Twitter reportedly to charge $20/month for verification checkmark

The developers working on the Twitter Blue update have a week to deliver or will be fired.

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The story of Elon Musk and Twitter has drawn a lot of attention over the past six months. The CEO of a lot of companies continues to make waves with the latest being a rather controversial update to Twitter Blue. According to people close to the matter, the company’s subscription model will receive a price hike and will include a verification feature.

The Twitter Verified account on Twitter

Reported on by Alex Heath of The Verge on October 30, 2022, Elon Musk has allegedly set in motion an update to the iconic verification checkmark system of Twitter. According to sources and conversations seen by The Verge, Twitter is aiming to charge $19.99 USD for Twitter Blue which will also verify users.

It’s not clear whether the traditional verification system will remain in place or if this new system will be the only verification mechanic moving forward. What is clear, though, is that it appears some users will be able to buy their verification rather soon.

The report goes on to note that the developers working on the update were given a deadline of November 7. Failing to meet this deadline will result in being fired.

Elon Musk has only just claimed the title of Twitter CEO following the closing of the deal. Some of his first actions included firing former Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and Legal Affairs and Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde. He’s also set to establish a Twitter content moderation council which has its work cut out for it considering anti-Semitic content spread on Twitter following Musk’s takeover.

Elon Musk has taken to Twitter on Sunday to note that the verification process is being revamped. Whether he is talking about the Twitter Blue subscription cost update and verification feature or the traditional verification process remains to be seen.

Be sure to keep it locked to Shacknews as we bring you the latest on the Twitter fiasco. It seems as though this story has more pages to read before it’s over.

Guides Editor

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as a Guides Editor. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler 

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 30, 2022 8:30 PM

    Sam Chandler posted a new article, Twitter reportedly to charge $20/month for verification checkmark

    • reply
      October 30, 2022 7:06 PM

      In today's fun Twitter news, they will start charging $20/month for being a verified user, and will force employees to get this

      https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/30/23431931/twitter-paid-verification-elon-musk-blue-monthly-subscription

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 7:08 PM

        YES. He's gonna fuck this up so bad, it's great.

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 7:14 PM

        Don't see where it says that it'll force employees to get it.

        It does say that they're giving them 7 days to launch the feature. Which is fucking hilarious.

        As bad as I feel for the employees, I kinda hope this is real and causes all the employees to walk and ultimately kills Twitter.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 7:15 PM

          “I mean, how hard can it be? A few lines of code? It’s just $20. We’ll give them…one week. Should be plenty of time.”

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 7:15 PM

        lol “you’ll be fired if you don’t meet this deadline”. Such an amazing leader!

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 7:16 PM

        Employees working on the project were told on Sunday that they need to meet a deadline of November 7th to launch the feature or they will be fired.

        Is this tyoe if leadership supposed to work? Nobody good would stay at a place with "your fired" as the endpoint of any deadline

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 7:18 PM

          Employees tasked with completing tasks from Musk have worked late into the night and the weekend while their managers draw up lists of team members to lay off.

          Great way to run a place

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 7:20 PM

            *cough*unionization*cough*

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 7:20 PM

            On Friday, engineers were asked to print out their recent code contributions from the last 30 to 60 days and bring them to be reviewed by Musk and Tesla engineers. They were then quickly told to shred their print outs and show the code on their computers instead, as first reported by Platformer’s Casey Newton.

            ...lol

            • reply
              October 30, 2022 8:09 PM

              This can’t be true. No way their printers all work.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 7:21 PM

          There are plenty of people willing to lay down their lives for Elon

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 7:23 PM

            On shacknews.

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 7:35 PM

            will suck to be him when they all overdose on nodoz or end up hospitalized for exhaustion

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 4:36 AM

            Then I hope all the other more reasonable people leave them to it.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 7:37 PM

          Feels like that’s how he runs most of his ops. Basically threats and insane hours grinding people into dust.

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 7:39 PM

            Yeah, it's one thing when you're building the EV/Battery powered revolution or sending shit to space. People will find alternative reasons to want to work there.

