The Elon Musk rorting continues ...

[willedoo]

On 04/11/2022 at 12:56 PM, onetrack said:

So, now that Elon Musk has gained control of Twitter, he's mulling over an arrangement that sees Twitter users having to pay an $8 monthly recurring "verification" fee, to acquire the Twitter "blue tick" (of approval) as a verified and worthy user of the site.

Twitter is almost a blue tick free zone today. Musk is following through with his plan to remove the blue check mark from accounts that don't pay. I had previously thought that a lot of accounts had paid, but in fact most of them were legacy blue tick accounts that had been verified under the free pre Musk system. The old blue tick was evidence of a verification process to help stop impersonator accounts. Under Musk's new thing, anyone can get a blue tick by paying the subscription and verification is not checked.

 

Last November, an account bought a blue tick and impersonated a pharmaceutical company. They then tweeted that they would be giving out free insulin, and it caused the company's share price to take a tumble. It looks like in the main that journalists, politicians, analysts, activists etc., have decided the blue tick is not worth paying for if it no longer means proof of verification. There's also some news reports that Musk has personally paid for the subscriptions of some celebrities. I think he's just making a fool of himself. Better to re-hire some normal people to run Twitter, and Musk can go back to his rockets and cars.

[rgmwa]

Twitter under Musk is a lot like getting involved in aviation - a good way to turn a large fortune into a small one. 

[old man emu]

I bet he's all a twitter over his sky rocket going BOOM!

[rgmwa]

He loses quite a few rockets, but to his credit he doesn't give up until he gets them working. Those boosters that land themselves are amazing. 

[onetrack]

When you've got $300B, losing a rocket or two straight after launch, is neither here nor there, in the overall finance stakes.

[facthunter]

Not really a good look is it? . Bransom space venture is finished too. Less  space junk etc. Dog  knows what pollution comes from this stuff.. Photograph it all well and show the Images to  more people on a big screen and sell big clear prints.  Nev

[Marty_d]

Apparently the fact that it launched at all is a successful test.

But I was amused by their definition of what happened - it suffered a "rapid unscheduled disassembly"...

[rgmwa]

Apparently somebody pushed the red button to disassemble it before it went out of the cleared downrange area and fell on some unlucky boat.

[spacesailor]

But how did that booster disconnect failure . Make a Successful launch. 

spacesailor

[rgmwa]

1 minute ago, spacesailor said:

But how did that booster disconnect failure . Make a Successful launch. 

spacesailor

They got enough flight data to figure out what went wrong so they can fix the problems they now know about. Of course there may be different problems on the next flight that they don't know about yet.

[old man emu]

The Wright Brothers crashed on the first day they were flying the powered Flyer.

[facthunter]

How long is it since the Yanks put a man on the moon and got them back here.?  Nev

[old man emu]

9 hours ago, facthunter said:

How long is it since the Yanks put a man on the moon and got them back here.?  Nev

1972 - Apollo 17

Apollo 17's Command Module carried a biological cosmic ray experiment (BIOCORE), containing five mice. Officially, the mice—four male and one female—were assigned the identification numbers A3326, A3400, A3305, A3356 and A3352. Unofficially, the Apollo 17 crew dubbed them Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey. NOw there's a knock-out Trivia contest question.

[nomadpete]

In support of Mr Musk's repeated failures, I rather like Nev's comparison. In all probability, the Wright bros crashed far more airplanes (american name) than they didn't crash.

The fact that the Apollo programme had so few failures is a testament to thorough testing, QC,  and old fashioned good luck.

[willedoo]

The man/child is at it again. Comrade Musk seems determined to p*ss the 44 billion he paid for Twitter up against the wall. The day a decent replacement platform appears to rival Twitter will be the end of it.

 

Now the idiot has restricted how many posts users can read. Blue tick paying members can view 6,000 posts per day, non verified members 600, and new non verified members only 300. Basically for some non verified members, 15 minutes of scrolling on Twitter and they are blocked.

 

His new $8 per month blue tick verified account fee has been a total flop, particularly as he has dropped a lot of the verification process to allow bots to have verified accounts. As a result, existing blue tick account holders didn't see any advantage in paying for a verification system that doesn't mean anything, so have gone to free accounts. That leaves advertising as his only income. That was cut down a bit by recently account walling Twitter. Now only logged in account holders can view Twitter posts.

 

As a result of his latest buffoonery, there has been an exodus of people to other platforms. Bluesky has had to put a temporary hold on new account signups due to being overloaded with ex Twitterites. Blocked accounts don't count as part of the allowable 600 reads, so many Twitter users are blocking all advertising accounts to be able to maximise their 600 read limit. Twitter relies on advertising revenue and the moron in charge is doing everything he can to ensure the advertising reaches very few. What business in their right mind would pay to advertise there while a complete clown is running it? It's no wonder advertisers are abandoning Twitter.

 

Advertisers have been leaving due to his incompetence ever since Musk bought Twitter, but now he's not only blocked non account holding viewers, but has severely restricted account holders viewing as well.

 

 

[onetrack]

I don't have and never have had a Twitter account, but I used to read a few Twitter posts occasionally. Twitter had no restrictions on viewing their posts. Now, today, I go to look at a Twitter post, and I'm blocked from viewing it, and I have to sign up to see it.

Sorry, Elon  - I, like many others, think Twitter is nothing more than an extension of your ego, so I won't be looking at your site or joining up. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!!

