Elon Musk said he will charge all X/Twitter users a fee to be on the platform. He suggested that such a change would be necessary to deal with the problem of bots on the platform.

“It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots," said Elon. I can’t believe that this is the only solution he can think of.

Dealing with bots would be Elon Musk’s responsibility, considering he’s the only one profiting significantly from X, not us. Elon Musk steals our data and censors each of our posts, now he even expects us to pay to clean up the mess he created.

Plus, the problems with X go beyond just bots. The algorithm and programming decisions are negatively impacting user experience and manipulating people’s minds.

We want a town square where everyone is free to have & voice an opinion. I do not believe we have to pay ”a small monthly payment” for such a place, especially in a country that should value these freedoms & suppressing ideas.

  • TehWorld@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I’m not willing to use it now, for free… not sure if this plan will incentivize me to join up.

  • m13@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Oh yes, certainly. Wow Mr Musk you’re such a genius and good decision maker, please start charging for Twitter. Please don’t listen to the naysayers and go ahead with the brilliant business strategy. I’m definitely not taking delight in your constant series of self-owns.

    • emax_gomax@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I would pay them for a product that suppresses all news about Elon musk so i dont have to read about him every other day. Now that’s a growth market.

  • Clown_Tempura@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I refused to use this cancerous hellsite long before its ‘fall’ what makes you think I want to use it now?

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    I hate twitter!

    Use mastodon.

    Twitter has just gotten worse and worse!

    Use mastodon.

    If only there were some other platform!

    • mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      let’s not pretend mastodon is a viable alternative at this time. sure, it’s not an ad-algo-hellscape yet (meta will change that tho) but you’re at the mercy of whatever powertripping admin you have to deal on the instance you’re on. unless you tune into the echo chamber most instances are, you’re not going to have interesting conversations. it’s very slow, has barebone features and there is a lack of actually interesting oc posting people on the masto side of the fediverse.

      • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
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        2 years ago

        I feel like these comments are from folks who haven’t really used it. The traffic on your specific instance isn’t really the point most of the time. And the fact that you can find another instance easily if the guy in charge of your instance is an asshole is a pretty huge feature. Who runs the other instance of Twitter you can move to?

        You can migrate your account and followers/following lists until you find an instance where the admin isn’t a “power tripping asshole” - and I’m not convinced that’s a widespread problem in any case.

        The Mastodon interface is kinda barebones though still not as bad as I think you are describing, but I migrated (gasp) my entire mastodon account to firefish.social, which federates with Mastodon, with a couple of clicks, and the interface and features there are really great. (And there are also multiple firefish instances to choose from in case the admin becomes an power tripping asshole)

        But most importantly:

        unless you tune into the echo chamber most instances are, you’re not going to have interesting conversations

        Why wouldn’t you be following people from the broader fediverse? The federated feed on firefish (and on most instances I’d think) scrolls by so fast I have to pause it to read anything. There’s plenty being posted. Certainly no less comparatively than I see on kbin/lemmy, and it gets better continuously.

        I’m all for using what you like and avoiding what you don’t, but this is like an infomercial-level criticism of Mastodon, like when they spend 45 secs showing you how hard it is to scramble eggs and cook them without their forty dollar gadget.

        • mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social
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          2 years ago

          i’ve been on two instances since last fall: one mastodon, one pleroma.

          on the mastodon one i found out by accident, that i was “shadowbanned” from it’s own public timeline. inquiring why this happend, the mods didn’t told me. when i asked then that i would like to know what i did “wrong” and if they could lift this, they said “no”. i deleted my account after that.

          the pleroma one was even worse because literally on day one i was zerged by some american internet rightwingers because i posted something they didn’t agree with. i deleted my account after that.

          what do you suggest, how many times should i move/delete my account until i found an instance that at least gives me the twitter treatment instead of just doing random policy?

          • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
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            2 years ago

            I mean, I already recommended firefish.social, but you are under no obligation to try it. My point is that your experience is very much not typical I think.

            In any case, if you plunk “left leaning mastodon instances” into your search engine of choice that would probably work, but you could also try a popular instance which would address several of your concerns. If firefish doesn’t interest you with its various improvements to the UI, why not just go for the original and (I think) biggest - mastodon.social.

            https://mastodon.social/auth/sign_up

          • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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            2 years ago

            on the mastodon one i found out by accident, that i was “shadowbanned” from it’s own public timeline.

            I’m not sure that’s actually possible for a mod to do on Mastodon. Did you make your posts “unlisted” by default by accident?

            • mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social
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              2 years ago

              mod/admin/whover was behind the support mail address told me, that someone made a complaint about my account (they refused to tell me what the problem was) and that they unlisted/shadowbanned me from the servers public timeline.

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        2 years ago

        It works “well enough”.

        unless you tune into the echo chamber most instances are, you’re not going to have interesting conversations.

        I don’t get this. I’ve had many interesting conversations with people on Mastodon. And there are a number of interesting people I follow.

        there is a lack of actually interesting oc posting people on the masto side of the fediverse.

        This is a problem solved by more people joining… And from my POV Mastodon is far more stable and mature than Lemmy is. I’ve had better conversations there without being swarmed by tankies and ultra-partisans as well.

        Perhaps you’ve chosen bad people to follow?

  • mochisuki@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    A monthly fee seems idiotic but yes please do it! Please!

    That said I think a $5 signup fee on Mastodon or Lemmy that is not refunded if you get banned would seriously help stop bots. They only make pennies per bot and if you make their cost even minimally painful the economics fall apart.

    • Godnroc@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Blizzard thought that with Overwatch, but despite the game costing money botting was still very much an issue.

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I don’t use fascist websites at all, I’m certainly not going to pay for one. Come now.

    • Pohl@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      We have reached the point where I want answers from any person or organization that is still active on twitter. They are actively legitimizing nazis. If you are on twitter, you are part of the problem. I’m not gonna draw lines around which people on a right wing reactionary platform are the “good ones” any more.

      • mob@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        If you want a free platform to speak on, avoid social media all together?

        I agree with the social media generally being bad for people, but I’m not sure your reply lines up ha

  • kttnpunk@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I think this marks the true end of twitter. Undoubtedly, some people will literally pay to have ol’ muskys thoughts shoved in their face and get their data collected, see garbage alt-right memes but if he fails, if he can’t even make it a premium-feeling cult experience now… (which obviously his vision, but let’s be real it’s a longshot- he’s only gonna be a clown) I don’t see it lasting much longer.

    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Absolutely. People can talk about the Musk fanatics and grifters and actual addicts who can’t leave but… they aren’t who keeps the place alive. The crowds of people who just browse it casually are who keep social media alive. There’s no show without an audience.

      They won’t get regular Joes and Timmies to shell out actual money to keep seeing posts when they could get the same in some other place for free.