Day 177 and #Twitter users are surprised that #ElonMusk’s decision to remove #bluecheck validation is causing chaos and the creation of impersonation accounts. That could never have been predicted?
#Decentralized #SocialMedia is the solution for exposure to willful and arbitrary behavior by egomaniacal billionaires
Anybody else perplexed this happened? 😜
/2 Day 179 some #Twitter users are attempting to sabotage the #ElonMusk’s #BlueCheck program. A lot of users not happy, trying to bend #Musk to their will rather than leave and migrate to #Mastodon
What does it take?
#Twexit #MastodonMigration #TwitterMigration
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/22/block-the-blue-twitter-verified/
/4 - Day 182. Now here’s a surprise, those who have purchased a #Twitter #BlueCheck with have their posts prioritized
So much for the democracy of the internet or whether the quality of your content should be prioritized by opaque algorithms
I prefer my #AlgorithmFree #Mastodon experience
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/elon-musk-verified-twitter-accounts-prioritized.amp
/5 - Day 183 - The elimination of the #BlueCheck has degraded #Twitter’s utility as a #news source. The new implementation has nothing to do with authentication and verification, if anything it is a propagandist’s delight. In #Musk’s conception of #SocialMedia, truth, veracity and honesty are of little value
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/technology/twitter-verification-problems.html
/6 Day 184 - What are the consequences of #Twitter laying off 75% of its workforce?
Two factor authentication used to be available for all accounts, it is now limited to Twitter blue payers. This recent removal, coupled with the lack of staff to assist with hacks, degrades the network. Classify this one under foolish #ElonMusk monetization attempts
https://slate.com/technology/2023/04/twitter-hack-elon-musk-crypto-scams.html
/7 Day 185 - #JackDorsey now regrets #ElonMusk’s take over of #Twitter. I guess there were no signs of toxic narcissism and egomania when he advocated for #Musk as the owner a year ago
I wonder if Dorsey is feeling more anti-Musk now that #BlueSky is making the news?
/8 It used to be that #Twitter was a preferred distribution channel for governmental agencies, that status appears to be crumbling. The MTA, #NYC’s transit agency used the network to provide service updates - now no more.
Twitter is now apparently offering gold and gray check marks for organizations. Maybe a poop brown tick mark will work for #ElonMusk?
/9 Ah yes that looks like a winning strategy to bring back #NPR to #Twitter
#ElonMusk oozes hostility towards legitimate #NewsMedia companies. At what point do #Journalists cut the cord and say ENOUGH!
I get it's difficult to walk away from a large following, but do you really want to continue putting money in this #oligarch's pocket?
/10 Looks like #ElonMusk has just realized that public service announcements are additive to #Twitter. Could be, requiring public agencies pay for access to the #TwitterAPI might cool said organization’s enthusiasm for the #SocialMediaPlatform
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/new-reversal-twitter-after-move-sparked-mta-withdrawl.amp
11) The #TwitterBlue value proposition appears to be lacking. Churn rates on the service are extraordinarily high. Without a bona fide set of support services to truly validate users, #BlueCheckMarks have become meaningless. Chalk this one up as an #EpicFail
https://mashable.com/article/half-of-twitter-blue-earliest-subscribers-no-longer-subscribed
13) Increaingly #Twitter looks like a seedy, battered, casino property. There are plenty of adds for erectile dysfunction and bongs likely encouraging mainstream advertsiers to stay away. Or might it be the gigotry encourage by #ElonMusk under the guise of #FreeSpeech?
The #NYT is out with a story based on an internal presentation from Twitter showing a 59% decline in YOY ad revenues for April.
