So on one hand they’re cluttering user feeds with the spammiest, scammiest ads they can and on the other hand they’re rolling out paid subscriptions to remove ads.
Cause a problem; sell the solution. Transparent scumbags.
Didn’t they also remove some of the things that indicated a post was “sponsored” or whatever?
Something being illegal under EU law is used as an ace in the hole for some reason. These multi-billion companies will pay the fines in the EU and continue operating. On the off chance they roll back these changes in the EU, they’ll keep using them in the US, China, Russia, wherever.
Only thing that’ll stop this is global laws against it, which is impossible because of bribery. Oh sorry, lobbying.
Yes, though it was unclear if that was a feature or a bug. Since their dev team was decimated, the site has been struggling to even do basic maintenance and security updates. It’s entirely possible that was a bug, especially since it only appeared to be happening with certain users and servers.
I remember when Circuit City fired the employees that were costing them the most money. https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Lessons-in-how-Circuit-City-s-job-cuts-backfired-3298517.php
They eventually went bankrupt.
The author of the article determined that these ads are coming from the trashy ad networks that brought you such classic clickbait ads as “Doctors hate this one weird trick” and “[Current President] has slashed auto insurance rates in [your state], here’s how” that you see at the bottom of low quality news articles. So, it’s not just that X has spam ads, but they aren’t even directly selling them, which the article summarizes is a sign of desperation to get any ads, no matter how shit in quality, no matter how low paying to X they are, on the platform. At least the low tier news sites have the decency to identify them as ads and label the ad networks that is putting them up.
Well on our way to All-Despising Baby Skull
I despise Twitter’s leadership as much as the rest, but increasing ads is not at all a “cause a problem” situation Twitter doesn’t owe you ad-free usage of their platform. So no, not a scam/scummy behaviour, just bad value.
And you don’t owe Twitter your patronage. So just move on from it.
You do realize that the actual issue is that this is kind of thing is going to be normalized, so that it can spread like a plague across the corporate-touched internet, objectively making the entire thing as a whole objectively worse… right?
Because it sure doesn’t seem like it with that reply.
increasing ads is not at all a “cause a problem” situation
Tech executives would disagree with you - creating a problem that users have to buy their way out of is one of the most popular business models going at the moment. The mobile gaming industry, for example, is basically $140B worth of intentionally created frustration.
There’s been so much written about this obviously scummy practice. It’s everywhere.
It’s either naive or disingenuous to suggest they’re not obviously trying to annoy cash out of people.
They are allowed to try and monetize in various ways, but there are still ethical standards that are just consistently not followed in online advertising (like doing due-diligence to make sure the company advertising isn’t some sort of transparent scam). But this change seems to be stepping away from one of the standards that is actually a legal mandate, properly labeling adverts and sponsored content as such.
Even if X wasn’t trying to make a profit. They still have cost to cover.
I don’t use it. Never have. Never saw any value in it.
I still have yet to understand Elon’s strategy with it but it’s his billions to waste.
It’s actually not his billions. He borrowed billions to finance the purchase. There are talks of the banks stepping in to protect their investment.
The easiest way to block these ads is to stop using X.
And yet, my friends keep linking me to X.com even though I told them not to send me porn unless it’s really really good!
How much would it cost to show 2girls1cup as umskipable ad to musk fanboys? Asking for a friend…
the new ad format also doesn’t disclose … that it is even an advertisement at all.
Well, that’s clearly illegal in most places. Ads have to be somehow identifyable as ads, because of misinformation (ads lie, who thought?). Just wait for the court case.
Im starting to think that is their game, doing whatever is illegal until caught by a court of law, and then find ways to do it without getting caught.
It blows my mind that there are people dumb enough to remain on that shit platform. There’s no excuses. If you remain, you’re in support of that trash.
Many people will cry about Musk ruining the only place on the internet to get news and stay current
Like give me a fucking break lol, that was never the case and it sure as hell ain’t the case now. These morons are so sure he bought it just to kill it, as if that’s some great loss.
