1731

I feel like those people are far less concerned about what shows in their feed vs them showing up in the feeds of others. They’re producing, not consuming.

1732

Bill Gates once threw around the idea of having email cost a penny an email to tackle the spam issue, and it was shot down so fast by everyone. Now it’s $20/month just to browse Twitter? Yeah, sure, everyone is gonna line up to pay!

1733

Nothing would make me happier than Elon being wrong and the site collapsing. Maybe all it takes is a few big names dropping, which leads to less engagement from their followers. Then the trickle of users leaving the site becomes a death spiral.

I personally think Twitter is too entrenched and the addiction is too strong. There are no alternatives. Sure you can go to counter.social and post into the void. And if that site suddenly gets an influx of ten million users its probably not going to scale. Maybe Tiktok or Insta get a pop but video is way more time consuming than just firing off a text message of whatever bullshit pops into your mind.

1734

I think this is somewhat true, but I don’t think the vast majority of Twitter users will pay $20 per month for the fix. That sort of fee changes the calculation in a huge way.

1735

One alternative is to stay on Twitter and not pay the $20 to be verified.

1736

I was a pretty big Twitter browser. But in the days I took the app off my phone and computer, I find reddit and this forum still keep me in the loop. Plus AP news alerts to my phone.

Now my big challenge is trying to decide which app should take up the hole that exists on my phone’s main screen where the Twitter app resided.

1737

I suggested something similar to fix steam forums. Anyone with a mouse by their name can post free while anyone w/o a mouse pays 5 steam points to post.

1738

Making the people who supply content to your UGC site pay is the exact opposite of what should be happening. YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok don’t make people pay to post there - they actually pay the content creators (sometimes really well).

1739

They SAY they won’t. But I guess we will see how many of them can live without the “post a thought” and get immediate feedback of thousands of likes and retweets.

The price is insanely high though. 20 bucks a month? Cut that in half and I could see a lot of people signing up for it.

Twitter has to be able to make money, and if they can increase verification to high levels, it will make them money, and help to filter out the trash that advertisers don’t like. It isn’t the only way for them to make money, but it is the one they are choosing.

But, that is the problem with Twitter in general. I don’t think that it can ever be profitable, because the current setup is why it is popular, and changing the terms might just lose people. It is only working because it is the only thing like it with any sort of critical mass of users.

It is my personal social media network of choice, because it is quick and it is text/images. Instagram is all just images with little substance, facebook is mostly devoid of users I like to follow, and flooded with ads that ruin the reading experience, Tiktok is not a real social media app - it is a video sharing platform like youtube, Snapchat is for fucking around, and Mastodon is so inscrutable and bereft of users it is useless.

I would assume that they will implement a 2 tiered “authentication” system, that lets the rich and popular users stay in their walled garden, and the rest of the plebian caste can have “verified” with a different, less exciting check mark.

I am going to predict now, that “normie” users will have a check that isn’t filled in, and “influencers” will have a check that is solid colored.

You can’t just give every sneech a star! That is crazy. Also, this is literally the story of the Sneetches.

1740

I don’t even think it works as a one-off single payment of $20. The problem is that social media kind of sold its soul from the beginning. To get people to the platform, all of them are free. Why use one that costs $20 a MONTH? That’s an insane business plan. It is 100% Elon and yes-men not reading the room. To add to that, apparently the entire world is in cost reduction mode right now. So here the plan offer is to outlay $20 a month for something all of us know we can live without? Again, this is a very stupid plan.

1741

I wonder if the 20$ a month was the price sent out to gauge reaction, and the price will be similar to the “how about 8$” he responded to Stephen King

1742

Is there any reason to believe any of this Elon Twitter adventure is part of a well-considered plan?

1743

Oh god no. I am sure it isn’t, because that would be at least somewhat smart thing to do.

If it does happen to be true, Elon dick riders will attribute it to some sort of master plan, when the reality was he just threw out numbers.

1744

Price anchoring is a thing, get people thinking about $20 and then when it comes in at $5 or $10 it seems “cheap”.

1745

Why do I need to be verified. I’m a nobody. Nobody cares if I’m the real Mark Asher except me, Mark Asher.

1746

And me, Mark Asher.

1747

I AM MARK ASHER

1748

What if a celebrity is set up to only see verified users, and you aren’t verified. Then when you comment on their tweet, they can’t like your tweet and make you feel very good about yourself because it’s almost like you’re BFFs with that celebrity! Instead you’re invisible, a nobody, unloved. Isn’t it worth the $20 so sempai will notice you?

Parasocial relationships are weird powerful things.

1749

Is there some other company we wouldn’t mind seeing driven into the ground that we can get Elon to spend the other $60B or whatever is left on?

1750

This is very good and on-the-money.