            It's another when it's … Twitter. No one's gonna want to hang around for this shit.

            • reply
              October 30, 2022 8:10 PM

              You should go to some events with Twitter engineers. Some of them are ride or die Twitter believers.

              • reply
                October 30, 2022 8:16 PM

                Yeah I'm sure some of them are. The majority of their employees probably aren't going to be when shit like this starts going down.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 7:40 PM

          Elon and Trump are more alike than we knew

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 8:10 PM

          I'd use the rest of my PTO to find another job asap

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 8:11 PM

          i would laugh so hard at this ridiculous ultimatum.

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 9:31 PM

            Yup. I'd basically be "ok bye" and walk. No knowledge transfer or anything. Fuck that dude. Remember when he was the tech golden child? I think people are seeing him for who he really is now. He's not even really an innovator, he just buys innovative companies. Both Tesla and SpaceX were around before him, right?

            • reply
              October 30, 2022 9:32 PM

              Or, rather, I'd just ignore the ridiculous deadline and make them fire me if they were actually serious about it.

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 6:36 AM

                ^^ absolutely this. who in their right minds would drop everything to make a subscription feature like this one in less than 7 days QA included.
                fuck that.
                just start planning it, and call their bluff when the deadline occurs.

            • reply
              October 30, 2022 10:39 PM

              Tesla didn’t have a product resealed yet and SpaceX was started by him when the Russians wouldn’t sell him ICBMs to map greenhouse gasses in the early 2000s. He was definitely a major driving force behind both companies.

              That said he’s a piece of shit and I hope his twitter endeavor fails spectacularly while not affecting his other businesses as they actually do good.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 8:41 PM

          He wants the employee count down and thinks he's s genius by trying to drive people out versus laying them off

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 5:37 AM

          They’re getting fired regardless.

          Musk is getting rid of dead weight just as he does at his other companies.

          Twitter is relatively not a complex platform so they’ve probably got a bunch of employees just soaking up money.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 5:53 AM

            [deleted]

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 6:36 AM

              [deleted]

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 8:07 AM

                Yep, and their feed technology and engine is still top notch, along with the complexity around their scale. I'm sure they have some fat to trim but it's not something that can be effectively run without really good people working tirelessly to keep things up, stable and deploying code

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 7:59 AM

            This approach is pretty ineffective for getting rid of "dead weight"... Taking a broadsword to it means you hit a bit of everyone.. and your best people will be the first to GTFO as they are the ones with the ability to jump quickly to somewhere else

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 1:24 PM

              You’re not wrong

              But maybe Twitter doesn’t need the best people, middle of the road mediocre people who are less expensive to pay are good enough

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 8:00 AM

            How does he know what the dead weight is? He's only been the boss for a few days.

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 10:05 AM

              apparently by counting lines of code

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 1:19 PM

            Musk believes he's getting rid of dead weight.

            In truth he'll get rid of those who know they're in demand and don't feel like putting up with bullshit.

            It's the unmotivated and complacent who'll stay longest.

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 1:23 PM

              Let’s be honest, he’s okay with that too because those people are going to be more expensive

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 7:18 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 7:22 PM

          He’s trying to get people to resign so he doesn’t have to pay severance, he’s done it before at his other companies. Stock grants also kick in on Tuesday November 1st.

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 7:24 PM

            He's gonna layoff tons of people tomorrow :/

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 7:25 PM

            [deleted]

            • reply
              October 30, 2022 7:31 PM

              I think both are true! The check mark thing is stupid on the face of it if Musk’s goal is really for the open exchange of ideas.

              Legitimate blue checks will bail while scammers and spammers will swoop in on them since it’ll work like promoted accounts to sell shit to people.

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 5:43 AM

              haha, imagine being Twitter and trying to hire for any of their 110+ open roles right now.

