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X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

fortune.com

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Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#21

Post by 3cats-in-a-coat »

pard68 wrote: post #4

I know people are down on the-social-networking-platform-formerly-known-as-twitter, and I have no skin in the game, I gave up on social networking about a decade ago, but I think this is the model to beat. Forever the FOSS world has said, "if you do not pay for the product, you are the product". Well, here is X trying to make a product you pay for. I do not know their new policy on tracking/ads/spying but even if the…

No. He ruined the product in every way then said “pay”. There’s nothing to pay for anymore. Let it burn.

Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#22

Post by greenie_beans »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #13
iamdelirium wrote: post #6

This is going to kill engagement. 90% of people don't care enough to pay for that and any sort of barrier will lower engagement. Twitter/X is going to be use this as a way to fight spammers and bots but those accounts never had a problem paying or using stolen money.

> This is going to kill engagement. Maybe! The people who are still left must really like Twitter. I think charging a token amount to limit who can post from a Sybil attack mitigation perspective might actually be reasonable, and it’s exciting that someone who doesn’t care if they lose is willing to perform the experiment. If you’re not willing to pay at least a dollar to post, maybe your content doesn’t have any val…

i don't really like twitter. it's just where most of my network still hangs out online (for now).

Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#23

Post by dragontamer »

amerine wrote: post #12

Not a x/twitter user much these days (mostly quit a long time ago) but I’m happy when companies put a minor barrier up to stop botting. So meh, good idea I guess?

Anyone running a TwitterBot through an LLM or other AI tool is paying far, far more than $1/year.

This $1 'fee' monetizes and benefits bot-accounts more than anyone else.

------

Let's say I setup 10,000 bot accounts for $10,000/year total. Will I really be banned from Twitter? Or will I be treated like the high paying customer that I truly am?

Is $10,000 expensive for a marketing team pushing a new product? Sounds like easy-astroturf to me.

-------

The economic incentives here are all wrong. Astroturf / marketing companies pay $10,000,000 for a singular 30 second Superbowl ad. They absolutely don't give a crap about $10,000 for an easy army of astroturf accounts that will upvotes and generate fake LLM discussion around products.

Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#24

Post by danso »

bennettnate5 wrote: post #5

The paywall on Fortune that is telling me to pay $1 monthly to see the article is so, so sweetly ironic

The $1 subscription would be for the privilege to do write-operations, e.g. tweeting and liking. Paying to consume content has been a thing for long before the internet

Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#25

Post by greenie_beans »

danso wrote: post #8
huytersd wrote: post #2

I’ll never use this crap but $1 a year is smart. People will sign up for it because it’s nothing and that gives twitter a foot in the door for price hikes later.

The seemingly smartest thing about it is that it’s reportedly for just new users. Many/most power users might stay. But huge numbers of casual (but otherwise active and monetizable) users would just drop off rather that go through the process of adding their payment info.

this would turn me off as a new user. it's already hard to look at tweets if you aren't a user.

Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#26

Post by codetrotter »

skyyler wrote: post #10
pard68 wrote: post #4

I know people are down on the-social-networking-platform-formerly-known-as-twitter, and I have no skin in the game, I gave up on social networking about a decade ago, but I think this is the model to beat. Forever the FOSS world has said, "if you do not pay for the product, you are the product". Well, here is X trying to make a product you pay for. I do not know their new policy on tracking/ads/spying but even if the…

>Well, here is X trying to make a product you pay for. No, this is an attempt to have it both ways. To do data collection / data brokerage and ALSO charge users for the service.

I think X should get credit for this move anyways. Them charging for access may make more people comfortable with the idea of paying for social networking, so that in the future more people will join when new social networks are made that don’t mine the data of the people

Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#27

Post by iamdelirium »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #13
iamdelirium wrote: post #6

This is going to kill engagement. 90% of people don't care enough to pay for that and any sort of barrier will lower engagement. Twitter/X is going to be use this as a way to fight spammers and bots but those accounts never had a problem paying or using stolen money.

> This is going to kill engagement. Maybe! The people who are still left must really like Twitter. I think charging a token amount to limit who can post from a Sybil attack mitigation perspective might actually be reasonable, and it’s exciting that someone who doesn’t care if they lose is willing to perform the experiment. If you’re not willing to pay at least a dollar to post, maybe your content doesn’t have any val…

Yes, the people remaining are addicted to/like Twitter. But this is the equivalent of imposing a sin tax on it and it will cost Twitter engagement like sin taxes lower alcohol or smoking.

It will probably lose them even more money as their primary income is ads and lower engagement will drive advertising incoming even lower.

Like all of new X/Twitter's changes, it doesn't seem to have any foresight or insight into the product at all.

Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#29

Post by galuggus »

malfist wrote: post #18
huytersd wrote: post #2

I’ll never use this crap but $1 a year is smart. People will sign up for it because it’s nothing and that gives twitter a foot in the door for price hikes later.

In what world does raising the price from free to $1 lower the barrier for signing up?

the difference between free and $1 is enormous

Re: X/Twitter will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features

#30

Post by gdulli »

pard68 wrote: post #4

I know people are down on the-social-networking-platform-formerly-known-as-twitter, and I have no skin in the game, I gave up on social networking about a decade ago, but I think this is the model to beat. Forever the FOSS world has said, "if you do not pay for the product, you are the product". Well, here is X trying to make a product you pay for. I do not know their new policy on tracking/ads/spying but even if the…

There's a difference between the idea of paying for a service in the abstract, and paying for one that's past its prime and has gone through extreme enshittification. Would I pay this much for 2015 Twitter? Sure.
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