To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
Yes, it seems pretty straightforward to me. He's a disruptor. Sometimes that's good, sometimes its bad. I have no idea about this disruption, but it doesn't seem like additional motivations are needed to be sought, it's just that he is disrupting and people are reacting, and he's then trying to frame that reaction in moral terms.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He doesn't understand what he bought. He will play with it until it is broken.
In his defence I've definitely read articles (albeit a few years old) that the founders and runners of twitter didn't seem to understand what they'd created or what to do with it either.
This is absolutely true. Twitter was invented as a way for Americans to text each other, when - for some reason I forget - texting was difficult, pricey or impossible on Yankee cell networks. Hence the 140 character limit. Like a text
It was never meant to become "the global Town Square". Yet it did
Musk needs the Lefties and Libs he’s trying to own to stick around on Twitter. That’s his challenge. If they clear off, he’s done. He cannot make the money he needs to make to service his debts from hosting a right-wing talking shop.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He doesn't understand what he bought. He will play with it until it is broken.
In his defence I've definitely read articles (albeit a few years old) that the founders and runners of twitter didn't seem to understand what they'd created or what to do with it either.
That's true, and they 'accidentally' turned it into something worth $44Bn
Elon will turn it into something worth less than that...
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however
Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
Twitter just shows we need a twitter, not the particular flavour Musk now owns. It's a shame Mastodon is such a mess, but there's no reasonit can't be replaced by a workable open source alternative. There is a non zero chance that Musk has cooked $44bn down to $0.
Hey now, Yahoo managed to get three million for Tumblr after buying it for 1.1 billion.
On the same basis Musk can walk away with a cool 120 million.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He doesn't understand what he bought. He will play with it until it is broken.
In his defence I've definitely read articles (albeit a few years old) that the founders and runners of twitter didn't seem to understand what they'd created or what to do with it either.
Whisper it quietly, but the details underneath that poll suggest that Starmer is, very slowly but very surely, becoming more popular with the great British public. Dull but worthy may become the flavour of the day.
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He doesn't understand what he bought. He will play with it until it is broken.
From his point of view, Twitter is a medium to speak, because that's what he does.
The idea that most of its value is as a medium to listen just isn't on his radar.
It's an object lesson to step outside your Twitter bubble.
If you do it could save you a stack of cash in the long run.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The failure of Facebook and the impending failure of Instagram are quite startling
If you go on Facebook it actually LOOKS old-fashioned. Cluttered, stale and annoying. They must surely know this at Zuckerberg House, yet they have done nothing to address the problem. Nor have they launched any new social media, as far as I can see
They've taken the money, complacently. It is an IBM in the making. Perhaps even a Kodak
Or even like one of your previous hot tips, Betamax? So much for “better sound quality”!
Musk needs the Lefties and Libs he’s trying to own to stick around on Twitter. That’s his challenge. If they clear off, he’s done. He cannot make the money he needs to make to service his debts from hosting a right-wing talking shop.
I don't think they're Musk's debts. I think they're twitter's now. If he sinks the company a whole bunch of other people and banks (including Barclays) are losing billions along with Musk.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He doesn't understand what he bought. He will play with it until it is broken.
In his defence I've definitely read articles (albeit a few years old) that the founders and runners of twitter didn't seem to understand what they'd created or what to do with it either.
This is absolutely true. Twitter was invented as a way for Americans to text each other, when - for some reason I forget - texting was difficult, pricey or impossible on Yankee cell networks. Hence the 140 character limit. Like a text
It was never meant to become "the global Town Square". Yet it did
There's a chapter in Francis Spufford's "Backroom Boys" about this. (Great book.) Basically, the GSM standard developed in Europe struck gold with what was possible and sellable (there's a line about a camel developed by a committee that turned out to be a racing camel) and the Yanks took a different path that didn't really allow for roaming or any easy links between different networks.
Opinium is out, labour increase lead to 18 (46 28), taking 2 from the LDs otherwise unchanged but Starmer back in the lead by 3 30 27 as best PM...........
That's a solid 15% swing from Conservative to Labour.
Add in the tactical voting swing and you get a Labour majority of over 200 with the Conservatives losing more than two thirds of their seats so not an extinction event but worse than 1997.
Yes so it depends whether we see swingback towards more normal pastures
Nice try but Techne and Osmosis not a million miles away from Opinium suggesting Labour are around or just below 50, the Conservatives around or just below 30 and the Liberal Democrats are around or just below 10.
The R&W "Blue Wall" poll confirmed the willingness of large numbers of Labour and LD voters to vote tactically to unseat a sitting Conservative so the base line numbers don't reflect the degree of anti-Conservative sentiment out there at the moment.
