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Some parts of AOL are still around, so I suppose the ongoing Xitter exodus will slow down at some point. Things like local government outreach and Myspace-like

Some parts of AOL are still around, so I suppose the ongoing Xitter exodus will slow down at some point. Things like local government outreach and Myspace-like démodé bands might take years.

olalonde 2y ago
According to Elon, X is actually growing: https://x.com/search?q=all-time%20high%20(from%3A%40elonmusk)&src=typed_query&f=live https://x.com/search?q=all-time%20high%20(from%3A%40elonmusk...
- worstspotgain 2y ago
  Technically speaking, even AOL kept growing into the late 2000s. It didn't stop mailing out CDs till 2006. IIRC its userbase didn't max out until well after "still being on AOL" had turned into a meme.
  - olalonde 2y ago
    According to Wikipedia, AOL peaked around 2001-2002. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#/media/File:Aol_subscribers_Q201-Q407.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#/media/File:Aol_subscriber...
    - worstspotgain 2y ago
      Looks like mid-2002. OK, early 2000s then.
  - RajT88 2y ago
    Weirdly, having an aol.com address is a badge of honor among conservatives. At least, some article which I can't find now said so (and it seems to check out among people in my circles who actively use their AOL address). I still have mine from when I was a teenager, although I don't pay for it and never will. As an email provider, the main difference between it and Gmail is that Gmail will never ask me to install security software of dubious value, whereas AOL webmail will do so frequently.
- mcphage 2y ago
  Interesting, I wonder who all the new users are? Most of the accounts that I have followed are defunct, slowed down, or mirrored on other social networks.
  - immibis 2y ago
    Bots.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - MichaelZuo 2y ago
    There’s an enormous bloc of K-pop fans and crypto shills that make millions of tweets, retweets, etc., per day. Maybe even a million per hour. Edit: And that’s just for the English language, maybe quadruple that for all languages added up. Plus India/Pakistan twitter + sports twitter + African twitter users make at least another million per hour in English by my estimates. And at least 5x that when adding up every language. Thai twitter users makes probably make at least another million per hour, though mostly in Thai. Same for Japanese twitter users.
- mdhb 2y ago
  a man known for absolutely never making shit up at every opportunity. This time it’s the world famous metric “user seconds” that we all use at our own companies.
- BoiledCabbage 2y ago
  It's extremely difficult to put any credibility behind any stats he puts forward. He seems to consistently mislead and outright lie. In that same thread of posting of user stats he has a another graph where he claims he tripled traffic within 2-3 months of closing the purchase of X. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1775526635749417258 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1775526635749417258 Advertising is down, users are down, bots are up, Fidelity (an investor in X) says the value of its investment is down ~80%, and we're supposed to believe he tripled users in 3 months? It's all completely faked. The guy just consistently lies and misleads, and somehow there is a core set of people that no matter how many times he's been exposed continue to believe whatever he says.
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    Was that graph meant to be an April fool's joke or something? The timing's fairly close. I don't see how anyone could _possibly_ take a graph of that shape, showing "organic traffic", without any explanatory caveats about what happened to cause the abrupt rise, or indeed any explanation of the metric on the right axis, seriously.
- richardw 2y ago
  I’ve had a lot of good looking ladies with thousands of follows and very few followers, take an interest in my extremely non-influencer like rambling. I call BS on his growth. Maybe there’s growth in pockets, like those who love his political commentary? There must surely be a lot of people who didn’t like the liberal tech bias of previous years. I’m close to just closing my account, but might just let it go dormant.
  - pyth0 2y ago
    In the past year or so, nearly every day I receive at least one new follower from an obviously bot account despite me never posting or replying in over 9 years.
    - richardw 2y ago
      I spent some time blocking a ton of them a couple weeks ago and it seems to have dropped off. There should be an app to automate that. There probably is.
- invaderzirp 2y ago
  [flagged]
- rurp 2y ago
  Given that Elon is a notorious liar I would give zero credibility to his own self serving claims. I've seen several third party estimates and they all show a significant (double digit percent) decline since Elon bought the platform, which seems a lot more realistic than his claim.
  - olalonde 2y ago
    Where did you get the idea that he is a notorious liar?
    - EasyMark 2y ago
      He often promotes hate/lies with his “hmmm…. Interesting” retweets of what are often far right wing, sometimes outright racist, accounts, with straight up disinformation
    - anonymousab 2y ago
      The entire affair around having to buy twitter.
      - olalonde 2y ago
        How was that a lie? https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-4193a27d86458952542dfa2176150a01 https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-...
- rsynnott 2y ago
  Not sure what's behind that link, as it requires a login, but generally when he's said this he's been using weird bespoke metrics that no-one else does. If you're saying "according to [obscure bespoke KPI], everything is brilliant, actually, then everything is probably not brilliant; if it was, you'd just use a normal metric of goodness.

