Here's my pessimistic prediction for the future of Twitter:
- Many people don't care enough to pay $8, and with their content downranked, just mostly stop posting.
- Even some legitimate users who'd be willing to pay for a checkmark are reluctant, since it acts as something like tacit approval for Musk himself, in a time when public opinion is low.
- Spammers on the other hand all have blue checkmarks and are sorted to the top, having bought them from countries where they're dirt cheap[0].
- Remaining users get into the habit of scrolling past blue-checkmark responses altogether, as if they're a series of banner ads before the real content.
- Twitter briefly tries to fix the new spam issue by downranking countries where checkmarks are cheap, generating outraged headlines.
- Twitter briefly tries to fix the issue by making checkmarks $8 worldwide, generating outraged headlines.
- Twitter tries again to fix the issue with some sort of multi-tiered subscription system or something but it doesn't matter because the site is a shell of its former self by now anyway.
- Twitter messes with the UI a bunch of times.
- Twitter sells for $18.3 million to Automattic.
[0] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587499283573530625
- Many people don't care enough to pay $8, and with their content downranked, just mostly stop posting.
- Even some legitimate users who'd be willing to pay for a checkmark are reluctant, since it acts as something like tacit approval for Musk himself, in a time when public opinion is low.
- Spammers on the other hand all have blue checkmarks and are sorted to the top, having bought them from countries where they're dirt cheap[0].
- Remaining users get into the habit of scrolling past blue-checkmark responses altogether, as if they're a series of banner ads before the real content.
- Twitter briefly tries to fix the new spam issue by downranking countries where checkmarks are cheap, generating outraged headlines.
- Twitter briefly tries to fix the issue by making checkmarks $8 worldwide, generating outraged headlines.
- Twitter tries again to fix the issue with some sort of multi-tiered subscription system or something but it doesn't matter because the site is a shell of its former self by now anyway.
- Twitter messes with the UI a bunch of times.
- Twitter sells for $18.3 million to Automattic.
[0] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587499283573530625