Im not sure what i'm 'trying'? The election is 18 months away, if things stay as they are then the result will be a large Lab majority/landslide, if there is swingback as has often, but not always happened then it will be closer but probably a Lab majority of 'normal' size.
It seems to me that Sunak is an John Major ‘97 situation - he could win, but not with the Conservative Party he has behind him.
My main surprise is that he took the gig. Ok, become PM, but the inevitable hammering which will also end his career in politics?
I'd have taken it in his position; it was the only chance he'd ever get to be PM. And there's still a small chance Labour could implode before the next GE.
Bear in mind that in terms of a party being in control in recent times it has gone 18 years, 13 years, 12 years (and counting).
Sure, if Labour win the next election it might be a one term thing, especially if it is a close win (which it should be, given how far behind they are from 2019), but in the adult living memory of nearly everyone in the country that would not be the norm.
So turn down being PM now and you're looking at 8-10 years to wait, on top of the 2 years to the next GE that is likely. Sunak reached a top post very quickly, but to then retain a position at the top for another 10-12 years to win again? Or another 6-7 years even?
A long wait for someone whose political career was so quick.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however
Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
Everyone is just enjoying dunking on bad ideas man.
Everyday now I log on to see what the new bad idea is. Maybe he'll post another meme grabbed from a far-right site. Or this time it will be gross violation of employment law. Everyday is a glorious suprise.
I sense your pain
I'm going to be sad when Twitter is an empty wasteland. I like it. I bumble around, I post little art tweets that 20-100 other people who post other similar art tweets like and say nice things about. I call the SCons fucking morons every so often.
It's nice. I'm not a target for harassment so I have a peaceful time there.
I've no idea if they'll work, but they're more interesting ideas than charging for blue ticks. The latter in particular may utterly change Twitter's business model.
But it does seem odd that he comes out with it now. I wonder if he has fully thought it through?
It's worth reading the text exchanges in that thread. They show that Williamson is indeed an obnoxious, unpleasant little man who has become abusive because he couldn't go the the Queen's funeral. A complete tosser. Pity Sunak doesn't think the same.
He might think Williamson is a complete tosser. But he for some reason either still likes him or thought he would be political useful (which, as has been noted given his lack of demonstrable competence and lack of popularity, is hard to understand).
Gavin Williamson is one of those odd people that you get in politics sometimes that just keep coming back time after time after time like a turd you can never quite flush away...
Similes don't come more original than that. you must be very proud.
You starting again? You've already been banned once for abusing me!
Does Williamson count in the "Next Cabinet Minister to quit" market since he's only a Minister without Portfolio?
I feel like the spotlight is beginning to move away from Leaky Sue even though immigration remains high in the news cycle.
Important question I think, given the 'attends Cabinet but not in it' situation - which as was pointed out to me on here at the time, has led to the strange situation this time around that the AG was not a full Cabinet role for a time, but appears to be again now.
Edit:
On Braverman, it helps her that most people really won't care about information security protocols, and those that like her rhetoric and immigration really like it. So she can bumble on to the next crisis. She'll only fall if she fails in her aims (or rather, fails in a way which embarrasses the government, since they don't mind failure if people still think they are best to try to fix it)
Maybe I'm blind but Kari Lake seems — at first glance — to have a similar complexion to Meghan Markle. Which shows how ridiculous the whole thing is. (No offence intended to anyone).
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
And Rail Forums. I now have the pleasure of reading your jokes twice!
I've no idea if they'll work, but they're more interesting ideas than charging for blue ticks. The latter in particular may utterly change Twitter's business model.
But it does seem odd that he comes out with it now. I wonder if he has fully thought it through?
Having a native Patreon-like capability could transform it completely.
I don't think charging for blue ticks was ever meant to be the end of the story.
Musk needs the Lefties and Libs he’s trying to own to stick around on Twitter. That’s his challenge. If they clear off, he’s done. He cannot make the money he needs to make to service his debts from hosting a right-wing talking shop.
I don't think they're Musk's debts. I think they're twitter's now. If he sinks the company a whole bunch of other people and banks (including Barclays) are losing billions along with Musk.
Yep - that’s true. But it gives him less freedom to act.
Does Williamson count in the "Next Cabinet Minister to quit" market since he's only a Minister without Portfolio?
I feel like the spotlight is beginning to move away from Leaky Sue even though immigration remains high in the news cycle.
Important question I think, given the 'attends Cabinet but not in it' situation - which as was pointed out to me on here at the time, has led to the strange situation this time around that the AG was not a full Cabinet role for a time, but appears to be again now.
