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Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

reuters.com

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Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#641

Post by yupper32 »

toephu2 wrote: post #635
abnry wrote: post #631

Ways I think Twitter could immediately improve, from the perspective of users: - Optional verification check marks for anyone who wants them. Throw out the Blue Check status symbol. Offer "real person" twitter filter. - Transparent and consistent moderation policies. Bans are inconsistently applied for reasons that are often hard to figure out. - Return to a reverse chronological time and/or down selection of rage-ba…

> Return to a reverse chronological time They've had this for years. Press the "swish" (stars) button top right.

We have to remember that a lot of people who criticize twitter don't actually use twitter.

This happens so often with so many things.

Facebook: "I haven't used Facebook in 10 years, and never bothered to unfollow things on my feed back then, but it sucks! The feed is just garbage!"

SNL: "I haven't watched SNL since the 90s. It hasn't been funny in years!"

Expensive restaurants: "I went to one Michelin star place in 2007 and it was like 3 bites of food! I don't know why people bother!"

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#642

Post by collinvandyck76 »

toephu2 wrote: post #635
abnry wrote: post #631

Ways I think Twitter could immediately improve, from the perspective of users: - Optional verification check marks for anyone who wants them. Throw out the Blue Check status symbol. Offer "real person" twitter filter. - Transparent and consistent moderation policies. Bans are inconsistently applied for reasons that are often hard to figure out. - Return to a reverse chronological time and/or down selection of rage-ba…

> Return to a reverse chronological time They've had this for years. Press the "swish" (stars) button top right.

The problem with this approach is that they frequently revert you back to algorithmic order.

edit: to everyone saying that this doesn't happen anymore, thanks for the clarification! i guess i stopped fighting the algorithm back when this wasn't the case.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#643

Post by cercatrova »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #612
altacc wrote: post #41

He's already said that he'd follow all local laws so it would be interesting to see if he can find the elusive path of maintaining free speech, following the law and not having Twitter being a toxic cesspool used mainly to shout down those not our your "side". Personally my reservations are because I think running a social media site is a lot about understanding people and defining a healthy culture for your elusive…

> interesting to see if he can find the elusive path of maintaining free speech I am also utterly gobsmacked how people here jump to the defense of billionaires. > Taking a moment to think about how utterly crazy it is that in 2022 a company with a significant dataset of private and public communications, that has municipalities, companies and governments on the platform, can switch ownership with pretty much zero sc…

No one is forcing those entities to use Twitter. They can post on their own website that they control if they so wish.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#644

Post by msh »

toephu2 wrote: post #635
abnry wrote: post #631

Ways I think Twitter could immediately improve, from the perspective of users: - Optional verification check marks for anyone who wants them. Throw out the Blue Check status symbol. Offer "real person" twitter filter. - Transparent and consistent moderation policies. Bans are inconsistently applied for reasons that are often hard to figure out. - Return to a reverse chronological time and/or down selection of rage-ba…

> Return to a reverse chronological time They've had this for years. Press the "swish" (stars) button top right.

But it would keep resetting to the algo Timeline until recently.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#646

Post by lucius_verus »

altacc wrote: post #41

He's already said that he'd follow all local laws so it would be interesting to see if he can find the elusive path of maintaining free speech, following the law and not having Twitter being a toxic cesspool used mainly to shout down those not our your "side". Personally my reservations are because I think running a social media site is a lot about understanding people and defining a healthy culture for your elusive…

The bit about "following the law" was so poorly thought out. Musk's comments at TED made it seem like he both: (1) confused Bill of Rights guarantee that the government won't censor speech with some law that prohibits private companies from moderating speech on their platforms (not a thing) (2) failed to consider what it means to "follow the law" when your platform operates in multiple countries with incompatible laws. Do you comply with an authoritarian regime that demands you take down tweets (https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/24/22451271/police-india-rai...)? How about content that is specifically banned in some countries but not others, like Germany's strict hate speech laws (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/twitter-germany-nazis/)? These are actual problems Twitter has had to deal with, and I don't get the impression that Musk realizes how complicated it it is.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#647

Post by vinay_ys »

altacc wrote: post #41

He's already said that he'd follow all local laws so it would be interesting to see if he can find the elusive path of maintaining free speech, following the law and not having Twitter being a toxic cesspool used mainly to shout down those not our your "side". Personally my reservations are because I think running a social media site is a lot about understanding people and defining a healthy culture for your elusive…

Musk had no qualifications to run a rocket company. He didn't have much qualifications to run a car or solar company either. But he has done well by any measure of success. The only qualification that he seems to need is clear thinking based on first principles and genuine conviction and perseverance at super hard problems even while facing total personal destruction. And total personal destruction is always a real possibility with him – as he always seems to be all-in betting everything every time. So, if he fails spectacularly at his stated goal for twitter, I wouldn't be surprised (and neither will he be, I bet), but it would be sad to see that.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#648

Post by Gelob »

maybe i can get my twitter unsuspended now. the fact that there are monthly reddit megathreads for people to complain about random suspensions/bans by the algorithm and that reaching out to twitter to even asked for a reason why go un-answered and auto-replied is really annoying. https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitter/comments/rtr4t6/january_202...

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#649

Post by Lendal »

abnry wrote: post #631

Ways I think Twitter could immediately improve, from the perspective of users: - Optional verification check marks for anyone who wants them. Throw out the Blue Check status symbol. Offer "real person" twitter filter. - Transparent and consistent moderation policies. Bans are inconsistently applied for reasons that are often hard to figure out. - Return to a reverse chronological time and/or down selection of rage-ba…

Interesting. So dark money can remain secret, but on Twitter you'll be forced to doc yourself to prove you're human. I don't see how that's improved anything.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#650

Post by TrevorJ »

Something that gets missed a lot, is how much the news media relies on Twitter now. The percentage of stories that get run on online news sites which are built entirely on a few Twitter hot takes is astonishing.

This is allowing journalists to write a lot more stories without leaving their desks, which means they can likely pump out a ton more articles each week than in the old days.

If Twitter changes such that it's no longer seen as appropriate or acceptable to pullquote tweets as the basis for an article, a lot of Blogs/News sites are in serious trouble.

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