4 ms·

I am not an X user, I remember Elon making a lot of noise about bots, did Elon fixed the bot issues? Or all that noise was an attempt to get a discount.

jabroni_salad 2y ago
botters seemed to take everything as a challenge. The only thing that has changed is that legitimate operators are paying more.
faizmokh 2y ago
Nah. There's way more porn bots now.
brianmurphy 2y ago
I don't know what kind of content these other people are curating with their X accounts, but I never see bots. I primarily follow entrepreneurial & fitness accounts. Honestly X, youtube and HN satisfy just about everything I need for user generated content.
- mdhb 2y ago
  You’re seriously trying to tell someone with a straight face that Twitter isn’t completely overrun with bots? That’s some of the most disingenuous shit I’ve seen in a while. Maybe you don’t realise they are bots?
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> all that noise was an attempt to get a discount Was he complaining about bots before he signed? Genuinely can't remember.
- seadan83 2y ago
  IIRC he tried to back out of the deal under the premise that twitter over-represented its value by under-reporting bots. He stated something like he wanted proof of non-bot users before proceeding. When taken to court, the judge ruled he could get more info from twitter. I don't remember what came next, I think elon quietly dropped the point and the next set of rulings held him to the already signed purchase agreement. Citations: "Elon Musk says Twitter deal 'cannot move forward' until he has clarity on fake account numbers" [1] "Musk was seeking information on essentially all of Twitter's account reviews and actions. Judge McCormick dubbed that request "absurdly broad," noting Twitter has already agreed to produce a "tremendous amount information.""[2] [1] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/05/17/elon-musk-says-twitter-deal-cannot-move-forward-until-he-has-clarity-on-bot-numbers.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/05/17/elo... [2] https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-scores-half-win-absurdly-broad-twitter-legal-request-2022-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-scores-half-win-ab...
- simion314 2y ago
  >Was he complaining about bots before he signed? Genuinely can't remember. I can't google it for you, so from my memory , he complained that he was tricked by Twitter because a large number of users are bots , and then he promised that he will fix this issue after he get's the control. Probably bots and trolls are good for business since other social media like reddit are also making super easy to create tons of bot/troll accounts and spam the network.
  - XorNot 2y ago
    Also remember: he wasn't tricked by anyone. He signed the world's most iron-clad corporate acquisition contract you could for a price far above market rate right before the tech crash, and waived every single right to due-diligence which normal investors include, specifically for things like "oh what if the financials/users aren't what they seem?" or "what if the stock price substantially changes". It was an utterly ludicrous agreement to sign (though far eclipsed by the the number of financial institutions which agreed to put up the money for it and are basically never going to get it back - though a bunch of the managers and executives losing their bonuses for it is kind of funny).
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > he complained that he was tricked by Twitter because a large number of users are bots , and then he promised that he will fix this issue after he get's the control How making a noise about it after the price is agreed be “an attempt to get a discount”? If anything, it was an attempt to get out of the deal. (And if I remember correctly, the argument failed because he had been complaining about bots prior to signing. Either way, has nothing to do with discounts.)
    - zerocrates 2y ago
      Well, during that time he was trying to pull out of the deal, when he was citing the bots as an argument of why he should be able to, he was using that as leverage to try to get Twitter to agree to give him a discount: the idea being "I might be able to get out of this deal completely, but let me buy at a 20-30% discount instead and I'll go quietly." So it was kind of both an attempt to get out and an attempt to get a discount. The bot stuff was pretty transparently not a good faith argument from Musk; the real issue likely being more that the markets had gone down since the offer and what was already an overpay on day 1 was now a big overpay. The same dynamic made Twitter determined to keep the original offer: shareholders had basically demanded to take the offer to begin with, and with the down market (not to mention Musk himself publicly running the company down during his efforts to escape the deal) it was just that much more of a better deal than they could otherwise hope to get.
immibis 2y ago
The latter. Bots massively increased under Elon. I don't know why anyone wants to use this dumpster fire of a site. I don't. I guarantee this move is because too many people blocked Elon.
leftcenterright 2y ago
from what I have seen, there is definitely a lot of bot/automated content. It feels totally un-moderated at times.

