[chucker]

Originally Posted by PB PM Apparently Musk put a poll up on Twitter yesterday asking users if he should step down as CEO. He said he would go by the results. Of 17.5 million voters, 57.5% voted for him to step down.

As someone else put more eloquently:

"If 'yes' ends up winning in the poll, Musk will say in a few months that he's bored of being CEO and nominate someone else.

If 'no' ends up winning in the poll, Musk will say in a few months that he's bored of being CEO and nominate someone else."

[turtle]

heh

Sounds about right.

[Bryson]

I liked the "conspiracy theory" that he was in Qatar yesterday for the World Cup, and one of his Saudi backers told him to exit before he does any more damage to their investment.

[kieran]

I really just hopes he backs away from it after causing all of this shitstorm and lets someone else try to right the ship.

It's still amazing to me just how many people have moved to Mastodon over the last few weeks. I'm trying to keep up with both for the time being, but who knows how long that will last.

[Frank777]

[drewprops]

Here's a dive into the numbers.



...

[chucker]

I would say I don't care about the numbers, but that isn't entirely true.

For most uses, it doesn't matter. I've found my niche. Some friends. Some interesting folks. Some semi-celebs, even. A The Daily Show writer, a Star Trek actor.

But one thing Twitter was uniquely good at that's probably impossible to replicate is you could listen to a podcast, have a guest appear, and check if that person was on Twitter, because ~70% odds were they would be.

I don't know i fall the awfulness of Twitter (including pre-Musk, to be clear) was worth that, though.

[drewprops]

In the early days of the internet I traded emails with the singer of a band I liked, was on a listserv for Larry Niven (who stopped in from time to time), and Douglas Adams replied to my question on his website.

It was a pretty awesome time to be alive, but those contacts with creators was a primordial glimpse of the dynamic interaction afforded by social media.

My comparison of the current turmoil at Twitter to the diaspora from AOL stands - whether the abandonment catalyzes into a true exodus, it does indicate that there is the possibility of a "next phase" for the internet.

In the lead-up to the 2006 US Presidential elections I started saying that it felt like the world was sliding into a new Dark Age - strongmen rising up around the globe, social media psyops campaigns were all too easy to execute against the unsophisticated masses (of all political stripes).

With the advent of ChatGPT, we're within a generation of mass illiteracy and absolute uncertainty as to the source of information available on the planetary information network.

Retreating from the dangers of the city into compounds and enclaves like Mastodon or good old AppleNova seems inevitable, for some.

I am in more private group conversations these days. Activity here began to enjoy a resurgence during the pandemic and it still seems busier than it was a few years prior.

I believe that Twitterworld deserves to survive.

Melon's narcissistic gambit has risked the future of myriad enclaves on Twitter, and I don't trust that a new CEO can survive under the thumb of that erratic man.

Folks who have found true communities need a Plan B.

We even have a Plan B with our Reddit community and our rangy connections with each other, should anything go wonky here.

...

[Mac+]

Well said Drew. 👏

[turtle]

So looks like my Twitter account is going to be purged. One of the RSS feeds I passed through showed a tweet by Musk that said dormant accounts are going to be purged. Mine has been very dormant.

I checked my username and someone took it on Instagram too. I mean, who else would use my "former" username here. It is kinda unique thanks to AOL.

[PB PM]

Yes, supposedly any account not logged in every 30 days will be removed. Seems mighty aggressive. I haven’t logged in to mine in 10 years, it’s safe to say I wont be shedding any tears.

[Bryson]

It seems that easy impersonation of other users is a feature these days, not a bug.

[turtle]

I'm sure I've logged in not horribly long ago (Private browsing tab) so I could see a flagged tweet someone shared. I didn't post or like or anything, just viewed the content. Maybe that will be enough to keep my account around. :shrug: I won't shed a tear if my account is purged.

[psmith2.0]

I keep waiting for all this to stop being funny and/or and it never does.

[kieran]

I think they're also going to change the rules on inactive accounts. it currently applies to accounts not logged in, but it will most likely change to "not posting". Elon said he's going to take NPR's twitter account away if they don't post, but I'm sure they would be logging in every 30 days, just to keep the account, no?

Plus, what happens to all of the people who have died that have accounts? Or archive accounts of former politicians?

What a dumb move.


Although, bringing Tucker Carlson's show onto Twitter rmay be an even dumber move...

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by kieran I think they're also going to change the rules on inactive accounts. it currently applies to accounts not logged in, but it will most likely change to "not posting". Elon said he's going to take NPR's twitter account away if they don't post, but I'm sure they would be logging in every 30 days, just to keep the account, no? Plus, what happens to all of the people who have died that have accounts? Or archive accounts of former politicians? What a dumb move. Although, bringing Tucker Carlson's show onto Twitter rmay be an even dumber move...