Fucking losers, it’s a shit slice of social media, walk away ffs. Twitter is not now nor has ever been special.
Twitter was absolutely special when it came out. It was the first (or at the very least first successful) social media designed for mobile use. It also had large effects on how people thought about and used social media, and had big impacts on the ways various companies and people interact on social media.
I’ve never particularly cared about twitter personally, I used it a handful of times here and there, and I agree that currently and for a while it’s been a pretty shit slice of social media. But saying it was never special is a stretch at best.
Where do I go for hyperlocal updates from advocates in my area in subjects I’m engaged in? How do I get the word out about the projects I’m working on in those subjects? Calling me a fucking loser for staying somewhere that’s the only place to do some things is not going to accomplish anything but make me think you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Literally cannot get hockey updates from any other platform. Those journalists just simply have not moved to another platform.
Sports media all around is still heavily invested in Twitter and has shown no signs of even looking at alternate platforms.
Google what exactly? Specific contract details or bits from interviews which are, in many cases, posted behind paywalls (The Athletic) outside of the little bits that they put on Twitter? Literally just cannot get that information otherwise.
I’ve asked for a compelling reason to leave many times before, and so far people have failed to provide me one, but since you’re so smart, lets hear it it then.
EDIT: Downvote if you can’t come up with a good reason
The lax restrictions on nazi speech. It’s now part of the platform. The platform tacitly endorses hatred. Your attention legitimizes the platform and the nazis. It’s time to walk away, you have a moral obligation.
I get it you have an addiction to the website. We need to start talking about social media addiction without sneering. It’s a dopamine release machine and we are big stupid apes. I’m here on lemmy because it is like methadone to get me off Reddit.
I spend probably less than an hour a week on twitter compared to 2 to 3 hours a day on lemmy and 3 to 5 hours a day on youtube so addiction definitely, but not to twitter.
When it comes to the nazi, or just overall right wing content, it’s only something I hear people talk about but haven’t ever experienced myself. Those things don’t appear on my feed. It’s 99% porn and 1% cat videos.
- it’s a failing platform run by one of the most chaotic people in existence; everything you make there will literally or figuratively go up in smoke, from the posts to the connections
- everything you make there is currently lining the pockets of a racist, lying nationalist
- it’s losing money at an alarming rate while being beholden to the debt caused by the leveraged buyout that sold out to the aforementioned chaotic bro, meaning that they’re increasingly desperate to make money and will take more and more morally dubious deals in order to stay afloat
- the racism is a feature, not a bug, tacitly and overtly endorsed by the current owner
- the misinformation is a feature, not a bug, tacitly and overtly endorsed by the current owner
- the nationalism is a feature, not a bug, tacitly and overtly endorsed by the current owner
- they’re systematically stripping user control and transparency out of the platform, from ads and targeting to user blocking to outgoing links
- they’re absolutely going to keep putting every useful feature behind Twitter Blue or whatever they’re calling it these days
- uptime might be stable for now, but as soon as more bills become due it’s going to tank again
- a venerable and respected platform has been reduced to this in a matter of months because of one man’s ego and hubris
- the longer you delay in building a new platform and new habits only makes it harder for you to do so when all this finally does become too much for you
These are only eleven reasons. I have many more, some personal and some universal. If at all possible, get off of Twitter.
Well I can grant you that me continuing to use twitter likely somewhat profits people I don’t have much respect for, but then again I’m posting gay porn so there’s slight irony there too.
The other reasons you listed are mostly stuff other people are experiencing, but not me. There’s no politics in my twitter feed. No nazies, no racism, no nationalists, no Elon Musk, no ads… just porn and the occasional cat video.
I must also point out that it’s quite apparent from your message, that you have a strong personal bias involved here. I don’t have that same emotional reaction to this. Social media is shit by definition and I don’t see twitter as any different from the rest.
Lets just take a moment to appreciate the fact, that you were already calling me dumb, and now you’re telling me to fuck off, and another user is calling me retarded yet somehow it’s me acting in bad faith.
