Musk offers to buy Twitter

[dada_dave]

I would ask what value the blue check has now that it's not tied with "actual" true verification of those of celebrity status? It's taken something that ensured credibility and that a person is who they claim to be and made it a novelty for any user just to say they have it.

It’s going to get additional features not available to the plebs. Also there might still be the “official” tag for blue checks that are authentic and companies/governments will have different colors. But yes it’s still going to be messy and unnecessarily complicated.

 

[lizkat]

But remember you can't buy books in the Kindle app but can still read books you purchased.

Guess I might have to give it a try.

But why buy into it? There's still this confusion about what blue checks mean.

Twitter acknowledges the confusion on its help page: "Now the blue checkmark may mean two different things: either that an account was verified under the previous verification criteria (active and authentic), or that the account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue."

EDIT: Whole f'g thing is ridiculous. That NPR article wraps with a reminder that Twitter still doesn't have a communications team so it's you talking to Elon if he feels like answering.. on the boards.

 

[Eric]

No I think @Herdfan is right it’s purely about whether the 30% “Apple tax” is charged. Under his scenario there wouldn’t be one. This is true for any subscription/in-app payment system that has a web store.

Interesting, this article seems to support that.

Twitter is officially bringing back the Twitter Blue subscription Monday, starting in five countries before rapidly expanding to others, according to Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter. Web sign-ups will cost $8 per month and iOS sign ups will cost $11 per month for “access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark,” per a tweet from the company account.

So I guess if you purchase it through the web, you can then use your iPhone (or iOS) freely after? Seems like a pretty big loophole.

 

[Eric]

Speaking of Tesla, when I picked up my ID.4, my boss had commented that I hadn't given any serious consideration to his suggestion of getting a Tesla. About all I could think of to say in return was: "You're right, I didn't." and leave it at that.



That is certainly… a vehicle.

Regardless of Musk, everyone has their own reasons for not choosing Tesla, not the least of which is their high price tag. There are a lot of comparable cars out there, some with more and some with less features and it's really just a matter of personal taste. I have a hard to bagging on anyone for their preference when it comes to a car.

 

[dada_dave]

So I guess if you purchase it through the web, you can then use your iPhone (or iOS) freely after? Seems like a pretty big loophole.

That’s been true for all apps where they run their own stores. Apple is actually pretty lax about allowing outside purchased content on the iPhone. The companies that want Apple’s “tax” to be reduced/go away for subscriptions/in-app purchases and either forgo those entirely or charge more within app want to have more impulse buying through the app as opposed to forcing users to go through additional hoops like an outside website to get more of that profit.

 

[rdrr]

Regardless of Musk, everyone has their own reasons for not choosing Tesla, not the least of which is their high price tag. There are a lot of comparable cars out there, some with more and some with less features and it's really just a matter of personal taste. I have a hard to bagging on anyone for their preference when it comes to a car.

Feature one: Apple Carplay

 

[Nycturne]

Feature one: Apple Carplay

Yeup, I live in CarPlay, partly because my beta app is something I use during my commute daily.

 

[Eric]

Feature one: Apple Carplay

I had no idea how much I would miss it until I got the Tesla. One thing I love most about the car is its ability to maintain between the lines on freeways, it's virtually flawless and never loses them as to where my BMW would miss them a lot. However, I've learned that tradeoff isn't worth it, would rather have my hands on the wheel 100% of the time and keep my Apple CarPlay, I'm just fumbling around without it and it seems far less safe. My next car will have it or I won't even consider it.

 

[Herdfan]

Interesting, this article seems to support that.



So I guess if you purchase it through the web, you can then use your iPhone (or iOS) freely after? Seems like a pretty big loophole.

Not really. Just covering his "Apple Tax". He still gets the same basic amount of money.

 

[Eric]

Not really. Just covering his "Apple Tax". He still gets the same basic amount of money.

The 30% is what is what Apple charges from the app store to download the Twitter app itself, right? I don't see how charging more for iOS users to buy the checkmark makes sense in relation to this. I must be missing something here.

 

[lizkat]

Isn't the app free? The 30% of $11 is for the in-app purchase through the iOS device of the checkmark?

 

[Nycturne]

The 30% is what is what Apple charges from the app store to download the Twitter app itself, right? I don't see how charging more for iOS users to buy the checkmark makes sense in relation to this. I must be missing something here.

Twitter Blue is an in-app purchase. IAP are subject to Apple's cut, explicitly because of the whole freemium model would bypass the cut for paid apps. So long as the purchase can be done from within the app, then Apple demands that you use their frameworks for it, which means they get their cut.

Isn't the app free? The 30% of $11 is for the in-app purchase through the iOS device of the checkmark?

This.

That’s been true for all apps where they run their own stores. Apple is actually pretty lax about allowing outside purchased content on the iPhone. The companies that want Apple’s “tax” to be reduced/go away for subscriptions/in-app purchases and either forgo those entirely or charge more within app want to have more impulse buying through the app as opposed to forcing users to go through additional hoops like an outside website to get more of that profit.

