Everything built at Elon Musk’s companies is designed with care, beauty, and the best possible technology.
How do we get from Twitter to 𝕏?
How big is 𝕏, and how many people are aware of the change?
How long will it take to transition from using terminologies related to Twitter, like tweet, retweet, and so on?
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 𝕏
I wanted to write an article reflecting the thoughts of people I’ve spoken to and heard here on 𝕏. I know you are witnessing Twitter transforming into 𝕏. I felt a strong desire to write to mark this significant event in history.
The first signs of transformation were subtle. Terminology related to Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter began to show up as 𝕏.Corp.
There were and still are multiple occasions in which Elon explains in interviews, conversations, and posts, that 𝕏 will be undergoing great change. Twitter, he has said, “was simply an accelerant to the creation of 𝕏.”
Do you remember when you could go to the website x.com and there would be a tiny little “x” in the upper left-hand corner of a big white void?
Today, when you go to the website, there is an Art Deco 𝕏, with the slogan “Happening Now“ over a more traditional blue background.
THE SLOGAN IN THE APP STORE IS “BLAZE YOUR GLORY!”
“Blaze Your Glory” suggests you will create a path of extraordinary success. You will leave an impact. “Blaze Your Glory” may encourage you to pursue your dreams, overcome obstacles, and leave behind a legacy that inspires others to follow their paths to glory.
A SHINING 𝕏 IN THE NIGHT OVER SF
For one magical night, the 𝕏 headquarters in San Francisco on Market Street had a shining, flashing, Art Deco, “𝕏” gracing the building’s rooftop.
At night, that “𝕏” sent a signal out through the electrons in the air and over the beautiful hills, buildings, neighborhoods, and streets of the city where so many people have left their hearts.
But Elon Musk has chosen to keep 𝕏 headquarters in SF, and not follow the trend to abandon it, relocating the business to Texas.
Change takes a gradual movement and does not happen overnight. I say this because some people are unaware of Twitter‘s transition into 𝕏. My smart, busy daughter that works in Austin wondered what that 𝕏 was on her phone, she had no idea it had changed until I told her. Likewise, my husband wasn’t aware until I told him.
I believe that 𝕏 will take hold in the lives of many people, offering them something that Twitter could not have given them. It will do what “Twitter” never could have done. For one, 𝕏, as Elon Musk has posted, is a place where Creators can make a living,
“People from every corner of the world post incredible content on 𝕏, but often live in tough circumstances, where even a few hundred dollars a month changes their life.”
People that may have been spectators, or never logged into Twitter, will one day become account owners. They will desire the secure payout and pay-in system that we will see on 𝕏.
DELIGHTING USERS WITH THE BEST VALUE
When I use 𝕏, I know that it is built with superior technology and designed to delight the user.
Tesla vehicles are a testament to customer satisfaction and joy over a beautiful product.
𝕏 is similar to Tesla in that the technology behind your experience on 𝕏 will be superior to any other internet product.
𝕏 is designed to delight you and give you more value than what you pay for it.
Elon Musk’s relentless focus on technology and engineering for Space𝕏, Tesla, Boring Co., and Neuralink, has been likened to “magic.” You don’t have to know how it works, it just does!
Elon can visualize, or see where something should go, and if there are no engineers that can do it, he will learn how to do it himself.
I’m excited to watch Twitter transform into 𝕏. It is wonderful, to watch the number of users, and the value that they receive increase. Soon we will forget about the birds, the tweets, and the retweets.
If you enjoyed this article, follow and subscribe to Gail Alfar on X at @gailalfaratx
I had a chance to listen to the first X Spaces hosted by David Sacks and Elon Musk in order to introduce people to presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Author’s Note: X is the new branded name for what was once called “Twitter.” This blog is renamed “What’s Up X?”
Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur and a candidate in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries.
David Sachs hosted the XSpace and introduced Ramaswamy and then he was welcomed to speak by Elon Musk.
The first topic touched on the meaning of existence, and Ramaswamy mentioned that he’s 37 years old, the first millennial to run for president, and he said that many in his generation are looking for a way to be involved, but when people ask them what it means to be an American, many cannot answer that question. Elon Musk said he thinks young people should aspire to be the good guys.
Turning Fiction into Reality
Elon explained that he grew up watching shows where Americans were the good guys and he thinks people can find meaning in life by trying to understand the nature of the universe. Inventing and building new things is also something he thinks the younger generation can aspire to.
Elon said this is the reason that he is a big fan of expanding the scope and scale of humanity and that consciousness should be expanded, and we should believe that civilization is a good thing and not a bad thing.
Elon made a point that we’ve seen amazing fictional movies and read sci-fi books about the future, and he believes those things should come to pass, and not remain fiction. He believes we should become a multi-planetary species because this gives people purpose and a reason to wake up in the morning and be excited about the future.
Amidst cheerful sounds of Elon’s son, Lil X, playing in the background, Elon spoke about truth, saying that it’s important to believe there’s truth, and we should be aspiring to truth.
Ramaswamy asked what the conditions are that allow people to aspire to truth.
Elon said Earth is not the worst place and we should make it the best place possible, and he’s not thinking of colonizing Mars because Earth will never be a viable option in the future.
Instead, it will be nice to see the fictional life of Star Trek come to pass, where we are a multi-planet species.
Image Courtesy SpaceX of Starship Flame Deflector
How To Address Problems at Schools and Universities
Ramaswamy said that on this planet, he believes a revival (religious) of a sense of grounding and belief in a strong family is important. This led Elon to bring up another interesting point that at many Ivy League and top universities, students are being taught that it is not good to be a patriotic American. He believes it is a grave mistake to teach this to students.