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 7:27 PM

            Right but who would resign when they know they get paid on that day

            • reply
              October 30, 2022 7:34 PM

              Yeah, I’d just keep my head down until November 1st. It still doesn’t address the severance issue though, something Tesla has been taken to court over.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 4:38 AM

            lol, November 1st is literally tomorrow -- they'll get their grants. Folks should begin shopping around todayh.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 7:25 PM

          You would have to be insane to still be there without a plan to get out. It's been coming for a while now.

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 7:19 PM

        I need a way to make Twitter demonstrably worse for users looking for accurate information, create a completely marginal amount of increased revenue, and terrorize my new employees so a bunch of them quit and I can avoid paying severance... hm what to do....

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 7:36 PM

        From "de-facto town square" to "money talks" in less than two days. Musk is so neoliberal he was probably convinced everyone else pays an oxygen bill, too.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 8:00 PM

          Musk has a debt service of several billion a year, and this is before him starting billions in the hole. His debt obligations are not sustainable with the current Twitter so we’re going to keep seeing them throw dumb shit on the wall to see what sticks.

          What’s funny is that his offer kept Twitter floating sky high while the rest of the sector crashed and burned.

          Sure, he can say that he’s going to drive engagement by making it easier for likeminded people to interact with one another, but yeah, he isn’t going to take the long view

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 8:37 PM

        Seems like a great way to annoy users that provide valuable content for not that much money.

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 8:44 PM

        Someone get crayons and draw pictures on why Twitter matters for anything?

        We live in a world where everything is 24/7 cycling news etc, there are many social media platforms, forums etc.

        Why does twitter matter at all.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 8:47 PM

          The only reason it matters right now is inertia.

          It's not like it offers anything special. If they turn it into a dumpster fire people will just go to TikTok (which is arguably worse?), Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, whatever.

          • reply
            October 30, 2022 8:48 PM

            That's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding. So, it doesn't matter and people will go be armchair Internet experts on a different platform. Got it. Thanks

            • reply
              October 30, 2022 8:52 PM

              Twitter did hit on a winning formula early by making the blue check thing and intentionally? turning it into a status thing.

            • reply
              October 30, 2022 8:53 PM

              Many, many, MANY people just won't care and will continue to use it. Twitter's still pretty huge with the kids in their 20's who don't give a shit about the consequences of any of this. But yeah, some people will leave. We'll just have to see if it reaches critical mass. Hope so!

              • reply
                October 30, 2022 8:56 PM

                I can't see many media orgs leaving twitter, where else are they going to get their stories.

        • reply
          October 30, 2022 9:38 PM

          Every reporter is on Twitter. What happens there drives the news.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 4:32 AM

          [deleted]

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 5:39 AM

          News happens on Twitter before it shows up on any TV channel or website

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 8:25 AM

            And sometimes that news is even accurate!

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 7:10 AM

          How else would Buzzfeed and Newsweek have articles to post if it wasn't sourcing stuff from Twitter.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 7:44 AM

          because it's known by everyone and ubiquitous in our culture.

          when the local mom and pop place in small town USA has a twitter logo and account on their front door window, it mean's its here to stay.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 12:41 PM

          It's absolutely the best way to keep up to date with research in the fields I follow and to keep up to date with some of the creatives I'm friends with. I had an account since Twitter launched and never used it until probably the last 2 years when I discovered that, if you take the time to curate your feed, it can actually be remarkably handy.

          If you just look at what's trending, though, of course it's going to be filled with dumb shit. Might as well just read bodybuilding.com forums at that point.

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 8:47 PM

        What’s going to be the Twitter replacement for people with an audience that want to leave?

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 9:03 PM

        Now THAT would take a bite out of the user base and/or open the door for a competitor.

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 9:42 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 4:45 AM

          I'd expect high performers with options to do this immediately. We'll see what happens, though.

