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The Twitter Debate


Neonmoon

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13 minutes ago, immamac said:

I don't think this site has a disinformation problem. It's not a fascist haven, but if that's what your cup of tea is thats not really banworthy

While events are breaking, surly is absolutely a source of disinformation. During the 2020 summer of love, The Daily Texan had all the hottest updates from Andy ngo and Jack posobiec and other future J6 cheerleaders, but you're not allowed to point out the partisan reporting because you're then being political and you'll get a warn or a ban. Go read the first few pages of all the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery threads, if blacklab left any of the evidence (rather than moving the posts so we can hold people accountable....)

The oxygen is always eaten up by the same bad faith posters doing the same schtick. 

And sure, eventually Bob will come by and delete all the worst of it, but it's still happening in the moment and staying up for some time. 

Edit: also the COVID threads were pretty remarkably shitty with MAGA disinformation for a good while if you don't recall lol

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Blacklab moderates DT the way Trumpers count votes, but I don't think there's really a misinformation problem here. Some gets posted, but what gets posted isn't swaying anyone. Most posters here today are pretty much the same people they've always been, and the exceptions who lost their minds over covid and the George Floyd protests didn't go nuts because of shit posted in DT. We know from their linking to shit like vdare and straight up nazi websites that they frequent much worse sources of information.

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The absolute fastest way to make Twitter unusable is to force users to hyper analyze usernames to determine of that big NFL trade was just announced by @adamschefter or @adanschefter.  Twitter is a cesspool, but Elon has no grasp on the importance of having at least some kind of basis in reality to know that the tweet you are reading is coming from Lebron and not Lebr0n.  

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53 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Blacklab moderates DT the way Trumpers count votes, but I don't think there's really a misinformation problem here. Some gets posted, but what gets posted isn't swaying anyone. Most posters here today are pretty much the same people they've always been, and the exceptions who lost their minds over covid and the George Floyd protests didn't go nuts because of shit posted in DT. We know from their linking to shit like vdare and straight up nazi websites that they frequent much worse sources of information.

I agree, with one exception, people like GRUHorn/Humble Beast, after crowd banned multiple times, just keep coming back like herpes. 

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52 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

The absolute fastest way to make Twitter unusable is to force users to hyper analyze usernames to determine of that big NFL trade was just announced by @adamschefter or @adanschefter.  Twitter is a cesspool, but Elon has no grasp on the importance of having at least some kind of basis in reality to know that the tweet you are reading is coming from Lebron and not Lebr0n.  

I'm still laughing at Elon's Shooter McGavin reaction yesterday.

"You consume The Santa Monica Observer for information?"

"...*red face*.......NO!!!"

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5 hours ago, The Royal We said:

I think this is spot on. 

The GQP trolls live for Lib tears.  That's why the other scat sites like Gab, Parler, Truth, etc. don't ever take off - there are no libs to troll.  It won't take too long at this rate for the libs to leave Twitter and then the far right trolls will have no one to troll.  Twitter will bleed out while Elon and his creditors lose a metric fuckton of money.  Yay!

He may not recoup the $44B, but he'll do just fine grifting off all the right wing morons who will gladly pay $20 and spread hate and lies. It'll be what Parlor etc. always wanted to be but since it's starting from Twitter's base they likely won't notice that everyone they want to troll is gone.

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2 minutes ago, 'stache said:

He may not recoup the $44B, but he'll do just fine grifting off all the right wing morons who will gladly pay $20 and spread hate and lies. It'll be what Parlor etc. always wanted to be but since it's starting from Twitter's base they likely won't notice that everyone they want to troll is gone.

He only has to sell 50,000,000 blue checks to recoup each $1B. (if each sub is 100% margin) .... I'm no mathematician, but I don't think he's going to do "just fine."

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1 minute ago, The Royal We said:

He only has to sell 50,000,000 blue checks to recoup each $1B. (if each sub is 100% margin) .... I'm no mathematician, but I don't think he's going to do "just fine."

I don't think he was planning to make money either way. It was a $44B hissy fit and he's treating it like a community college business course project. As long as he has an army of bros propping him up he'll remain rich as fuck and this is just a side project he does to fuck with people. If he can grift a few million people at $8 a month, he'll find some enron accountant to show how much he's making.

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6 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Twitter’s users are its product for advertisers. Asking the popular content providers to pay for the privilege of using the platform is like charging strippers to dance. (I realize they do that at strip clubs). The difference is most of the blue check marks don’t need to be on the platform, and if they do, are probably against it on principle. Additionally, and most importantly, by allowing anyone to buy a blue check mark, you yourself are deluding the  credibility and purpose of the blue check mark. 
 

