X -Where Twitter goes to die.

[Ben-Prime]

I muted a shit ton of folks/words I have a realtively troll/agitprop free feed

I don't care about the quality of my feed. I mean, I follow Taitz, Rondeau, Kercher, etc.

Yeah. You may want to seek help for that.

I think of Bob, like Orlylicious, as sacrificing his sanity by exposure to the modern equivalent of Lovecraft's Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Know so we don't have to.

[Sam the Centipede]

I think of Bob, like Orlylicious, as sacrificing his sanity by exposure to the modern equivalent of Lovecraft's Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Know so we don't have to.

My evil nature would like to see bob go over to the dark side for a mad year so Rondeau, Brunson, DeMaio and other birthers and elks would have a competent driver for their clown car. They could then give us an entertaining song and dance show instead of their repetitious wobbly one song karaoke.

Followed by bob's repentance so his eternal soul is not condemned to a Trumpian Hades with swamp coolers.

But probably it is better for our world to have bob frolicking with angels rather than cavorting with demons.

[neonzx]

Elon Musk’s X removes the New York Times’ verification badge
The unexplained decision removes the only symbol distinguishing the news organization from impostors and comes amid a flood of false information related to the Israel-Gaza war, some of which Musk has personally endorsed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technolo ... spute-musk

The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has removed the gold “verified” badge from the New York Times’ account amid ongoing complaints about the news organization from X owner Elon Musk.

The badge was the only symbol distinguishing the Times’ 55-million-follower account from impostors amid two major global conflicts in Israel and Ukraine. X has hosted and helped amplify a flood of false information related to the Israel-Gaza war, some of which Musk has personally endorsed.

The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, CNN, Bloomberg, Vox and other news organizations still had their gold badges as of Thursday afternoon. The move further extends Musk’s attempts to use the social media company he bought with claims of defending free speech to undercut news organizations he dislikes.

[Foggy]

He has reached the point where he's a clear and present danger to our national security.

I'm not sure what we can do about that, but ...

[raison de arizona]

exclusive: X, formerly known as Twitter, will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features including the ability to tweet and retweet

https://fortune.com/2023/10/17/twitter- ... -to-tweet/

[Suranis]

Elon says its the only way to stop bots, because Russian intelligence cant afford $1000 for 1000 bot accounts.

Speaking of...

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/202 ... formation/

Ars Technica
Musk’s paid checkmarks help fuel X’s spread of Israel/Hamas misinfo
Report: 74% of X's most viral misinformation posts are from "verified" users.

[bill_g]

Let it sink into becoming X-Chan.

[RTH10260]

Elon says its the only way to stop bots, because Russian intelligence cant afford $1000 for 1000 bot accounts.

Of course they can afford it. But it may be a technical challenge to find operatives that can sign up for the number of credit cards.Gift cards may not qualify.

[Reddog]

Would they need unique card numbers for each account? For instance a family could share a single card for all users, or company funded accounts.
Too, also debit cards instead of credit cards.
On a lighter note I don’t know how many cards I could have if I had accepted every offer mailed to me.

[Gregg]

Elon says its the only way to stop bots, because Russian intelligence cant afford $1000 for 1000 bot accounts.

Speaking of...

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/202 ... formation/

Ars Technica
Musk’s paid checkmarks help fuel X’s spread of Israel/Hamas misinfo
Report: 74% of X's most viral misinformation posts are from "verified" users.

Well, Russia gets a bulk rate of $1 for unlimited accounts.

Professional Courtesy

[raison de arizona]

Elon wants everyone to give him their money.

Elon Musk gives X employees one year to replace your bank
‘You won’t need a bank account... it would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.’

Elon Musk wants X to be the center of your financial world, handling anything in your life that deals with money. He expects those features to launch by the end of 2024, he told X employees during an all-hands call on Thursday, saying that people will be surprised with “just how powerful it is.”

“When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life,” Musk said, according to audio of the meeting obtained by The Verge. “If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/26/239 ... -musk-2024

[johnpcapitalist]

Elon wants everyone to give him their money.

Elon Musk gives X employees one year to replace your bank
‘You won’t need a bank account... it would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.’

Elon Musk wants X to be the center of your financial world, handling anything in your life that deals with money. He expects those features to launch by the end of 2024, he told X employees during an all-hands call on Thursday, saying that people will be surprised with “just how powerful it is.”

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/26/239 ... -musk-2024

Yeah, when I think of trustworthy places to put money, all businesses run by Elon Musk instantly percolate to the top of the list.

Sounds like he's gone off his meds again.

[tek]

One would have to be nuckin futs to put their financial world in Elon's hands.
Seriously.

[neeneko]

So... he is looking back on his PayPal days and hoping to recreate that?

Oh.. looking at the interview, I guess he has a bunch of 'unfinished business' where his vision for paypal did not pan out due to, well, reality, so he wants to try again.

[pipistrelle]

Elon wants everyone to give him their money.

Elon Musk gives X employees one year to replace your bank
‘You won’t need a bank account... it would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.’

Elon Musk wants X to be the center of your financial world, handling anything in your life that deals with money. He expects those features to launch by the end of 2024, he told X employees during an all-hands call on Thursday, saying that people will be surprised with “just how powerful it is.”

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/26/239 ... -musk-2024

Yeah, when I think of trustworthy places to put money, all businesses run by Elon Musk instantly percolate to the top of the list.

Sounds like he's gone off his meds again.