      • reply
        October 30, 2022 9:54 PM

        TWIT AS A SERVICE.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 1:42 AM

        This will backfire in the left bubble as it will be the "I pay Elon 20 bucks a month" sign.
        It will go up in the right bubble as it will amplify visibility of tweets.
        And it will go up in the right and libertarian bubble because it is the "I pay our lord and saviour Elon 20 bucks a month" sign.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 4:27 AM

        I didn’t realize this, but twitter now has a billion dollars per month in debt service, so of course he’s going to be desperate for a monetization strategy.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 4:34 AM

          Question: How is that legal? How is it legal to buy a company using loans and then saddle that company with the debt you incurred buying them?

          I've seen it happen a bunch and if I remember right, it often crushes the acquired company under a pile of dept, tanking their ability to be profitable.

          I've always wondered why that was a legal thing you could do. It seems super shady.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 4:37 AM

            I mean the borrower makes the argument they are buying an under valued asset and can extract that value to make the profit to pay off the debt. Then someone is stupid enough to loan them the money.

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 4:40 AM

              So if they can't service the debt, is not Elon who takes the hit, or Twitter that goes bankrupt?

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 4:43 AM

                I assume whomever loaned him the money, a combination of banks and Saudi Arabia, would take ownership when he defaulted.

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 7:32 AM

                Both afaik since a lot of the money he put up to buy it was secured by his own personal shares in Tesla iirc

                • reply
                  October 31, 2022 8:03 AM

                  God it would be amazing if his purchase of Twitter severely compromised his position with Tesla.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 9:27 AM

            isn't this the model private equity frequently uses? it's legal because they bribe people like Kristen Sinema to make sure their preferred strategies are legal

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 9:36 AM

              Yeah I've heard it used quite a bit with hospitals and fast food chains.

              It sucks. It just doesn't seem like it should be legal.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 1:29 PM

            This is pretty naive.

            This is the way all M&A's work

            Remember all that corporate raiders stuff in the 1990's and early 2000's?

            Toys R Us got bought out, and the debt used to buy the company was put back on the the ledgers so now the company was ladden with debt.

            Just because a person you don't like uses this tactic doesn't mean it's illegal. You gotta shut down wall street if you want to go against these tactics. That's what the occupy wall street was about.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 4:48 AM

        So apparently there are just under 300k verified users on Twitter, right now; please correct me if you find a better source of data. That means a potential revenue stream of $6 million per month / $72 million per year. And I guarantee not all 300k are gonna pay.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 4:56 AM

          At most HALF will pay

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 4:59 AM

            Yeah, that seems reasonable. And if debt service really is $1 billion/month -- as mentioned by greenbergMD directly above my post -- then I don't see $3 million/month doing much.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 8:09 AM

          But if you're a propaganda outlet or bot farm, it's only $20 a month for legitimacy. That's the real problem.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 5:30 AM

        What if Musk turns Twitter into the messaging platform Android users he been dreaming of?

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 5:45 AM

          Then it probably won't be worth whatever the monthly asking fee is.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 5:31 AM

        I don’t believe any of this, I think he’s just gonna fling shit at the wall and see what sticks

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 5:44 AM

          And you don't think this attempt at charging $20/month to verified users fits that description?

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 6:31 AM

            No because I don’t believe he’ll actually go thru with it as-is. There aren’t enough benefits

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 5:35 AM

        I love the visual of his stupid ass holed up in an office at twitter hq with his paid goons / protection detail all around him and all their 15 Teslas parked outside like it's so hostile takeover.

        You bought trash for 44 billion

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 5:47 AM

          Imagine being the banks that signed off on the loans for the Twitter acquisition.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 5:57 AM

            It's the people at Sequoia Capital that are going to be needing to explain this

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 5:53 AM

        That'll basically make it so that most verified accounts are corporate accounts, right?

        I can't see most people paying Netflix subscription money to maintain a blue check.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 5:59 AM

        Now this is the kind of maverick who will get humanity to Mars.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 6:00 AM

        I’ve deleted Twitter. I refuse to support this in any way. It’s been a week and I literally haven’t missed it at all.

