Twitter C/D

NEW: Have confirmed that LeBron, who has 52 million followers and has said he won’t pay for verification, was emailed by a Twitter employee with the offer to have his sub comped “on behalf of Elon Musk.”

James did not accept but his account is showing that he paid anyway.

— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) April 20, 2023

I’m paying for a few personally

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023

which isn't to say the move to paid only blue checks isn't completely horrible, because it defeats the purpose of the checks to begin with, and it's just going to increase the amount of fake news and imposters and detritus on that platform.

― Cthulhu Diamond Phillips (Neanderthal), Thursday, 20 April 2023 bookmarkflaglink

There are like ten pope Francis imposters on my timeline rn how is this is not great?!

That shit is kinda funny tbh

theyre gonna get sued which is how the blue checks started in the first place

The grifters are crying.

New genre of post: twitter blue subscribers complaining that they aren’t famous enough to get verified for free pic.twitter.com/q5I54nLHdl

— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) April 20, 2023

What Elon doesn't understand about his "$8/month for herpes" offer is that nobody's hung up on the cost, the big issue is the herpes pic.twitter.com/VhoINbh2kc

— Krister Johnson (@KristerJohnson) April 20, 2023

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuMiTbHWIAAtcbb?format=jpg&name=large

proper lol

It's all been worth it.

Omg cry laughing

they fired so many backend people they just shipped this as a frontend change lmao

Ah, yeah... looks like people who were verified still are verified. He literally just hid it.https://t.co/dXwR8yfsZG

— Alexandra Erin | alexandrae✧✧✧@peoplemak✧✧✧.ga✧✧✧ (@AlexandraErin) April 20, 2023

beautiful

lol

I woke up to a gold Twitter badge. No clue why.

Then saw this email:

As of today, you MUST have a verified account to advertise on Twitter.

I was auto-upgraded to Twitter Gold courtesy of my ad spend, cheers Elon!

I wonder if Meta will follow suit? pic.twitter.com/4YJ4IsGi7W

— Lorenzo Green 〰️ (@mrgreen) April 21, 2023

I'm not saying Musk is doing a good job, working for the right reasons, or even realises what he's doing. BUT the idea of moving twitter away from advertising revenue towards a platform with a nominal user fee is not terrible at its core.

— Unlearning Economics (@UnlearnEcon) April 21, 2023

I mean I see that -- he was made to buy it, he'll want a return -- and you'd think supplying a functioning product would be a good first step

xxp lol this mf spent at least $1000 for Twitter

I'm not sure what the tipping point would be for most media to follow suit, but the way Musk is going we'll probably find out.

Bye, Twitter. 🥺 The tipping point was having to pay for verification, when we feel we add a lot of value. We also feel solidarity with NPR, and share concerns about Twitter’s direction. You can find us on the blog and TikTok. If we join another platform, we’ll send word here. 🫡

— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) April 20, 2023

Huh if you're not logged in, looks like they finally killed browsing any trending areas (lmao looks like search as well) – clicking any trending topic or search attempt takes you to a login page. Wild gambit for account growth.

he has not realized that only a small percentage of people share one of his chief derangements, aka “poster’s disease “

Thisisfine.jpg etc

I can practically *feel* the coming uptick in scamming. pic.twitter.com/H1h0j76nUb

— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) April 20, 2023

I understand the principled objection to paying for a platform that relies exclusively on user-generated content, but I do think there was a time when people might have paid for a premium tier of Twitter. And not even a verified check necessarily, just access to better features. The problem is that the platform isn't what it used to be. Lots of people have left. It doesn't feel as dynamic anymore -- not as fun and freewheeling as it was the early 2010s and not as ~vital~ as it seemed in the late 2010s. A bunch of people who are paying for Twitter are convinced that legacy verified users are refusing to pay as a form of virtue signaling, and maybe it's true that many of them don't want to outright support Elon because of who he is, but I'd guess that for most of them the current state of the platform just isn't worth it.

