5 ms·

Is this even legal according to FTC guidelines? I thought ads had to be clearly marked in digital content. Either way, whatever. X is dying. I think the mainst

by dangus 3y ago

Is this even legal according to FTC guidelines? I thought ads had to be clearly marked in digital content. Either way, whatever. X is dying. I think the mainstream assumes “it’ll never happen, it’s too big to fail.” But it’s not. X really is shrinking and dying. It won’t die this year or next but it’s following in the steps of MySpace, perhaps more slowly. But it’s happening.

kayodelycaon 3y ago
Elon Musk doesn't seem to be someone who cares about legality.
- infamouscow 3y ago
  Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring company are all extremely interconnected with government policy and goals. This is quite a claim to make.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    Not sure how that counters the assertion that Musk doesn't care about legality, though.
  - FireBeyond 3y ago
    And yet, to pick on one alone, SpaceX has been smacked how many times now for EPA, FAA, and other regulatory agency violations?
taway1237 3y ago
Maybe, but there's still no alternative. Most people don't care, journalists and politicians still need Twitter to share their thoughts/amplify their voice, and researchers/content creators still link to their work on Twitter. Wake me up when it changes.
- kevinventullo 3y ago
  Is there any functional difference between Twitter and Threads, or is just the user base? (I don’t use either)
- ryanwhitney 3y ago
  I'm curious how much of this is perception vs reality. Context: Heard something about an active shooter this week and followed a link to the Baltimore Police twitter account[0]. As I'm no longer logged in, I see tweets from 2021 and 2017 with no indication that there's new content I'm missing. If this is how public services are trying to get the word re:ongoing events, it's a terrible option. (granted, you said journalists and politicians, not public services…) 0: https://twitter.com/BaltimorePolice https://twitter.com/BaltimorePolice
- dangus 3y ago
  No alternative? Reddit, TikTok, (Instagram) Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Reels, Facebook… I think that we just assume that complete platform death (Friendster, MySpace) can’t happen anymore, but I think it definitely can. Network effects make AND break platforms.
infamouscow 3y ago
If anything, it'll be the legacy media that ceases to exist soon enough. Twitter directly competes for the same advertising revenue the legacy media does. If Twitter was dying, it behooves the legacy media to report about it. I can't think of any other industry where a someone spends more time trying to paint the competition in a negative light, than casting their own brand in a positive one. Think about it.
- taberiand 3y ago
  ¿Por qué no los dos?
- regularjack 3y ago
  "Legacy media", give me a fucking break.
  - infamouscow 3y ago
    > "Legacy media", give me a fucking break. Since there's no rebuttal in your reply, consider this a break :) Analog radio, newspapers, and television were already in a managed decline before the 2016 election. The events that unfolded forestalled the inevitable a bit longer, but the music is about to end for these propagandists masquerading as reporters. Trust in legacy media is at a record low.
    - AlexandrB 3y ago
      I think there's a lot to critique about traditional media, but their ethical standards are head and shoulders above random posters and grifters on social media. If traditional media is a cesspool, social media is a sewer. Edit: If you want a concrete example, look at how rampant plagiarism is on social media/Youtube[1]. Traditional media journalists regularly got fired[2] for doing shit like this. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDtJ7bte_zg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDtJ7bte_zg [2] https://news.yahoo.com/cnn-news-editor-fired-plagiarism-145003064.html https://news.yahoo.com/cnn-news-editor-fired-plagiarism-1450...
Tepix 3y ago
Of all the changes made to X, the one that places responses by paying members first is what ruins it for me. Those responses are usually pulpy.
- AaronFriel 3y ago
  On prominent accounts I follow, the top replies are universally all paid accounts posting clickbait, totally unrelated (or possibly AI generated?) to the poster. Here's a great example. I follow Jake Sherman, founder of Punchbowl News, to stay up to date on happenings in Congress. This is a reply: https://twitter.com/3MTS_/status/1710360772612706416 https://twitter.com/3MTS_/status/1710360772612706416 All of that account's replies are spam like that. They're not even the worst offender, there are a handful of other accounts that just post emojis, complete nonsense, to every single popular account. Musk had already destroyed the value of looking at a tweet's replies, which I consider the "accuracy" of the platform. But that was never the main draw anyway. So far, my feed remains pretty good - the "recall". I've opted in to follow certain people or topics and truly, there's no better place to get the latest news. But if they destroy the value of the feed, there really will be no reason for anyone to stay.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  I’m stunned no-one was able to talk him out of that one. “Pay-for-attention” is an _awful_ mechanic; even dating/hookup apps, who to some extent depend on it, generally have to ration it; you can’t just pay to be at the top of the grid/stack of cards all the time.
  - badwolf 3y ago
    Elon is literally the ultimate target user for "Pay-for-attention" schemes. He literally spent $44 Billion Dollars to drive attention to himself.
b112 3y ago
There are people who use twitter, who have no idea it changed ownership. Who barely know who Elon is. Twitter may be dying for hackernews, but is it alive for other communities?
- lukev 3y ago
  The writing/poetry community is basically done there. Authors will still post announcements etc but there's maybe 10% of the community there once was.
- llm_nerd 3y ago
  Elon's purchase and then (mis)management of Twitter has been recurring, mainstream news virtually everywhere. This is hardly some fringe HN type focus, it is literally everywhere. Everyone has seen the dramatic change in the quality and features of the site. Twitter has a massive amount of "lock in" effect, however. If it didn't Musk would have killed Twitter ten times over now, but somehow people always rationalize things getting much worse. With some of the newest change a new wave of Twitter refugees are hitting Threads, and it's comical, if a bit sad, how often their first tweet is citing their Twitter follower-count, seemingly obligating the Threads community to match it to keep their interest. Eh.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > Twitter may be dying for hackernews, but is it alive for other communities? Probably depends on the community. The non-tech people I know have almost entirely abandoned Twitter. Those who still use it use it far less than they used to.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  They presumably know that _something_ has happened to it, though; the identity of the idiot responsible is somewhat beside the point. Like, no regular user could possibly not have noticed the changes to it over the past year. There’s a restaurant near me which I used to like, but which has gone downhill over the last couple of years. I don’t know or particularly care who owns it, but I don’t go here anymore.
anytime5704 3y ago
Pretty sure it’s illegal according to both FTC and EU guidelines (the not disclosing what is/isn’t an ad). Can’t imagine this lasts.

