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Elon Musk takes over Twitter

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Alma, Apr 25, 2022.

  1. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    The verified check mark is of marginal benefit (if any benefit) to at least some of the people who have gotten verified. I'd guess on the margin, it has actually benefitted Twitter more than most of those users, because it allowed Twitter to sell itself as the verified platform for notable people who the masses want to hear from. ... and it gave the platform some legitimacy (with users and advertisers). If a lot of people say screw it on paying $240 a year on the rationale that the check mark is not really worth much, Twitter might only end up hurting itself by trying to monetize it. Is there anything suggesting that check mark is actually monetizable in a way that won't result in a net loss?
     
  2. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    Howard Stern had Jack Dorsey on prob 6-7 years ago and some of the staff (think it was Ronnie or Sal) were
    complaining about not being verified. Don't remember the entire interview, but the guy didn't seem to have
    any clear-cut guidelines as to who does and does not get verified. Maybe he had changed since then.
     
  3. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    I have a blue check. I will not pay a dime to keep that blue check. I suspect most others won't either.

    The chief value of a blue check is telling a real account apart from a fake or parody account. If any schmoe can pay $20 a month to get the blue check, every parody account will have a blue check.

    It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Musk to drive his new $44 billion toy into the social media graveyard. I'm guessing it won't be long.
     
  4. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    From my understanding the guidelines for the check were pretty loose. I've had mine for years, but essentially there were certain positions that were deemed worthy of a check and others that weren't. You needed to have certain info in your name and bio to get the check. That's why my Twitter bio has "editor" in it -- they'll give a producer/editor a blue check but not a producer, even though "editor" makes no sense in this context.

    One issue with the system: back when I got mine Twitter had virtually no one working there and dealing with this sort of thing, so getting an explanation or a timely response was impossible. My request went in weeks before the check appeared.
     
  5. DanielSimpsonDay

    DanielSimpsonDay Well-Known Member

     
  6. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Every video for that song is magical. I love this one just for the middle-aged Germans in formal wear:

     
  7. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    I don’t think it is a matter of “Elon Musk vs. this head of lettuce” but I’m guessing Twitter will be limping along as a damaged company come Halloween 2023 and he’ll be looking for a way to unload before the worst of Election Year Social Media Hell comes calling on his watch.
     
  8. Regan MacNeil

    Regan MacNeil Well-Known Member

    Your timeline is wrong. There is no way Musk doesn’t want to own Twitter ahead of 2024.
     
  9. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    See, he thinks he’s the edgelord of the right for his positions now, but to keep that throne he’s going to have to go deeper and deeper into the muck and there is no bottom to the horrors there. And the first time he says “pass” they’ll turn on him for going soft.
     
    garrow likes this.
  10. Regan MacNeil

    Regan MacNeil Well-Known Member

    Lol. That’s actually already happening after he deleted his Pelosi tweet.
     
  11. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    He has $223 billion reasons not to care especially if Saudi Arabia laid most or all of the $44 billion.

     
  12. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    Twitter used to work with social media folks in newsrooms to get reporters verified. Back then you had to link the account with your work email to get the check mark.
     
  13. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    It's populist idiocy.

    Al Waleed owned 5.2 percent of Twitter prior to Elon Musk. He simply agreed to roll over his stake into the new Twitter, and is remaining a minority owner.

    If it wasn't an issue in 2011 or 2012 when they bought their stake, it's disingenuous to claim it's an issue today. More importantly, though, our government shouldn't have the power to arbitrarily deciding who can own what companies with specious "national security" claims.

    This is private economic activity that doesn't involve Chris Murphy. If he's that interested, he can put his own capital at risk in an attempt to do something productive (he sure has hell doesn't as a U.S. Senator), and then he can have all the say he wants in who is involved in the venture, how it is run, etc.
     
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