        It’s funny that for all the worship that so many people throw at Elon as some tech/business genius, at the end of the day he’s just another shitty corporate CEO that does the same shitty big business bullshit. This is the same infuriating bullshit that any modern scumbag piece of shit business guy would do when coming in as the new CEO after a take over like this. There’s literally nothing NOTHING special about Musk. He inherited money and then just did the standard “bottom line is king, people are worthless” crap that they all do.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 6:34 AM

          I deleted the app off my phone and links of my browser. I still have the account. I do miss it. A lot of fandoms and communities I follow still don't exist anywhere else. Facebook groups are kinda there but it isn't the same. Everything is small and isolated.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 7:45 AM

            this is the way - don't let anyone make a new account using your identity just cause you hate Elon. delete all the tweets, lock the account down, and ignore it.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 8:33 AM

          [deleted]

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 6:02 AM

        Guess it's time I launch my alternative app, Twatter.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 6:03 AM

        A lot of Twitter tech bros are going to feel the other side of the right fist of libertarianism.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 6:29 AM

          The only positive thing out of all of this is some tech bros are going to be inconvenienced until they find some other useless tech company to jump to.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 6:36 AM

        Well I'll continue to use Twitter basically never, but now I feel righteous about it, so good move Elon!

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 6:51 AM

        Elon Musk is trying to hardest to make sure no software developer will ever want to work for him.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 6:58 AM

          oh, that would be such a pity.

          evil laughter

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 7:11 AM

          Pretty certain lots of software developers work for him.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 7:14 AM

            I’m certain they do currently, but anybody watching this behavior is going to look elsewhere.

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 7:30 AM

              Apple has pretty much close to the same stress level as elons companies and people still sign up


              Same with Amazon and netflix

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 8:27 AM

                All those other companies pay significantly more than Tesla / SpaceX. L8 Amazon was just short of 1M while the rough equivalent at Tesla when I spoke to them in 2021 was about 600k. There’s a huge gap. If I’m doing the “same” work I won’t take a 400k paycut AND work for that asshole.

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 8:31 AM

                I know several people that work for Apple, and I don't think that's accurate at all.

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 8:48 AM

                That seems untrue

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 8:51 AM

                All FAANG / etc companies are not the same and it also highly matters which team/org you're in

                Whereas Elon takes a super hands-on micro-manager approach to all his companies (emails about listening to music on the factory floor??) so no matter where you are it's like you're working directly for him

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 8:54 AM

                you know nothing

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 12:42 PM

                Strongly disagree, knowing some people who work at Apple/Amazon/Netflix and some who work at Tesla. The Tesla folks have stories like, "Elon walks around the office firing people on the spot." The CEO walking around firing people is just not the case at functional companies.

                • reply
                  October 31, 2022 12:53 PM

                  He’s just got all sorts of free time to do things like that! Great CEO!

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 8:31 AM

              [deleted]

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 7:00 AM

        I was holding out hope he wouldn't ruin twitter, but its been like 3 days and its already turning into a shit show.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 7:09 AM

        I'm bummed about this whole affair. I really enjoy the iOS developer community on Twitter, and it will be difficult to replace that source of inspiration and information if/when I need to shut down my Twitter account.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 7:29 AM

        FUUUUCK I just accepted a job at twitter too


        lol no I didn’t but imagine the people who did

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 7:33 AM

          Sadly, real Twitter employees have started being let go today. I've seen several announcements from engineers there.

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 7:37 AM

            Sometimes I think about some kid fresh out of college / grad school who finally got his big break and landed a huge opportunity by getting a job at Bear Stearns and started like a couple of days before it all collapsed seemingly out of nowhere, and how much that would suck. There had to be at least some people who were just hired and starting like a week or even days before it all went down. What shitty timing! Especially if they turned down offers from other places to work there instead thinking it’d be this awesome high profile place to have on your resume etc

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 8:24 AM

              A long time ago I worked with a guy who was really good at his job, worked in operations and he was a lead then manager. Anyway that company did one of those bullshit moves where they let go all their senior people and then rehired younger/more junior people. Dude got laid off. Got another job in the same industry, different company. Was super happy. 6 months later his new company got bought by his older company, and those motherfuckers laid him off again.