Edit:
On Braverman, it helps her that most people really won't care about information security protocols, and those that like her rhetoric and immigration really like it. So she can bumble on to the next crisis. She'll only fall if she fails in her aims (or rather, fails in a way which embarrasses the government, since they don't mind failure if people still think they are best to try to fix it)
I think he's more likely to go than Braverman at present as those WhatsApp messages are hard evidence and pretty revolting to the public eye (even if it is common as I've seen suggested) but I'm wondering whether he counts or whether he'd void Braverman bets.
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
Who needs it, when Scott_n_paste will bring links to 90% of Twitter posts here.....
Gavin Williamson is one of those odd people that you get in politics sometimes that just keep coming back time after time after time like a turd you can never quite flush away...
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
And Rail Forums. I now have the pleasure of reading your jokes twice!
I knew it was you!
On a different note, can't believe someone stuck the DLR in the "Which tram networks have you rode on?" poll! There's no street running on the DLR!
I've no idea if they'll work, but they're more interesting ideas than charging for blue ticks. The latter in particular may utterly change Twitter's business model.
But it does seem odd that he comes out with it now. I wonder if he has fully thought it through?
Having a native Patreon-like capability could transform it completely.
I don't think charging for blue ticks was ever meant to be the end of the story.
Twitter can steal a lot of people's lunches, from Onlyfans to Substack. Integrating payments to consume content is the key.
e.g.
A perv can follow their favourite pornstar on Twitter and get "premium" access for $5 a month. Or I can read the latest Bari Weiss article by clicking through from Twitter and paying a microtransaction of $0.02 - $0.10 per article. If Twitter can take a percentage of that action, they are laughing.
The great thing about twitter is if you're a perv, you don't have to interact with the journalism, and if you're on twitter for the journalism, you don't have to be exposed (pun intended) to the porn - you just follow the creators you're interested in and pay for what you want to consume.
That is the business model going forward. Monetising content creators through subscriptions or microtransactions.
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
And Rail Forums. I now have the pleasure of reading your jokes twice!
I knew it was you!
On a different note, can't believe someone stuck the DLR in the "Which tram networks have you rode on?" poll! There's no street running on the DLR!
Hey, isn't there a separate forum for this kind of thing?
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however
Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
And Rail Forums. I now have the pleasure of reading your jokes twice!
I knew it was you!
On a different note, can't believe someone stuck the DLR in the "Which tram networks have you rode on?" poll! There's no street running on the DLR!
I've made over 5,000 posts there. I hope you take the time to read them all!
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
I’ve acknowledged it’s not completely impossible that he might turn the thing around. But on the evidence of his first week, he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. And it’s completely irrational to spend $44 bn on a platform, and then use the first week in control sacking half the talent and alienating a large part of the user base.
Your Zuck comment is an odd one; Meta has lost three quarters of its value in the last year. So yes, the market is judging him.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
There's another aspect here; Musk famously does not use advertising (at least, traditional adverts), and allegedly dislikes advertisers. Instead, he relies on contagious word-of-mouth and hype. It has worked well for him.
Yet the business he has just bought relies on advertisers for much of its revenue. It might be that he simply does not understand 'traditional' advertising and the adverts industry, and that has led him to make some rather significant early strategic mistakes.
A further aspect. He may well have Ratnered (Trussed?) the Tesla brand too.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious.
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
And Rail Forums. I now have the pleasure of reading your jokes twice!
I knew it was you!
On a different note, can't believe someone stuck the DLR in the "Which tram networks have you rode on?" poll! There's no street running on the DLR!
Hey, isn't there a separate forum for this kind of thing?
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
I’ve acknowledged it’s not completely impossible that he might turn the thing around. But on the evidence of his first week, he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. And it’s completely irrational to spend $44 bn on a platform, and then use the first week in control sacking half the talent and alienating a large part of the user base.
Your Zuck comment is an odd one; Meta has lost three quarters of its value in the last year. So yes, the market is judging him.
And yet Facebook has been dead since 2016-ish, yet it continued to spin its legs, wil-e-coyote-style, long after falling off the cliff.
Hence why I'm puzzled as to why you think my Zuck comment is an odd one. As I have said, more than once, we seem to be writing off Musk's vision for Twitter in less than a week. The rot at Facebook started years ago.
It feels to me like people want Musk to fail, either because they don't like him, or because they don't like his politics.
It's probably better to wait and see what the platform becomes in a year or two's time.
A pivot to a microtransaction/subscription based content creator platform as opposed to an ad supported one makes a lot more sense than Zuck's freaky "metaverse" pivot.
