Elon Musk

xp - I knew the bit about getting them only serviced with Ferrari and the bit about trying to resell one, but had no idea about the rest of it. Def helps me understand why Lambos are the go-to car for the newly rich.

which dates all the way back to their founding when enzo ferrari snubbed the then tractor manufacturer ferruccio lamborghini inspiring him to build his own cars

i mean if you want a ferrari you can always just buy a used one, tho ferrari does try to meddle with that too

I'd already knew about the lamborghini origin story, had no idea this was still going on. Crazy, but I guess it works out pretty well for both Ferrari and Lamborghini?

lolz pic.twitter.com/qwffiIQHgJ

— Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) November 1, 2022

Seriously, though, if status and celebrity is important to Musk, he *should* pay people like Stephen King!

the 'charge for verified' thing would probably work if you restricted it to just brands who are using Twitter to advertise

brands might just fuck off at some point, not because $20 is a lot to them, but because twitter is a bad place for them

He has some idea that doing this will “solve bots and spam” so I think he doesn’t actually care about the price, and he thinks $20 is low.

But if he’s doing this for the revenue then there is no model of charging advertisers or celebrities for use that gets you to 1bn/year.

My wife works in advertising and that is her take on this. It's also brought up in that Verge piece. Twitter's value as an advertising vector is entirely linked to its reputation as a site safe for advertisers.

what does this have to do with bots and spam? I would guess those accounts are not verified, so, uh...I don't get it

the fact that he's trying to negotiate Stephen King down from $20 to $8 is pretty strong evidence that he's not really serious about this and that this is in fact one of those "new boss" moves like Trump's awful Foxconn deal which is intended to show investors and the public that you're willing to make big splashy decisions. I kinda suspect that it wont happen at all.

this guy clearly been reading my posts on the state of social media

Last week I had a lot of conversations about whether social media was dying or not. I don't think it is but it did make me think about shifts away from text and how Twitter is Geriatric Social Media https://t.co/UEvhKVGVJe pic.twitter.com/8jEAxbQx3P

— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) November 1, 2022

what does this have to do with bots and spam? I would guess those accounts are not verified, so, uh...I don't get it

yeah this makes little to zero sense, since said botnet owners and spam accounts might be willing to pay $240 per year for the appearance of legitimacy

🤷🏻‍♂️

I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots & trolls.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

this is already dumber than i anticipated

yeah feel silly for thinking he might play it straight lol

The way to defeat bots & trolls obviously would be to offer free-but-rigorous verification for anyone who wants it. He's doing the opposite, so he's either dumb or disingenuous (or both obviously).

also lmao @ him seeing Stephen King telling him to fuck off and going "uh, would you pay $8?" such a beta move

I wonder if businesses can actually tie data that shows Twitter adverts actually caused sales

I see businesses to be more keen to advertise places like Paramount+ - as more studios rip their stuff out of netflix

have they considered adding different pieces of flair for different types of accounts in addition to the verified badge?

for people with ".eth" in their username they could add a badge for that instead. those people would pay

maybe a badge to indicate interest groups, like verifying someone is a twitch streamer with a number of subscribers over a threshold

a badge to indicate your account has been active over a decade without getting permabanned

NFT owners could put an octagon border around their NFT profile pics. did you know? no? worked out well!

make them pay

I knew that, even if only because these people get ruthlessly mocked the instant they step outside their cryptobubbles

ten years later, haggling with Steven King about paying money to post on the bird sitehttps://t.co/7H37to05mc

— /📷 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐱 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐰 📷/ (@HongPong) November 1, 2022

otoh he did put hairs on a man

I wonder if businesses can actually tie data that shows Twitter adverts actually caused sales

given how much money gets spent on Twitter ads I'm sure they have this data but yeah I'd be curious how much that's changed over the last few years. and how much it's going to change now that a right-wing birdbrain has decided to make himself the very public face of the platform.

Lol we're fucked https://t.co/obO3GvojLy pic.twitter.com/pvyYhutBiT

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) November 1, 2022

starting to understand why ol' Musky was so desperate to get out of this deal

The banks that lent Elon money to take over Twitter are admitting that they're in for a "huge" haircut https://t.co/CesZzGUGVF pic.twitter.com/c9aVxUOzLf

— Henry Farrell (@henryfarrell) November 1, 2022

Shit like this bolsters my belief that Elon will be fine, even as Twitter goes down in flames.

wonder how much he ends up selling twitter to some private equity fund for, $5b maybe, less or maybe much less, 0 + liabilities perhaps

looking forward to hearing the news in a few years that twitter is now owned by macedonian online gambling company or w/e

" I owe the bank $100,000, that's my problem. If I owe the bank $1,000,000,000, that's their problem."

eventual musk take: inadvertently destroying the rats nest that is twitter to clear the way for whatever comes next was my greatest accomplishment

i guess if you want to split hairs theyre also for insane rich people, thats really more their image, but most of their sales you have to think come from the suckers

I like thinking about this stuff because I know some car guys but I only know one with a lambo. he has bonkers amounts of money and never feels validated by the world and the car is so clearly "well, fuck you, I get THIS," but at the same time, fuck those are sick ass cars

I mean, he's making X the Everything App, think about how much everything generates in sales per year

i rode in a lambo once it was nuts barely a car more like a jet

automakers that cater to the "carriage trade"

btw from a business standpoint and I would guess this is something that will very shortly annoy the shit out of musk, Twitter's reach & effectiveness is not jack shit compared to FB or IG. or probably TikTok, I don't keep up on that front. FB has twice the users to begin with, a suite of really useful stats & business tools, and is very responsive to business clients. twitter has "well...we'll verify you and you can promote your tweet if you want idk???" its function for business is brand-building mainly

xp I have not ridden in a lambo and am jealous

Twitter will become like Yahoo, being bounced around between unenthusiastic telecom conglomerates for years to come, a shadow of its former glory

I have not ridden in a lambo and am jealous

― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Tuesday, November 1, 2022 1:42 PM (thirty-four seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

it was cool but what i really wanted to do was drive it, i did ask lol

some of the 70s Lamborghinis are really elegant cars, nothing like the Transformers they are today

looooooool

You will also get:
- Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam
- Ability to post long video & audio
- Half as many ads

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

lmao half as many ads how generous

some of the 70s Lamborghinis are really elegant cars, nothing like the Transformers they are today

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, November 1, 2022 1:45 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

it is true they are beautiful but lambo is kinda all about being a ludicrous transformer

Also you will get a free iron-on transfer and a tote bag - while supplies last

this is a pretty reasonable conclusion tbh, still dont know if anyone will want it, also actually verifying people is a big job, if the check becomes unreliable and scammers get them its counterproductive

Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.

Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

he's just making this shit up as he goes along

happy to remain a peasant

And that's all you'll ever be to him

"What do you mean essential oils won't cure my cancer? I got this information from a blue check doctor on Twitter?"