Four Big Advantages of Twitter Blue

July 7, 2023July 7, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

If you’re reading this, you likely have a Twitter account. I have some wonderful updates and insights that I hope to share with you to make your day brighter today.

“Twitter is the only social media company where you can see the code of the algorithm. The way to build trust is to show how it works, with full transparency.” –Elon Musk

My goal is to encourage you to take advantage of the features Twitter has to offer. I believe you will find them interesting, useful, and hopefully make your life better.

First, I truly encourage you to get Twitter Blue. Blue is currently $84 per year when you subscribe on an annual basis on the web. Most of the features I’m going to describe to you are those that belong to Twitter Blue users. I’m doing this because I have had friends tell me they either don’t know how to start Twitter Blue, or don’t see value in it.

This chart shows how much you can save when you subscribe to Blue via the web.

A Strong Use Case For Twitter Blue

For writers, researchers, commentators and engineers, and especially people looking for work, Twitter Blue is valuable as you can tweet up to 25,000 characters in a single tweet. When you use the web to tweet, you can place multiple (four) images or charts in line by dragging the image to where you want it in the tweet or “article.”

This is good for tweets that would like to communicate research and information similar to what is shared in traditional blog posts on different platforms.

For example, I’ve done research on Tesla Megapacks and their usage. Some of my articles are quite long and demand multiple visuals. The 25,000-character feature makes it possible to share these long articles that would normally be on other platforms. Now they can be shared on Twitter. The advantage to this is people are more likely to read your work when they do not have to click on a link that leads them off of the Twitter platform. People can also bookmark your articles (I’ve seen a lot of bookmarks on my longer articles, possibly for this reason). You can also bookmark data sources from across Twitter, in order to produce better articles through organizing your work.

Bookmarks that are labeled are extremely useful, they serve as files that you can reference through time. For example, I write articles about Tesla, SpaceX, and of course Twitter. I have multiple bookmarks for categories of research and also bookmarks for fun things, like memes or things I would like to investigate later.

Let’s Talk About Why You Don’t Use Blue

I’ll pause here in the article, just to address a concern that I’ve seen people express on Twitter. This is people saying they refuse to get Blue check verification, because they do not like some of the tweets by Elon Musk.

I’d like to say that it’s still OK for you to get a Blue check, in fact, it’s to your advantage to get a Blue check, because it will help you to be more productive. It will help you to differentiate yourself from fake accounts that may try to impersonate you.

A good example is one of the top employees at Tesla recently had his account impersonated, it would have been very difficult to differentiate between the official account and the fake account because it had 12K followers. The fact this employee has Blue check verification made it easy to identify the real account and report the fake one.

Also, if you’re not getting a Blue check, because you’re part of a movement to oust Elon Musk, the movement isn’t very organized and it hasn’t been very effective. You’re actually at a disadvantage because of this fact. Twitter is not going to shut down, and it’s offering tools that it did not offer in Twitter 1.0 that are designed to help you.

“I’m Just A Fun Dog!”

On Twitter, some people have voiced concerns about not wanting to pay for Twitter Blue unless they can pay with Dogecoin. In a recent interview in the Twitter HQ, Elon Musk wore a Dogecoin-themed T-Shirt as seen in this image. This shows he supports Dogecoin. He chose to make a fun statement when we all know that he could have chosen to wear any other T-shirt in his closet. For this reason, I encourage you to convert your Dogecoin into USD and join Twitter Blue in support of what Elon Musk is doing! Let me know if you do, I think it would be awesome!

_{Elon Musk in a splendid Dogecoin t-shirt and the Babylon Bee Crew.}

Bye-Bye to the Bot Farms

This leads me to the biggest advantage of Twitter verification, and that is that you are differentiating yourself from the millions of bots, which are present on every platform, including Twitter. I say this out of experience because I have found multiple bots following my account. In fact, if you look at my tweets, you will see bots latch onto tweets immediately when they happen, after every tweet. I will tell you I have never seen a bot with a Blue check do this. Bots can try to mimic humans, and I have experienced that as well, including bots that are controlled by artificial intelligence. Getting up to speed with protecting your identity is a very important thing.