But perhaps give it more than a week before passing judgement?
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious.
No it doesn't. If he succeeds in eating the lunch of platforms that charge for content then advertisers will be irrelevant.
I've no idea if they'll work, but they're more interesting ideas than charging for blue ticks. The latter in particular may utterly change Twitter's business model.
But it does seem odd that he comes out with it now. I wonder if he has fully thought it through?
Having a native Patreon-like capability could transform it completely.
I don't think charging for blue ticks was ever meant to be the end of the story.
Twitter can steal a lot of people's lunches, from Onlyfans to Substack. Integrating payments to consume content is the key.
e.g.
A perv can follow their favourite pornstar on Twitter and get "premium" access for $5 a month. Or I can read the latest Bari Weiss article by clicking through from Twitter and paying a microtransaction of $0.02 - $0.10 per article. If Twitter can take a percentage of that action, they are laughing.
The great thing about twitter is if you're a perv, you don't have to interact with the journalism, and if you're on twitter for the journalism, you don't have to be exposed (pun intended) to the porn - you just follow the creators you're interested in and pay for what you want to consume.
That is the business model going forward. Monetising content creators through subscriptions or microtransactions.
Yebbut how does Musk stymie the freeriders without destroying the platform? Also … has Dorsey endorsed Musk?
A horror scenario - PB fills the gap left by imploding Twitter.
Musk needs the Lefties and Libs he’s trying to own to stick around on Twitter. That’s his challenge. If they clear off, he’s done. He cannot make the money he needs to make to service his debts from hosting a right-wing talking shop.
I don't think they're Musk's debts. I think they're twitter's now. If he sinks the company a whole bunch of other people and banks (including Barclays) are losing billions along with Musk.
It’s fairly likely he will have given lenders some sort of security.
Gavin Williamson is one of those odd people that you get in politics sometimes that just keep coming back time after time after time like a turd you can never quite flush away...
Similes don't come more original than that. you must be very proud.
You starting again? You've already been banned once for abusing me!
If that's as lame as that after an edit, I'd hate to think how it started life.
You are a sycophant to a sycophant (unless you are a sockpuppet, in which case we can eliminate one layer). But respect for your extraordinarily original trope about Williamson. Let us showcase it in all its glory:
"like a turd you can never quite flush away."
Utterly original comic genius. How do you come up with stuff like that? I mean genuinely, does it just pop up while you are in the shower?
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
And Rail Forums. I now have the pleasure of reading your jokes twice!
I knew it was you!
On a different note, can't believe someone stuck the DLR in the "Which tram networks have you rode on?" poll! There's no street running on the DLR!
Hey, isn't there a separate forum for this kind of thing?
Musk needs the Lefties and Libs he’s trying to own to stick around on Twitter. That’s his challenge. If they clear off, he’s done. He cannot make the money he needs to make to service his debts from hosting a right-wing talking shop.
I don't think they're Musk's debts. I think they're twitter's now. If he sinks the company a whole bunch of other people and banks (including Barclays) are losing billions along with Musk.
It’s fairly likely he will have given lenders some sort of security.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious.
Surely it's just the free market in operation. Advertisers don't want to be advertising on a platform that allows unfettered extremism because they fear being tainted by association. So they chose safer options.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however
Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
Everyone is just enjoying dunking on bad ideas man.
Everyday now I log on to see what the new bad idea is. Maybe he'll post another meme grabbed from a far-right site. Or this time it will be gross violation of employment law. Everyday is a glorious suprise.
I sense your pain
I'm going to be sad when Twitter is an empty wasteland. I like it. I bumble around, I post little art tweets that 20-100 other people who post other similar art tweets like and say nice things about. I call the SCons fucking morons every so often.
It's nice. I'm not a target for harassment so I have a peaceful time there.
I have sads that bad man is fucking things up.
I don’t think he’s particularly bad - just careless.
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
And Rail Forums. I now have the pleasure of reading your jokes twice!
I knew it was you!
On a different note, can't believe someone stuck the DLR in the "Which tram networks have you rode on?" poll! There's no street running on the DLR!
Hey, isn't there a separate forum for this kind of thing?
Musk needs the Lefties and Libs he’s trying to own to stick around on Twitter. That’s his challenge. If they clear off, he’s done. He cannot make the money he needs to make to service his debts from hosting a right-wing talking shop.
Exactly. The harsh but fair and objective truth is that very little quality material in any field - inc twitter posting - is produced by individuals of a pronounced hard right "own the libs" sensibility. If Musk is as bright as he's reputed to be he'll know this. So let's see. It'll be fascinating. The start of something great or just another example of Big Man hubris.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions
of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious.