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by onetrack

[Jerry_Atrick]

4 hours ago, onetrack said:

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!!

Or., talk about being a twit!

[nomadpete]

I'm puzzled. Looking at the Twitter fiasco......

How did Mr Musk manage to pull together all that moolah to get his car manufacturing going? And why hasn't Tesla collapsed?

 

Tesla has definitely done well.

 

BUT I see no business strategy, management skills, or marketing ability displayed in his Twitter venture.

[willedoo]

It makes you wonder how well Spacex is firewalled from Musk's idiocy. If it was run like he's trying to run Twitter, NASA would put his contracts through the shredder. They are either nervously watching his self destruction of Twitter, or Musk is very heavily bird-dogged by the government with his Spacex ventures. Surely some would be questioning whether they backed the right person to take the U.S. into space.

 

Watching his total incompetency running Twitter, I can't help but wonder if all his previous achievements are a result of an untalented person having the gift of the gab to raise money to pay people who know what they are doing. How much of his previous record is a result of him riding on the back of other more talented employees, I don't know.

 

16 hours ago, onetrack said:

I don't have and never have had a Twitter account, but I used to read a few Twitter posts occasionally. Twitter had no restrictions on viewing their posts. Now, today, I go to look at a Twitter post, and I'm blocked from viewing it, and I have to sign up to see it.

From a business perspective, how dumb is account walling Twitter. They rely on businesses advertising on Twitter, so less eyeballs on the advertising means less revenue. It beggars belief. Advertisers have left Twitter in droves since the man/child took over. It does seem like Twitter was just a 44 billion dollar vanity project for Musk. Somewhere for him to strut the world stage as mini-Trump.

Edited July 4, 2023 by willedoo

[facthunter]

HE might be totally hopeless but a MINI TRUMP??   Nev

[willedoo]

45 minutes ago, facthunter said:

HE might be totally hopeless but a MINI TRUMP??   Nev

Nev, he admires Trump and is a friend of the family. Musk is well known for his far right views.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I have watched a couple of videos and shows on him and he doesn't come across as a particularly insightful or visionar, although he is enterprising and cunning. He comes from a very wealthy family despite his PR machine; he did set up makeshift nightclubs at college, though, which showed he was enterprising - and I am assuming he thought of it or at least cloned it himself.

 

His Paypal business was not his idea, though he was able to fund it. In the end, his father's money and connections funded the redevelopment of it, and appointed a banker to oversee the business. And this is where I think his smarts come form. He is part of a wealthy family, and no doubt was groomed to capitalise on his strengths and hire people to fill the gaps. His PR team seem to do a very good jobl; he didn't start Telsa, but schemed out the founders in such a way he could claim to be the founder.

 

I think though, he has believed his own PR hype as many do (narcissism comes to mind) and has bitten off mroe than he can chew. Tesla/SpaceX and Twitter are a whole different ball game. The regulation and engineering effort required for those necessitate the Tesla board ensuring there is appropriate governance and risk control around their products, even if the financial side has shaken whenever Musk has done something.

 

 

What happened is that this was of those brain farts he had to big shot himself where his judgement was a bit off. Unlike the "going to take Tesla private and have the funding to dpo it" announcement, that for any other CEO of a major public company would (and shold) have landed him jail time, he got off. I thin the SEC was chastised heaviuly for that submission to Musk and a coouple of heads did roll over it. I guess he thought he could continue and wriggle his way out. Remembert, he signed a contract to buy Twitter for 44bn withough due diligience. There were other requirements, but Twitter made sure they kept theirend of the bargain. And the Delaware courts are notorious (or I would say famous) for enforcing legal contracts for very good reason.

 

When Musk finally saw he couldn't escape it, he had to huy it - by dumping Tesla stock. Now he has a pup and wants to turn it into a dog, But he was already belligerent on the basis that I giess he percevied Twitter was run by lazy so-and-so#s. He needed to get revenue quck, and needed to reduce costs. Fire functions you don't like (such as moderation) because the regulations around these are still developing and you can. And as this was done on a whim with his usual bluster, there was, and still is, no strategy.

 

Wasn;t he supposed to have hiored a CEO? Where is he/she (I think the CEO was a she).

 

His arrogance, showmanship and brilliant PR mahine, along with his family's wealth got him to where he is. There is nothing wrong with it. It works in the system where he lives. If he lived in China, for example, he probably would have not done quite so well = at least using his current methods.

[Marty_d]

Heard on the news that Meta (Facebook) are going to launch a Twitter-like service so that'll sound the death knell for Twitter.  It's not everyone can claim to have misplaced 44 billion down the back of the couch.

 

[willedoo]

49 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

Heard on the news that Meta (Facebook) are going to launch a Twitter-like service so that'll sound the death knell for Twitter.  It's not everyone can claim to have misplaced 44 billion down the back of the couch.

 

It might have a very good chance of knocking Twitter off it's perch. Bluesky and Mastodon have picked up disgruntled Twitter users, but they would struggle to be serious rivals to Twitter. On the other hand, Meta's new app is linked to Instagram which already has hundreds of millions of users. With the new app called 'Threads', Instagram users can retain their same followers and username they have with Instagram. The large existing base of Instagram users would be a huge advantage. Musk should be worried.

[willedoo]

17 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Wasn't he supposed to have hired a CEO? Where is he/she (I think the CEO was a she).