All is clearly not well
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/technology/twitter-ad-sales-musk.html
14) Another clownish misstep from #Twitter is drawing to a close. Clearly an attempt to force people to register on the site, I imagine the hope was to increase the MAUs
https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/twitter-silently-removes-login-requirement-for-viewing-tweets/
15) Meanwhile the Facebook/Meta complex has lumbered onto to the stage to take a crack at #Twitter’s microblogging empire
Nice for those who feel they can trust #Zuckerberg. I’m sure he’ll be kind to your personal data even if he’s not as erratic as #Elon
16) Yup that’s a real good look for #Twitter. So much for the virtue of #BlueCheckMarks. Now that designation has become a symbol for #disinformation
17) I think this cartoon from Bruce MacKinnon captures the current state of #Twitter and #ElonMusk’s judicious approach to managing a prime #SocialMedia property
18) How much do people dislike #Twitter? Enough for 70 million users to sign up for #Threads two days into it’s launch!! That’s the equivalent of 15% - 20% of Twitter’s active users.
How many of those 70 million know that threads is part of the #Meta, sell your data to anyone complex, is a question that is likely not on the radar.
We might be at an odd moment when #Zuckerberg is considered a benign #SocialMedia actor compared to #ElonMusk
19) Speaking of #Meta and #Zuckerberg, Fast Company is out with a review of #Threads and it’s certainly not complementary.
Pretty surprising that the app was launched without support for #HashTags!
#TwitterMigration #TwitterExodus #Twitter
https://www.fastcompany.com/90919575/zuckerberg-one-job-threads-ux
20) #Twitter is not worried about the reported 100 million #Threads signups, it’s just blocking URL’s which reference the new #Meta service.
Disappointing to see so many people jumping from one #SocialMedia oligarch to another. Do they really think that #Zuckerberg can be relied on to be less willful than #ElonMusk?
21) How far along the #Twitter wrecking curve are we?
@lopezlinette has the detailed litany and when gathered together, rather than from the daily assault of #Elonmusk’s narcissistic foolishness, it’s even more damning
That said, there is no alternative that has an obvious lead in supplanting the #BirdSite, plenty of contenders, but they’re just nibbling so far.
22) Looks like @catvalente took unfiltered dictation from my brain as we watched the #Musk vs #Zuckerberg which personal data sucking #oligarch do you want to support, play out
Does anyone get it?
Seriously I wish I could write with as much comedic profanity and stay on point at the same time
#TwitterMigration #TwitterExodus
https://catvalente.substack.com/p/mark-fking-zuckerberg-is-not-your
23) David French of the #NYTimes with some thoughts on how attempts to enable toxic #RightWing demagogues and their bankrupt ideas on #Twitter yielded an enormous opportunity for #Threads
Sadly he fails to note/appreciate that throwing your lot in with #Zuckerberg’s new social media project, might be quietly toxic for democracy. Do you remember #CamebridgeAnalytica?
#TwitterMigration #TwitterExodus #ElonMusk #SocialMedia
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/opinion/twitter-new-right.html
24) How do signups look for #Threads?
Is the volume accelerating or not?
Here’s a chart
First 24 hours yields 50 million
Second 50 million takes a little more than 3 days.
Unsurprisingly the growth is not linear despite the extraordinary volume.
Will the next 10 days yield another 100 million?
I’m guessing not.
Opinions?
25) Things are not going well at a #SocialMedia service, when it‘s on the receiving end of a scathing take from the sober pages of @foreignpolicy
I’d also suggest that the financial situation for #Twitter is increasingly precarious. The debt burden of $12 billion and Twitter’s ability to service the payments is questionable and may threaten ongoing operations. #ElonMusk May need to ante up again.
With thanks to @miah_he for the great piece
26) It’s no surprise that advertisers have fled #Twitter. #ElonMusk has admitted a 50% drop in revenues. Those advertisers are not going to return soon knowing that their ad placements could pop up next to a racist post from the likes of Nick Fuentes.
Coupled with $13 billion of debt, the company is in more than a shaky position. Are #oligarch types going to be willing to throw more money at this sinking ship to curry favor with his Muskness?