While some think it’s a shrewd business move to raise revenue. One can argue it’s hurting the brand at its core, which in the long run, will erode any short term revenue gains. 

This is EXACTLY correct.  A blue check (if it's really supposed to be for credibility) should be EARNED, not paid for.  Slightly different, but same principle, on Vrbo or Airbnb, you don't get to pay your way into a Superhost status.  If they allowed that, you end up with bad actors in positions of power that end up giving your brand a bad reputation.  They tried that at the beginning and it created a terrible user experience.  Elon will find this out the hard way.

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1 hour ago, 'stache said:

I don't think he was planning to make money either way. It was a $44B hissy fit and he's treating it like a community college business course project. As long as he has an army of bros propping him up he'll remain rich as fuck and this is just a side project he does to fuck with people. If he can grift a few million people at $8 a month, he'll find some enron accountant to show how much he's making.

He doesn't have a choice. He's got to pay $1 billion in interest every year and he's not going to want to keep selling off shares in Tesla to cover it. And even if he was fine with doing that, he can only do that for so long, because he's pledged a ton of his Tesla shares as collateral for other loans and he's likely personally guaranteed Tesla lenders and investors that he'll maintain control of Tesla.

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We are in the storming phase; things will settle and everyone will move on and either figure out how to co-exist with the new normal of Twitter or they will leave and a nice new venture will have spawned off from it. Either way, win/win and not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. The only people who seem to have emotional investment are those who just really liked Twitter as it was and didn't want it disrupted.

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2 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Actually it did, and at the risk of going CR, it's a problem with the changeover but perhaps in a different way. The entities who were charged (per FBI/USA v Abouammo, et al) with placing a mole/moles inside Twitter (circa 2015) one of whom used his role as a site reliability engineer to hand over the info used in the verification process are now tied to the company. Even if SA doesn't use the info (which includes email addresses, telephone numbers, last log-in time, etc) there are likely plenty of foreign parties interested in paying for that information to quell dissent, track down individuals wherever they reside, etc and perhaps pay enough to make eight bucks look like a decoy. Musk has ties globally to various countries that might like the new loosey goosey staff he has coming in and it all seems a bit sketch to be paying attention to the celebrity stuff when the data mining stuff seems more of a concern. I don't know that Musk and Thiel ever made up and became besties again, but for all their innovation, they have the shady aura of (tech) wizards gone bad.

I'm moving this quote to CR because I'm going to take it political and don't want to mess up that thread. The discussion was related to the verification (blue check) and mostly centered around the money involved and the math around that money based on users, etc.

My inclination is less about Elon and losing money and more about national security and with whom he is friendly with respect to his business dealings. I referenced Saudi Arabia above, but I suspect this man has enough hubris to believe he can handle it all w/o compromising this country or rising democracies in other countries or perhaps he doesn't give a shit. Regardless, I care less about Twitter as a whole (no account, etc) and more about the uneasiness that we are being distracted by a shiny object when there is a serious threat lurking behind the curtain. Saudi has paid 2 Billion to Kushner, and is wheeling and dealing with TFG thru the LIV golf tourneys (part of TFGs revenge motive regarding the PGA), and they've been invested in Twitter for over a decade. Who else might be interested in helping out the guy who champions free speech while financial backers slice up their political dissenters?

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10 minutes ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

If you like that, you might enjoy this book:

 

Warning:  It will change your relationship with places such as this:

 

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I’m already on the edge of clicking delete on Surly due to the rampant trolling & stupidity. This book might push me over 

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1 hour ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

guess this goes here? not a huge fan of Bo Burnham but this is spot-fucking on and gives me a new respect for him

 

His most recent special "Inside" really is something else. It's very much his style, but it's an insanely well produced and edited feature length that has similar biting commentary. But he's using a sock puppet to tell you how power structures control us!

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12 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

I’m already on the edge of clicking delete on Surly due to the rampant trolling & stupidity. This book might push me over 

It might.  The book covers losing time/hours/focus to all the distractions of the internet.  Social media gets its due in it, but so does things like binge watching Netflix.  There is a bit of Pollyanna-ishness to it (the author has never used a lot of the social media he critiques) but still caused me to evaluate my relationships with tech and media. 

There is a 30 digital detox recommendation where you cut out all social media/mindless browsing/binging.  After that the recommendation is to re-engage in a more mindful and limited fashion.  That worked for me for a while (my book reading increased) but like all addicts I easily slipped back into some bad habits.  I should probably try it again.

At any rate, it’s an easy read and food for thought.

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