Bluesky sees record signups day after Musk says X will go paid-only
The day isn't even over yet Bluesky has already seen its biggest influx of new users in a single-day
Thoughts on social media sites? UPDATE: Apple, IBM, Disney, etc. stopped advertising on Twitter - Musk suing
- Thread starter Kagavi
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The mouth breathers see Elon's name outside of the Cave and they hop in until the thread is ruined, just like this one.
I don't think it is quite that simple. Social media sites are societies unto themselves, and one thing a society does is establish expected behavior and the range of acceptable behavior. Once those expectations are set within a society, they can be very difficult if not impossible to substantially change. CF is an example -- we have awful thread-topic discipline on here compared to many forums I have been on over the years.
Twitter's culture is one of overwhelming toxicity and negativity. Its capture and then degradation of elite discourse has had a terrible impact on our politics and journalism. It doesn't do anything special that a dozen other sites can do in terms of bringing immediate news or connecting people.
It just does so in the meanest way possible. I won't be sad to see it go. The worst thing about it is you can see its impact filtering out into other media. There's a reason one can say, "Oh, if you think CF was bad after the Ohio loss, just imagine what it was like on Twitter" and you know what they mean.
I don't think the Internet of 2023 is going to produce an obvious one-to-one replacement, too. Our interests and public discourse is too fragmented. Team Blue and Team Red don't want to be on the same platforms in the same way we have our CF for Cyclones and the Hawkeyes have their brothel. So once "common carriers" like Twitter/X go up in smoke, I don't think a similar replacement is going to happen.
I'm operating under the assumptions of an obviously false and ridiculous conspiracy theory that I find incredibly amusing that Elon bought Twitter with the intention of destroying it. That he was willing to burn that money just to rid humanity of such a corrupt organization and social media platform.
All those things he did to try to weasel out of the deal and all the "reforms" he's done to it since then... simply attempting to throw people off the scent. And why do I think it is okay to think like this?
In the end, once Twitter dies, the exchange was...
Twitter's shareholders made a bunch of money
Elon and his friends are going to lose a bunch of money
Society gets Twitter burnt to the ground
The social good that Elon has done here -- never mind the specifics of his actions or his intentions, only look at the net results of his choices -- is beyond measure if you see Twitter vaporize.
See above. Elon and Twitter/X is one of the most hilariously bad business decisions and stories of mismanagement I have ever seen, so I have to think that at some level this must be intentional.
Bingo re: the bold and red text.
I know the rest of your post is more accurate.
But the first paragraph is so much more fun!
I think I addressed this adequately in the earlier responses.
He might not have intended it this way, but that is how it is going to be. So thank you Elon!
Musk is a tool bag but I admit I would be bummed if Twitter died. Pay walling it would knee cap it badly. Twitter is what you make of it. It's easy to find political garbage on there and millions of people with 12 followers making crappy hot takes about everything.
But there is also a ton of information on there. Choose who you follow wisely and you can learn a lot. One of my professional goals is to improve my financial forecasting skills. I follow a number of CFO and accounting people who post great content just as good as any class would. I also like knowing about new technology and start-ups. I follow some VC and angel investors who post info about companies they are reviewing or investing in.
BlueSky or Mastodon or Threads may take up the slack if Twitter tries subscriber only, but it will take a long time to rebuild that subscriber base.
But there is also a ton of information on there. Choose who you follow wisely and you can learn a lot. One of my professional goals is to improve my financial forecasting skills. I follow a number of CFO and accounting people who post great content just as good as any class would. I also like knowing about new technology and start-ups. I follow some VC and angel investors who post info about companies they are reviewing or investing in.
BlueSky or Mastodon or Threads may take up the slack if Twitter tries subscriber only, but it will take a long time to rebuild that subscriber base.
I don't think it is quite that simple. Social media sites are societies unto themselves, and one thing a society does is establish expected behavior and the range of acceptable behavior. Once those expectations are set within a society, they can be very difficult if not impossible to substantially change. CF is an example -- we have awful thread-topic discipline on here compared to many forums I have been on over the years.
Twitter's culture is one of overwhelming toxicity and negativity. Its capture and then degradation of elite discourse has had a terrible impact on our politics and journalism. It doesn't do anything special that a dozen other sites can do in terms of bringing immediate news or connecting people.
It just does so in the meanest way possible. I won't be sad to see it go. The worst thing about it is you can see its impact filtering out into other media. There's a reason one can say, "Oh, if you think CF was bad after the Ohio loss, just imagine what it was like on Twitter" and you know what they mean.
I don't think the Internet of 2023 is going to produce an obvious one-to-one replacement, too. Our interests and public discourse is too fragmented. Team Blue and Team Red don't want to be on the same platforms in the same way we have our CF for Cyclones and the Hawkeyes have their brothel. So once "common carriers" like Twitter/X go up in smoke, I don't think a similar replacement is going to happen.
