8 ms·
For King and many other blue checks it's a status symbol. A way for the Lord to distinguish himself from the peasants. King (aptly named) would be happier if i
by memish 4y ago
For King and many other blue checks it's a status symbol. A way for the Lord to distinguish himself from the peasants.
King (aptly named) would be happier if it was a Veblen good that cost $100,000/mo, which he could afford, but the peasants can't.
Elon is mocking King and his status symbol by saying "fine, how about $8?", which from the King's perspective, is worse than $20 because even more peasants will have it. The Blue Check is easier to get than a Netflix subscription.
- ssully 4y agoI don’t think you could have misread this interaction more than you already have.
- memish 4y agoI can see how you think that if you're not familiar with how blue checks are awarded and what they mean to the nobility class of Twitter.
- ssully 4y agoI am very aware of that. I think you’re not familiar with a King as a person or an author based on your comment. Finally, you thinking Musk was mocking is also wrong. He was using Kings viral tweet as a jump off point for the tweet this HN post is based off of.
- rodgerd 4y ago"The nobility class". What an absolute clownish take.
- yamtaddle 4y agoI think you're misreading how much an elderly ultra-famous and quite rich author gives a shit about his "status" on some stupid website like Twitter. I think he was insulted at the idea of having to pay anything to be verified on the platform, when both his presence and his being verified are helpful to twitter and make twitter money, even if they do also drive some book sales for him. I took it as his saying that he'd respond to such an insult (being asked to pay) by simply leaving, because Twitter and whatever little extra money it's making him don't really matter much to him. I doubt he's alone in that thinking. Though sure, some celebs, most or all brands (that's who they should be soaking with monthly charges), and the media will stick around until/unless the platform enters clear decline and a viable alternative emerges.
- freejazz 4y agoYeesh, what is with the Twitter/Musk fanboy crowd and journalists and blue checks. It's such an unhinged and nonsensical hatred. Reeks of being jealous.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tcmart14 4y agoI don't think its that. I think it is literal to the effect of, twitter wouldn't have such a huge crowd to serve ads to without people like King who have tons of followers coming to the platform to get updates. An example, I don't have a twitter account, but I will surf Hector Martin's twitter for updates on Asahi Linux development. If it wasn't for Hector Martin's content, twitter would never be requested by my browser. So it is essentially, charge the people who bring the users to twitter.
- amadeuspagel 4y agoBut Hector Martin doesn't have a bluecheck: https://twitter.com/marcan42 https://twitter.com/marcan42
- criddell 4y agoKing responds saying Twitter should be paying him. I think that makes a lot of sense.
- amadeuspagel 4y agoCompletely wrongheaded. If anything, twitter should be paying anonymous users. Bluechecks are the ones who use twitter to build their personal brand, sell books, etc..
- freejazz 4y agoDo you not know who Steven King is? It's certainly easier to google him than to come up with a take like this in response.
- amadeuspagel 4y agoYes I do know who Steven King is. Even famous authors need to spend a lot of money on advertising when they publish a new book, and twitter certainly helps here. Also, HN has a rule against asking people whether they've read the article. Asking people whether they know who some famous person is, is obnoxious in the same way.
- 4y ago
- MisterBastahrd 4y agoBlue checkmarks aren't status symbols. You could always have requested one in the past without paying a dime. The entire point of these things were so that it was an indication that these people are who they say they are: experts and celebrities. This absolute loon wants to charge the people who are the only reason that twitter even still exists.
- _djo_ 4y agoIt's remarkable how quickly so many of those defending Musk are emphasising the 'lords' and 'peasants' language after he used that terminology in a tweet. It's not original, it's not adding to the discussion, and it just sounds like sycophancy.