RussInCheshireJul 1, 2023

How to be An Genius:

1. Pay $44bn for a site worth 1/2 that
2. Sack everyone who knows how it works
3. Release far-right troll army
4. Turn genuine validation into a badge of idiocy
5. Kill most of your ad revenue
6. Inflate API price to recoup money
7. Everyone stops using API and scrapes site instead
8. Massively limit the service to end scraping
9. Service is now unusable
10. Remaining advertising value destroyed
11. Kill a cornerstone of the internet
12. Lose $44bn

Show threadAngel
@RussInCheshire I dunno, $44bn seems like a small price to pay to kill one of the worlds greatest organising tools and sources of real-time news. Revolutions have been born on twitter.
Jul 1, 2023 at 9:06pmWeb
Show threademmatonkinJul 1, 2023

@chibiusa40 @RussInCheshire
Yes, given Saudi involvement and all that, the only explanation that feels like it makes sense is deliberate malicious action carefully disguised as utter idiocy.

Thing is though, if there ever was a plan of that kind I don't think he'd know it. I think he's just an idiot.

Show threadRickJul 2, 2023
@emmatonkin @chibiusa40 @RussInCheshire Stupidity trumps Malice
Show threadPJ "Vote Green" CoffeyJul 2, 2023

@emmatonkin @chibiusa40

Absolutely a useful idiot. He's driven by ego and the desire to "stick it to the wokes". But even the richest man in the world will struggle with 44bn. So, seeing an opportunity Saudi and Qatar (often pictured with him prior to this bid) kick in some money.

Do they think they're going to make money out it? Ha. No. No one makes money out of social media. They are expecting to break it.

@RussInCheshire

Show threadMr. CompletelyJul 1, 2023
@chibiusa40 @RussInCheshire I think it's prob worth it to his Saudi backers and such. For Elmo himself, I don't know, he seems so ego driven, it's hard to see him buying into a plan that makes him take a massive public L that unfolds slowly over months and years. But maybe his funders figured he'd crater it and told him "you'll be great champ, go get em"