There's no way he can make the math work on Tucker. Fox News survives from cable subscriber fees, Twitter has no such alternate revenue stream.

[chucker]

So is Elon paying Tucker?

[drewprops]

What a rusty bucket of farts.



...

[709]

It was either going to be Twitter or Russia Today. More and more alike every day.

[kieran]

Apparently Musk said there was no special deal with Tucker besides the new revenue sharing deals that Twitter is doing for creators and the subscription revenue that Tucker can get by people subscribing to his account,

I find this hard to believe as Tucker Carlson has a $25 million non compete with Fox that he's giving up for this.

[Frank777]

Wow, these are some incredibly bad takes. Do you guys still pick up all your teevee channels with an antenna on the roof?

1. Twitter has hundreds of millions more potential viewers than U.S. cable news.

2. The reach of every one of Carlson's recent posts has dwarfed his previous cable news audience.

3. He's currently the most popular political news pundit in the world.

4. He can charge for the program if he wants. However, he will probably release a free version, and charge for subscriber content, which is what Fox Nation does currently and is how he got so rich in the first place.

5. He has to share none of the profits with anyone other than his production company, which means he will likely make more money than he currently does.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Frank777 1. Twitter has hundreds of millions more potential viewers than U.S. cable news. 2. The reach of every one of Carlson's recent posts has dwarfed his previous cable news audience.

Interesting that you think you know the reach of a person on a private company’s crumbling social network.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by drewprops What a rusty bucket of farts.

This is the best metaphor I've read in a long time. Thank you, Drew.

[psmith2.0]

It's my choice for the name of any new band I may put together in the coming years.

Maybe just RBoF and let people guess?

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by chucker Interesting that you think you know the reach of a person on a private company’s crumbling social network.

I have no idea whether Twitter is actually crumbling or not. According to Musk's detractors, the site should have imploded months ago. Yet I continue to use it successfully every day. The site is clearly in pursuit of new revenue streams.

Unless the analytics of being manipulated (which would have already be dragged into court by the advertising community) you can clearly see how many people have seen Carlson's latest tweets, and we know his average nightly audience through ratings estimates.

It's not rocket science.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by Frank777 I have no idea whether Twitter is actually crumbling or not. According to Musk's detractors, the site should have imploded months ago. Yet I continue to use it successfully every day. The site is clearly in pursuit of new revenue streams. Unless the analytics of being manipulated (which would have already be dragged into court by the advertising community) you can clearly see how many people have seen Carlson's latest tweets, and we know his average nightly audience through ratings estimates. It's not rocket science.

I do know, and his ad revenue has plummeted. Twitter Blue revenue has gone nowhere. Twitter launched creator subscriptions (Super Follows) before Elon showed up and it was a flop, he's just relaunching to see if it works this time.

If Elon moves forward with some sort of deal with Carlson, he'll face the same problem as Fox News: nobody wants to advertise next to it. This worked out for Fox because they made so much from cable and satellite subscription fees, but Elon doesn't have another source of revenue to make up that shortfall.

The impression number Elon added to tweets is not the same as the one used for ads billing. It is most certainly inflated. I don't think this is intentional, they're just measuring in the wrong place such that the number includes internal processes hydrating the tweet (eg if an antispam process loads a tweet to check it for spamminess, that's now counted as an "impression" even though nobody actually looked at it).

[Frank777]

Yes, the drop in Twitter ad revenue is well known. Hence the search for new streams.

Musk has said that Carlson doesn't have any special 'deal' with Twitter, just the regular Creator stuff. The problem for me with Carlson's Fox show was always too much advertising, so I doubt he'll have a big problem selling ads.

[chucker]

I was an unhealthily prolific Twitter user until Elon decided to yank access from my client, but Twitter’s *direct* reach was never massive. Instead, it was an echo chamber in tech and media circles (and trolls), and the tech portion of that has moved on. Political journos have not, but are they enough to make Tucker as big a success as he was on Fox? I don’t see it.

[Frank777]

Journalists love Twitter because it's a real-time information network.

If your job is covering what's happening right now, there's no better space to find out immediate local and international happenings, alongside comments and even spectacular video footage at times. At some point something else will come along, the way Yahoo was superseded by Google. But right now, I don't see anyone else getting the critical mass to change that.

Bluesky is interesting, but Jack Dorsey was either complicit or incompetent in letting Twitter's back office become overrun with access and manipulation by three-letter government agencies. I have no reason to believe his current effort won't be similarly compromised from inside.

Again, none of this means that Musk is an angel. But I have no real current reason to move from Twitter to go elsewhere. Yet.

[kieran]

I'm just like chucker, an unhealthy Twitter user, who has mostly moved to Mastodon, but I still open the Twitter app every once in a while to peruse during newsworthy events.

I'mc curious to see if Carlson can make a go of it on Twitter and am pretty surprised he didn't go to another conservative network instead.