No it doesn't. If he succeeds in eating the Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious. lunch of platforms that charge for content then advertisers will be irrelevant.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions
of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious.
No it doesn't. If he succeeds in eating the Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious. lunch of platforms that charge for content then advertisers will be irrelevant.
Can’t do it without the lefties!
Wake me up when Scott stops using Twitter as his main source of content to post on here.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious.
Surely it's just the free market in operation. Advertisers don't want to be advertising on a platform that allows unfettered extremism because they fear being tainted by association. So they chose safer options.
Yep, they don’t want to be advertising on what is regarded as a right-wing talking shop.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions
of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious.
No it doesn't. If he succeeds in eating the Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s
Twitter purchase depends on the decisions of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious. lunch of platforms that charge for content then advertisers will be irrelevant.
Can’t do it without the lefties!
Wake me up when Scott stops using Twitter as his main source of content to post on here.
Thing is, it is very difficult to create a new social medium - alternative to Twitter - just like that. See Parler, Truth Social. Etc. The same will happen to Mastodon, it will be a ghetto of the Left like Parler is a ghetto of the Right. It won't work
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
I just use PB now. Deleted my Twitter earlier this week.
And Rail Forums. I now have the pleasure of reading your jokes twice!
I knew it was you!
On a different note, can't believe someone stuck the DLR in the "Which tram networks have you rode on?" poll! There's no street running on the DLR!
Hey, isn't there a separate forum for this kind of thing?
Ten billion is a sizable chunk, can't be that many other options which quickly raise that much.
I thought the idea behind pension contributions being tax-free was that they were effectively deferred income; tax-free on the way in, taxed on the way out.
The irony is that Musk got enormous value out of Twitter as an advertising medium without paying a single cent. Just by tweeting. That’s perhaps given him a skewed sense of what other people might be prepared to pay to use it.
It is just scorched earth. Who cares about whether people have been screwed over pensions if you are not in government? Leave the mess for Labour to deal with.
A further Bank Holiday though on 8th May for the Coronation though.
I've no idea if they'll work, but they're more interesting ideas than charging for blue ticks. The latter in particular may utterly change Twitter's business model.
But it does seem odd that he comes out with it now. I wonder if he has fully thought it through?
Having a native Patreon-like capability could transform it completely.
I don't think charging for blue ticks was ever meant to be the end of the story.
Twitter can steal a lot of people's lunches, from Onlyfans to Substack. Integrating payments to consume content is the key.
e.g.
A perv can follow their favourite pornstar on Twitter and get "premium" access for $5 a month. Or I can read the latest Bari Weiss article by clicking through from Twitter and paying a microtransaction of $0.02 - $0.10 per article. If Twitter can take a percentage of that action, they are laughing.
The great thing about twitter is if you're a perv, you don't have to interact with the journalism, and if you're on twitter for the journalism, you don't have to be exposed (pun intended) to the porn - you just follow the creators you're interested in and pay for what you want to consume.
That is the business model going forward. Monetising content creators through subscriptions or microtransactions.
You can kiss advertisers goodbye - most payment processors too - if Twitter becomes a commercial porn site, because of the risk that they would be paying for obscene materials depicting children, distribution of obscene images to children, modern slavery, etc.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
The massive media barrage of negativity and pressure on advertisers, is being very carefully organised, especially because of the US election next week. There’s a lot of people who benefited from Twitter as it was, and don’t like the change of management. As you say, judge everything a year from now.
Or it could be that advertisers had a big meeting with Musk and said "will you offer us the same level of brand safety as previously" and Musk said "lol no" and advertisers went "Fuck that then" and pulled advertising.
Imagining in some "Big Woke" conspiracy against Musk brings some people comfort because they can't face up to the idea he has no idea how to run a media company who's primary business is selling advertising space.
He can afford to bleed money for a while, however Arguably, all this kerfuffle has shown how important Twitter is, and how he was right to pay $44bn
He will be selling it for 10 cents on the dollar within a year at this rate.
Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s Twitter purchase depends on the decisions
of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious.
No it doesn't. If he succeeds in eating the Basically, the entire viability of Musk’s
Twitter purchase depends on the decisions of libs and lefties. That is objectively hilarious. lunch of platforms that charge for content then advertisers will be irrelevant.
Can’t do it without the lefties!
Wake me up when Scott stops using Twitter as his main source of content to post on here.
Not sure Scott is the issue here.
He's a weathervane though.