Encryption

Another important aspect of Twitter Blue is the ability for you to send encrypted messages. You may not think its important now, but when you need to communicate something sensitive, it’s important to use encryption, and that is only available between Twitter Blue subscribers.

The screenshot below is, I feel, an underrepresentation of the perks of Blue. If anything, Elon Musk tends to promise less and deliver more. I see him doing this repeatedly with Twitter. It is classic Elon. He has done this with Tesla as well.

Finally, I’m going to share a few things that truly delight me as a Twitter Blue user. I love that I have up to one hour to edit my tweets/articles. This is a wonderful feature and gives me a chance to correct any mistakes I think of within that hour. I have used this feature with almost every article. It’s amazing how your work looks different once it is live on Twitter versus how it looks in your document edit screen.

“If Twitter can be the least imperfect place to find the truth on the internet, then I will consider that we have done a good job.” – Elon Musk

Final thoughts…

As you know, there’s a lot of misinformation on the Internet. One of Elon Musk’s goals is to provide you with a place that is the least imperfect. In other words, no social media platform is going to be perfect. Elon and his team are striving to make Twitter the least imperfect. I think that’s a worthy goal, and I personally think it’s worth financially supporting. My $84 a year is an extremely small amount to support such a wonderful mission. I hope that you will support Twitter, see the advantages of using Twitter Blue, and most of all enjoy Twitter and have the least amount of regrettable minutes on the platform as possible.

Elon Musk carries a sink into Twitter headquarters — ^{Let That Sink In, Elon Musk at Twitter HQ}

Article by Gail Alfar, please credit accordingly. Have a beautiful week and, love those around you, and enjoy the gift of life that you have.

This week’s Twitter Round-Up

March 14, 2023March 22, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Welcome back for this week’s Twitter roundup. Here’s the main highlights of the past week!

MONETIZATION BY CONTENT CREATORS IS A MAJOR PRIORITY

Elon Musk cares about content creators on Twitter and has now shared that a major priority is to allow content creators to monetize their work on Twitter in order to make a living and prosper. On March 6 he tweeted,

“It is a major priority to enable monetization by content creators! People need to make a living and prosper from their work. We need to make it possible to upload the content in the first place. That’s getting there.” Elon Musk

COMMUNITY NOTES. CONTEXT ON TWEETS, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

When a journalist acknowledged that his tweet was dishonest but refused to fix it, Community Notes did it for him. To understand the Community Note concept, Twitter released a video on March 9 explaining it and several days later invited people to sign up to join.

Here’s a breakdown of the video explaining Community Notes, Context on Tweets, by the people, for the people:

“How does Community Notes avoid one-sided bias? Pile-ins? Brigading? Manipulation? abuse? Community Notes are rated by contributors of multiple perspectives, and only notes that are widely found helpful are shown on Tweets. So one group alone can’t determine what notes get shown. And pile-ons aren’t effective. This helps ensure that notes are effective to a wide range of people. To make it clear how all of this works, Community Notes’ algorithm is open-source and all data is public.”

Twitter warmly invited everyone to sign up to become a Community Notes contributor

https://twitter.com/CommunityNotes/status/1635491237439602691?s=20 Twitter also allows anyone to see the code on GitHub: twitter.github.io/communitynotes

Community Notes can serve to add context to advertising, even increasing financial literacy, as in this note for an ad by QuickenCompare.

When the ad stated “Don’t borrow from the bank. Borrow from yourself,” Community Notes stepped in to add context, “Home Equity Lines of Credit do not allow someone to borrow from ‘themselves’ rather than a bank. The money is loaned from a bank, with home equity as collateral for a loan.”

TWITTER BLUE GOING GLOBAL

Twitter Blue is now available in at least 50 countries, making people happy in the United States, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, Ireland, Belgium, Sweden, Romania, Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Croatia, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Pakistan, Mexico, Thailand, Philippines, South Africa, Argentina, South Korea, Egypt, Nigeria and Malaysia.

