[Brazelton] Twitter

I don't really see the doom and gloom about this. Except the rich guy potentially getting richer. Twitter isn't known as some sanctified place, beloved by all. That isn't even remotely its reputation. If this is about deplatforming racists and such, that was never a permanent solution. Basically, the fan is already made of shit, so hitting it with more shit doesn't worry me.
 
I don't really see the doom and gloom about this. Except the rich guy potentially getting richer. Twitter isn't known as some sanctified place, beloved by all. That isn't even remotely its reputation. If this is about deplatforming racists and such, that was never a permanent solution. Basically, the fan is already made of shit, so hitting it with more shit doesn't worry me.
Twitter has a (undeserved and unjustified) name as The Place to hear what people have to say, to hear the opinions of regular people, where big announcements are made, etc.
Journalists and politicians have favored it and despite its user base still pretty much being pretty limited it has a far outsized influence on things. Compare and contrast to FB which, despite its multitude of other failings, can actually up to a point state they can reach the vast majority of normal people in the western world.
Twitter allowing or even supporting hate speech, lies, propaganda, etc will poison the well of public speech and public opinion even further.
It wasn't great before, definitely, but it will get even worse.
 
Twitter has a (undeserved and unjustified) name as The Place to hear what people have to say, to hear the opinions of regular people, where big announcements are made, etc.
Journalists and politicians have favored it and despite its user base still pretty much being pretty limited it has a far outsized influence on things. Compare and contrast to FB which, despite its multitude of other failings, can actually up to a point state they can reach the vast majority of normal people in the western world.
Twitter allowing or even supporting hate speech, lies, propaganda, etc will poison the well of public speech and public opinion even further.
It wasn't great before, definitely, but it will get even worse.
Yeah, basically I addressed all of that in my lack of concern.
 

Zappit

Staff member
Eh, he’s already backtracking on that free speech “paradise” shit. Twitter barely turns a profit on ads, and they’ll bail in droves if Twitter turns into Parler or Truth Social. Plus, he financed this deal. If he fucks Twitter sideways and people and advertisers leave, he’s royally fucked himself. It doesn’t just tank Twitter; Tesla stock would plummet, too. He’s can’t manipulate the market out of this one.

I figure this ends up like almost all of Elon’s ventures - big promises and either nothing or incremental, minor change.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Eh, he’s already backtracking on that free speech “paradise” shit. Twitter barely turns a profit on ads, and they’ll bail in droves if Twitter turns into Parler or Truth Social. Plus, he financed this deal. If he fucks Twitter sideways and people and advertisers leave, he’s royally fucked himself. It doesn’t just tank Twitter; Tesla stock would plummet, too. He’s can’t manipulate the market out of this one.

I figure this ends up like almost all of Elon’s ventures - big promises and either nothing or incremental, minor change.
I think there's another possibility. He attempts to meddle with the system, advertisers freak out, and then he has to backpedal to get them to stick around, and that results in big changes that advertisers and banking have been wanting for a while, namely cracking down on adult content (not just outright porn, but all sorts of adult oriented discussion, educational content, and more.)

Twitter has already been pushing in the direction of removing content that isn't advertiser friendly, and if Elon tries to push too hard to get his preferred type of unfriendly content, he might just bring down the whole house of cards.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
The n-word was trending today. Good start.
So was Ivermectin. A lot of crappy stuff has been trending, because it's trendy to "test" the system by posting lists of topics that have been censored in the past. It's a fucking stupid trend and it doesn't prove anything about the change in ownership, though it does indicate the user base is still collectively as dumb as a sack of bricks.

EDIT:

Yup, there's a huge increase in assholery on Twitter right now.
 
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So was Ivermectin. A lot of crappy stuff has been trending, because it's trendy to "test" the system by posting lists of topics that have been censored in the past. It's a fucking stupid trend and it doesn't prove anything about the change in ownership, though it does indicate the user base is still collectively as dumb as a sack of bricks.

EDIT:

Yup, there's a huge increase in assholery on Twitter right now.
Who'd have thought that was possible?
 
"the only way"?
Nahh. Maybe the only way they can make a profit from it and they're willing to implement.

Also, don't see how that would slow down bots for one second
 
So was Ivermectin. A lot of crappy stuff has been trending, because it's trendy to "test" the system by posting lists of topics that have been censored in the past. It's a fucking stupid trend and it doesn't prove anything about the change in ownership, though it does indicate the user base is still collectively as dumb as a sack of bricks.

EDIT:

Yup, there's a huge increase in assholery on Twitter right now.
And why was it so easy to crash the moderation system?

 
I'm sure I'm not the only one to think this, but it's assumed that they're charging now for the blue check because once they start letting the trolls and other banned folk back on Twitter, it's going to supplement the advertisers that will pull out?
 
I'm sure I'm not the only one to think this, but it's assumed that they're charging now for the blue check because once they start letting the trolls and other banned folk back on Twitter, it's going to supplement the advertisers that will pull out?
That's probably Musk's thinking. He expects advertisers to leave and thinks this will help keep profits up.

Unfortunately, apparently 92% of Twitter's income is from advertising. It was already operating at a loss. And there sure as hell won't be enough existing blue checks willing to pay anything. So this will just cause them to lose MORE money.
 

Dave

Staff member
Fuck Musk. I'm staying on Twitter long enough to have it turn into a cesspool Parlor wannabe but then I'll bail. I don't see that much there anyway. The people I follow don't post right wing conspiracy stuff.
 
To be fair, 15 for all of English language Twitter just means the quality will come closer to quality of Twitter in all other languages.
There was apparently one (1) Dutch speaking person moderating. If that person was sick or in vacation? Well, guess your report for dangerous or hate speech will be Google translated and rated by someone from another language... If they can understand it at all, because of course auto translators don't handle slurs and dogwhistle stuff well at all.
 
Even for Musk, that was a lot of money to buy something just to toss it in the dumpster. Maybe after this shitfest implodes, his ego will come back down to Earth.
 
He’s really going to try to haggle Stephen King down from $20 a month to $8 a month? I’m sure he has to realize that to someone like him, there’s no real difference.
 
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