7 ms·

This is like pay to win mobile games, which, to be fair, generate an enormous of money. Don't see the same outcome for Twitt...X.

by mym1990 3y ago

sbarre 3y ago
Yeah I came here with the same thought. Pay-to-win seems like a bad idea for Xitter (pronunciation left to the reader). Imagine if Hacker News allowed people to pay to have their replies show up first? This just tells me that Elmo doesn't care about discourse or being the "town square" at this point, he's just in panic mode trying to grow revenue, and he'll run the same grifter playbook that everyone else does. Pay us money to feel like you matter..
- rchaud 3y ago
  P2W games still have ads, and those make plenty of money considering they can't be scrolled past like in Twitter.
- mym1990 3y ago
  At this point he should just throw a hail mary and charge every user a mandatory subscription fee, and see who sticks around. Maybe he discovers that as a winning strategy, worst case scenario he loses 40+ billions and goes back to rocket science world.
- 0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
  See HN comment guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - sbarre 3y ago
    Sorry, can you be clearer about which guideline you believe I broke?
    - 0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
      >When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
      - sbarre 3y ago
        Are you sure you're reading the same comment as me? I'm not disagreeing with anyone, in fact I am agreeing with the parent.
        0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
        @dang, can you clarify whether HN guidelines say it is OK to call names if the person you're namecalling is not participating in the HN thread? BTW I also think you broke these guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. (Seems like X/Twitter is one of the most divisive HN topics.)
        sbarre 3y ago
        Honestly, I feel like you zeroed in on a tiny, and insignificant, part of my actual comment which in itself feels a bit disingenuous? At least that's how it comes across to me. It's not as if using a well-known nickname for a public figure was the sole purpose of my comment. Plenty of other folks engaged genuinely with my actual comment, and that led to some interesting conversation, which is what makes HN great. So what exactly are you adding to the conversation at this point by trying to cherry-pick a meaningless part of my original comment to make a whole deal out of it?
        matteoraso 3y ago
        I think it's because you called Elon "Elmo".
        sbarre 3y ago
- DoreenMichele 3y ago
  I agree that he's in panic mode about revenue. I think "Pay us money to feel like you matter." could be shortened to "Pay us money." I don't think they have any idea what they are doing. They seem to be throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks wrt to revenue models. "Uhhhhh...Pay us money for the API?" "Uhhhhh....Pay us money to get verified?" "Uhhhhhhhhhh....Pay us money for (insert latest monetization scheme du jour)?"
  - sbarre 3y ago
    > I think "Pay us money to feel like you matter." could be shortened to "Pay us money." For sure, I'm just pointing to the how you convince people to do it.
    - DoreenMichele 3y ago
      I'm not sure they have that sophisticated of an understanding or mental model. It just seems like they are looking at "Um, like, what do people pay for on social platforms?? Let's try charging for that and see if it works." I am not trying to bust you. I'm trying to say you have this idea of why people might pay and I don't feel like they do. I feel like they are like someone who bought a restaurant and don't realize that people pay for food and they are going "Um, pay for entrance to the place? Um, pay to sit at the table for a certain amount of time? Um, bathroom access. People really need bathrooms when they eat. Let's charge for bathroom access. Surely that will rake in the dough." (looks puzzled when none of that works)
      - sbarre 3y ago
        Fair enough! I guess my take here is that I see this "pay to get your replies boosted or in front of more people" is roughly the same as "pay to feel important" in my mind... I think they do know what they're doing, and they are trying to prey on the people who want to feel important on social media but can't get there organically, so will pay to do so, more for their own satisfaction than anything else.. But that's just my take! We can have many takes among us. :-)
      - 3y ago
matteoraso 3y ago
The problem with X's strategy is that the main reason that someone would pay to have their tweets boosted is to advertise, but X is clearly in serious financial troubles and leaking users every day. This completely removes any incentive to use this subscription.
- mym1990 3y ago
  There is also no way for 'whales' to come out of these subs...at least with Instagram you can scale your spend to some pretty high levels...if X is going to nickel and dime its users...its going to need a lot more users.
  - kromem 3y ago
    To be fair, the 'whales' for X-Twitter were literally the ones that fronted him the cash to buy it in the first place.
0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
Given the choice of old-Twitter's "shout to win" and new-Twitter's "pay to win", which is better for the overall discourse? Doesn't seem obvious to me.