TWITTER FILES EXPOSED THE CENSORSHIP INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

One Twitter user, Jim Hall, commented on the Twitter files when Matt Taibbi or Michael Shellenberger (who helped release the files) appeared before congress, saying “I don’t know about you all but I’m glad Matthew Taibbi and Elon Musk took up the challenge of sharing this data. Those who stick their heads in the ground and say the Twitter Files are a nothing burger are oblivious and seem to wish to stay that way. The New York Times has not written one word about the Matt Taibbi or Michael Shellenberger hearing at which Democrat members of congress impugned their integrity and tried to intimidate Taibbi into revealing his sources.”

Matthew Taibbi made an opening statement on the Twitter Files to members of congress about the censorship industrial complex: “Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government, from the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA. For every government agency scanning Twitter, there were perhaps twenty quasi-private entities doing the same thing.”

COST TO ACCESS TWITTER’S API

On March 10, Twitter’s Developer Platform began to offer Enterprise Packages in small, medium and large. Shown is the benefits of a small package, costing only $42,000 a month. For the other packages, click here.

^{Image courtesy Twitter, Inc. RealTime PowerTrack API Small Package Twitter}

TWITTER MAY BECOME THE BIGGEST FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IN THE WORLD

Elon Musk also spoke at the Morgan Stanley TMT 2023 conference in San Francisco on March 7, about Twitter becoming a financial institution, and one day it could be a viable alternative to banks, Venmo, Paypal, etc. You may read the entire talk here, “Elon Musk’s Talk at Morgan Stanley TMT 2023 on Twitter, X.com, Tesla and Starship.”

“You want to be able to send money easily on Twitter to another account with one click, & also earn interest on the money. I think it’s possible for Twitter to become the biggest financial institution in the world” Elon Musk

CONCLUSION

Twitter and its initiatives are truly inspiring. With Community Notes, we are given the opportunity to add context and shift the course of discussion or contribute to tweets in a way that is thoughtful and respectful. It’s great that Twitter Blue is extending its reach internationally making it available in 50 countries and soon plans to promote monetization for content creators. At the end of the day it’s our responsibility to help ensure safe and civil participation regardless if it’s on or offline. Let’s do this by being informed users of this platform and making sure we create an inclusive space that encourages honest contribution without fear of personal attack or manipulation. Use Twitter more often. Use Community Notes. Work collectively so we can all benefit from it!

Do you love reading about the history of Twitter? See more here…

Twitter Update: Elon Musk talks on the ‘All-In Podcast’ reveals details about Twitter 2.0. and more Elon Musk talked on the all-in podcast and had some important information to share! (Davis Sacks, Jason Calacanis, Chamath Palihapitiya and David A. Friedberg all asked Elon Musk questions). I share 12 main points with you in this article.

What Elon Musk had to say about Twitter at World Government Summit 2023, a transcript Elon Musk spoke about Twitter at the world conference on February 14, 2023 and here is a transcript of that conversation. My goal/mission in this blog post is to preserve the important and visionary words of Elon Musk. Enjoy!

^{SF Golden Gate bridge. Image courtesy anonymous.}

Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – March 14, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.

Twitter: Moderation in Content Moderation! (This week’s updates)

February 23, 2023April 30, 2024 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Twitter is improving fast under the direction of Elon Musk. In this article, I’ll highlight this week’s updates and give you a heads-up on what’s to come!

THE WEEK’S TWITTER UPDATES

Elon Musk emphasizes free speech

Elon Musk shared a meme depicting a medieval man warning “Martin” not to post his note in the public square because “You know that it’s just going to be taken down and you’ll be blocked from posting for the next 30 days.”

“All things in moderation, especially content moderation” Elon Musk

Two-Factor Authentification Update

Twitter sent out messages to all users that non-Blue subscribers would be transitioning to app-based 2FA authentication. This is a small change and users are being conveniently notified directly in the app. Twitter’s official message: “Effective March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method. Other accounts can use an authentication app or security key for 2FA.” Elon Musk added, “Use of free authentication apps for 2FA will remain free and are much more secure than SMS.”

Twitter Blue

Twitter improved readability on long tweets for Twitter Blue subscribers with smaller font/better spacing. I created my first longform tweet, and it came out nicely!

Community Notes helps people gain better context

Elon Musk’s message about Community Notes may inspire more people to sign up to use it. Elon tweeted, “Community Notes is a game changer for combating wrong information.”