In any case, it's a mistake to see Twitter purely as a political platform. The top 10 accounts include Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
Whisper it quietly, but the details underneath that poll suggest that Starmer is, very slowly but very surely, becoming more popular with the great British public. Dull but worthy may become the flavour of the day.
Yep. To reverse Rudd, you might not dance with him all night but he IS the man to drive you home at the end of it. And maybe come in for a coffee.
It is just scorched earth. Who cares about whether people have been screwed over pensions if you are not in government? Leave the mess for Labour to deal with.
A further Bank Holiday though on 8th May for the Coronation though.
It is ridiculous kite flying. As usual all most none of what is being briefed will happen.
CGT, pension limits etc etc.
Whatever happens will be a pale version and everyone with money will sigh with relief.
It is just scorched earth. Who cares about whether people have been screwed over pensions if you are not in government? Leave the mess for Labour to deal with.
A further Bank Holiday though on 8th May for the Coronation though.
Another day on which those on ZHC don't get paid. Adds millions to the UC budget. And piles more stress on the low paid. While the comfortably off can relax and virtue signal. God Save the King!
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
This. The previous state of Twitter included a bloated development team that couldn’t actually deliver updates to the platform, an advertising sales team that seemed to try to resist selling adverts and a policy of being all third party cloud vs having in-house data centres. Which is massively more expensive.
The last point is a startup classic - in the early days it makes sense. When you hit scale, having your own data centres for the 24/7 load is a fraction of the cost of cloud.
The problem is that managing your own data centres means work. And the people who started the company don’t have experience and it’s out of their comfort zone.
But perhaps give it more than a week before passing judgement?
Perhaps.
But it was obvious in less than a week that the Truss experiment was a dud.
Twitter feels the same right now
And yet it's exactly the opposite. Truss was sunk because she announced a load of policies with a hefty price tag and no apparent way to pay for them.
Musk has taken over a company that loses money and has cut useless staff - does Twitter really need an entire "ethics in AI" department, for example? - and has immediately started looking for ways to make it profitable.
Did you imagine Musk was going to take over a company losing $2m a day and go, "yup, let's keep doing that, that seems to be working?"
It feels to me like you're trying to make a comparison between Musk and Truss that really doesn't make sense.
One is an experienced businessman taking over a loss making company and seeking ways to make it profitable. The other is a completely inexperienced politician announcing enormous tax giveaways without explaining how to pay for them. But hey, you do you.
Why do they keep punishing working people? Perhaps they could start taxing well off pensioners. They will need to make do with one less holiday a year or whatever. Also perhaps they could add extra tax when a pension gets inherited by a descendent.
Killing long term capital investment is always the quick fix they reach for. Tories have been in power so long that we back to New Austerity having tried everything else.
Talking of which, we’re well overdue a dog picture in here
Fuck. I am against non working dogs anyway, but some look better than others. That picture I am not even sure which end of the animal it is, but if the cost of living crisis is hitting you hard I am sure the PDSA will help you having it put to sleep. Kindest thing.
It is just scorched earth. Who cares about whether people have been screwed over pensions if you are not in government? Leave the mess for Labour to deal with.
A further Bank Holiday though on 8th May for the Coronation though.
Another day on which those on ZHC don't get paid. Adds millions to the UC budget. And piles more stress on the low paid. While the comfortably off can relax and virtue signal. God Save the King!
Monday is generally my busiest clinical day of the week. Between Easter and now 3 Monday Bank Holidays I will miss a lot of work. God Save the King!
I've no idea if they'll work, but they're more interesting ideas than charging for blue ticks. The latter in particular may utterly change Twitter's business model.
But it does seem odd that he comes out with it now. I wonder if he has fully thought it through?
Having a native Patreon-like capability could transform it completely.
I don't think charging for blue ticks was ever meant to be the end of the story.
Twitter can steal a lot of people's lunches, from Onlyfans to Substack. Integrating payments to consume content is the key.
e.g.
A perv can follow their favourite pornstar on Twitter and get "premium" access for $5 a month. Or I can read the latest Bari Weiss article by clicking through from Twitter and paying a microtransaction of $0.02 - $0.10 per article. If Twitter can take a percentage of that action, they are laughing.
The great thing about twitter is if you're a perv, you don't have to interact with the journalism, and if you're on twitter for the journalism, you don't have to be exposed (pun intended) to the porn - you just follow the creators you're interested in and pay for what you want to consume.
That is the business model going forward. Monetising content creators through subscriptions or microtransactions.
You can kiss advertisers goodbye - most payment processors too - if Twitter becomes a commercial porn site, because of the risk that they would be paying for obscene materials depicting children, distribution of obscene images to children, modern slavery, etc.
