Honest question, why can Elon, and only Elon solve the bot problem? Software devs have been trying to solve this problem since the beginning of the internet and yet bots still fill every space on the web.
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Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
301–310 of 1001 posts
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#302folks, if you're as unhappy with this as I am, you should look into being more active in alternative platforms such as Mastodon which has the advantage of better moderation tools and federation.
Ah yes, a platform where one can recede even further into one's own echo chamber! Surely that is the solution to our problems.
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#303Am I the only person here that finds Twitter a nice place? I'm careful about who I follow, most of whom are tech people or educators. My feed is a really nice place to go, and I can't remember the last time I read or saw anything that triggered me in the slightest. I'm seeing loads of comments about how toxic Twitter is, but isn't that on you? Don't follow or engage and the algorithm will skip you over.
I find Twitter a generally enjoyable place. I mostly engage with local New Yorkers about YIMBY/transportation alternatives subjects, and then recently, with subject matter experts about the Russian-Ukraine War. Twitter is generally by far the best news source I've found; you'll hear about things way before it hits the major network. Admittedly it does require a more discriminating approach.
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#304People act like this is some spiteful thing he's doing in order to just post edgy memes or have a 'private' social media for himself. Twitter, despite being a toxic place the majority of people avoid, brought in over 5 billion dollars last year. If elon removes bots, welcomes non-extremists back on, gets comedians and entertaining accounts back on board and lets people say what they want instead a bot army of shills…
Honest question to you and anyone reading:
Is Trump a non-extremist?
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#305People act like this is some spiteful thing he's doing in order to just post edgy memes or have a 'private' social media for himself. Twitter, despite being a toxic place the majority of people avoid, brought in over 5 billion dollars last year. If elon removes bots, welcomes non-extremists back on, gets comedians and entertaining accounts back on board and lets people say what they want instead a bot army of shills…
Indeed - if he brings back neutrality to their “content moderation” I would even be willing to pay, especially if it came with extra tools to filter out the bots and other nuisance content - i.e. pay for the blue checkmark and be able to restrict my feed to only other blue checkmarks. Or whatever they pick to delineate those who pay.
Paywalls are the most effective way to screen out bots and frivolous bullshit.
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#306The ONLY way to solve the toxic nature of Twitter is to enforce a)a real name policy, and b)fully verified[1] identities for all users/bots (opt-in, where others by default filter out non-verified accounts in their feeds) Bots can continue to exist, but must be identifiable as such and connected to a verified real user. Not only will this clean up twitter dramatically, it will also push off those who wish to hide beh…
> Sadly, the human race isn't quite ready for anonymous 'free speech' online as all it does is attract the shouty nutjobs and political shills. So lets park that concept, and try again in a few decades time.
Thank you for your smug, hand-wavy, holier-than-thou dismissal of online free speech on behalf of the entire human race.
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#307The ONLY way to solve the toxic nature of Twitter is to enforce a)a real name policy, and b)fully verified[1] identities for all users/bots (opt-in, where others by default filter out non-verified accounts in their feeds) Bots can continue to exist, but must be identifiable as such and connected to a verified real user. Not only will this clean up twitter dramatically, it will also push off those who wish to hide beh…
Usually, authoritarian regimes indeed love real names policies and hate that anonymous people are able to have a voice. Should probably consult with China or Iran, they have some expertise around this.
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#308How do you fix Twitter? Why, there's computer science for that: https://spritelyproject.org/
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#309I've always wanted a feature that just bins similar reactions together, so I don't have to read them. For example, I'd love replies to be binned into categories like "cruel disparagement", "wilful misunderstanding", "mindless agreement", "fallacious", "opinion as fact", and "threats and doxing". Ideally the last category would be taken seriously by law enforcement.
People who write things who get binned into these categories should get a score which, after reaching a threshold, get blocked, and ideally even generates a report for others to see of who I've blocked, and why, to save others the trouble.
Interestingly I feel like the trolls would like this too because it would let them compete with each other for being the most horrible and the most blocked on the platform.
Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
#310The ONLY way to solve the toxic nature of Twitter is to enforce a)a real name policy, and b)fully verified[1] identities for all users/bots (opt-in, where others by default filter out non-verified accounts in their feeds) Bots can continue to exist, but must be identifiable as such and connected to a verified real user. Not only will this clean up twitter dramatically, it will also push off those who wish to hide beh…
No. You must be able to remain anonymous.