              I think about him when I'm annoyed with my job or feeling mistreated for perspective.

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 8:27 AM

              There were some shackers that worked at bear from what I recall

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 8:21 AM

            Anywhere you've seen to track this? The only one I saw was this guy from a NYPost trash article.

            https://twitter.com/taylorleese

    • reply
      October 30, 2022 9:08 PM

      This was all part of Asif's master plan on why he never got the verification checkmark.

    • reply
      October 30, 2022 10:14 PM

      TIL that Twitter has a subscription model.

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 7:27 AM

      He’s just lighting a match to the whole thing isn’t he

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 8:13 AM

        How does he benefit from that?
        He's not that dumb? Or is he?

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 8:33 AM

          My money's on "is".

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 8:34 AM

          Yes, he's a fucking idiot. I think he managed to luck out on buying some good companies and then hired some smart advisors and (used to?) listen to them. Dude is just another zuckerberg or trump. He does nothing but grift and thinks he rules the planet. I cannot stand the worship of him.

          https://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=41302805#item_41302805

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 8:36 AM

          "I'm the world's richest man and a very smart engineer so by proxy I am an expert in absolutely everything. How hard could figuring this Twitter thing out be?"

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 7:32 AM

      Games industry Twitter stalwart Nibel, who built a following of 450,000 for regularly tweeting breaking news and memes under the handle @Nibellion, has today quit the social media platform.

      "After some introspection, I've made the decision to focus my time and energy elsewhere and move on from Twitter," Nibel tweeted today, now from a locked account. "This marks the end of my video games coverage and my active participation in this platform. Thanks to everybody for the fun times!"


      https://www.eurogamer.net/video-games-industry-twitter-legend-nibel-quits-platform

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 8:07 AM

        Seems a bit kneejerk.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 8:24 AM

          The article said they set up a patreon and turned out he wasn't going to be able to monetize the 450k twitter followers as easily as expected. So that's probably the real reason.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 9:31 AM

          As a creator Twitter is basically the worst of all the social networks for everything. It's the hardest to build a following, the hardest to get your content into other peoples' timeline (especially non-followers), the hardest to monetize, the lowest total users of networks (by 10x). When you're having to manage your presence across 3-4 platforms at once and Twitter is giving you the lowest ROI it's probably not a hard call.

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 8:46 AM

      Twitter to lay off 25% of workforce in first round of job cuts

      "Oct 31 (Reuters) - Twitter, which was acquired last week by billionaire Elon Musk, plans to let go of a quarter of its workforce as part of what is expected to be a first round of layoffs, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

      Celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro, a long-time Musk legal representative, led the conversations about the job cuts, according to the report.

      Twitter had over 7,000 employees at the end of 2021, according to a regulatory filing and a quarter of the headcount amounts to nearly 2,000 employees.
      "

      https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-lay-off-25-workforce-first-round-job-cuts-washington-post-2022-10-31/
      https://archive.ph/LWSrX

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 8:51 AM

        My guess is they won’t follow the 60 day layoff warning and get sued and lose even more money.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 11:50 AM

          Is that a thing -- the 60-day layoff warning, I mean? Cuz if so, yeah, enjoy paying for those lawsuits. Might be big enough for a class-action.

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            October 31, 2022 1:02 PM

            Federal WARN act.

            requires employers to give their employees at least 60 days of notice of a plant closing or mass layoffs. This allows employees to look for a new jobs and begin retraining before they are unemployed.

            The WARN Act applies to employers with one hundred or more employees. This does not include employees who work less than six months or part-time employees who average less than 20 hours per week. All employees are covered by the Act whether they are paid hourly or salaried. Managerial and supervisory employees are also covered, but business partners are not.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 1:27 PM

          They can layoff right away, and just pay 2 months of salary. The employees will be “on the payroll” during that time but only on paper. They’ll have no access to any company data.

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 9:14 AM

        I just picked a great time to be winding up my Software Development degree.