Beginning February 21, Twitter users started getting a heads-up if a Community Note starts showing on a Tweet they replied to, liked or retweeted. This feature helps give people extra context that they might otherwise miss. For more details see here.

Elon Musk explains Community Notes,

“I think there’s something that we’re putting a lot of effort into called Community Notes. It’s currently just in English, but we will be expanding it to all languages.
That is I think quite a good way to assess the truth of things where it’s the community itself, basically, the people of Earth who are basically, not exactly voting but competing to provide the most accurate information.
So it’s sort of a competition for truth. I think it’s a compelling concept to have a competition for truth, because you also said, like what is truth, it’s because what may be true to self, may not be viewed as true to others, but you want to have the closest approximation of that so I think the Community Notes thing is very powerful.” – Elon Musk at WGS Feb 15, 2023

Twitter Files #16

Twitter Files #16 was released on February 18 by Matt Taibbi. Comic Interlude: A Media Experiment highlights how mainstream media was silent on what the Twitter files published because it does not fit their narrative. You can read how elected officials (both democrat and republican) demanded censorship from Twitter. Many examples are cited.

Matt Taibbi says, “The real story emerging in the #TwitterFiles is about a ballooning federal censorship bureaucracy that’s not aimed at either the left or the right per se, but at the whole population of outsiders, who are being systematically defined as threats.”

“Beginning in March, we’ll start using the Twitter Files to tell this larger story about how Americans turned their counterterrorism machinery against themselves, to disastrous effect, through little-known federal agencies like the Global Engagement Center (GEC).”

WHAT’S TO COME

Advertisements for products you may really want

Twitter advertisements were the topic of a thread on February 17 between former ads lead at Twitter and Sirine (a friend of mine from Twitter).

Elon starts with an optimistic tweet, “Sorry for showing you so many irrelevant & annoying ads on Twitter! We’re taking the (obvious) corrective action of tying ads to keywords & topics in tweets, like Google does with search. This will improve contextual relevance dramatically.” The former Twitter employee quips back in a rude tone, “As the former lead for Ads at Twitter, I can confidently say this man has no idea wtf he’s talking about.” Not missing a beat, Elon replies with, “My apologies, you must be a genius, which is why Twitter has the worst ad relevance on Earth. Almost nobody buys anything on Twitter, but almost everyone on Instagram does. That is being fixed.” Next Sirine comments, “Speaking of personal experience, I’ve never seen *Any* relevant ad on Twitter since I made my account!” Elon replies to Sirine “You are not alone. When I ask people if they use Twitter, almost all have for many years. When I ask if they’ve ever bought something from an ad after using the site for a decade, the answer is almost always no. That’s insane! The biggest problem is that Twitter optimized for impressions over clicks, with the perverse result that it *maximized* ad irrelevance, because clicking on an ad takes you away from Twitter, thus reducing impressions generated per user-minute. The sheer madness of this takes a moment to appreciate.”

In summary, contextual relevance is needed for Twitter ads just as they are for ads on Instagram or TikToc. If you have never made a purchase based on a Twitter ad, you are the majority. It is possible that will change in the future.

Better ease of use to help communicate on Twitter

Elon Musk looks for ways to improve Twitter directly from people who use Twitter. A feature similar to what you can do in a smartphone direct message will come to Twitter. Soon you’ll `have the ability to hold down and reply to a specific message in a group chat. Also, you may be able to @ mention someone in groups. This idea came from a survey run by Prof. TroonyToons and the vote in favor of these changes won at 83.9% FOR the features. Elon Musk often replies to Twitter accounts both large and small, unverified and verified. Prof. TroonyToons ran a great and useful survey.

Twitter algorithm to be open source soon

Elon Musk plans for Twitter to open source their algorithm next week. On Feb 21 he tweeted, “Prepare to be disappointed at first when our algorithm is made open source next week, but it will improve rapidly!”

Elon Musk explained how Twitter’s For You tab works, “Note: if many people who you follow or like also follow me, it is highly probable that the algorithm will recommend my tweets. It’s not super sophisticated. In coming months, we will offer the ability to adjust the algorithm to closer match what is most compelling to you.”

This is great news, as it gives Twitter users the option (if they want it) to have more control over what they do or don’t see.