by dangus 3y ago

kayodelycaon 3y ago

Elon Musk doesn't seem to be someone who cares about legality.

infamouscow 3y ago
Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring company are all extremely interconnected with government policy and goals. This is quite a claim to make.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  Not sure how that counters the assertion that Musk doesn't care about legality, though.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  And yet, to pick on one alone, SpaceX has been smacked how many times now for EPA, FAA, and other regulatory agency violations?

taway1237 3y ago

Maybe, but there's still no alternative. Most people don't care, journalists and politicians still need Twitter to share their thoughts/amplify their voice, and researchers/content creators still link to their work on Twitter. Wake me up when it changes.

kevinventullo 3y ago
Is there any functional difference between Twitter and Threads, or is just the user base? (I don’t use either)
ryanwhitney 3y ago
I'm curious how much of this is perception vs reality. Context: Heard something about an active shooter this week and followed a link to the Baltimore Police twitter account[0]. As I'm no longer logged in, I see tweets from 2021 and 2017 with no indication that there's new content I'm missing. If this is how public services are trying to get the word re:ongoing events, it's a terrible option. (granted, you said journalists and politicians, not public services…) 0: https://twitter.com/BaltimorePolice https://twitter.com/BaltimorePolice
dangus 3y ago
No alternative? Reddit, TikTok, (Instagram) Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Reels, Facebook… I think that we just assume that complete platform death (Friendster, MySpace) can’t happen anymore, but I think it definitely can. Network effects make AND break platforms.

infamouscow 3y ago

If anything, it'll be the legacy media that ceases to exist soon enough. Twitter directly competes for the same advertising revenue the legacy media does. If Twitter was dying, it behooves the legacy media to report about it. I can't think of any other industry where a someone spends more time trying to paint the competition in a negative light, than casting their own brand in a positive one. Think about it.