Some parts of AOL are still around, so I suppose the ongoing Xitter exodus will slow down at some point. Things like local government outreach and Myspace-like démodé bands might take years.

olalonde 2y ago

According to Elon, X is actually growing: https://x.com/search?q=all-time%20high%20(from%3A%40elonmusk)&src=typed_query&f=live https://x.com/search?q=all-time%20high%20(from%3A%40elonmusk...

worstspotgain 2y ago
Technically speaking, even AOL kept growing into the late 2000s. It didn't stop mailing out CDs till 2006. IIRC its userbase didn't max out until well after "still being on AOL" had turned into a meme.
- olalonde 2y ago
  According to Wikipedia, AOL peaked around 2001-2002. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#/media/File:Aol_subscribers_Q201-Q407.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#/media/File:Aol_subscriber...
  - worstspotgain 2y ago
    Looks like mid-2002. OK, early 2000s then.
- RajT88 2y ago
  Weirdly, having an aol.com address is a badge of honor among conservatives. At least, some article which I can't find now said so (and it seems to check out among people in my circles who actively use their AOL address). I still have mine from when I was a teenager, although I don't pay for it and never will. As an email provider, the main difference between it and Gmail is that Gmail will never ask me to install security software of dubious value, whereas AOL webmail will do so frequently.
mcphage 2y ago
Interesting, I wonder who all the new users are? Most of the accounts that I have followed are defunct, slowed down, or mirrored on other social networks.
- immibis 2y ago
  Bots.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- MichaelZuo 2y ago
  There’s an enormous bloc of K-pop fans and crypto shills that make millions of tweets, retweets, etc., per day. Maybe even a million per hour. Edit: And that’s just for the English language, maybe quadruple that for all languages added up. Plus India/Pakistan twitter + sports twitter + African twitter users make at least another million per hour in English by my estimates. And at least 5x that when adding up every language. Thai twitter users makes probably make at least another million per hour, though mostly in Thai. Same for Japanese twitter users.
mdhb 2y ago
a man known for absolutely never making shit up at every opportunity. This time it’s the world famous metric “user seconds” that we all use at our own companies.
BoiledCabbage 2y ago
It's extremely difficult to put any credibility behind any stats he puts forward. He seems to consistently mislead and outright lie. In that same thread of posting of user stats he has a another graph where he claims he tripled traffic within 2-3 months of closing the purchase of X. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1775526635749417258 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1775526635749417258 Advertising is down, users are down, bots are up, Fidelity (an investor in X) says the value of its investment is down ~80%, and we're supposed to believe he tripled users in 3 months? It's all completely faked. The guy just consistently lies and misleads, and somehow there is a core set of people that no matter how many times he's been exposed continue to believe whatever he says.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  Was that graph meant to be an April fool's joke or something? The timing's fairly close. I don't see how anyone could _possibly_ take a graph of that shape, showing "organic traffic", without any explanatory caveats about what happened to cause the abrupt rise, or indeed any explanation of the metric on the right axis, seriously.
richardw 2y ago
I’ve had a lot of good looking ladies with thousands of follows and very few followers, take an interest in my extremely non-influencer like rambling. I call BS on his growth. Maybe there’s growth in pockets, like those who love his political commentary? There must surely be a lot of people who didn’t like the liberal tech bias of previous years. I’m close to just closing my account, but might just let it go dormant.
- pyth0 2y ago
  In the past year or so, nearly every day I receive at least one new follower from an obviously bot account despite me never posting or replying in over 9 years.
  - richardw 2y ago
    I spent some time blocking a ton of them a couple weeks ago and it seems to have dropped off. There should be an app to automate that. There probably is.
invaderzirp 2y ago
[flagged]
rurp 2y ago
Given that Elon is a notorious liar I would give zero credibility to his own self serving claims. I've seen several third party estimates and they all show a significant (double digit percent) decline since Elon bought the platform, which seems a lot more realistic than his claim.
- olalonde 2y ago
  Where did you get the idea that he is a notorious liar?
  - EasyMark 2y ago
    He often promotes hate/lies with his “hmmm…. Interesting” retweets of what are often far right wing, sometimes outright racist, accounts, with straight up disinformation
  - anonymousab 2y ago
    The entire affair around having to buy twitter.
    - olalonde 2y ago
      How was that a lie? https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-4193a27d86458952542dfa2176150a01 https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-...
rsynnott 2y ago
Not sure what's behind that link, as it requires a login, but generally when he's said this he's been using weird bespoke metrics that no-one else does. If you're saying "according to [obscure bespoke KPI], everything is brilliant, actually, then everything is probably not brilliant; if it was, you'd just use a normal metric of goodness.