jabroni_salad 2y ago

botters seemed to take everything as a challenge. The only thing that has changed is that legitimate operators are paying more.

faizmokh 2y ago

Nah. There's way more porn bots now.

brianmurphy 2y ago

I don't know what kind of content these other people are curating with their X accounts, but I never see bots. I primarily follow entrepreneurial & fitness accounts. Honestly X, youtube and HN satisfy just about everything I need for user generated content.

mdhb 2y ago
You’re seriously trying to tell someone with a straight face that Twitter isn’t completely overrun with bots? That’s some of the most disingenuous shit I’ve seen in a while. Maybe you don’t realise they are bots?

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> all that noise was an attempt to get a discount Was he complaining about bots before he signed? Genuinely can't remember.

seadan83 2y ago
IIRC he tried to back out of the deal under the premise that twitter over-represented its value by under-reporting bots. He stated something like he wanted proof of non-bot users before proceeding. When taken to court, the judge ruled he could get more info from twitter. I don't remember what came next, I think elon quietly dropped the point and the next set of rulings held him to the already signed purchase agreement. Citations: "Elon Musk says Twitter deal 'cannot move forward' until he has clarity on fake account numbers" [1] "Musk was seeking information on essentially all of Twitter's account reviews and actions. Judge McCormick dubbed that request "absurdly broad," noting Twitter has already agreed to produce a "tremendous amount information.""[2] [1] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/05/17/elon-musk-says-twitter-deal-cannot-move-forward-until-he-has-clarity-on-bot-numbers.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/05/17/elo... [2] https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-scores-half-win-absurdly-broad-twitter-legal-request-2022-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-scores-half-win-ab...
simion314 2y ago
>Was he complaining about bots before he signed? Genuinely can't remember. I can't google it for you, so from my memory , he complained that he was tricked by Twitter because a large number of users are bots , and then he promised that he will fix this issue after he get's the control. Probably bots and trolls are good for business since other social media like reddit are also making super easy to create tons of bot/troll accounts and spam the network.
- XorNot 2y ago
  Also remember: he wasn't tricked by anyone. He signed the world's most iron-clad corporate acquisition contract you could for a price far above market rate right before the tech crash, and waived every single right to due-diligence which normal investors include, specifically for things like "oh what if the financials/users aren't what they seem?" or "what if the stock price substantially changes". It was an utterly ludicrous agreement to sign (though far eclipsed by the the number of financial institutions which agreed to put up the money for it and are basically never going to get it back - though a bunch of the managers and executives losing their bonuses for it is kind of funny).
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > he complained that he was tricked by Twitter because a large number of users are bots , and then he promised that he will fix this issue after he get's the control How making a noise about it after the price is agreed be “an attempt to get a discount”? If anything, it was an attempt to get out of the deal. (And if I remember correctly, the argument failed because he had been complaining about bots prior to signing. Either way, has nothing to do with discounts.)
  - zerocrates 2y ago
    Well, during that time he was trying to pull out of the deal, when he was citing the bots as an argument of why he should be able to, he was using that as leverage to try to get Twitter to agree to give him a discount: the idea being "I might be able to get out of this deal completely, but let me buy at a 20-30% discount instead and I'll go quietly." So it was kind of both an attempt to get out and an attempt to get a discount. The bot stuff was pretty transparently not a good faith argument from Musk; the real issue likely being more that the markets had gone down since the offer and what was already an overpay on day 1 was now a big overpay. The same dynamic made Twitter determined to keep the original offer: shareholders had basically demanded to take the offer to begin with, and with the down market (not to mention Musk himself publicly running the company down during his efforts to escape the deal) it was just that much more of a better deal than they could otherwise hope to get.

immibis 2y ago

The latter. Bots massively increased under Elon. I don't know why anyone wants to use this dumpster fire of a site. I don't. I guarantee this move is because too many people blocked Elon.

leftcenterright 2y ago

from what I have seen, there is definitely a lot of bot/automated content. It feels totally un-moderated at times.