Merged Musk buys Twitter!/ Elon Musk puts Twitter deal on hold....

[TurkeysGhost]

To paraphrase what was posted on Twitter by a much more pithy user:

Musk is learning, quite painfully, that the people running Twitter before him weren't actually woke lib snowflakes, but actually business people making decisions with the goal to maximize their business concerns. The things that right wing freaks like to gripe about were done that way for entirely non-ideological reasons. It was a delicate balance of maximizing the user base and keeping the site attractive to advertisers, who the people actually putting money into Twitter's pockets. Twitter's entire purpose is to create a valuable advertising space.

So yeah, the previous blue check system, while having the secondary effect of creating an elite class of cool kids, was actually useful for cutting down on impersonation scams. That's all down the toilet with any scammer or whatever able to get one for $8.

Likewise previous algorithms were not boosting these right wing trolls and weirdos, not because it was the "woke" thing to do, but because this content generally sucks and is bad for user engagement. Now any semi-viral post has a bunch of paid blue-check comments at the top that have tons of views and very little engagement because they just suck. These users don't have the juice, they're weird and offputting.

The right wing crybabies are getting everything they wanted from Twitter under musk and it just sucks. Engagement is down, people are leaving, and it's only a matter of time before it's like a dead mall in there unless Musk corrects course and starts acting just like the people he replaced.

 

[arthwollipot]

Is he really learning that?

 

[gerdbonk]

No. He's not learning anything. Every step he takes puts him further in the hole.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

To paraphrase what was posted on Twitter by a much more pithy user:

Musk is learning, quite painfully, that the people running Twitter before him weren't actually woke lib snowflakes, but actually business people making decisions with the goal to maximize their business concerns. The things that right wing freaks like to gripe about were done that way for entirely non-ideological reasons. It was a delicate balance of maximizing the user base and keeping the site attractive to advertisers, who the people actually putting money into Twitter's pockets. Twitter's entire purpose is to create a valuable advertising space.

So yeah, the previous blue check system, while having the secondary effect of creating an elite class of cool kids, was actually useful for cutting down on impersonation scams. That's all down the toilet with any scammer or whatever able to get one for $8.

Likewise previous algorithms were not boosting these right wing trolls and weirdos, not because it was the "woke" thing to do, but because this content generally sucks and is bad for user engagement. Now any semi-viral post has a bunch of paid blue-check comments at the top that have tons of views and very little engagement because they just suck. These users don't have the juice, they're weird and offputting.

The right wing crybabies are getting everything they wanted from Twitter under musk and it just sucks. Engagement is down, people are leaving, and it's only a matter of time before it's like a dead mall in there unless Musk corrects course and starts acting just like the people he replaced.

If Musk ever paid attention to anything at all, he'd have known that Dorsey et al were right wing libertarians* doing the bare minimum to keep lawmakers off their backs wile not really curbing hate speech.

*Unlike Musk who's a right wing authoritarian masking as a libertarian.

 

[arthwollipot]

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson plans to relaunch his show on Twitter

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was taken off the air by the network last month, said on Tuesday he would relaunch his show on Twitter "soon."

...

Mr Carlson's announcement comes weeks after Twitter-owner Elon Musk sat for a two-part interview with Mr Carlson on Fox News.

Mr Musk, who is CEO of Twitter and has referred to himself as a "free speech absolutist," has said his goal is to make Twitter a digital town hall where users can share diverse viewpoints.

"We have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever," Mr Musk tweeted Tuesday. "Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators."

That includes subscription and a share of advertising revenue, Mr Musk said, adding, "Still working on the software needed for [the] latter."

Mr Musk said he hopes that others, "particularly from the left," would also choose to be content creators on Twitter.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

who is paying for Carlson's Blue Check ?

 

[Orphia Nay]

Considering Musk is still working on the software for the subscription service, this'll be a dumpster fire as usual.

 

[arthwollipot]

I've gone back onto Twitter, just to see what it's like...

 

[The Great Zaganza]

I'd also like to know who Carlson's new show is going to comply with the giant Non-Compete he certainly has from Fox.
Maybe because Twitter will argue that it is not a Media Company?

 

[jeremyp]

I'd also like to know who Carlson's new show is going to comply with the giant Non-Compete he certainly has from Fox.
Maybe because Twitter will argue that it is not a Media Company?

If they fired him, I doubt any non compete clause is relevant. Either that, or he needed better lawyers.

 

[arthwollipot]

From the same article:

Axios reported that Mr Carlson's lawyers sent a letter to Fox accusing it of fraud and breach of contract, which would release him from the non-compete clause which was said to run until January 2025.

With this clause, Fox would keep paying him, preventing him from launching a competing show.

Mr Carlson's attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Fox Corp declined to comment.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

If they fired him, I doubt any non compete clause is relevant. Either that, or he needed better lawyers.

I think that's ambiguous enough to keep Carlson tied up in courts for years, should Fox decide to do so.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

I've gone back onto Twitter, just to see what it's like...

It's pretty bad. Blue check accounts are currently openly speculating that the most recent Nazi gun massacre in Texas was either a false flag or psyop, including Musk doing his usual non-committal endorsement of right wing crackpot theories.

Doesn't take a business genius to see why CocaCola might not want their ads running beneath a algorithmically boosted post by TurboHitler88 spinning conspiracy theories about a grisly mass shooting.