Twitter to be a place for all people

Elon Musk elaborated on Feb 7 that, “Going forward, Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values, rather than trying to impose its own specific values on the world.”

This was shared at the WGS 2023 as well with these words,

“I mean, I was a little worried about the direction that, and the effect of social media on the world and especially Twitter. I thought it was very important for there to be a maximally trusted sort of Digital Public Square where people within countries and internationally can communicate with the least amount of censorship allowed by law, and obviously that varies a lot by jurisdiction. 
I think in general, social media companies should adhere to the laws of countries and not try to put a *thumb on the scale beyond the laws of the countries. I think this is something that is probably agreeable to the legislators and to the people of most countries. 

So that’s the general idea, it’s just to reflect the values of the people as opposed to imposing the values of essentially San Francisco and Berkeley, which are somewhat of a niche ideology, as compared to the rest of the world. 

I think Twitter was doing a little too much to impose a niche 'San Francisco-Berkeley' ideology on the world.  You know, I thought it was important for the future of civilization to try to correct that *thumb on the scale if you will and just have Twitter more accurately reflect like I said, the values of the people of Earth. That's the intention and hopefully, we succeed in doing that.”
Elon Musk at WGS 2023

Elon Musk’s talk at the World Government Summit 2023 (Dubai) was on February 15 about his vision for Twitter and X.com. The full text of his talk about Twitter is here,

https://whatsuptwitter.wordpress.com/2023/02/16/kindness/

Rumors

There are rumors floating around (on Twitter) that soon various fonts will be available for Twitter users. Another rumor is that Twitter may begin testing its own “coin.”

CONCLUSION

Here’s my quick summary from this week,

Content on Twitter will reflect a multitude of outlooks and not be excessively moderated
Users who opt for secure 2FA with Twitter will need to use free authentication apps. Exception: Blue subscribers
Longform tweets (Blue feature) will have smaller font/better spacing
Community Notes will notify you if a tweet you interacted with has a public note appear, providing you added context
Community Notes is expanding to other countries/languages
Twitter Files #16 gave examples that should have been covered by journalists but never were. Global Engagement Center (GEC) is one obscure federal agency that we will learn more about in upcoming files
No one wants useless ads and Elon Musk’s Twitter ads will soon have contextual relevance
Twitter DMs will rival Smartphone DMs in reply capabilities, allowing you to hold-reply to messages
Twitter algorithm will be open-sourced soon, expect it to improve over time
“Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values” – Elon Musk

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^{Twitter HQ unknown photographer circa 2013}

^{Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – February 23, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.}

My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. I hope you”ll consider a donation to support!

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Twitter Could Usher in a New Era for Citizen Journalism with Payments | Visibility | Dogecoin

February 1, 2023February 26, 2023 Gail Alfar2 Comments

Welcome back to What’s Up Twitter. There are cool developments coming down the pipeline for you as a Twitter user.

Also, do you think Twitter will accept Dogecoin? Share your ideas.

^{San Francisco, home of Twitter HQ is a gem at sunset. Used with permission from Romain Briaux from Unplash.}

Twitter to open Beta version soon to reward creators!

Hundreds of talented citizen writers will soon have a chance to be financially compensated for their work. Elon Musk announced that co-tweets have ended to make way for a feature that will encourage citizen journalism.

Writers with subscriptions activated will be able to publish directly on Twitter and get paid for it by adding essays as attachments to tweets.

^{Elon Musk announces new features for Twitter.}

“You’re welcome. Axed them yesterday to focus on enabling writers to add essays as attachments to tweets. Combined with improvements to creator subscriptions (fka superfollow), you will be able to publish directly on Twitter & get paid for it. Beta version launching next week.  We’re also reviewing ad rev share for ads in a creator’s tweet replies – create an interesting thread and get paid for it!”  Elon Musk

Are you familiar with Tweet threads? Many writers like Marc Andreessen and Trung Phan are known for their interesting threads. These and others may soon be able to get paid for their threads by sharing ad revenue with Twitter.

I think this is a great idea! Did you know many writers are paid less than $20 per article to write what they are TOLD to write by editors? They need income so they acquiesce and then they are targeted for doing a job to earn a living wage. Imagine if these talented people could write freely and not have to support an agenda they disagree with. I am excited to follow this development on Twitter. This may be part of why Elon Musk purchased Twitter.