WaPo’s Trending Now:

A year later, Musk’s X is tilting right. And sinking.
One year after billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, aiming to rid it of a “woke mind virus” that he believed was suppressing free speech, the site’s business outlook appears dire. The number of people actively tweeting has dropped by more than 30 percent, according to previously unreported data obtained by The Washington Post, and the company is hemorrhaging advertisers and revenue, interviews show. But Musk has delivered on one respect on his original promise: Twitter has become far less “woke.”

[NewMexGirl]

It’s Elon’s Day in the Barrel. The NYTimes also has an article up.

No link because I don’t want to waste a gift article on Elon’s well-documented shittiness at business and life in general.

[noblepa]

If Elon does create his super-duper everything to everybody financial organization, wouldn't that make it a bank? So saying that we won't need a bank account is absurd. He just wants us all to have an account at HIS bank.

Also, too, if he is planning to handle securities, wouldn't that be covered under the SEC?

[Suranis]

He sees "daclare making super application --- ??? --- Publish Super Application --- ??? ---rule the world"

He had the big idea. everything else is for other people.

[Gregg]

So... he is looking back on his PayPal days and hoping to recreate that?

Oh.. looking at the interview, I guess he has a bunch of 'unfinished business' where his vision for paypal did not pan out due to, well, reality, so he wants to try again.

There were at least two employees of PayPal whose sole job was to keep Elmo distracted and letting NOTHING he thought of getting anywhere near being tried in the real world...

[raison de arizona]

X Is Now Worth $19 Billion, Down 57% From $44 Billion When Elon Musk Bought Twitter

A year ago, tech mogul Elon Musk griped that he was “obviously overpaying” for Twitter in the $44 billion deal that the social network sued him to complete.

Now we know how inflated Musk believe his bid was: X, the new name of Twitter, on Monday informed employees eligible for stock grants that they would receive shares at a valuation of $19 billion.

News of X’s stock grants to employees with the reduced valuation was first reported by Fortune. Musk in March 2023 had told staffers that he estimated the company’s value had dropped to $20 billion. (A request for comment sent to the company’s PR email address produced an autoreply message that said, “Busy now, please check back later.”)

Still, Musk, who also serves as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX (among his involvement in other business interests), is bullish on the future of X, which he wants to turn into “the everything app” — including processing payments and managing users’ “entire financial life.”

The tech mogul closed the debt-burdened Twitter deal on Oct. 27, 2022. Since then, X’s monthly active users have shrunk by about 15% according to third-party estimates. Advertising revenue has plunged as much as 60% (according to Musk himself), amid ongoing concerns about hate speech and misinformation (areas that X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the company is actively addressing).

As the new owner of Twitter, Musk among other things has overseen an 80% reduction in headcount; partially dismantled Twitter’s blue check-mark system designed to boost trust in the authenticity of notable accounts and now grants “verified” status to $8-per-month X Premium subscribers (whose posts receive algorithmic preference); and launched a test to charge users $1 per year to post to the platform (which he says is necessary to combat bots).

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/x ... 235774209/

[johnpcapitalist]

X Is Now Worth $19 Billion, Down 57% From $44 Billion When Elon Musk Bought Twitter

Now we know how inflated Musk believe his bid was: X, the new name of Twitter, on Monday informed employees eligible for stock grants that they would receive shares at a valuation of $19 billion.

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/x ... 235774209/

Since Twitter is private, its valuation is an estimate provided by management. If it's granting options, they have an incentive to maximize the stated value of the company to reduce the percentage of dilution to pay employees a certain number of dollars.

In a publicly traded company, valuation is easy because you know the stock price. In a venture capital-backed company, employees can assess whether the valuation of the company used in computing stock grants is reasonable because it should bear some resemblance to the most recent financing round, which (though not necessarily public information) is usually known to people inside the company.

But Twitter is neither venture funded or public. Thus, the valuation is set by management, and they'll have a lot of latitude in how to value it. Given Musk's general sleaziness and shoddy management, it wouldn't surprise me if an outside expert who is given access to the books would value it at a substantially lower number, potentially half or even less of Management's quoted figure.

[Suranis]

Who the heck would actually pay 19 billion for twitter right now. Its infrastructure is gutted, it's programmers are all gone, and it's culture is the convoluted mess of an egomaniac. If someone bought it, they would have to rebuild the whole company practically from scratch. All it has is the Twitter name... oh.

[RTH10260]

.

But Twitter is neither venture funded or public. Thus, the valuation is set by management, and they'll have a lot of latitude in how to value it. Given Musk's general sleaziness and shoddy management, it wouldn't surprise me if an outside expert who is given access to the books would value it at a substantially lower number, potentially half or even less of Management's quoted figure.

I am sure his accountants added The Trumpian Disclaimer to the presentation of the numbers

[raison de arizona]

A year after Elon Musk bought Twitter, he finally explains WHY:

He says that the niche ideology that turned San Francisco into a "zombie apocolypse" would historically be geographically isolated, and the fallout would therefore be limited. But Twitter gave that philosophy an "information technology weapon," which it could use to spread that mind virus to the whole planet unopposed.

Musk: "In order for the mind virus to propogate it must suppress oppossing viewpionts."

Rogan: "Because it doesn't stand up against scrutiny?"

Musk: "Correct."

Musk cared enough about stopping this virus that he spent $40 billion to do so.

[Foggy]

Still the only place I know to get live ... um updates as an event is occurring.

Yes, unfortunately Xitter or whatever the f--- it is these days is still the only place to really follow stuff like this live. However, it was much easier when I had access to Tweetdeck. Screw Elmo for making that a paid feature. I have Threads, Mastodon, and Post but they just are not there yet.

That's exactly how I feel and what I've done. Twitter was a resource that isn't coming back.

I agree with Musk that he has destroyed more than half the value of the company thus far.