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 8:53 AM

      If I worked at Twitter and Elon had an all hands meeting, I'd stand up and ask him when he is going to be done performing for the media and his right-wing followers and actually run the company

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 9:40 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 9:56 AM

        Lots of people have dumb ideas for social network monetization. Making your users pay to have the network contain trustworthy sources is obviously dumb. This is going to increase spam and fake accounts as people who were previously verified will not pay. Now other people can easily impersonate them. News orgs are basically being required to spend money here to verify their employees so they can't be impersonated by random spammers but that revenue is a drop in the bucket.

        The actual way to be profitable is be big enough to have a profitable advertising unit. Twitter has failed at growing for decades so it does not.

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 10:03 AM

          how can a paid bluecheck user impersonate another twitter account when usernames cannot be duplicated and mutuals and tweet history is different?

          • reply
            October 31, 2022 10:08 AM

            Twitter allows verified users to change their display name, even to the same name as other verified users. Users who were previously verified will also now choose to not be verified for $20/mo. So where once there was a verified account you trusted now another user (who may or may not be verified themselves) can change their display name (and avatar) to look like someone else or even register a new account with an @ handle very similar to the previously verified account (doing the usual things like using a lowercase L instead of 1, etc).

            • reply
              October 31, 2022 10:17 AM

              There are existing rules about impersonating someone, you have to mention that it is a parody account and users have been banned for not doing so

              > To avoid confusing others about an account’s affiliation, parody, commentary, and fan accounts must distinguish themselves in BOTH their account name and bio.

              https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/parody-account-policy

              But I get your point, the blue check is a quick and simple way to verify what we're looking at.

              Perhaps there will be a differentiator for actually verified users and paid verified users.

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 10:26 AM

                Impersonation is not proactively policed. It requires users to report impersonators and wait for Twitter to act. If Twitter actually cared about it they wouldn't let you change your display name to match someone else's.

              • reply
                October 31, 2022 2:09 PM

                Twitter has been historically bad at handling impersonators. Musk himself is the prime example: For the longest while, any popular thread would. have a fake Elon Musk account spamming Bitcoin scams. They would even be in the replies of the real Musk’s tweets.

                The latest scam is to have the bot accounts block whoever they’re impersonating and replying to. The real account can’t see and report the spam replies, but everyone else can.

                Twitter is terrible at handling fake and spam accounts, and the process of moderating those is labor-intensive. And so it is unlikely to become better under the new ownership.

                • reply
                  October 31, 2022 2:10 PM

                  one can argue Elon bought Twitter just to stop the crypto bot replies under his tweets

        • reply
          October 31, 2022 12:27 PM

          I never understood why they didn't charge organizations more to maintain their brand presence on twitter via business accounts. Seems like you are kind of held hostage as a biz and expected to have a twitter so they could have charged for that, and even tier it so that it plays nice with advertising spend on twitter in terms of spend (e.g. spend $10k on advertising we give you all these tools to help with conversion and comp your monthly fee). but just spitballing here

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 2:00 PM

        I don't think the issue is verified blue check marks is it? It's "Nancy45907 - Mom of 3 kids from [swing state]" and her 50,000 friends.

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 10:17 AM

      Seems like a great time to start a twitter competitor.

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 10:35 AM

      Halloween Ghoul
      https://i.imgur.com/QHXbJHU.jpeg

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 12:27 PM

      i'm amazed people to this day still think elon is smart

      • reply
        October 31, 2022 12:34 PM

        The husband of one of my wife's friends who admires Elon, once uttered the phrase, "...deep thinkers like Joe Rogan"

        I instantly lost all respect for him

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 1:13 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 1:34 PM

      Watching Twitter Now Musk Has Grabbed Control & Wants to Use It to Damage the US & Ukraine
      https://i.imgur.com/bvAzDRU.png

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 1:37 PM

      Verdictive and petty
      (Video with sound)
      https://i.imgur.com/MM5hAk6.mp4

    • reply
      October 31, 2022 2:11 PM

      Deactivated my account today and deleted the app.

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