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There's really only one solution to Twitter's problem, and anything short of it is just nonsense placating. They have to open up profile verification to all app

There's really only one solution to Twitter's problem, and anything short of it is just nonsense placating. They have to open up profile verification to all applicants. It would fix the platform overnight. You could just immediately ignore anyone who's not verified, yet it would still be optional for those who don't care.

Brushfire 8y ago
They started to do this but then paused all verifications because bots were getting verified.
- wild_preference 8y ago
  I saw one of those Ethereum scambot dopplegangers on a high profile tweet that was verified. Really looked awful and definitely caused more damage since people are trained to trust it.
  - saint_fiasco 8y ago
    Any hacker that manages to get the credentials of any verified user can just change that account's name and picture to that of a famous person for easy impersonation.
    - realusername 8y ago
      Just the fact that you can get a verified account and change the name to anything without the need to get verified again is a massive loophole.
radiantswirl 8y ago
Yes. Now that the prestige value of the blue checkmark has already been torpedoed by their various verification fiascos, it makes perfect sense to make the blue checkmark available to everyone because it would also solve a lot of their problems in the advertising department. Right now clicks on Twitter ads are worth very little because most of the clicks come from fake accounts. But imagine how much clients would pay for "verified clicks" -- clicks from verified accounts. IMO they should make their ad sales a tier-based cost-per-click model with clicks from verified accounts selling for higher amounts than clicks from non-verified accounts. If theyre smart they'll open up a third tier above "verified" for the twitter-endorsed superstars which will have prestige value again (now that the blue checkmark has none). Maybe a green checkmark would work. Naturally they could sell an ad click from a green checkmark account for even more than an ad click from a blue-checkmark regular ol' verified account.
gaius 8y ago
There's really only one solution to Twitter's problem, and anything short of it is just nonsense placating. They have to open up profile verificatio There’s another solution: the platform is free if you have less than n followers or follow less than n users. Say n is 15 for example. Above that you pay for every tweet. On a sliding scale, say the first tweet/day is 5c, the 10th is $1. They could even ditch scammy advertising - brands who wanted to “engage” would simply pay directly to tweet.
- swvjeff 8y ago
  I'm sorry but that is just a horrendous idea unless N is a very high number
  - gaius 8y ago
    Why do you think so? It would solve all Twitter’s financial and social/cultural problems practically overnight
    - deadmetheny 8y ago
      Twitter needs its users infinitely more than Twitter's users need Twitter. Charging anyone to use the service at all is counter-productive.

Brushfire 8y ago

They started to do this but then paused all verifications because bots were getting verified.

wild_preference 8y ago
I saw one of those Ethereum scambot dopplegangers on a high profile tweet that was verified. Really looked awful and definitely caused more damage since people are trained to trust it.
- saint_fiasco 8y ago
  Any hacker that manages to get the credentials of any verified user can just change that account's name and picture to that of a famous person for easy impersonation.
  - realusername 8y ago
    Just the fact that you can get a verified account and change the name to anything without the need to get verified again is a massive loophole.

radiantswirl 8y ago

Yes. Now that the prestige value of the blue checkmark has already been torpedoed by their various verification fiascos, it makes perfect sense to make the blue checkmark available to everyone because it would also solve a lot of their problems in the advertising department. Right now clicks on Twitter ads are worth very little because most of the clicks come from fake accounts. But imagine how much clients would pay for "verified clicks" -- clicks from verified accounts. IMO they should make their ad sales a tier-based cost-per-click model with clicks from verified accounts selling for higher amounts than clicks from non-verified accounts. If theyre smart they'll open up a third tier above "verified" for the twitter-endorsed superstars which will have prestige value again (now that the blue checkmark has none). Maybe a green checkmark would work. Naturally they could sell an ad click from a green checkmark account for even more than an ad click from a blue-checkmark regular ol' verified account.

gaius 8y ago

There's really only one solution to Twitter's problem, and anything short of it is just nonsense placating. They have to open up profile verificatio There’s another solution: the platform is free if you have less than n followers or follow less than n users. Say n is 15 for example. Above that you pay for every tweet. On a sliding scale, say the first tweet/day is 5c, the 10th is $1. They could even ditch scammy advertising - brands who wanted to “engage” would simply pay directly to tweet.

swvjeff 8y ago
I'm sorry but that is just a horrendous idea unless N is a very high number
- gaius 8y ago
  Why do you think so? It would solve all Twitter’s financial and social/cultural problems practically overnight
  - deadmetheny 8y ago
    Twitter needs its users infinitely more than Twitter's users need Twitter. Charging anyone to use the service at all is counter-productive.