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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

#71

Post by pard68 »

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.

Please read my conclusion where I commented on this exact point.

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

#72

Post by hcurtiss »

e2le wrote: post #64
stevehawk wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love to mock Elon but even I am inclined to agree with him. It seems like the only other solution is something like Google's Web Environment Integrity thing, which scares me. The best/easiest solution is to make it more expensive for the botters to play the game,

Attestation of personhood would be another possible solution. Might even be more effective given the cost of each new key ($10+). https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cryptographic-attest...

I'd way rather pay a dollar.

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

#73

Post by slg »

tiffanyh wrote: post #54
slg wrote: post #19

>Musk said “It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.” With so many of these billionaires and CEOs it is becoming impossible to tell whether they are transparently lying or complete idiots. Just admit you need the revenue and you want people to put a card on file to lower the bar for future financial transactions. Charging for a service doesn't eliminate bots, it just shifts the financial break…

At $1/ year , this isn’t a revenue play because after card and/or platform fees - it won’t amount to much at all. However, account signup will definitely drop considerably, because that’s a pretty big barrier for most users. So I’m actually inclined to say, this probably is a strategy purely to combat bots.

>At $1/year, this isn’t a revenue play because after card and/or platform fees - it won’t amount to much at all.

It isn't purely about the $1 per year revenue. It is about having a customer credit card on file which reduces friction for every future situation in which the user is charged which increases future revenue.

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

#74

Post by mohsenari »

codetrotter wrote: post #60
rimunroe wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 Won’t that just make people get used to paying and having their data sold? Why would future companies not follow that same model?

> Why would future companies not follow that same model? Because some companies are happy to be profitable without having to squeeze out ever last cent possible of their customers. When enough people are willing to pay for social media, someone will realize that there is room to build a business that doesn’t abuse its users and they will have enough money to run it.

That's optimistic thinking. I don't believe that will happen even if people realize that it is possible. Because tracking is not detrimental enough to user experience that people move off of existing platforms.

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

#75

Post by toomuchtodo »

joegahona wrote: post #68
iamdelirium wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Sounds like this fee is for new accounts only.

Existing accounts would be seasoned, and they can filter existing bot accounts over time.

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

#76

Post by spondylosaurus »

stevehawk wrote: post #37
slg wrote: post #19

>Musk said “It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.” With so many of these billionaires and CEOs it is becoming impossible to tell whether they are transparently lying or complete idiots. Just admit you need the revenue and you want people to put a card on file to lower the bar for future financial transactions. Charging for a service doesn't eliminate bots, it just shifts the financial break…

I love to mock Elon but even I am inclined to agree with him. It seems like the only other solution is something like Google's Web Environment Integrity thing, which scares me. The best/easiest solution is to make it more expensive for the botters to play the game,

There are for sure other bot management strategies out there (Web Environment Integrity is strictly hypothetical for now, iirc) but the problem is that those strategies cost money, and often quite a bit. Which, I guess "pay $1 to sign up" is _also_ a strategy that costs money, but that cost gets passed to users :P

Honestly though, $1 almost seems too low to be effective in that regard, at least relative to the specific risk/reward of Twitter. For a small forum or something, sure... but if you were interested in running automated Twitter accounts, and you knew for sure that you wouldn't get caught, $100/year to run 100 accounts is absolutely worth it so long as those accounts bring in some kind of money via whatever scam/spam/promotion crap you're running.

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

#78

Post by janalsncm »

dragontamer wrote: post #23
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 li…

I think this severely overestimates the sophistication of bots. You don’t need to give coherent, thoughtful replies. You just need keyword detection and link spamming.

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

#79

Post by taurath »

tiffanyh wrote: post #54
slg wrote: post #19

>Musk said “It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.” With so many of these billionaires and CEOs it is becoming impossible to tell whether they are transparently lying or complete idiots. Just admit you need the revenue and you want people to put a card on file to lower the bar for future financial transactions. Charging for a service doesn't eliminate bots, it just shifts the financial break…

At $1/ year , this isn’t a revenue play because after card and/or platform fees - it won’t amount to much at all. However, account signup will definitely drop considerably, because that’s a pretty big barrier for most users. So I’m actually inclined to say, this probably is a strategy purely to combat bots.

They’re going to enable purchases directly off of the platform and probably a user to user payments platform because that got Musk rich in the past and why wouldn’t he run it back?

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

#80

Post by pard68 »

throwaway128128 wrote: post #46
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…

They are killing their golden egg-laying goose. It's good.

I tend to agree. Society was healthier prior to massive, wide-spectrum (my term) social networking.
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