Charging people for access to the "de facto town square".... Wouldn't that fundamentally undermine democracy for those who do not or cannot pay the fees?
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X May Charge New Users a 'Small Fee' to Post, Like and Reply
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X, crash and burn
Tesla, layoff 10% of workforce
SpaceX, ???
Starlink, ???
Tesla, layoff 10% of workforce
SpaceX, ???
Starlink, ???
The internet has truly lost the plot. The big tech companies don't want to innovate or provide value anymore. So resort to charging for what was free to keep margins.
I'll be honest, if social media had adopted a different business model based on contributing members, rather than data harvesting, ads and trackers, we'd all be better off.
But it's too late now. It's ads and fees from here on out. I'm not trying to be edgy, but I've quit most of it. It's just not fun anymore.
But it's too late now. It's ads and fees from here on out. I'm not trying to be edgy, but I've quit most of it. It's just not fun anymore.
That platform just keeps getting more and more hilarious 😆
Free speech is great… when you can afford it.
I'm not much of an activist, but disabling my Twitter when Musk knowingly reinstated Andrew Anglin's account was the easiest decision of my life and I have not felt any temptation to return.
Elon has mastered the art of death by a thousand cuts.
Sounds like Blue Sky is the way to go. Way better than Twitter/X and its still free...
So could you set up like a thousand accounts today, then when it gets put in place sell them accounts to allow instant postings as long as it’s cheaper than the subscription seems like a nice easy money maker haha
This might have flown at the beginning, but he's created so much ill will that most will not pay.
Time to get my Threads account more active.
Time to get my Threads account more active.
I've been saying that for over a year now.
As bad as this arrangement sounds it is one way to combat bot nets. Changes the financial dynamic and incentive certain large bot nets would have to engage on the network. It definitely sucks and isn’t “ideal” but maybe it will result in further refinement of engagement. Idk. It’s been a mess for so long. Smh
And he's admitted so too.
Musk Admits He Doesn't Fact-Check Himself and Has Two Burner Accounts on Twitter
New defamation suit against Elon Musk over tweets reveals how the billionaire spreads misinformation and lurks on secret Twitter accounts.
www.rollingstone.com
Elsewhere in the deposition, Musk criticized the mainstream media and “so-called misinformation experts” and insisted that X has better ways of ensuring accuracy. In particular, he praised the platform’s Community Notes feature as “the best system on the internet” when it comes to fact-checking. Yet Musk has at times taken issue with Community Notes on his own tweets, and though he tagged Community Notes in his post endorsing the erroneous “false flag” claims about the Oregon melee, the post has never received a correction. Musk conceded that there’s always “some risk that what I say is incorrect,” but said this had to be balanced against “a chilling effect on free speech in general, which would undermine the entire foundation of our democracy.”
At times, Musk was forced to wrestle with his own reckless actions as the owner and prime influencer of X. “I may have done more to financially impair the company than to help it,” he told Bankston in one exchange, adding, “I do not guide my posts by what is financially beneficial but what I believe is interesting or important or entertaining to the public.”
I guess a free Twitter/X is harder than sending rockets into Space? 
And he manages to fail miserably at both.
So, so much existing spam on Twitter already comes from "verified" accounts. That's much more expensive than a buck a year.
It is so much worse now than it was a year ago, and that itself is worse than it was a year prior. If my field weren't still heavily on Twitter, I'd have long since ditched it.
What's wild to me is that despite all of Musk's questionable decisions, none of Twitter's competitors seem to have caught up.
Like I really thought Threads would be a serious competitor to Twitter by now, but so far, I only know a few friends who use Threads, maybe one distant acquaintance who uses Bluesky, and I don't personally know anyone on Mastodon.
But Twitter? I know so many people who still use Twitter.
Like I really thought Threads would be a serious competitor to Twitter by now, but so far, I only know a few friends who use Threads, maybe one distant acquaintance who uses Bluesky, and I don't personally know anyone on Mastodon.
But Twitter? I know so many people who still use Twitter.
A situation where we pay in order to be the product. I quit Twitter a good while back.