So "X" - nothing to see here. Elon's in control - Part XXX

Dohnjoe

It's a picture of a walnut.

https://twitter.com/KarinaVinnikova/status/1691506012744720391

McHardcore

"Thousands of scientists are cutting back on Twitter, seeding angst and uncertainty

A Nature survey reveals scientists’ reasons for leaving the social-media platform now known as X, and what they are doing to build and maintain a sense of community."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02554-0

I'd say what you'll end up with is fragmentation. I don't think you'll ever see a single space like Twitter was again.

Twitter really just became something else when Musk took over and I think the X rebrand is really the final nail in the coffin for whatever Twitter was.

While Twitter in its original form had problems, it was also genuinely useful for decimating information, interacting in niche areas like science, tech, and so on. What it is nowadays is really just a toxic mess and it's no longer useful for those kinds of users.

Mastodon's improving, particularly with the growth of decent apps like Ivory and Ice Cubes on iOS and Melodeon, Fedilab, etc on Android. Ivory is visually and functionally one of the best iOS social apps I've ever used. It wipes the floor with X and Threads in terms of how it works and looks

There's still a problem communicating what Mastodon actually is though. It's just a protocol. The actual services are the likes of Mastodon.ie which is really well run to be fair to them. The problem though is that anyone can spin up a server, it just gets defederated if it's badly managed. However, it's a protocol just like the WWW or email or whatever and that does create some issues with how it works and how it's discussed.

The dark horse is Bluesky. It's building quite rapidly (I have an account) and for example much of Irish core old Twitter is already on it. They're working by giving existing users an invite code every couple of weeks, and you can bring more people on board and the logic is it will be populated by people who are essentially in the networks of other solid posters, so the standards are kept up. When they throw the doors open widely is anyone's guess and it's still technically in beta mode, so nobody knows.

Functionally it's not great tbh. I think it's getting more tech press than it deserves. It's basically just a 'me too.' The app is very basic and doesn't even support video or gifs yet and the hash tagging system is a complete mystery to me. You can search fairly effectively and you can even design your own algorithms or subscribe to different ones, which gives you a lot more control over it.

In theory Mastodon and Bluesky can be bridged, but whether that happens is also anyone's guess.

However, it's the same guy who founded Twitter and it could just be tech bros talk about tech bros, so it gets more coverage than Mastodon despite being an inferior setup.

Threads is Meta so ... beware!

pixelburp

I don't see Mastadon managing to break the mainstream, ever. Ultimately I suspect it'll stay in existence by all accounts yet be the Opera / Duck Duck Go of social media: chipping away as the niche alternative only a very specific subset of people will use, while the rest stick with ...

Ha. Oh shít.

I was gonna say "stick with X" as a placeholder to mean whatever mainstream social media rises to the top but ... Yeah. Can't use that linguistic convenience anymore lol.

McHardcore

FFS. Just when you were thinking that he hadn’t done something stupid for a while he comes out with this.

Timberrrrrrrr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120997009#Comment_120997009

Absolutely mental, I bet he will still have it though.

nachouser

Sure, scammers won't buy blue ticks if people can just block them.

Another great example of Musk making twitter work to suit him instead of users.

Undoubtedly, this will result in a very public f*ck-up involving a high profile user and it'll be quietly rolled back.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120997020#Comment_120997020

Blocking is only used by sad woke lib groomers. it makes no sense.

https://x.com/kenklippenstein/status/1692587854281486599?s=46&t=3l1OhjvjsuAh4w9RMjlH8g

We must all be too dumb to understand the genius level business strategy behind providing ads for non paying customers.

https://x.com/mashable/status/1692590025865662953?s=46&t=3l1OhjvjsuAh4w9RMjlH8g

Kevrano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120997009#Comment_120997009

My god, that is mind blowing

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120997009#Comment_120997009

But, but ... why? What possible benefit is this going to bring to users?

Presumably all those blocks previously applied will be unset, so a lot of innocent accounts are gonna get immediately slammed by trolls and shítheads suddenly able to abuse people again.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120997423#Comment_120997423

Musk is an incredibly blinkered person who presumes his feeling and those in his bubble are what the rest of the users also want.