Ideological grossness aside, the paid blue check system is making the website just generally suck. So many of these people are just seriously unfunny and uninteresting people who are desperate for attention and engagement. Any even semi-viral post will have all the top comments be unfunny, repetitive memes from blue check accounts with like 10 followers, but thanks to the algorithm handicap they always get boosted to the top. That, and tons of crypto boosters use any viral post to shill their pump and dump project.

It smells like facebook over there. Top comments are just strings of emojis or other low quality posting or scams.

 

[I Am The Scum]

Ideological grossness aside, the paid blue check system is making the website just generally suck. So many of these people are just seriously unfunny and uninteresting people who are desperate for attention and engagement. Any even semi-viral post will have all the top comments be unfunny, repetitive memes from blue check accounts with like 10 followers, but thanks to the algorithm handicap they always get boosted to the top. That, and tons of crypto boosters use any viral post to shill their pump and dump project.

A lot of these dudes are getting an $8 lesson that the reason their posts are not getting enough likes has nothing to do with algorithmic bias, but rather, the fact that they just aren't that interesting. With Elon's change to make the view count of every tweet public, you can compare a blue response view/like ratio to that of a non-blue response, and the blue response is almost always getting viewed more and liked less.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

A lot of these dudes are getting an $8 lesson that the reason their posts are not getting enough likes has nothing to do with algorithmic bias, but rather, the fact that they just aren't that interesting. With Elon's change to make the view count of every tweet public, you can compare a blue response view/like ratio to that of a non-blue response, and the blue response is almost always getting viewed more and liked less.

Where's my popularity, i've been shadowbanned

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Where's my popularity, i've been shadowbanned

That Suburban Turkey fellow ran off with it to wherever the hell he's gone to.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

A lot of these dudes are getting an $8 lesson that the reason their posts are not getting enough likes has nothing to do with algorithmic bias, but rather, the fact that they just aren't that interesting. With Elon's change to make the view count of every tweet public, you can compare a blue response view/like ratio to that of a non-blue response, and the blue response is almost always getting viewed more and liked less.

I have a strong suspicion that people paying for accounts won't last very long. They'll find that even with an algorithmic boost they aren't getting the attention they thought they would, and like you say the visible view count only makes it more obvious. Probably less of an ego hit to be a humble lowbie way down at the bottom than having your low engagement crap hit with the hard spotlight.

Whatever rush these freaks got from sticking it to the blue check elite will be short lived, and all but the most die-hard Musk ass-kissers will quickly find that their $8 isn't getting them anything valuable.

Scammers will still probably find it an alluring option though. $8 is probably worth the money to get your scam bait in front of the eyes of more potential marks.

 

[angrysoba]

It's pretty bad. Blue check accounts are currently openly speculating that the most recent Nazi gun massacre in Texas was either a false flag or psyop, including Musk doing his usual non-committal endorsement of right wing crackpot theories.

Doesn't take a business genius to see why CocaCola might not want their ads running beneath a algorithmically boosted post by TurboHitler88 spinning conspiracy theories about a grisly mass shooting.

Ideological grossness aside, the paid blue check system is making the website just generally suck. So many of these people are just seriously unfunny and uninteresting people who are desperate for attention and engagement. Any even semi-viral post will have all the top comments be unfunny, repetitive memes from blue check accounts with like 10 followers, but thanks to the algorithm handicap they always get boosted to the top. That, and tons of crypto boosters use any viral post to shill their pump and dump project.

It smells like facebook over there. Top comments are just strings of emojis or other low quality posting or scams.

Yeah, Twitter threads that get much engagement just look like they are followed by You Tube comments that wouldn't be up-voted.

That said, I used an extension to clear all that nonsense away called Blocktheblue. Somehow it spares those who I already follow or genuinely big accounts that were often given the blue checkmark (Elon Musk claimed that the blue checkmarks were there to prevent a two-class membership, but he knows that some people like William Shatner and Stephen King are too popular). In other words, he is, ironically like the guy who removes Chesterton's fence and then is suddenly trying to plug the hole to stop the sheep he wants to fleece for 8 dollars a pop from wandering off.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Musk can't help himself, he's pure advertiser poison

Elon Musk posted misleading tweets about the Texas mall gunman’s long history of neo-Nazi views being a potential ‘psyop’

Misleading claims about the neo-Nazi gunman responsible for Saturday’s mass shooting at a Dallas-area shopping center are reverberating across Twitter, in large part because of Twitter owner Elon Musk.

Musk has questioned whether the man identified by authorities as the shooter, Mauricio Garcia, really had an account on a Russian social media platform, and Musk suggested that revelations about the shooter’s background could be a “psyop,” or psychological operation, in which the public is misled about the real details of the shooting.

Garcia proclaimed his white supremacist views on social media and sported Nazi tattoos. Authorities and independent researchers have confirmed his interest in far-right extremism and white supremacism. When police killed Garcia, he was wearing a patch that read “RWDS,” an acronym that stands for “ Right Wing Death Squad.”

https://fortune.com/2023/05/10/elon-musk-twitter-texas-mall-gunman-misinformation/

Any advertiser left on this platform probably ought to be looking for the door before Musk goes full Alex Jones.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that he has found a new chief executive for the social media platform without naming his replacement

Tucker?