Is Elon Musk the greatest visionary or the greatest snake oil salesman of our age?
- Thread starter tim
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teuchter
je suis teuchter
It would be good if he introduced charges and this prompted a sufficient level of meltdown that enough people moved to other venues, that those alternatives became viable.
It usually seems to be the case that despite a big fuss, not many people can actually be bothered enough to move.
When whatsapp changed their T&Cs there was a big fuss, and I signed up to Signal and so on, but in the end, most people just stuck with whatsapp and I still use it all the time because the number of people I know that use signal is very small.
When Musk first took over Twitter I made a parallel Mastodon account and for a little while tried posting in parallel there - but the Mastodon posts got no response because not enough people also transferred over. The Mastodon model seems loads better to me in principle and I don't want any involvement with Elon Musk's empire if I can avoid it, but most people aren't bothered.
Not sure if there's really any precedent for a widely used, free-of-charge service becoming universally paid-for though?
It usually seems to be the case that despite a big fuss, not many people can actually be bothered enough to move.
When whatsapp changed their T&Cs there was a big fuss, and I signed up to Signal and so on, but in the end, most people just stuck with whatsapp and I still use it all the time because the number of people I know that use signal is very small.
When Musk first took over Twitter I made a parallel Mastodon account and for a little while tried posting in parallel there - but the Mastodon posts got no response because not enough people also transferred over. The Mastodon model seems loads better to me in principle and I don't want any involvement with Elon Musk's empire if I can avoid it, but most people aren't bothered.
Not sure if there's really any precedent for a widely used, free-of-charge service becoming universally paid-for though?
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
I think charging is very much the 'can be bothered' trigger. And there's a tipping point where the 'less bother' option isn't Twitter any more, it's Threads or whatever.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
He is right on one thing though, Bots won't be able to start a separate bank account for each bot so it should sort that issue out.
But how many regular x users will remain, the blue tick people are already paying they will remain unless the user denuded experience proves too limiting.
But how many regular x users will remain, the blue tick people are already paying they will remain unless the user denuded experience proves too limiting.
ska invita
back on the other side
I wonder if having to pay, even if it's pennies is a backdoor way to get people linked into the future banking aspects of X and also a way to verify who people are to some extent. A lot less anonymous that way
Raheem
Well-Known Member
Depends what the issue is.
I'm not saying bots are a non-issue for Twitter, but I think Musk believes in bots in the way some people believe in angels. They are the invisible cause of whatever it happens to be.
hitmouse
music obfuscation technology
Tbh, there's all kinds of bots for all kinds of reasons, like "post a picture of a cute animal every day" bots, or people using AI language learning to post garbled versions of their own posts. Reddit has a grammar pedantry/advice bot and probably quite a few others along similar lines, I've seen a haiku bot that points out when people have posted something that could be formatted as a haiku, and so on.
(ETA: Probably goes without saying, but the "post a picture of a cute animal every day" bots are the only ones using twitter right, if they could just ban all the humans and keep the cute animal bots it'd be a great website.)
Kid_Eternity
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Given bots are most effective when they're run by state actors I somehow doubt cost will be an issue...
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
They're the best thing about it really. If the entire Internet was just that the world would be a better place.
Storm Fox
Trying the find the next noun to verb
Fair enough, but then banning those will make the place a lot less fun.
I will make it less informative too, as if various legitimate agencies that have to give out warnings and information have to get approval for funding for an account, it may dissuade some of them.
moochedit
I'm not feeding seagulls
I think russia may have other "expenses" right now though
moochedit
I'm not feeding seagulls
They post "cute" animals not spiders, wasps or seagulls
moochedit
I'm not feeding seagulls
Yeah that is probably how his mind works but i can't see his "one app that does everything like in china" plans working out for him.
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
Technology always starts out voluntary until it isn't
Kid_Eternity
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
China doesn't.I think russia may have other "expenses" right now though
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Dunno... wumao get their "50 cents"
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
There's no way that Musk will be able to successfully turn Twitter into an online banking/identity verification business. He can't even run a social media website without scaring off a majority of advertisers. If he tries handling serious quantities of customers' money and/or their identities, it will be a disaster.
Which nowadays is composed almost entirely of Musk bumlickers, bots and MAGA chodes. Paying for Twitter doesn't offer a meaningful value proposition to anyone else.
teqniq
DisMembered
When using the Twitter app on my phone it seems to be awash with ads and there seems to be no way of blocking them. One or two even won't disappear when clicking on the 'i don't like this ad' option. The only way to stop them is to block the account.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
I didn't say that there was a lack of advertisements on Twitter. It's my understanding that 60% of the big money has fucked off. What are you getting ads for?
Even before Musk took over, Twitter only managed a couple of years with its head above the financial waters.
teqniq
DisMembered
Fair comment. A lot of it is small outfits I've never heard of. Bigger players that haven't fucked off are mostly charities, though online betting scum Paddy Power is still there.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Gambling companies I'm not surprised to see still hanging around, but I am surprised to see the charities still there.
Lurdan
old wave
I don't know about mobile but on desktop you can install the extension 'Control Panel for Twitter' and customize your x-twitter experience, removing stuff you don't want including adverts, the X branding (the blue bird can fly once more!!), and parts of the UI such as recommended for you, whats trending etc etc. Regularly updated, available on Firefox, Edge and Chrome and I gather it can be added to Safari.
teqniq
DisMembered
Ublock origin extension also sorts it
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Lurdan
old wave
Adverts yeah but not the other stuff.
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
No, he won't be able to. Someone else likely will integrate all of those functions. It's one of the reasons tech companies are working so hard on AI. It will take AI to run that kind of system with any kind of efficiency.
jontz01
taking refuge in the loft
Sorry if this has already been mentioned but I havent read the last 10 pages...
The new twatter X logo. Top right corner of embeds'. Is this thing just for capturing accidental clicks into page hits? I've pressed it myself on the bandwidthz thread too many times since the change.
The new twatter X logo. Top right corner of embeds'. Is this thing just for capturing accidental clicks into page hits? I've pressed it myself on the bandwidthz thread too many times since the change.
tommers
It was... Rebekah Vardy's account
Tech companies are working hard on AI cos some people said "OMG AI is brilliant" and now they're all running about trying not to get left behind.
Like my (ex) company had everybody devote days to coming up with ideas on how to use AI. The first part of which should be spent watching videos entitled "AI 101" or "what is AI?". Total fucking waste of time but they're fucking obsessed.
It's not even AI. Like there aren't going to be Culture Minds any time soon. It's just an (inaccurate) search engine that can create (bad) content.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Stuff like Culture minds are on the very far end of the spectrum of capabilities in terms of general AI. Present-day large language models certainly have their limitations, and that's before getting to the point where they're not general AIs. But even the most enthusiastic of Singularitarians never predicted that a supermind was going to be built on day one. A general AI is necessarily going to comprised of specialised subcomponents, and language modelling is an important and necessary part of that.
The companies hyping this stuff and trying to run everything off ChatGPT are jumping the gun, but at the same time it's not going to stand still either. Whether its language modelling or some other sub-function that would be pertinent to a general AI.
The companies hyping this stuff and trying to run everything off ChatGPT are jumping the gun, but at the same time it's not going to stand still either. Whether its language modelling or some other sub-function that would be pertinent to a general AI.
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