He hates how many people have blocked him and those dumb enough to pay for the check mark.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120997475#Comment_120997475

A bit harsh. He’s going to put things to a vote before making any decisions, surely.

Foxtrol

Turns out the block button is required by both Apple and Android Stores as part of their terms of service so he won't be removing it.

Looks like another embarrassing climbdown for him...

Doctor Jimbob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998038#Comment_120998038

Wouldn’t be like him to talk nonsense without checking his facts first.

Timberrrrrrrr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998038#Comment_120998038

Was just coming to say the same thing

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998038#Comment_120998038

An Post did that when they said they would no longer forward post for free when some crossed out an old address and wrote the new one on the envelope.

It turned out that it is written into the law that they are required to do so.

pixelburp

Meanwhile, somewhere deep in Musk's inner subconscious...

maik3n

I imagine Elon and his fanbois would posit that by using the block feature, you are restricting someone's freedom of speech.

And he is a free speech warrior so.......

nachouser

It'll be fun if there are community correct notes on him yet again.

nachouser

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1692622677054230700

Concerning.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998288#Comment_120998288

Someone should tell him Twitter's riddled with bots, he might get a refund for that 44 billion 🤭

McHardcore

You know, it could be a reason as stupid as not wanting people blocking him. When the twitter algorithm got released we found out that it artificially boosted Musk's tweets by a factor of 1,000, while hiding important news stories like the Ukraine invasion. He was the only user I had blocked. Im sure many, many others had him blocked too.

Akrasia

That doesn't mean the individual users have to have the ability toblock other uses from seeing them, but that they can report abuse, and a mod or some other system can block abusers

Of course, that would mean Twitter would be taking on the burden of moderation and are now responsible for taking swift action to respond reports of abuse and harassment. I can see courts ruling that Twitter need to either restore the block function or spend a lot more money on top down content moderation.

If the block button was changed to just stop people from replying but no longer prevented the from reading the tweets then Maybe Musk might have a leg to stand on, but he's basically unleashed the dregs of psychos and stalkers and bot armies loose to kill off whatever was left of Twitter as a useful platform

Akrasia

That doesn't mean the individual users have to have the ability toblock other uses from seeing them, but that they can report abuse, and a mod or some other system can block abusers

Of course, that would mean Twitter would be taking on the burden of moderation and are now responsible for taking swift action to respond reports of abuse and harassment. I can see courts ruling that Twitter need to either restore the block function or spend a lot more money on top down content moderation.

If the block button was changed to just stop people from replying but no longer prevented the from reading the tweets then Maybe Musk might have a leg to stand on, but he's basically unleashed the dregs of psychos and stalkers and bot armies loose to kill off whatever was left of Twitter as a useful platform

Timberrrrrrrr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998239#Comment_120998239

You mean like this?🤣

Christy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998907#Comment_120998907

Blocking hurts blue tick users. His taking over was with promises to make all voices as prominent as each other (for a fee). However anyone willing to pay for that likely has nothing good to say and as they were the ones getting boosted they were getting blocked before people even read their posts.

A lot of his supporters are those who feel like no one is listening and his taking over was seen as a way to force people to listen to them. Blocking hurts that as people really, really don't want to listen to them (generally with good reason).

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998288#Comment_120998288

I'm not surprised. It's absolutely crawling with bots. When I was still active on Twitter / X, anytime I logged in I seemed to have an extra 8 followers, all of which were those weird accounts that initially look normal something like "Jenny" and then when you click on Jenny's profile it's either cryptocurrency garbage posts or she has a link to some weird xxx site

I was blocking about 8 to 10 accounts per day. I think I'd blocked something like 1000 accounts since Musk took over. I used to never get spam accounts like that at all. It just became utterly tediuous. I tried locking my account down for a few days to see what would happen, and it didn't help. I just then got the same number of follower requests every day.

I found Twitter just became unusable due to bots. I don't know if I'd one bot infested follower who was responsible for bringing all this on or something, but it was just overwhelming and I gave up and deleted my account.

It's a pity in a way as I'd a nice core group of sensible followers from the early days of Twitter, but that's increasingly duplicated over on mastodon.ie and on Bluesky, which I am still highly sceptical of and putting minimal effort into using.

