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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

#51

Post by rewmie »

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…

> Just admit you need the revenue (...)

Here's a reminder that Forbes reported that Elon Musk's Twitter is spiraling into bankruptcy, and things are so bad that Musk is even unable to pay rent for their offices.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/07/03/twitter...

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

#52

Post by diogenes4 »

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.

I think they still show ads if you pay for it, so it's really just adding insult to injury.

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

#53

Post by spindle »

rewmie wrote: post #36
Eji1700 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly seconded. Another upside is this really does put a much larger cost to bots and problem accounts. Even $1 a year is a big deal if you've got an army of 5000 bot accounts (something pretty trivial in this environment). I'm all for things like Kagi doing this RIGHT and supposedly not selling all my data, but I've argued that companies like twitter charging for access is the path to a healthier environment. Oh an…

> Even $1 a year is a big deal if you've got an army of 5000 bot accounts (something pretty trivial in this environment). I think this belief is highly misguided. Whoever is in the business of managing bot farms comprised of thousands of bots is certainly monetizing them for way more than $5000/month.

Per year not per month, which of course is just grist to your mill.

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

#54

Post by tiffanyh »

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.

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

#55

Post by delecti »

ToValueFunfetti wrote: post #43
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…

It must shift it by a lot, right? I would think the cost of a twitter bot would be in the neighborhood of a fraction of a cent/year.

A bot on its own doesn't cost Twitter much directly, but enough bots costs Twitter users.

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

#56

Post by rovr138 »

IvyMike wrote: post #38

One fun thing about twitter was always the anonymous novelty accounts that people could fire off on a whim and see where they went. Most of the time they go nowhere but the viral ones can be great fun. Any barrier to entry, even $1, ensures that there's gonna be a lot less of these going forwards.

I've been to conferences in the past and randomly we get on a table, think, _you know what?, that'd be a great twitter account_ then quickly hop and create an account.

I have access to 3 major conference random accounts that every year go up when the conference is happening and it's always a blast.

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

#58

Post by rewmie »

rcurry wrote: post #50

Reminds me of the whole “Artist formerly known as Prince” thing, Twitter was a brand and renaming it to X is just stupid. Oh well.

> Twitter was a brand and renaming it to X is just stupid.

The rebranding itself is stupid, but the spin that's added to the rationale behind it makes the "X" brand sound eerily similar to Zombo.com.

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

#59

Post by minimaxir »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #40

Tip: a good way to refer to this company is "Xitter". It concise and less awkward then most other conventions, and is easily recognizable. And if you pronounce the "X" with an "sh" you get a joke compatible with Elon Musk's humour style.

It's better not to stoop to Elon's level.

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

#60

Post by codetrotter »

rimunroe wrote: post #45
codetrotter wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> 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.

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