This is like pay to win mobile games, which, to be fair, generate an enormous of money. Don't see the same outcome for Twitt...X.

sbarre 3y ago

Yeah I came here with the same thought. Pay-to-win seems like a bad idea for Xitter (pronunciation left to the reader). Imagine if Hacker News allowed people to pay to have their replies show up first? This just tells me that Elmo doesn't care about discourse or being the "town square" at this point, he's just in panic mode trying to grow revenue, and he'll run the same grifter playbook that everyone else does. Pay us money to feel like you matter..

rchaud 3y ago
P2W games still have ads, and those make plenty of money considering they can't be scrolled past like in Twitter.
mym1990 3y ago
At this point he should just throw a hail mary and charge every user a mandatory subscription fee, and see who sticks around. Maybe he discovers that as a winning strategy, worst case scenario he loses 40+ billions and goes back to rocket science world.
0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
See HN comment guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- sbarre 3y ago
  Sorry, can you be clearer about which guideline you believe I broke?
  - 0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
    >When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
    - sbarre 3y ago
      Are you sure you're reading the same comment as me? I'm not disagreeing with anyone, in fact I am agreeing with the parent.
      - 0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
        @dang, can you clarify whether HN guidelines say it is OK to call names if the person you're namecalling is not participating in the HN thread? BTW I also think you broke these guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. (Seems like X/Twitter is one of the most divisive HN topics.)
        sbarre 3y ago
        Honestly, I feel like you zeroed in on a tiny, and insignificant, part of my actual comment which in itself feels a bit disingenuous? At least that's how it comes across to me. It's not as if using a well-known nickname for a public figure was the sole purpose of my comment. Plenty of other folks engaged genuinely with my actual comment, and that led to some interesting conversation, which is what makes HN great. So what exactly are you adding to the conversation at this point by trying to cherry-pick a meaningless part of my original comment to make a whole deal out of it?
      - matteoraso 3y ago
        I think it's because you called Elon "Elmo".
        sbarre 3y ago
DoreenMichele 3y ago
I agree that he's in panic mode about revenue. I think "Pay us money to feel like you matter." could be shortened to "Pay us money." I don't think they have any idea what they are doing. They seem to be throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks wrt to revenue models. "Uhhhhh...Pay us money for the API?" "Uhhhhh....Pay us money to get verified?" "Uhhhhhhhhhh....Pay us money for (insert latest monetization scheme du jour)?"
- sbarre 3y ago
  > I think "Pay us money to feel like you matter." could be shortened to "Pay us money." For sure, I'm just pointing to the how you convince people to do it.
  - DoreenMichele 3y ago
    I'm not sure they have that sophisticated of an understanding or mental model. It just seems like they are looking at "Um, like, what do people pay for on social platforms?? Let's try charging for that and see if it works." I am not trying to bust you. I'm trying to say you have this idea of why people might pay and I don't feel like they do. I feel like they are like someone who bought a restaurant and don't realize that people pay for food and they are going "Um, pay for entrance to the place? Um, pay to sit at the table for a certain amount of time? Um, bathroom access. People really need bathrooms when they eat. Let's charge for bathroom access. Surely that will rake in the dough." (looks puzzled when none of that works)
    - sbarre 3y ago
      Fair enough! I guess my take here is that I see this "pay to get your replies boosted or in front of more people" is roughly the same as "pay to feel important" in my mind... I think they do know what they're doing, and they are trying to prey on the people who want to feel important on social media but can't get there organically, so will pay to do so, more for their own satisfaction than anything else.. But that's just my take! We can have many takes among us. :-)
    - 3y ago

matteoraso 3y ago

The problem with X's strategy is that the main reason that someone would pay to have their tweets boosted is to advertise, but X is clearly in serious financial troubles and leaking users every day. This completely removes any incentive to use this subscription.

mym1990 3y ago
There is also no way for 'whales' to come out of these subs...at least with Instagram you can scale your spend to some pretty high levels...if X is going to nickel and dime its users...its going to need a lot more users.
- kromem 3y ago
  To be fair, the 'whales' for X-Twitter were literally the ones that fronted him the cash to buy it in the first place.

0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago

Given the choice of old-Twitter's "shout to win" and new-Twitter's "pay to win", which is better for the overall discourse? Doesn't seem obvious to me.