Twitter rolls out US$1 annual fee for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines

[high vector]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/18/x-twitter-1-dollar-annual-subscription-fee-new-users-elon-musk-new-zealand-nz-philippines#:~:text=known as Twitter)-,X%2C%20formerly%20Twitter%2C%20rolls%20out%20US%241%20annual%20fee%20for,New%20Zealand%20and%20the%20Philippines&text=X%2C%20the%20platform%20formerly%20known,is%20aimed%20at%20combating%20bots.

[ruby torrent]

As soon as you think the business decisions cannot possibly get any worse...

[grizzled maple]

Could be 2 dollars

[vocal egret]

it's literally so easy to bot twitter I don't understand why they're going with the solutions that hurt users over technical stuff

[empty gust]

yea, like suspending users that dm people that are not following you

that only means its coming

[dry robin]

lmao what the fuck

[vocal egret]

different take https://twitter.com/troyhunt/status/1714529503823953990

[dry robin]

Good point

[hot ingot]

(https://fxtwitter.com/troyhunt/status/1714529503823953990 since twitter doesn't show embeds lol)

[drifting niche]

tbh I don't understand anyone who says this is a horrible idea

[silk musk]

imagine if discord required you buy nitro from now on

it isnt too bad if 1 platform alone does it, but when 7 different platforms follow en suite

[empty gust]

free platforms are indeed following suit lol

if they removed ads from EVERY services, i'd most likely pay

but depends how pricy it is

[drifting niche]

I find it would make people a bit more aware of how much of their life they spend on social media

also services relying less on ad revenue is always a plus in my eyes, no matter what

(I should also note that I don't use twitter or any other social media, so the validity of my opinion is arguable)

[empty gust]

what i'm annoyed about is multiaccounting and account ownership attribution through card data

[silk musk]

That is true, twitter/x has been kinda iffy around suspending or blocking users.

[ruby torrent]

A key thing to note here is that while Twitter has a bot problem, it's also got a problem with users leaving

I'd prefer if our services were paid rather than ad-funded, but from where Twitter is now, this is a silly move

[high vector]

This is clever, since Philippines has low efficiency of implementing cyber crime law, bots will most likely do their malicious stuff there

[dry robin]

I wonder how much the fee for India would be. I'm very certain almost 60% of the entire Indian userbase would disappear, because most of us don't like paying for pixels. I'm pretty sure it would be around (50 INR)

[vocal egret]

they probably decided on those 2 countries based on data they already have. I know I've banned traffic outright from those 2 countries (and many more) to stop ddos in the past

[empty gust]

wouldn't they just bot from somewhere else?

[vocal egret]

well you can't magically create servers for malicious use in whatever country you want. Sometimes big botnets sell proxy or ddos services through the devices they control and even tho they're pretty global there's usually a much higher concentration of devices in a certain country

for example topgg got hit with a ton of ddos almost 2 years back and the traffic matched up exactly with the mirai botnet and the top countries we the philippines, brazil, russia etc. Banning just those top 5 countries momentarily drops the throughput by a ton

[drifting niche]

it's also got a problem with users leaving
"problem" is rather subjective here tbh, for you it might be a problem, but for twitter it might be a solution

[frigid ginkgo]

everyone has a knee jerk reaction to thinking twitter decisions are bad as it supports their anti-twitter agenda but this is fine imo. The fee thing seems pointless, might as well just do card verification and refund the $1. But from an anti-bot point of view, sounds good to me

[frigid ginkgo]

idk how accurate that is, they've not published any DAUs in 2023 (at least from my 2 minute google search)

[drifting niche]

just my 2 cents

[frigid ginkgo]

oh for sure, I meant more the "problem with users leaving" comment - which wasn't yours

[empty gust]

am just salty about the identity verification aspect - there's a reason i refuse to put my phone number there

they got my email and digital fingerprint, but not actual ways to pester me directly

[median knoll]

If I hadn't already left this would have been the moment I jumped. It's both a smart and user base killing plan. Combined with all of his other decisions I'm not certain this is actually a good one.

[median knoll]

There's literally no reason for this platform to need that especially in combination with a monthly sub from both a they have what they need to identify me and that it's a spam reducing measure

[silk musk]

If I hadn't already left this would have been the moment I jumped. It's both a smart and user base killing plan. Combined with all of his other decisions I'm not certain this is actually a good one.
I agree, I think if twitter had rolled this out pre elon buyout, it wouldve felt like a stellar idea (or at least less hate and FUD around it).

[frigid ginkgo]

There's a lot of knee jerk reactions to twitter news. At this point they could say they're giving everyone on the platform $1000 and people would say it's bad

[silk musk]

This is also true. I can already imagine "They're trying to buy public opinion. Classic rich people don't understand us and think money fixes everything. I'll take the money thank you very much, but stay on such a platform? No thank you."

[empty gust]

it would mean i'd have to link my bank account to receive 1k, i wouldnt want to xD

[ruby torrent]

Giving all your users $1k sounds like a pretty bad financial decision for a social media company

[slim citrus]

Sounds like a scam to be honest

Scammers would love it if Elon did something like that with Twitter

[frigid ginkgo]

I can't tell if you're all joking about my message but I hope so lol