I'm operating under the assumptions of an obviously false and ridiculous conspiracy theory that I find incredibly amusing that Elon bought Twitter with the intention of destroying it. That he was willing to burn that money just to rid humanity of such a corrupt organization and social media platform.
All those things he did to try to weasel out of the deal and all the "reforms" he's done to it since then... simply attempting to throw people off the scent. And why do I think it is okay to think like this?
In the end, once Twitter dies, the exchange was...
Twitter's shareholders made a bunch of money
Elon and his friends are going to lose a bunch of money
Society gets Twitter burnt to the ground
The social good that Elon has done here -- never mind the specifics of his actions or his intentions, only look at the net results of his choices -- is beyond measure if you see Twitter vaporize.
See above. Elon and Twitter/X is one of the most hilariously bad business decisions and stories of mismanagement I have ever seen, so I have to think that at some level this must be intentional.
Bingo re: the bold and red text.
I know the rest of your post is more accurate.
But the first paragraph is so much more fun!
I think I addressed this adequately in the earlier responses.
He might not have intended it this way, but that is how it is going to be. So thank you Elon!
I don't get the impression that he did this with intention of ruining it.
He's like a few others in 'power' that know the temperature of society right now (very toxic imo) and know that any attention is good attention and you can profit off of it.
I'd like to introduce you to this year's Iowa State football team.
I don't really think he bought it to destroy it.
But it's much more fun to pretend that he did!
For someone who doesn’t want politics in threads you sure bring it up a lot.
Report the “political” posts and stop crying. There’s multiple mods active in this thread that I’m sure would love to protect your little safe space.
I think his arrogance got the best of him and got "stuck" purchasing the company. He's not an idiot, but he is also no where near as smart as he thinks. Some of his actions to turn the company around financially are not horrible in a vacuum, but his personality and short-sighted decisions make him unlikable. That's not how you attract new advertising revenue.
What’s funny is there aren’t even political posts coming from those who he is talking about.
For the record I am very grateful for the EV push that Tesla helped create. What he's done in that, and with Space X, has been good for humanity and I don't think that can be argued.
But somehow retconning the purchase of Twitter, which he tried very hard to get out of and was legally forced to buy, then selling a ton of stock in those other companies to prop up, etc, as some noble deed is absolutely absurd. He was clearly addicted to it. Now we have regularly people trying to say he did this for some altruistic purpose? I mean give me a break.
But somehow retconning the purchase of Twitter, which he tried very hard to get out of and was legally forced to buy, then selling a ton of stock in those other companies to prop up, etc, as some noble deed is absolutely absurd. He was clearly addicted to it. Now we have regularly people trying to say he did this for some altruistic purpose? I mean give me a break.
Again, my position about the "noble deed" is facetious.
I'm amused at you guys trying to seriously refute what amounts to a jest.
But you bring up an important point --
Another knock against Twitter is addiction to it -- and addiction to Twitter and being Very Online is a very real thing -- has taken one of the world's greatest industrialists and made him spend enormous amounts of his precious time and capital on trying to manage a dopey, worthless social media site instead of, you know, working on revolutionizing another industry to grow the economy and fight climate change.
It's not like Twitter invented communicating online. The first email was sent in 1971. If email isn't good enough for you, then IRC (which has all the same functionalities of Twitter) launched in 1988.
Sending messages online isn't a new thing. A rocket ship to Mars would be.
Exactly. He knows why he likes him so that must be the same reason people dislike him. Despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary.
Sounds like Tumblr is teetering on the edge once again:
Indie Tumblr "replacement" Pillowfort is also facing closure unless funding is secured by end of year:
Cohost is on a bit more stable footing with increased subscriptions:
Investors pulled the plug on Pebble (née T2) a couple of weeks ago. This is the one that was billed as a kinder Twitter, but as I initially suspected, created a nanny vibe that killed it:
With Threads/Facebook, there's a lawsuit that said the Zuck overruled a bunch of execs, including Instagram's CEO, who wanted to ban/severely restrict beauty filters (etc) that were harming teen mental health. Good guy Zuck said no:
Twitter is even worse now - pretty impressive considering how terrible it already was when I started this thread.
Thoughts?
Indie Tumblr "replacement" Pillowfort is also facing closure unless funding is secured by end of year:
Cohost is on a bit more stable footing with increased subscriptions:
Investors pulled the plug on Pebble (née T2) a couple of weeks ago. This is the one that was billed as a kinder Twitter, but as I initially suspected, created a nanny vibe that killed it:
With Threads/Facebook, there's a lawsuit that said the Zuck overruled a bunch of execs, including Instagram's CEO, who wanted to ban/severely restrict beauty filters (etc) that were harming teen mental health. Good guy Zuck said no:
Twitter is even worse now - pretty impressive considering how terrible it already was when I started this thread.
Thoughts?
My thought is life is easier without social media.
Too many get wrapped up in this stuff. It has/had its merits but I definitely miss the days where it didn’t consume us.
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