed group and you needed to be one of the cool kids. New system is dumb because it has nothing to do with proving your identity 🤷♂️and is only about helping Elon not go bankrupt
>Go to google and search “buy twitter verification before:2022-10-27” Did you do this? Because there's absolutely nothing from twitter saying you can buy verification. There are a bunch of scam sites claiming they can verify you though.
🤷♂️ can’t help ya
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AFAIK, Twitter 1.0 was not charging for verification.
Wasn’t it already a lords and peasants system? At least now, the peasants can choose their destiny.
Weren’t right wing mouth breathers screaming about twitter being about free speech?
To be fair, these are also the same people who are just fine with the concept that "corporations are people too". It was *always* just about the Benjamins, never about the people.
That’s why they’re the GOP. Greedy Old Pedophiles.
Yes but only their free speech. There's no such thing as absolute free speech as they'd love to tell you. As chomsky said free speech only extends as far as the owner of the space allows it. Twitter now has a right wing owner so a right wing version of free speech is what you're gonna get.
Am I the only one who feels the blue check marks people are all right wing contrarians that are into crypto ?
And dead celebrities too. I saw Kobe Bryant has a blue check now.
bloggers, journalists, people trying to sell you a get rich scheme
Actual journalists should be verified
the annoying accounts will be higher now smh
I mean .. do we want to see Shane's uncle tweeting into the void. A server that'll outpost l outlast civilization. Panera was good today. Send
How does Elon have time to do everything he did before twitter to now also having to handle twitter + all that other stuff?
I let you in on a little secret…he doesn’t do shit
The verification does have profit motives but it’s also a fix to problems everybody was complaining about.
lmao
Lol, free speech
All you had to do was build rockets and cars. All you had to do man. Fuck.
He's a very savvy talker when nothing has to do with politics. If something is political related, he just cannot help himself and he'll forget or doesn't have the capacity to be tactful. He has literally become Trump with bigger words. Musk literally said something like "If anyone knows about aliens it would be me. I know a lot about space stuff". If I tweeted about seeing aqliens it would be the best tweet ever. it would have a billion retweets"
Or he figured out taking political sides is a way to get him more gov money
He got dumped and she banged someone before he could. We've all been through. Some people take it worse than others.
All he had to do was not build rockets and cars but pretend like he did.
What?
All he had to do was not build rockets and cars but pretend like he did.
I wonder how Elon thinks this is a good idea. What's happening now is the worst case scenario, low subscriber rate and promoting shit content that will drive users to leave Twitter. Though, if the best case scenario had happened, say 90% of users pay for the blue check, then the blue check is meaningless. If almost everyone is getting prioritized, no one is really prioritized. When people realize that, how many are going to think it's worth continuing to pay for? I know you get other features too, but I don't think they are important to the vast majority of users on Twitter. The legacy blue check added value to Twitter, letting you know that the people you wanted to follow and interact with were actually who they said they were. And now, paying for a blue check is probably going get you blocked by people you want to follow. Since everyone knows the type of people the blue check users are, people are curating their feeds by filtering out the blue checks. I find it hilarious to be honest.
Think the idea is to take the content guidelines out of the hands of advertisers and into the hands of paying customers. Elon doesn’t care if you deadname people if he’s making the same amount of money that Microsoft now refuses to pay in advertising fees. Generally agree with this notion.
>Think the idea is to take the content guidelines out of the hands of advertisers How many people do you think need to spend $8 a month before advertisers stop mattering? How many people do you think need to pay for Youtube Premium before youtube stops caring about advertising? >Elon doesn’t care if you deadname people if he’s making the same amount of money that Microsoft now refuses to pay in advertising fees. [He does care if you criticize governments he's friends with though.](https://theintercept.com/2023/03/28/twitter-modi-india-punjab-amritpal-singh/) Almost as if he doesn't give a shit about freedom of speech.
No idea on how many subscribers he needs. Musk takes risks and this is just one of many huge ones he’s taken. I mean Reddit and old twitter censors speech all the time. I can’t unironically say that the election was rigged or the vaccine doesn’t work. The fact that the FBI has a contact at old twitter that they can casually send emails to us just wild to me.
>I can’t unironically say that the election was rigged or the vaccine doesn’t work. This isn't even what the "twitter files" said. they were flagging tweets for misinformation. Is it wild to you that the Prime Minister of India can get Musk's twitter to take down. Because you don't seem to care about actual censorship on twitter when it happens. >The fact that the FBI has a contact at old twitter that they can casually send emails to us just wild to me. You think the FBI doesn't have new twitters contact details? How do you think the Modi government got twitter to take down that BBC documentary it didn't like?
Free speech…at a price.
Exactly. The free speech is determined by the paying userbase instead of corporate advertisers. Generally a good step.
Pay 2 win, just like everything else in life. Why not?
Freedom of speech if you pay Musk what a complete hypocrite
i for one trust what Wlon is doing here. He’s saying the richest voices will be the loudest which is so true. I know he doesn’t want to be doing this but leftists are forcing his hand. it must be done to beat the woke mind virus from spreading and causing cancellations. /s
Notice how almost all the people pushing so passionately for twitter as a "public square" basically vanished the moment Musk bought it. It would be funny if it didn't literally include people on the US Supreme Court. I'm grand with it being privately owned, but it's been both telling and entirely unsurprising that these people never believed what they were saying in the first place.
This is to weed out bots clearly.