taberiand 3y ago
¿Por qué no los dos?
regularjack 3y ago
"Legacy media", give me a fucking break.
- infamouscow 3y ago
  > "Legacy media", give me a fucking break. Since there's no rebuttal in your reply, consider this a break :) Analog radio, newspapers, and television were already in a managed decline before the 2016 election. The events that unfolded forestalled the inevitable a bit longer, but the music is about to end for these propagandists masquerading as reporters. Trust in legacy media is at a record low.
  - AlexandrB 3y ago
    I think there's a lot to critique about traditional media, but their ethical standards are head and shoulders above random posters and grifters on social media. If traditional media is a cesspool, social media is a sewer. Edit: If you want a concrete example, look at how rampant plagiarism is on social media/Youtube[1]. Traditional media journalists regularly got fired[2] for doing shit like this. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDtJ7bte_zg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDtJ7bte_zg [2] https://news.yahoo.com/cnn-news-editor-fired-plagiarism-145003064.html https://news.yahoo.com/cnn-news-editor-fired-plagiarism-1450...

Tepix 3y ago

Of all the changes made to X, the one that places responses by paying members first is what ruins it for me. Those responses are usually pulpy.

AaronFriel 3y ago
On prominent accounts I follow, the top replies are universally all paid accounts posting clickbait, totally unrelated (or possibly AI generated?) to the poster. Here's a great example. I follow Jake Sherman, founder of Punchbowl News, to stay up to date on happenings in Congress. This is a reply: https://twitter.com/3MTS_/status/1710360772612706416 https://twitter.com/3MTS_/status/1710360772612706416 All of that account's replies are spam like that. They're not even the worst offender, there are a handful of other accounts that just post emojis, complete nonsense, to every single popular account. Musk had already destroyed the value of looking at a tweet's replies, which I consider the "accuracy" of the platform. But that was never the main draw anyway. So far, my feed remains pretty good - the "recall". I've opted in to follow certain people or topics and truly, there's no better place to get the latest news. But if they destroy the value of the feed, there really will be no reason for anyone to stay.
rsynnott 3y ago
I’m stunned no-one was able to talk him out of that one. “Pay-for-attention” is an _awful_ mechanic; even dating/hookup apps, who to some extent depend on it, generally have to ration it; you can’t just pay to be at the top of the grid/stack of cards all the time.
- badwolf 3y ago
  Elon is literally the ultimate target user for "Pay-for-attention" schemes. He literally spent $44 Billion Dollars to drive attention to himself.

b112 3y ago

There are people who use twitter, who have no idea it changed ownership. Who barely know who Elon is. Twitter may be dying for hackernews, but is it alive for other communities?

lukev 3y ago
The writing/poetry community is basically done there. Authors will still post announcements etc but there's maybe 10% of the community there once was.
llm_nerd 3y ago
Elon's purchase and then (mis)management of Twitter has been recurring, mainstream news virtually everywhere. This is hardly some fringe HN type focus, it is literally everywhere. Everyone has seen the dramatic change in the quality and features of the site. Twitter has a massive amount of "lock in" effect, however. If it didn't Musk would have killed Twitter ten times over now, but somehow people always rationalize things getting much worse. With some of the newest change a new wave of Twitter refugees are hitting Threads, and it's comical, if a bit sad, how often their first tweet is citing their Twitter follower-count, seemingly obligating the Threads community to match it to keep their interest. Eh.
JohnFen 3y ago
> Twitter may be dying for hackernews, but is it alive for other communities? Probably depends on the community. The non-tech people I know have almost entirely abandoned Twitter. Those who still use it use it far less than they used to.
rsynnott 3y ago
They presumably know that _something_ has happened to it, though; the identity of the idiot responsible is somewhat beside the point. Like, no regular user could possibly not have noticed the changes to it over the past year. There’s a restaurant near me which I used to like, but which has gone downhill over the last couple of years. I don’t know or particularly care who owns it, but I don’t go here anymore.

anytime5704 3y ago

Pretty sure it’s illegal according to both FTC and EU guidelines (the not disclosing what is/isn’t an ad). Can’t imagine this lasts.