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X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

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Re: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

#41

Post by AaronFriel »

Tepix wrote: post #11
dangus wrote: post #2

Is this even legal according to FTC guidelines? I thought ads had to be clearly marked in digital content. Either way, whatever. X is dying. I think the mainstream assumes “it’ll never happen, it’s too big to fail.” But it’s not. X really is shrinking and dying. It won’t die this year or next but it’s following in the steps of MySpace, perhaps more slowly. But it’s happening.

Of all the changes made to X, the one that places responses by paying members first is what ruins it for me. Those responses are usually pulpy.

On prominent accounts I follow, the top replies are universally all paid accounts posting clickbait, totally unrelated (or possibly AI generated?) to the poster. Here's a great example. I follow Jake Sherman, founder of Punchbowl News, to stay up to date on happenings in Congress. This is a reply:

https://twitter.com/3MTS_/status/1710360772612706416

All of that account's replies are spam like that. They're not even the worst offender, there are a handful of other accounts that just post emojis, complete nonsense, to every single popular account.

Musk had already destroyed the value of looking at a tweet's replies, which I consider the "accuracy" of the platform. But that was never the main draw anyway.

So far, my feed remains pretty good - the "recall". I've opted in to follow certain people or topics and truly, there's no better place to get the latest news. But if they destroy the value of the feed, there really will be no reason for anyone to stay.

Re: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

#42

Post by ceejayoz »

b112 wrote: post #38
api wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The censorship never went away. It just switched from being at one owner's whim to being at a different owner's whim. Closed platforms are not and can never be "free speech zones." They answer to their owners, period.

"the censorship he disliked "

He claimed to dislike virtually all censorship. A "free speech absolutist" (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1499976967105433600).

That was rapidly shown not to be the case when @ElonJet got snuffed out.

Re: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

#44

Post by jtriangle »

throwawayq3423 wrote: post #22
b112 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure the company is going to be sold to a private equity firm once it reaches $1b in valuation. There's just no way Musk is going to want to stick around the way things are trending If he did that, it could recover its former might perhaps, and the censorship he disliked may return. Thus he likely wants it dead, rather than in other hands.

> and the censorship he disliked may return. Banning Nazis is not censorship, it's basic hygiene.

Pre-elon twitter banned some nazis, sometimes, there were still plenty of them around. It also banned a-lot of normal people who were questioning official narratives, people who just so happened to get report-bombed, people who were joking around with eachother about innocuous things that weren't against the ToS, people who governments wanted banned, etc etc.

All of that has gotten much better, and appeals are approved much faster, much more often. It used to be if you replied to a tweet disagreeing with someone, and their fans/followers report bombed you, you'd get banned with no recourse. That's fixed now.

Also, my impression of recent twitter is that it's very heavy on user silo's now, sure if you search for objectionable content you'll find it, that's not unique to twitter, but you don't really happen upon it unless you're following people who post things you find objectionable.

I don't really see anything wrong with that model, and if you're truly worried about nazi's, wouldn't you rather it's on a public cleartext platform instead of on something like session where it's mathematically unable to be seen/policed by -anyone- not directly involved?

And like, I'm no fan of Ol'Musky, I think his accomplishments are mostly him attracting talented people and then taking credit for it, but to say that twitter isn't safer/better now... idk, seems like it is by any measure, which might be because it was horrible before, and it's simply less horrible now, but, still, less horrible all the same.

Re: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

#45

Post by reocha »

AlexandrB wrote: post #40

Despite having a reputation as an innovator, Musk's ideas for improving Twitter revenue seem to amount to squeezing users for more money or otherwise degrading the free experience. This is a playbook that any private equity shark out there could have executed equally well. Not sure how this will ever lead to a viable "everything" app.

He has made great innovative strides in collapsing a social media site.

Re: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

#46

Post by infamouscow »

regularjack wrote: post #29
infamouscow wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, it'll be the legacy media that ceases to exist soon enough. Twitter directly competes for the same advertising revenue the legacy media does. If Twitter was dying, it behooves the legacy media to report about it. I can't think of any other industry where a someone spends more time trying to paint the competition in a negative light, than casting their own brand in a positive one. Think about it.

"Legacy media", give me a fucking break.

> "Legacy media", give me a fucking break.

Since there's no rebuttal in your reply, consider this a break :)

Analog radio, newspapers, and television were already in a managed decline before the 2016 election. The events that unfolded forestalled the inevitable a bit longer, but the music is about to end for these propagandists masquerading as reporters. Trust in legacy media is at a record low.

Re: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

#47

Post by threeseed »

hutzlibu wrote: post #23
threeseed wrote: post #14

Pretty sure the company is going to be sold to a private equity firm once it reaches $1b in valuation. There's just no way Musk is going to want to stick around the way things are trending. Premium tiers are not going to come close to replacing the lost revenue to declining ad spend. Especially when it's in a death spiral with increasingly spammier ads causing a flight of higher quality advertisers. And there isn't t…

"There's just no way Musk is going to want to stick around the way things are trending." He does like attention and with controlling twitter, he can control quite some attention. I don't think he can easily give that up, as long as it stays somewhat relevant and as long as he already burned so much money with it.

But he's not in control of the company. Banks are.

Without them agreeing to a restructure of the debt or committing to ongoing bridge loans X will be bankrupt. The banks have already tried to sell off the debt to reduce their risk but declined as they were only getting offers valuing the company at We are reaching the cross-roads where big decisions will be made. And one is whether Musk leaves with some dignity e.g. he hands over day-day work to someone else or is simply forced out.

Re: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

#49

Post by duskwuff »

ceejayoz wrote: post #42
b112 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the censorship he disliked "

He claimed to dislike virtually all censorship. A "free speech absolutist" ( https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1499976967105433600 ). That was rapidly shown not to be the case when @ElonJet got snuffed out.

Not to mention that whole period where they were blocking links to Mastodon instances, Instagram, Substack, and Linktree (excuse me, "prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms").

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/18/23515221/twitter-bans-li...

Re: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked

#50

Post by llm_nerd »

b112 wrote: post #24
dangus wrote: post #2

Is this even legal according to FTC guidelines? I thought ads had to be clearly marked in digital content. Either way, whatever. X is dying. I think the mainstream assumes “it’ll never happen, it’s too big to fail.” But it’s not. X really is shrinking and dying. It won’t die this year or next but it’s following in the steps of MySpace, perhaps more slowly. But it’s happening.

There are people who use twitter, who have no idea it changed ownership. Who barely know who Elon is. Twitter may be dying for hackernews, but is it alive for other communities?

Elon's purchase and then (mis)management of Twitter has been recurring, mainstream news virtually everywhere. This is hardly some fringe HN type focus, it is literally everywhere. Everyone has seen the dramatic change in the quality and features of the site.

Twitter has a massive amount of "lock in" effect, however. If it didn't Musk would have killed Twitter ten times over now, but somehow people always rationalize things getting much worse. With some of the newest change a new wave of Twitter refugees are hitting Threads, and it's comical, if a bit sad, how often their first tweet is citing their Twitter follower-count, seemingly obligating the Threads community to match it to keep their interest. Eh.

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