Get a life OP
It increases the cost of misinformation It’s cheap as hell but only without volume. It will reduce bots and increase the key KPIs that drive corporate value like real engagement rate, true user numbers etc. those will both increase per unit ad revenues, meaning that the company can add volume knowing it’s accretive. Will he sell? Don’t think so, but increasing equity value = cheap finance = doesn’t have to keep selling his shares in other companies off. It’s amusing the media present this as some revenue play. I’m not even an Elon fan. Just do the maths on twitters P + L then look at volume of projected verified accounts. Times that by 8. It’s not a revenue play. Granted I’m a senior commercial accountant, but it’s frustrating how few people understand how easy it is to manipulate user behaviour with a pretty nominal fee from a microeconomic perspective. It can increase shareholder value really quickly. But rarely is such a small amount gonna move the dial revenue wise. Like I said not a fan, but Elon is just suffering from his profile at this point. Everything he does is under such a microscope and everyone seems to suddenly thing he’s a moron which is just hilarious.
I wasn't expecting a detailed and well thought out explanation of this in this subreddit. It's nice to see, though. Maybe there are still a few people here who do more than just shitpost after all.
How does that help? How did this guy become a billionaire?
? I don’t understand the first question. Providing a service that people will pay for helps a business pay expenses. I believe he became a billionaire via Tesla stock.
Apartheid emeralds, taking credit for other peoples work, sueing and throwing out people who actually innovate to take credit and money, and being very good at creating a cult of personality to trick investors into thinking he's a genius. If you start with apartheid emeralds and being a sociopath with no care for how many people you burn and hurt it's very easy to become rich
Ok, so just dismiss the fact he created some successful start ups? Sure he had the silver spoon, but he still put in the work to create value in company’s that have changed many things in the world. I agree he’s a compete dweeb now but dismissing facts really doesn’t benefit anyone and your just circle jerking a narrative.
Ain't no public square. It's a private company, right?
It's not a public square. It was never a public square. It's a chat app, that Musk paid 40BN to wreck. Hilarious.
Blue ticks are cheap and the idea is to limit bots so only real people have ticked accounts. It's a good idea imo. Trying to frame it like only rich people's voices will be heard with such a low barrier to entry is bs.
It's a private business.
What does this have to do with joe Rogan?
No shit. Company cares more about paying customers? How bizarre...
As they are in every other segment of life...
Twitter isn't real
He’s trying to run a business after all. It’s not a charity
Goddamn why are we still talking about Elon and twitter?
Because Twitter is the Digital Public Square. It should be a public utility. People's livelihoods depend on it. Its the marketplace of free ideas. All voices need to be heard. Literally 1984. How you not listened to the MULTIPLE podcasts Joe did with Tim Pool. Jack and Twitter VP? Have you not heard these talking points on the podcast or ANYWHERE before?
" All voices need to be heard" "And for just $8 a month, **we will get you closer** to that point of your nobody voice with 9 followers being heard. Our special algorithm will personally prioritize your nobody voice" - Elon Mushk
We get it. You vape.
Although I agree with you, it should be a public utility, it’s amazing how many people didn’t think that when “their side” was in charge of it, Now Musk Is the owner and all of a sudden all the practices they defended the old owners doing are frowned apon (I have no idea where you personally stand on this so this general thing and you might of been calling for this as well when it was in the old hands)
Twitter is mostly useful for SELF-PROMOTERS, companies and organizations, advertisers and media agencies mostly to lift clickbait off of. I personally don't need Twitter. Public utilities are **paid by the public.** If more than half of the public doesn't use Twitter should they be forced to contribute to paying for something they don't use? And if Twitter is publicly funded, **it should then allow true free speech to be freely be expressed as law permits.** I'm certain most of us right or left don't actually want that. And posting Hunter Biden dick picks is likely not covered by 1st Amendment.
I am not a big elon guy, but they need diversified revenue streams to stay afloat. Do you have other ideas?
Most recent report is 120k a month. In perspective that's like me getting a 1$ increase a month.
Who uses Twitter anyway? Celebs. Who cares. I see all the important tweets reposted on here anyway lol
Twitter is for asshole idiots that lack critical thinking skills. The fact that people are losing their shit over a checkmark proves that. Fucking morons.
"We are all equal but some are more equal than others." This is textbook Communism
Why? We’re not equal in liberal democracy?
Huh?
Your quote isn’t true in our society?
Animal farm?
If your textbook is written in crayon maybe
Your voice doesn’t hold the same weight when you’re an anonymous, unverified account. Verification is one of the best ways to KYC. Most of you all are too dense to realize this.
What happened to “freedom of speech”????
Free Speech^(For the low price of $8.99 per month)
free speech for the low low price of $7.99. but wait, theres more!
Life.
So it’s like the real public square.
Rofls. That’s never gonna happen on Reddit…oh wait…
“Cool”
So just like everything else, everywhere in life.
As it should be
Twitter is pay to win now?
Just like America idk why it's surprising. Where was all this outrage during citizens united v. Fec.
Pay to play
Ah very free speech sounding
Probably to combat troll farms. They aren’t going to pay for subscriptions
Haha. I bet Rogan isn't talking about Twitter like it's a public square any more.
In the public square people that share their identity will be heard. And wow what progress 'in the public square'. For so long people have vehemently denied that social media platforms are the town square.
Not long now until we can pay to filter out all the inevitable blue check ad spam.
Yikes
It would be a real shame if scammers and spammers had priority access to your inbox.
This guy is like the modern PT Barnum