Huh if you're not logged in, looks like they finally killed browsing any trending areas (lmao looks like search as well) – clicking any trending topic or search attempt takes you to a login page. Wild gambit for account growth.

― ヽ（´ー｀）┌ (CompuPost), Friday, April 21, 2023 10:04 AM (fifty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, even though I no longer have an account, I would still search for things on Twitter from time to time. Now all that's visible are Elon Musk, pictures of dogs, and other twitter randos.

it's just insulting to them, people are constantly trying to get celebrities to do interviews, come to this party, come to this event, do something for this media outlet, this social media platform, etc etc., here's a gift bag worth $5k

so they are just like this mf freak wants me to PAY?

that's really all it is

Also, if some people aren't paying simply as a fuck-you to Elon, well, there's a reason why most CEOs don't act like annoying edgelords.

i don't think elon gets out much? definitely not used to rubbing elbows with other important or famous people, certainly not ones in media. if you wanted to destroy twitter, i couldn't think of a better plan than to get this mfer to buy it. i'm still locked in a "verification" test that doesn't work. i'm relieved my habit is blocked tbh.

the scarlet checkmark is so toxic that people are begging twitter to remove it pic.twitter.com/38QH6evMjB

— Shawn Hils (@ShawnHils) April 21, 2023

xp he did sort of date a pop star, but one who is also a cringe dipshit

xp

https://filmquarterly.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/inglourious_basterds_featured.jpg

surprised no one has linked to this essay yet:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/magazine/twitter-dying.html

Among all twitter's users, journalists are almost the only group who view it as critical infrastructure.

Update for the day after: just before the purge yesterday, 19,469 of the 407k legacy verified accounts I had identified in early April had Twitter Blue. Today that number for those same accounts is 19,497, for a net increase of 28 accounts.

— Travis Brown (@travisbrown) April 21, 2023

epic win

So now we know how many accounts Elon bought.

these guys lecturing people on the good business of giving them $8 is so funny

Simplest way for corporate journalists to get blue checks en masse would be for their organizations to go gold and affiliate them. Stop pretending this is a personal expense. It’s a business expense. https://t.co/nXEK2YcT2x

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) April 21, 2023

If you’re a business executive or an entertainer who makes money from your persona in some way, $8 a month for twitter is objectively the greatest bargain in the world.

If you get 1 new fan a year or a new customer every decade it pays for itself many times over.

— @jason (@Jason) April 21, 2023

thanks @jason (@Jason)

How many do you forego from paying to associate with utter loserism

For $8 a month you could also buy some manure to smear on your face

lol, I'm getting a 'this page is down' error for every embedded tweet I've clicked on today. Is Elon trying to cure everyone of any lingering interest in the site? I guess I should thank him.

Starting to wonder if this is some Brewsters Millions scenario where he will inherit an even bigger and better business if he manages to completely tank Twitter in six months. He has less than a week to go but I have to say he's doing a pretty good job.

wonder how much @jason paid for his ALL IN badge

absolute home run of a post, knocked it out of the park, no notes pic.twitter.com/US3n457Vuz

— sam (dependent thinker) 🆗 (@CobrastanGuy) April 21, 2023

jfc

Elon needs to figure out how to make users pay for a 'Christian fish' icon or a 'right-wing patriot' icon as an upgrade to the plain blue check, which isn't nearly tribal enough.

Pay double to get a RED MAGA check

If George Washington were alive today he'd have one of those eagle crest thingies like Obama

George Washington would certainly agree with Elon Musk on some things.

after he had a panic attack and shit his pants at the modern world

If this site is ever sold to someone competent and as a result stays afloat, you will still see screenshots of this tweet posted 10 years from now https://t.co/g3Uas0gJUn pic.twitter.com/9JPsEBDPQU

— Emoji Caresser (@LizRummy) April 21, 2023

Carnivore diet be like