You are aware that Onlyfans exists and can be accessed via your credit card?
Twitter is already a porn site, if you look hard enough in that direction - it's a "free samples" page that directs you to an onlyfans subscription - this aspect of it just isn't being monetised by Twitter at the moment.
To be clear: it does not appear the $8/month blue checkmark actually grants you a blue checkmark. The feature is not working. The one specific feature that he had to get right https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1588980881204838401
It's also a massive fight for not much money. $8 per month * 12 months * 400,000 blue ticks * let's say 50% compliance. That's $20m a year on a company with revenue of $5bn.
He won't get anything like that number.
The strange thing about the whole twitter saga is we are judging Musk on his first week in the job.
Twitter was stagnant and losing money for years, despite an active userbase and no serious competition (instagram doesn't do the same thing, facebook doesn't do the same thing, ticktock doesn't do the same thing etc).
It's what he does with it over the next couple of years that interests me. Number one on my list would be integrating micropayments so, say, a journalist could tweet a link to their latest substack and you could pay 2p to read it.
Facebook has been a dead platform for years, Instagram is utterly passé now. And yet nobody is piling on Zuckerberg for having the most powerful media platforms of our time and blowing it all by driving away most of the userbase with pointless algos and tweaks that make the platforms less and less desirable places to be.
I will judge Musk on where Twitter is in a year or two's time. Zoom out.
I’ve acknowledged it’s not completely impossible that he might turn the thing around. But on the evidence of his first week, he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. And it’s completely irrational to spend $44 bn on a platform, and then use the first week in control sacking half the talent and alienating a large part of the user base.
Your Zuck comment is an odd one; Meta has lost three quarters of its value in the last year. So yes, the market is judging him.
And yet Facebook has been dead since 2016-ish, yet it continued to spin its legs, wil-e-coyote-style, long after falling off the cliff.
Hence why I'm puzzled as to why you think my Zuck comment is an odd one. As I have said, more than once, we seem to be writing off Musk's vision for Twitter in less than a week. The rot at Facebook started years ago.
It feels to me like people want Musk to fail, either because they don't like him, or because they don't like his politics.
It's probably better to wait and see what the platform becomes in a year or two's time.
A pivot to a microtransaction/subscription based content creator platform as opposed to an ad supported one makes a lot more sense than Zuck's freaky "metaverse" pivot.
But perhaps give it more than a week before passing judgement?
As of July 2022 Facebook had just under 3 billion active users with 1.7 billion using the service on a daily basis. The idea it is dead just because teenagers with a 15 second attention span no longer see it as cool is laughable.
Isn't this is comparing the lifetime cost of the project to one year of the required austerity to return to fiscal sanity, which is mostly due to the unsustainability of Sunak's previous deficit spending and the reappearance of normal interest rates?
Edinburgh's various young teams making an energetic showing this evening. Fireworks bouncing off the tenements, will check on my poor car in the morning.
Talking of which, we’re well overdue a dog picture in here
Fuck. I am against non working dogs anyway, but some look better than others. That picture I am not even sure which end of the animal it is, but if the cost of living crisis is hitting you hard I am sure the PDSA will help you having it put to sleep. Kindest thing.
I do have pictures of the other end, to help you put yourself straight? But perhaps I should save them for a better occasion…
Comments
Twitter will soon add ability to attach long-form text to tweets, ending absurdity of notepad screenshots
Followed by creator monetization for all forms of content
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589009644114284544
I feel like the spotlight is beginning to move away from Leaky Sue even though immigration remains high in the news cycle.
It was never meant to become "the global Town Square". Yet it did
Elon will turn it into something worth less than that...
On the same basis Musk can walk away with a cool 120 million.
Unless everyone on Twitter, of left right or whatever, agrees on the next alternative (and how do they do that?), then people will reluctantly stick with Twitter
If you do it could save you a stack of cash in the long run.
Sure, if Labour win the next election it might be a one term thing, especially if it is a close win (which it should be, given how far behind they are from 2019), but in the adult living memory of nearly everyone in the country that would not be the norm.
So turn down being PM now and you're looking at 8-10 years to wait, on top of the 2 years to the next GE that is likely. Sunak reached a top post very quickly, but to then retain a position at the top for another 10-12 years to win again? Or another 6-7 years even?
A long wait for someone whose political career was so quick.
It's nice. I'm not a target for harassment so I have a peaceful time there.
I have sads that bad man is fucking things up.
But it does seem odd that he comes out with it now. I wonder if he has fully thought it through?