Issues with Twitter visibility

Late Tuesday evening on January 31, Elon Musk made his account private. This was to gauge tweet interaction invisibility, which was reported by many users as being limited when accounts were not made private. In one example by Ian Cheong, he had more engagement and visibility when his account was private than when it was public. I will update this article as this situation develops.

Ian Cheong was one of the first to discover visibility issues on Twitter.

The Twitter Files have been ignored by the mainstream media

This was expected and explained well by David Sacks,

“When Elon Musk made necessary business changes at Twitter, the media reacted with hysterical melodrama: he was “starving” employees; the site was facing “imminent collapse.” But when Twitter Files exposed state censorship and Hamilton68 fraud, they react with defeaning silence.”

What are some ideas on Twitter accepting dogecoin?

There is no indication that Twitter has immediate plans to accept Dogecoin and there are clues that Twitter is developing a payment system based on fiat money. The biggest indicator of this is that Elon Musk shared on Twitter on January 31 that creators would soon receive revenue for their content. People already pay money to creators through monthly subscriptions but that money must go through Stripe.

Stripe says, “Millions of companies of all sizes—from startups to Fortune 500s—use Stripe’s software and APIs to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online.”

Elon Musk loves vertically integrating his products on many levels at SpaceX and Tesla. Will he reduce costs by vertically integrating an in-house payment system instead of paying to utilize Stripe’s software?

There has been speculation from the dogecoin community in comments on Reddit about Twitter, Bitcoin and Elon Musk. It is significant that SpaceX, Tesla as well as the Boring Co. have accepted payments in Dogecoin. People bought Boring Co. Burnt Hair fragrance with Dogecoin in October 2022 and rides in the Boring Company Tunnels in Las Vegas appear to be available in Dogecoin by scanning a QR code to buy tickets.

Many people speculate that Twitter will do the same. In comments on Reddit, people know that Dogecoin has benefited from Elon Musk‘s interest. However, Elon Musk is not part of the Dogecoin Foundation and merely supports the coin because it is fun and has memes and makes more financial sense than other coins.

I recently searched for current merch to buy with Dogecoin from Tesla and SpaceX and found none as of February 1, 2023. The Tesla Cyberwhistle costs 1000 Dogecoin and it is out of stock. My take is that Twitter will solidify a financial network in the USA first with traditional fiat money and next year may introduce digital currency in Doge or Bitcoin or both.

^{The Tesla Cyberwhistle is 1000 DOGE and is OUT OF STOCK}

CONCLUSION

The biggest news this week is the prospect of Elon Musk utilizing Twitter to encourage citizen journalism. This takes incentives (money) so writers can earn their own way instead of answering to mainstream media outlets that dictate how they write or edit their work to promote an agenda.

There are technical issues this week with Twitter and decreased tweet visibility. Elon Musk is aware and his team will likely make fixing it a priority.

Mainstream media continues to ignore and even ridicule the seriousness of the Twitter Files. If you would like to research the files, check out www.twitterfiles.co

Rumors are circulating about Twitter payment systems and nothing is verified but we do know that Twitter pays some content creators through Stripe. We shall watch if Stripe continues to be Twitter’s choice as it is not a vertically integrated aspect of Twitter.

What we do know is that all of Elon Musk’s companies (with the exception of Neuralink) have accepted Dogecoin thus far. Many on Twitter would warmly welcome Dogecoin as a payment or integrated tip system on Twitter.

There is more happening at Twitter

In my article “Twitter Just Gets Better with Elon Musk at the Helm,” read about how Twitter is on the path to becoming a one-stop shop for people to keep folders with categorized information, a place to come for news, and a place for content creators to earn an income for their efforts. There are little tweaks and improvements being made almost daily to Twitter’s features. From improving bookmarks to pinned lists, Elon Musk is making sure most people know what Twitter has to offer. He’s even going to make sure cool tweets in other languages (like Japanese) are translated and recommended to people around the globe.

^{Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – February 1, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.}

My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a donation to support!

My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider an annual donation to support!