27) Day 269 since the #ElonMusk Twitter acquisition and the latest change appears to be a pure exercise in narrcisism and self sabotage.
#Twitter is not in need of renaming and rebranding, it is in need of investment to prop its creaky technical infrastructure, and a serious content managment effort which might lure advertisers back; they're not fond of #HardRight wackadoos and agents of #disinformation
Don't hold your breath folks
#SocialMedia #TwitterMigration
https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-logo-x-bird-d58758cdd3f8441e7d2c8d3ac827ba90
@mnutty he is beating a dead horse at this point.
Fascinating to watch a supposed businessman destroy his investment. But heck, what is the loss of a few billion?
Before the #Twitter acquisition, #ElonMusk was the golden boy of the tech world. His LBO acquistion financing was built on the success of both #Tesla and #SpaceX. Banks and #oligarchs lined up to finance the takeover. Now I think #Musk would be hardpressed to tap those deep pockets again
An extraordinary exercise in self destruction
@mnutty @engineerminded
I agree. Musk was portrayed as a genius from the beginning & that included the announcement that he was acquiring Twitter. His previous business snafus were considered peccadilloes, rather than unnecessary failures. He showed his true self when he realized he bungled the Twitter deal & then tried to extricate himself. From there he has been exposed as a inept leader, acting more like a belligerent child with a toy that needed some repair but deciding instead to smash it to pieces.
Here’s the oddity of it all, #Musk is a CEO of two revolutionary companies.
Without #Tesla, the move towards #ElectricVehicles would be years behind where we are now.
#SpaceX has changed the game in getting payloads into space in an affordable manner.
Both these companies have achieved extraordinary changes. Are their successes despite of #ElonMusk? Were others simply managing around him or as the years passed has he gone off the rails?
@mnutty @D72cat @engineerminded People forget what the job of a CEO is. It's not to sit down and engineer everything personally. It's about spotting a good opportunity, attracting and choosing the right people, selling investors or customers on the concept, etc.
Tesla and SpaceX filled in gaps that people desperately wanted to see progress on but had been neglected. The draw for talent was significant. Combined with fast-iteration company cultures, this led to success.
Very different with X.
@engineerminded @mnutty @D72cat Actually, I think the problem with Elon is just the opposite. "Engineering types" tend to be extremely vulnerable to Dunning-Kruger syndrome (I've seen this over and over again). His father was an engineer, he's a physics major, and (esp. at SpaceX) he likes to insert himself into all of the engineering (though again the work is overwhelmingly done by others). The prob is that such people tend to assume that they're experts at *anything* they bother to read about.
@engineerminded @mnutty @D72cat It's sort of like the problem with crypto bros who want to put everything on the blockchain. "Hey, I taught myself one complicated thing (cryptography), so surely I can just use that to transform <ThingIHaveNoExpertiseIn>, if I just read a book or two about it!"
@engineerminded @mnutty @D72cat It's not just confined to Musk, to be fair. Look at Zuck. He had success on one big thing (that like dozens of others were working on at the same time), and seems to have convinced himself that he's a visionary genius because of it, and so all of the braindead ideas that he has (like "refocusing on the Metaverse") must also be brilliant, and ignores those who warn him that they're stupid.
@engineerminded @mnutty @D72cat To Musk's credit, in *most* cases he tends to target good things that are in need of disruption. He has - or should I say, had - an eye for that. But recently he's fallen down an ideological rabbit hole, and no longer seems to care about anything but "owning the libs".
The notion of an aspie who has trouble understanding humans running a social media company is particularly... let's just say "ill-advised".
@nafnlaus @engineerminded @mnutty @D72cat Kind of like somebody with misophonia running a tamborine factory.
@mnutty @engineerminded @D72cat @nafnlaus I had an ex with misophonia. She didn't think it was funny when I called it miso-hornia
@engineerminded @D72cat @ambulocetus @nafnlaus
LOL had to look up Misophonia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia