“One of the incidents cited by ad executives was the spread of an AI-generated image that falsely suggested there had been a large explosion at the Pentagon.”
Sure do love it every time paid verification comes back to bite Musk in the arse.
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2023
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Honestly, I think Twitter and Reddit are both sinking ships. Both of them seem to be run by people who really don't know what they're doing. They kind of deserve it, to be honest.
It boggles my mind that anyone, outside of the far-right lunatic fringe, is still on that platform. I left months before Elon Musk showed up, because they weren't doing enough to fight misinformation in 2020, and now it's an absolute dumpster fire. I can only guess there's something like the sunk cost fallacy at work here, and that's why people are reluctant to leave.
I have former academic coworkers who use it to promote their publications etc. It's an odd thing because their (very left) politics definitely don't belong on twitter anymore. The only reason I can think of why they stay is because they are still convinced that one day they'll become famous. Twitter really seems to play on the idea that everyone can be a superstar. Sad really.
I have former academic coworkers who use it to promote their publications etc. It’s an odd thing because their (very left) politics definitely don’t belong on twitter anymore.
for mid-level people in a space or community there's really not much better than twitter currently: it has--or, i suppose, had--a good equilibrium of random people and smart or influential people, a unique equilibrium of semi-privacy and public space, and a culture and barrier for entry that's low and overall decent for getting eyes on your work (to a point).
if you're an artist, for example? there's simply not a better platform for your work. dedicated gallery sites are fractal and don't have all the other stuff twitter comes with. (sometimes they don't even have all the art, to extend the example!) probably the closest mass-media to twitter that emulates the benefits is instagram, but instagram also has a different clientele and a very different culture.
Exactly; Twitter and all the rest of the commercial social media sites trap a bunch of people who are all trying to get money out of each other, convinced that if they aren't there and part of the ongoing spectacle, they're missing out on business. Everyone else is there just to be a mark. Money pulls the strings and the puppets lurch about.
Whatever professional interests one has in it, I don't think there are many valid human reasons.
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I keep finding myself on Twitter not by choice, but because it is the news outlet for a lot of individuals and other entities. Even if readers like me have largely moved on to other places, there isn't really a one-size-fits-all alternative for microblogging.
Just this last weekend we had weather events disrupting my local Pride festival, and Twitter was the only easy place that they were able to quickly distribute status updates. Bluesky is still in private beta, and Mastadon doesn't really work at all for this particular use-case.
Just this last weekend we had weather events disrupting my local Pride festival, and Twitter was the only easy place that they were able to quickly distribute status updates. Bluesky is still in private beta, and Mastadon doesn’t really work at all for this particular use-case.
oh yeah, that's the other part: it's an acceptable platform for everybody from 13-year old fangirls to the literal, actual president and his staff, and you can find everybody between those groups on the site. just very hard to displace that kind of universality, especially when everybody's already on one place
I left back in 2018 because using it on a regular basis is like taking a chainsaw to your brain. I only keep my account in order to keep track of a handful of nsfw artists, and even a lot of them moved back to old Web 2.0 infrastructure
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Musk set a goal of making half of Twitter's revenue subscription-based, but his revamped Twitter Blue subscription service got off to a slow start. As the NYT report said, reversing the decline in advertising "is crucial because ads have long made up 90 percent of the company's revenue."
Well it looks like he's well on his way to succeeding in that goal if the ad revenue keeps dropping
Here's to hoping he succeeds lmao
he never did say the profits had to increase for the goal to be achieved
lmao good
fuck twitter
(Sorry, not sorry, can't resist making something stupid like this.)
Goes to roast some marshmallows
It's almost like this Musk guy isn't as capable as his fanboys would have you think. Are there still Musk fanboys?
He will probably attract the Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate fans if he hasn't already.
The only thing I'm afraid of is that they'll turn it around before the majority truly understands how bad it is. It'll be just like COVID: the bad times won't last long enough for people to change. They'll just think "it's temporary" and not change a damn thing.
I have the same fear. There is some momentum on moving away from traditional profit-oriented outrage-dependent social media and moving to decentralized technology.
The movement needs succeed to some extent and that traffic needs to move to Mastodon, Lemmy, etc. And for that to happen, Twitter and Reddit (add Facebook for good measure) need to cause a significant exodus to other platforms.
I just hope it isn't another Whatsapp -> Signal migration which failed to cause a significant shift in the end.
Loving that big social media sites are screwing themselves over. Burn it all down.
Hoping Reddit is next lol 🙌
If Facebook still exists, Reddit and Twitter are likely too big to fail too. They might not make what they used to at their peak, but as long as the site isn’t fully abandoned they’ll get their revenue
I think a Facebook competitor's critical mass problem is much harder than then a competitor to Reddit or Twitter's. The appeal to Facebook is that you have all the people you know on there, and you can share updates with the mall and see updates from them all. As the portion of your friends and loved ones drops, it's utility drops proportionally. If everyone uses Facebook, it's a great tool; but if only 10% of your friends do, it's kind of worthless. You don't really want to have to post photos to two or three different sites to really share them. Having one place to connect with everyone in your life is kind of the point of Facebook.
On the other hand, Reddit and Twitter are just random things shared from random people. If you randomly deleted half of Reddit users or Twitter users, I literally wouldn't even notice. There about the containt comma you really don't care about or even really know the actual people.
I'm hoping to have an ai that can keep tabs on my contacts and tell me what's going on without actually having to visit the site.
If that AI isn't open source, it will start spreading nasty rumors about you and making plans with your friends without inviting you unless you pay $14.99 per month and upgrade your "friend" level account to the "good friend" level ("best friend" accounts will refuse to talk to law enforcement about you and pretend to be various references on your resume for job interviewers)
Twitter's true value is at least hidden behind a billionaire firewall. It won't die until him and his foreign backers are sick of bleeding money.
When Reddit goes public, all will be known about the company in a way that's never happened before.