4 ms·

Well, if the purpose of buying twitter was to improve the user experience of internet users and advance the doctrine of free speech, then why not just spend tha

Well, if the purpose of buying twitter was to improve the user experience of internet users and advance the doctrine of free speech, then why not just spend that same amount of money building your own twitter (mastodon instance or something) and use your publicity to attract users?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ChildOfChaos 4y ago
because that doesn't work.
Slartie 4y ago
"Musk Social"?
- cowtools 4y ago
  The difference would be that musk's following is more moderate, and they might respect peering agreements unlike Gab or Truth Social.
arlcode 4y ago
Well maybe he realised that in the best case he would govern over Twitter 2.0 with extra toxicity and in the worst case be the proud owner of another cesspool of assholes, pedophiles and people with violent ideas. I don't believe for a second that Elon Musk really cares about free speech for anyone but himself and he is right now probably not limited by twitter's policy but by other externalities
- cowtools 4y ago
  Pedophiles? I'm pretty sure they would be forced to take down child porn. I mean, it's a public forum. If you are publicly announcing that you are pedophile or terrorist, that sounds like bad news for you. In any case, does twitter not already have a lot of "assholes" and people with "violent ideas"?
  - arlcode 4y ago
    Yes he would (sorry if I went a bit over the top there). My point being that I don't trust Elon Musk to make better moderation decisions than whoever is in charge right now. Past attempts of social media with low barriers of what is allowed have absolutely turned out worse than Twitter if you ask me(e.g. 4chan, 8chan, gab etc) That's why I think the best case is "Twitter but more aligned with whatever Elon Musk thinks at the moment"
CoryAlexMartin 4y ago
An established social media platform's most valuable asset is the size of its userbase. Even with the reach of Musk, I think it would be hard to attract a large enough userbase to make the product more compelling than Twitter.
- TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
  An established platform's most valuable asset is the data of the userbase. Twitter can leverage a huge amount of data about personal preferences, interests, relationship status, political leanings, income, usage profiles, message habits and content, social graph, and location. If you specifically wanted to clamp down on certain demographics, it would be an excellent way to locate them.
  - rtkwe 4y ago
    Can't have a large data trove on your users without users. A huge part of a successful social network is sufficient adoption. If the people your users want to follow aren't on the platform they don't have a real reason to be there. It's a major hurdle for any new social platform and a lot fail at that step.
simonw 4y ago
If spending a ton of money was a reliable way to build a new social network we would all be having this conversation on Google+.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

ChildOfChaos 4y ago

because that doesn't work.

Slartie 4y ago

"Musk Social"?

cowtools 4y ago
The difference would be that musk's following is more moderate, and they might respect peering agreements unlike Gab or Truth Social.

arlcode 4y ago

Well maybe he realised that in the best case he would govern over Twitter 2.0 with extra toxicity and in the worst case be the proud owner of another cesspool of assholes, pedophiles and people with violent ideas. I don't believe for a second that Elon Musk really cares about free speech for anyone but himself and he is right now probably not limited by twitter's policy but by other externalities

cowtools 4y ago
Pedophiles? I'm pretty sure they would be forced to take down child porn. I mean, it's a public forum. If you are publicly announcing that you are pedophile or terrorist, that sounds like bad news for you. In any case, does twitter not already have a lot of "assholes" and people with "violent ideas"?
- arlcode 4y ago
  Yes he would (sorry if I went a bit over the top there). My point being that I don't trust Elon Musk to make better moderation decisions than whoever is in charge right now. Past attempts of social media with low barriers of what is allowed have absolutely turned out worse than Twitter if you ask me(e.g. 4chan, 8chan, gab etc) That's why I think the best case is "Twitter but more aligned with whatever Elon Musk thinks at the moment"

CoryAlexMartin 4y ago

An established social media platform's most valuable asset is the size of its userbase. Even with the reach of Musk, I think it would be hard to attract a large enough userbase to make the product more compelling than Twitter.

TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
An established platform's most valuable asset is the data of the userbase. Twitter can leverage a huge amount of data about personal preferences, interests, relationship status, political leanings, income, usage profiles, message habits and content, social graph, and location. If you specifically wanted to clamp down on certain demographics, it would be an excellent way to locate them.
- rtkwe 4y ago
  Can't have a large data trove on your users without users. A huge part of a successful social network is sufficient adoption. If the people your users want to follow aren't on the platform they don't have a real reason to be there. It's a major hurdle for any new social platform and a lot fail at that step.

simonw 4y ago

If spending a ton of money was a reliable way to build a new social network we would all be having this conversation on Google+.