Edit:
On Braverman, it helps her that most people really won't care about information security protocols, and those that like her rhetoric and immigration really like it. So she can bumble on to the next crisis. She'll only fall if she fails in her aims (or rather, fails in a way which embarrasses the government, since they don't mind failure if people still think they are best to try to fix it)
On Chesil Beach
I don't think charging for blue ticks was ever meant to be the end of the story.
On a different note, can't believe someone stuck the DLR in the "Which tram networks have you rode on?" poll! There's no street running on the DLR!
e.g.
A perv can follow their favourite pornstar on Twitter and get "premium" access for $5 a month. Or I can read the latest Bari Weiss article by clicking through from Twitter and paying a microtransaction of $0.02 - $0.10 per article. If Twitter can take a percentage of that action, they are laughing.
The great thing about twitter is if you're a perv, you don't have to interact with the journalism, and if you're on twitter for the journalism, you don't have to be exposed (pun intended) to the porn - you just follow the creators you're interested in and pay for what you want to consume.
That is the business model going forward. Monetising content creators through subscriptions or microtransactions.
But on the evidence of his first week, he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.
And it’s completely irrational to spend $44 bn on a platform, and then use the first week in control sacking half the talent and alienating a large part of the user base.
Your Zuck comment is an odd one; Meta has lost three quarters of its value in the last year. So yes, the market is judging him.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11393435/Donetsk-judge-sentenced-two-Britons-death-condition-assassination-attempt.html
Hence why I'm puzzled as to why you think my Zuck comment is an odd one. As I have said, more than once, we seem to be writing off Musk's vision for Twitter in less than a week. The rot at Facebook started years ago.
It feels to me like people want Musk to fail, either because they don't like him, or because they don't like his politics.
It's probably better to wait and see what the platform becomes in a year or two's time.
A pivot to a microtransaction/subscription based content creator platform as opposed to an ad supported one makes a lot more sense than Zuck's freaky "metaverse" pivot.
But perhaps give it more than a week before passing judgement?
Also … has Dorsey endorsed Musk?
A horror scenario - PB fills the gap left by imploding Twitter.
You are a sycophant to a sycophant (unless you are a sockpuppet, in which case we can eliminate one layer). But respect for your extraordinarily original trope about Williamson. Let us showcase it in all its glory:
"like a turd you can never quite flush away."
Utterly original comic genius. How do you come up with stuff like that? I mean genuinely, does it just pop up while you are in the shower?
But it was obvious in less than a week that the Truss experiment was a dud.
Twitter feels the same right now
It could raise £10bn and cost higher earners £1000s.
Hunt and Sunak are holed up in No10 working out the big ticket items for the Autumn Statement. https://twitter.com/sgfmann/status/1589012017922592768
That’s perhaps given him a skewed sense of what other people might be prepared to pay to use it.
A further Bank Holiday though on 8th May for the Coronation though.
In any case, it's a mistake to see Twitter purely as a political platform. The top 10 accounts include Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
Through running from Shenfield to Paddington, and from Abbey Wood to Heathrow OR Reading.
CGT, pension limits etc etc.
Whatever happens will be a pale version and everyone with money will sigh with relief.
Adds millions to the UC budget. And piles more stress on the low paid. While the comfortably off can relax and virtue signal.
God Save the King!
The last point is a startup classic - in the early days it makes sense. When you hit scale, having your own data centres for the 24/7 load is a fraction of the cost of cloud.
The problem is that managing your own data centres means work. And the people who started the company don’t have experience and it’s out of their comfort zone.
Musk has taken over a company that loses money and has cut useless staff - does Twitter really need an entire "ethics in AI" department, for example? - and has immediately started looking for ways to make it profitable.
Did you imagine Musk was going to take over a company losing $2m a day and go, "yup, let's keep doing that, that seems to be working?"
It feels to me like you're trying to make a comparison between Musk and Truss that really doesn't make sense.
One is an experienced businessman taking over a loss making company and seeking ways to make it profitable. The other is a completely inexperienced politician announcing enormous tax giveaways without explaining how to pay for them. But hey, you do you.
Yet our growth and productivity remains poor.
Go figure.
The short term money is already committed, the bits that could be canned would not be paid for until the 2030s.
Not a chance in hell any more of HS2 will get removed, NPR on the other hand.
Twitter is already a porn site, if you look hard enough in that direction - it's a "free samples" page that directs you to an onlyfans subscription - this aspect of it just isn't being monetised by Twitter at the moment.
Government postpones decision on Cumbria coal mine AGAIN.
How serious can they pretend to be about plugging a fiscal hole, when they continue to kick the can on this project?
Levelling Up, LOL.
Goodnight!
Quietest Nov 5 I can remember. Nobody has any money.