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As someone who has been on Twitter for years almost every day, both parties acted in bad faith. Twitter bots are out of control and hard to detect because of ne

As someone who has been on Twitter for years almost every day, both parties acted in bad faith. Twitter bots are out of control and hard to detect because of newer SMM/bot tech scheduled tweets, and bot runners have had ages to perfect their craft on Twitter, because they were allowed to run free for so long. It's been TOTAL HELL for undiscovered user accounts to break ground on Twitter for almost a decade now at least, and many authentic people have simply stopped logging in long ago. Last time I looked, Twitter's ad minimum was $50, which is far too much of a gamble for someone small who just wants to grow followers on the platform, and chances are high that they'll often only attract bot accounts as followers if they gamble that money/ There are authentic accounts on Twitter, but it is nowhere near as vibrant as it once was, there is far too much run by scripting on the site and not enough support and fair human moderation. Elon as well likely realized the market crash, and how much it would take to bring Twitter back to prominence (which is a risk either way) and then decided to back out. Even with major functional changes there is still a wild risk that Twitter can be too "burnt out" to bring a user base back in. Just my opinion, but I think everyone is waiting for something totally new to replace Twitter, and it would cost a lot less than the Twitter acquisition fee to build a new app from scratch. (And no, "something new" does not mean TikTok or even Truth Social). :{

alexb_ 4y ago
What circles are you in? I basically never, ever see bots on Twitter, let alone enough to suggest that Twitter is "nowhere near as vibrant as it once was".
- glenngillen 4y ago
  Same. And in any event Twitter has never claimed the platform isn’t rife with bots, all their reporting about it has been around what % of mDAU they represent. Where m is “monetizeable”. They didn’t want to sell, Musk forced them into this negotiation on the basis of the whole bots thing. It’s staggering to me anybody is giving him even an ounce of benefit of the doubt here. From the very beginning he’s acted in bad faith and like he knows he’s unable to be held accountable for anything should he not want to be held accountable.
  - benjaminwootton 4y ago
    I agree. He approached Twitter and waived ordinary DD. How can misrepresentation be relevant in the slightest?
- sen 4y ago
  Yeah I’m a daily twitter user and the only bots I see at all are the cryptocurrency scam ones replying to Elon tweets. Other than that, I find twitter works as it always has, and I’m continually finding interesting new people to follow. If anything, I think twitter is the best it’s ever been at least for my hobbies (maker/hacker/diy type stuff).
  - winternett 4y ago
    The IT world on Twitter may be a bit more responsible because there are too many tech savvy people reading everything... I also work in entertainment, and it's a dumpster fire daily though because competition is more fierce, and I guess credibility comes based on followers and likes rather than resumes and skill sets. I think it may involve what field you work in for perception of the matter, but a lot of others complain about botting in Crypto (etc) and a few other industries... I think on the inverse, there are still a lot of community issues that have affected everyone on the platform... Has your account grown in followers over time? Do you interact well with other users on you account? Many people have complained that organic growth/discovery has stalled and that interaction is low across the site for ages now to drive ad sales.
- winternett 4y ago
  I work in the music industry. The clearest sign that something is suspect is constantly trending celebrity names when they have no new/real news involved. The other indicator is accounts that have over 10k followers on them, nut every tweet they make has only 10 or less likes on it. They cover that activity up by retweeting others/old posts that have multiple likes on them. I won't mention names, but just the other day I made a tweet about a news outlet reporting on a terrible homicide and the news outlet was using a celebrity's photo rather than a photo of a victim in the incident or no photo at all, and suddenly the celebrity artist's name started trending with tons of old posts retweeted and obviously simple (bot-like) posts were made tagging the artist's name to bury my comment out of view... It happened twice that day. I am used to the dysfunction and subtle marketing tactics used on the site, not really anything worth protesting against any more.

alexb_ 4y ago

What circles are you in? I basically never, ever see bots on Twitter, let alone enough to suggest that Twitter is "nowhere near as vibrant as it once was".

glenngillen 4y ago
Same. And in any event Twitter has never claimed the platform isn’t rife with bots, all their reporting about it has been around what % of mDAU they represent. Where m is “monetizeable”. They didn’t want to sell, Musk forced them into this negotiation on the basis of the whole bots thing. It’s staggering to me anybody is giving him even an ounce of benefit of the doubt here. From the very beginning he’s acted in bad faith and like he knows he’s unable to be held accountable for anything should he not want to be held accountable.
- benjaminwootton 4y ago
  I agree. He approached Twitter and waived ordinary DD. How can misrepresentation be relevant in the slightest?
sen 4y ago
Yeah I’m a daily twitter user and the only bots I see at all are the cryptocurrency scam ones replying to Elon tweets. Other than that, I find twitter works as it always has, and I’m continually finding interesting new people to follow. If anything, I think twitter is the best it’s ever been at least for my hobbies (maker/hacker/diy type stuff).
- winternett 4y ago
  The IT world on Twitter may be a bit more responsible because there are too many tech savvy people reading everything... I also work in entertainment, and it's a dumpster fire daily though because competition is more fierce, and I guess credibility comes based on followers and likes rather than resumes and skill sets. I think it may involve what field you work in for perception of the matter, but a lot of others complain about botting in Crypto (etc) and a few other industries... I think on the inverse, there are still a lot of community issues that have affected everyone on the platform... Has your account grown in followers over time? Do you interact well with other users on you account? Many people have complained that organic growth/discovery has stalled and that interaction is low across the site for ages now to drive ad sales.
winternett 4y ago
I work in the music industry. The clearest sign that something is suspect is constantly trending celebrity names when they have no new/real news involved. The other indicator is accounts that have over 10k followers on them, nut every tweet they make has only 10 or less likes on it. They cover that activity up by retweeting others/old posts that have multiple likes on them. I won't mention names, but just the other day I made a tweet about a news outlet reporting on a terrible homicide and the news outlet was using a celebrity's photo rather than a photo of a victim in the incident or no photo at all, and suddenly the celebrity artist's name started trending with tons of old posts retweeted and obviously simple (bot-like) posts were made tagging the artist's name to bury my comment out of view... It happened twice that day. I am used to the dysfunction and subtle marketing tactics used on the site, not really anything worth protesting against any more.