Apple's take is that if the customer is coming to the purchase through the iOS device (more accurately, the app store and apps available on it), Apple wants their cut. If the customer comes to the purchase from any other mechanism, then there's no issue. But what you can't do (at least usually, the rules have been in flux lately) is link to that outside mechanism from your app to bypass Apple's cut.

 

[dada_dave]

Twitter Blue is an in-app purchase. IAP are subject to Apple's cut, explicitly because of the whole freemium model would bypass the cut for paid apps. So long as the purchase can be done from within the app, then Apple demands that you use their frameworks for it, which means they get their cut.



This.



Apple's take is that if the customer is coming to the purchase through the iOS device (more accurately, the app store and apps available on it), Apple wants their cut. If the customer comes to the purchase from any other mechanism, then there's no issue. But what you can't do (at least usually, the rules have been in flux lately) is link to that outside mechanism from your app to bypass Apple's cut.

Yup but some companies block any content purchased from the outside or charge fees to allow it. This is common on consoles and came up during the Apple v Epic trial. Basically Apple gets a lot of shtick but can actually be more reasonable than other companies at times.

Edit: Epic not Epyc

 

[dada_dave]

So … Yoel Roth has had to flee his home because of Musk:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/tech/twitter-files-yoel-roth

And @lizkat posted that Elon dissolved the Trust and Safety Council

Musk offers to buy Twitter

Glad I deleted my account when I did, anyone keeping an account is letting a right-wing nutjob billionaire troll control their content. If/when I can figure out a way to get out from under my Tesla without losing a bunch of money I will be doing that also. Speaking of Tesla, when I picked up...

talkedabout.com

“The last vestiges of the old republic have been swept away”

 

[lizkat]

So … Yoel Roth has had to flee his home because of Musk:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/tech/twitter-files-yoel-roth

And @lizkat posted that Elon dissolved the Trust and Safety Council

https://wapo.st/3Wac6qP

“The last vestiges of the old republic have been swept away”

(Thanks for bumping the WaPo link, I subbed it into your quote above... I should have posted it in this thread anyway, forgot that other one was on a more specific issue related to the Twitter app and pricing. I'm gonna delete it from there.)

Yeah I dunno what he's doing. Clearing out prior courtiers is a King's prerogative... he assumes.

 

[dada_dave]

(Thanks for bumping the WaPo link, I subbed it into your quote above... I should have posted it in this thread anyway, forgot that other one was on a more specific issue related to the Twitter app and pricing. I'm gonna delete it from there.)

Yeah I dunno what he's doing. Clearing out prior courtiers is a King's prerogative... he assumes.

Sure though if you do delete it there repost it here since I linked to your post and I’ll edit my post.

 

[lizkat]

Sure though if you do delete it there repost it here since I linked to your post and I’ll edit my post.

Here it is

https://wapo.st/3Wac6qP

all i had in the post short of that was that Musk is crazy. But, we already knew that.

 

[lizkat]

It's interesting that before Musk dissolved the Trust and Safety Council today, three members had resigned on December 8th over dismay that so much of the work was heading towards algorithmic moderation... and that NPR and several other media outlets had interviewed some of those people early this morning.

Former members of Twitter's safety council voice concerns over Musk's acquisition

NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Eirliani Abdul Rahman and Anne Collier, ex-members of Twitter's Trust and Safety Council. They say under Elon Musk, Twitter lost sight of its commitment to protect users.

www.npr.org

 

[Eric]

It's interesting that before Musk dissolved the Trust and Safety Council today, three members had resigned on December 8th over dismay that so much of the work was heading towards algorithmic moderation... and that NPR and several other media outlets had interviewed some of those people early this morning.

Former members of Twitter's safety council voice concerns over Musk's acquisition

NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Eirliani Abdul Rahman and Anne Collier, ex-members of Twitter's Trust and Safety Council. They say under Elon Musk, Twitter lost sight of its commitment to protect users.

www.npr.org

It gets worse.

Report: Ex-Twitter executive flees Bay Area home as Musk attacks

Yoel Roth has reportedly received increased threats after Elon Musk repeatedly tweeted...

www.sfgate.com

Ex-Twitter head of safety reportedly flees Bay Area home amid Musk attacks​

Yoel Roth, Elon Musk’s former right-hand man who was instrumental to the new era of Twitter, has reportedly been forced to flee his home, likely in the Bay Area, after getting harassed by Musk and his supporters.

Roth, the now-departed head of trust and safety, received increased threats after Musk promoted a baseless accusation that his former employee endorsed children accessing “adult Internet services,” CNN first reported Monday afternoon.

More QAnon conspiracy bullshit, he won't be happy until someone is killed.

 

[lizkat]

It gets worse.

There's possibly no bottom, short of regulators just pulling the plug.

So is there a financial angle to this? Like bankruptcy is now preferable to Musk rather than trying to make a go of the thing, or backing off to say Person X is the new CEO and will fix it up and so I am officially hands off now, enjoy your day. Where are his co-investors at with all this, I wonder.