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Twitter Just Gets Better with Elon Musk at the Helm

January 24, 2023February 26, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Elon Musk is driving change at Twitter at a faster pace than most could imagine. If you know much about Elon, you’ll know he lives every day with a sense of urgency. Things tend to get done faster when he’s in charge. Here’s a few of the changes from the past week that “Mr. Tweet” has made,

Elon explains Twitter Lists
Community Notes improvements
Twitter to change how we see ads and will reward creators
Twitter as the source of truth
Twitter will become more international!
Twitter will pick up where you left off
Twitter Blue subscribers and all users get new features

Twitter Lists

There were many people new to Twitter or unaware of Twitter’s List feature. On January 20, Elon explained Lists in simple terms and Elon also said that lists were one of his favorite Twitter features. He added that,

“Creating pinned lists should automatically be offered if you swipe past Following. Also, we need to offer suggested lists by category, so you can use awesome subject matter lists created by others.“

Community Notes Improvements

Elon reassured users that community notes will not push any agenda but instead exist to maximize truth. He stated,

“We are going to great lengths to avoid the Wikipedia left wing editorial control problem. By the same token, Community Notes cannot be biased towards the right either. Maximizing for truth is the goal.”

Elon also explained that,

“Coming soon are notifications if you’ve replied, liked or retweeted something subsequently corrected by community.”

The Official Community Notes Twitter account also shared and image (see below)and an explanation of a new development that will affect all of Twitter. Previously a user could quote tweet to avoid Community Notes from being visible. This new development will change that,

“Community Notes are now also shown on Quote Tweets. This change boosts the impact of contributors’ efforts, and helps ensure context is shown everywhere it can be helpful. Live now in the web app, and coming soon to iOS and Android.”

Elon Musk has plans to have Community Notes operate on a wide scale, on January 19 he explained,

“Twitter is arguably already the least wrong source of truth on the Internet, but we obviously still have a long way to go. Enabling Community Notes to operate at very large scale and providing maximum transparency about how Twitter works are fundamental to building trust.”

Advertising on Twitter and possible rewards for creators

Elon aims to make Twitter a better user experience by reducing how often we see ads, as explained on January 21,

“Ads are too frequent on Twitter and too big. Taking steps to address both in coming weeks. and “Also, there will be a higher priced subscription that allows zero ads.”

Twitter content creators will also be pleased with another new development, which would be a creator fund to incentivize those that put up constant content and bring people on Twitter (suggested by Tyler Todt who is a personal fitness trainer with over 107K followers and produces interesting content on health.

Elon Musk’s Twitter aims to be the source of truth

When a reporter from Rebel News for WEFReports.com ran in to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at Davos, he asked him some hard questions and then the video was banned on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube (It has since been spotted on Youtube). The video appears freely on Twitter with Elon Musk’s comment,

“Twitter is the source of truth.”

Twitter will become more International!

Elon Musk tweeted on January 20,

In coming months, Twitter will translate & recommend amazing tweets from people in other countries & cultures. There are epic tweets in other countries every day (Japan especially). (Tweets will be translated before being recommended). Interesting & entertaining content from around the world is worth seeing.”

Twitter will pick up where you left off

If you use Twitter, stop, then come back to it hours later, will take you back to where you left off to avoid confusion and allow you a better personal experience. Elon explained this on January 20,

“Next Twitter update will remember whether you were on For You (ie recommended), Following or list you made & stop switching you back to recommended tweets.”

Twitter Blue subscribers and all users get new features

The Official Twitter Blue account explained a new feature on January 20,

“For Twitter Blue subscribers, when you save a new Bookmark, you can still save directly to a folder by holding down the new flag icon. Long press from the Tweet details to access Bookmark folders or individual Tweets after saving a new Bookmark.”

Folders or bookmarks can be accessed on your phone, ipad or laptop. Expect them to undergo a lot of improvements such as the ability to organize them as well as search through them.

For all Twitter users, Elon Musk explained,

“Major Twitter improvement we just released is that you can now bookmark tweets from tweet details page. Importantly, bookmarks are *private*, unlike likes. No one other than you can see your bookmarks.”