AndrewJRenko

Someone needs to explain GDPR to Space Karen

Agent Coulson

Yeah I can see millions of people volunteering to give their information to Mossad just so they can be on second rate version of Twitter.

pixelburp

100% guarantee this wasn't run past legal - if they still have a department worth a damn - and given the dozen other "new features" quickly reverted, I'd not hold my breath this will see the light of day. Am also curious if this is ALL users or just Blue members, special personalities or what.

Not even GDPR presents problems; California has its own equivalent privacy law that's itself quite strict and a potential landmine.

maik3n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001040#Comment_121001040

Has there been any reason mooted previously as to why he wants to introduce this verification thing (besides data farming) ?

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001363#Comment_121001363

Maybe Mossad need more Irish passports?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001363#Comment_121001363

I'm gonna speculate it's an attempt to reduce the ongoing problem of bots - prove you're a human twice over. It's absolutely gonna lose real members while killing off bots - assuming it doesn't get slapped down by the EU et al. Musk has been sulky with Brussels before but he needs the market.

nachouser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001040#Comment_121001040

The old holding up a newspaper with todays date on it and saying "Honestly, I'm fine. Please do what they say."

(I'm assuming that headline is a parody)

Agent Coulson

They are building something better than the block button lol and safety is the number 1 priority double lol lol

https://twitter.com/lindayaX/status/1692705481653973132?s=20

Harika

New game at twitter, good cop bad cop between Linda and musk. Both saying contradictory things to shape it as it fits

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001587#Comment_121001587

I'd say it's more a case of Musk announces something on a whim, then Linda starts she's getting a lot of notifications on her phone, realises Musk has just announced something without discussing it with her or anyone else, and she has to try find a way to a) make some sort of version of it work and b) make it more palatable to the userbase.

ForestFire

Musk doent like being blocked by half of "his" community" and will force his way and views back onto all users.

The new blocking system probably requires some reason for blocking, or you cannot block companies (Including Elon as Mr. Twitter), Gold ticks or whatever they are now!!

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001040#Comment_121001040

Space Karen contracted a third party that complies with GDPR:

https://www.au10tix.com/security-compliance/

Why do you assume it won't be in compliance? Just because they are an Israeli company?

Agent Coulson

Though the ID thing might actually get rid of the padeos who like to share abusive images of children to you know "protect them".

Harika

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001607#Comment_121001607

It's longer brewing as a product manager here reports

https://twitter.com/AqueelMiq/status/1692594263618396225

Agent Coulson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001774#Comment_121001774

i am seeing a lot of users concerned about removing blocks. We can make mutes stronger, like not allow people you mute to reply or quote you. We can also transfer you block list to mute list.

Anyone with any intent can find out what you post by simply creating another account or logging out.

So leave it as is then and let users block whoever they want as many times as they like.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001774#Comment_121001774

Nowhere does he say they've been working on it for a while, just putting forward alternative suggestions about what they will be able to do.

Christy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001774#Comment_121001774

So what problem is getting solved by removing blocks?

nachouser

When you think about it, "mute" is a pretty **** term to throw about.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121001647#Comment_121001647

There’s a big difference between saying that you comply with GDPR and actually complying with GDPR. What happens when an Israeli Court orders the company to handover the data to local police or Mossad ?

McFly85

I wouldn’t have any issue with the company regarding data(as it seems they use Azure for hosting which has its own processes in place for data standards).

But asking for ID verification in this way is typically only done when it’s a regulatory requirement - like opening a revolut account. I absolutely don’t think it’s worth handing over a copy of my ID because Musk can’t do his own work with bots.

I suspect there’d be a relatively significant fall off of users if that’s brought in too. Musk hasn’t engendered trust with the way he’s operated the company so will people really want to start giving more personal detail to X?

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121002148#Comment_121002148

Someone who was defending sharing child abuse tryna take some kind of high ground is amusing.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121002368#Comment_121002368

I'd imagine the last thing Musk wants is an actual stop to bots. They are key to keeping Twitters activity going nowadays, and in the majority most bots fawn over him anyway.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121002148#Comment_121002148

Id say the same about any non EU company. He can we be sure that local laws are GDPR compliant, and will remain compliant?