Elon Musk encourages Companies to post more content

When Twitter user Mathias Fons shared that, “Tesla started to actively tweet updates & educational content at the start of December. The outcome has been tremendous. I hope that Tesla continues utilizing Twitter like this! Twitter users & companies should take note of this—post interesting content & results will follow.” Elon Musk agreed, saying,

“Exactly! If companies post interesting or entertaining content, they will gain an audience rapidly.”

Hopefully, companies will start to post interesting content!

CONCLUSION

Twitter is on the path to becoming a one stop shop for people to keep folders with categorized information, a place to come for news, and a place for content creators to earn an income for their efforts. There are little tweaks and improvements being made almost daily to Twitter’s features. From improving bookmarks to pinned lists, Elon Musk is making sure most people know what Twitter has to offer. He’s even going to make sure cool tweets in other languages (like Japanese) are translated and recommended to people around the globe.

^{Photo of Austin, Texas by Carlos Alfonso on Unsplash}

_{Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – January 24, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.}

My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a one-time donation to support!

My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a monthly donation to support!

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Enjoying the benefits of Twitter Blue: without the blue check

January 11, 2023February 26, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Do you pay $8 or $11 to have Twitter Blue? Did you sign up for this monthly because you wanted the blue verification check? Initially, I wanted the check and that is the main reason I signed up.

I was going to cancel my monthly Blue payment as I was going on 2 months without being verified. I asked myself if there was anything else worth keeping Blue active for besides the check. After some thought, I decided I would keep paying the monthly with or without the blue check. This article explains why.

Only Twitter Blue allows you to set up a hexagonal profile picture
Only Twitter Blue allows videos up to 10 minutes
Only Twitter Blue allows you to edit tweets
Only Twitter Blue allows folders

Twitter Blue allows you to set up a hexagonal profile picture

I waited patiently for the blue check and then asked myself if I thought I was up to the task of setting up a hexagonal profile picture. It turns out it was a fun project. I took a picture of myself that I liked and minted it onto the Ethereum blockchain. After a few weird steps I ended up with the hexagon. I think it looks cool. Even cooler was that I learned a lot about NFTs. The funniest thing I learned was from my 17-year-old kid who knows a lot about crypto. “Mom, you’re a little late to the NFT party, but I guess Twitter has a deal with the NFT crowd.” I laughed so hard. NFTs may not be super popular, but for use on Twitter, I think they will always be cool.

Twitter Blue allows videos up to 10 minutes

Originally I did not care about this perk, but then I started asking myself why I didn’t care when I was busy uploading videos to my Youtube channel. Yes, I have a pretty lame youtube channel named: Gail Alfar. Anyway, I decided to use the Twitter video feature to start a weekly podcast called “Gail’s Tesla Podcast.” After I decided this, I realized that the Blue check was starting to matter less to me. The video feature mattered far more. Please pass my podcast on to anyone you know who has a Tesla. (I will include link here after I release the first episode)

Twitter Blue allows you to edit tweets

Edit tweets is a cool function. You have 30 minutes to do it and being the Austin Texas weirdo that I am, I sometimes edit tweets just because I want to see the little cute edit pen attached to the tweet. Here’s one example I did, see if you can see the little edit icon.

Twitter Blue allows folders

Okay so I wrote about folders in another article but I did not mention to you that I have over 20 folders. They are very useful and detailed. They help me pull up information that I need for articles and save things for me to look at later.

The famed blue verification check is cool to have, and it should not be your only reason for paying the $8/$11. I encourage you to use these other features. If you decide not to renew your monthly Blue, I think that’s ok because having a free Twitter account is a great thing too.

CONCLUSION

I waited approximately 2 months for my account to be verified so that I could have the blue check. But in the meantime of waiting, I discovered some cool things about Twitter blue, which include the hexagon profile pic, 10-minute video uploads, the edit button and expansive use of file folders.

My patience taught me this valuable lesson. I don’t think I would want Twitter blue just for the blue verification check.

UPDATE: At time of publishing this article, TWITTER GRANTED ME THE BLUE CHECK! OH JOY!

Thanks for the blue check @TwitterBlue 💙
— Gail Alfar (@gailalfaratx) January 11, 2023

^{Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – January 11, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support the new Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.}My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a donation to support!