I can attest, as I have a daughter, who works at the University of Texas, Austin, and the American flag is considered offensive, while the LGTBQ+ flag is considered politically correct. David Sachs added that in San Francisco, they ripped Abraham Lincoln’s name off one of the high schools.
Ramaswamy agreed with Elon saying, when students are successful, they are often ashamed of that success, and try to hide it, he says it’s because America has always been number one, and students are taught to believe it is not good to be number one. Ramaswamy said part of America’s role in the world was to provide an example of what is possible when you have a country founded on those ideals, but once you start apologizing to the world for those ideals, there’s a permanent loss of history.
Ramaswamy asked Elon Musk what he would do about it. This was Elon’s answer.
Elon said we should be castigating the schools and universities for doing this to our kids. He advised donors to universities and high schools to rescind their donations and ask for change before they donate again.
It sounded like Elon also was going to say stop sending your kids to those schools if they continue that, but he was cut off by Vivek who said “We want to make sure that America remains a meritocracy where smarts and hard work are rewarded instead of having an elite ruling class.”
Ramaswamy made the point that when students are ashamed of the exceptionalism of America, and when they apologize for being American, it’s like self-flogging. He said it’s like when you wear a burlap hair shirt and beat yourself with a stick. Elon disagreed when Vivek said that the climate movement is a form of self-flogging.
Helping Our Earth’s Climate is Not Far-Right Wing
Elon said that he believes he may have done more for our earth’s climate, than any other individual past or present.
He says he feels it’s extremely bizarre when people label him as a far-right extremist. Elon said that he has literally been pouring blood, sweat, and tears into protecting the environment. He doesn’t understand what these people are talking about when they say that he’s a far-right conservative and he perceives himself to be a moderate, he cares about humans and our civilization, he is not far left, nor far right, but a centrist.
Why Are ESGs (Environmental, Social, Governance) Harmful?
The discussion turned to ESGs. You may already know that ESGs allow companies to be rewarded for woke policies of diversity and inclusion but then exclude many people.
Essentially, both Ramaswamy and Elon agreed that ESGs are harmful not only to companies but for people in the United States.
Elon said that fundamentally people have been misled and they’ve given their savings over to 401(k) plans that rate high on the ESG scale. Elon explained that people are having their money invested in index funds and ESG funds with the hope of the funds gaining in value so that they can have a secure retirement. Contrary to what people think, the voting that happens in these mutual fund environments is not in the best interest of profit nor in the interest of people.
Elon mentioned the names Vanguard, Blackrock, Fidelity, and T Rowe. He said that these companies are lying to shareholders.
Essentially, it’s possible that these mutual fund companies are setting themselves up for one of the largest class action lawsuits ever. This is because they are lying to their shareholders. Elon said it’s because they are breaking the deal with their customers, and they are not maximizing shareholder value.
The Government Monopoly on Violence
Elon also explained that the government is a corporation in the limit. “It is the most important corporation and the biggest and it’s got a monopoly on violence. And so you should say, how much violence do you want the government to do? Not that much, less, generally not more.”
As background, in political philosophy, a monopoly on violence or monopoly on the legal use of force is the property of a political system that is the only entity in its jurisdiction to legitimately use force, and thus the supreme authority of that area.
“As we speak, the flower of Ukrainian youth is dying in trenches.” – Elon Musk
On Ukraine, Elon mentioned we should know that our money is going to help the people of Ukraine, not a handful of oligarchs.
Elon Musk said, sadly,
“There has to be forgiveness, and there has to be some realism. And we have to look at Ukraine and Russia by not turning Russia into a devil and Ukraine into an angel. There are no angels in war.
“The flower of Ukrainian youth is dying in trenches. Why are these boys dying? For what?”
“We should also be sad that there are Russian boys dying in trenches. Why are these young men dying because of disagreements between old men? Why? And entrenched warfare where only a few miles are exchanged? At what price? How many lives per mile is a life worth?
“If you don’t forgive your enemy, you’re stuck in a circle of retribution forever. There has to be forgiveness.”
Ramaswamy said if he was voted into office, he would strike down legislation that President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law, which has prevailed ever since. He said he would strike that law down, and most likely it has evolved into something it was never intended to be. He carefully explained that we should be rewarded for the value of our contributions and that it should not be based on any other factors.
I’m unclear which law Ramaswamy plans to strike down, as the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress and signed by LBJ in 1964, outlawing segregation in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels.
On June 29, 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled affirmative action is unconstitutional, ending race-conscious admissions in higher education. He could be referring to Executive Order 11246. President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11246, in 1965 prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin by those organizations receiving federal contracts and subcontracts. This order could legally be struck down by Congress.
Interested in Etymology?
Lightening up the conversation about race, Elon mentioned that he owns etymology.com, which if you link to it, is simply an orange emoji. Elon announced that if there is somebody who would love to expand that, and go hard-core on it, he may be willing to sell it to that person.
FBI/CIA
Another point Elon brought up is that he has met a lot of people who work at the FBI and the CIA, and he stated that he thinks they have a lot of integrity.
Closing Thoughts
In closing, Elon said the discussion with Ramaswamy was important and that many people may agree with his position, and that he likely has won over a lot of people. He added there are a lot of things that sound pro-democracy and are ballot harvesting and are used to hack (votes). He said Goerge Soros is a talented arbitrator and he’s applied that talent monetarily and politically and he figured out that through charitable organizations you can promote a cause with pre-tax money and that doesn’t count in any of the political stuff. It is effective because you do not attack the candidate, just the positions that they hold. Then you hire a big team to harvest ballots from Nursing Homes and all that sort of stuff. “There are real things that have happened. I don’t think we should counter corruption with corruption but there does need to be a get-out-the-vote campaign. Clearly, Republicans need to work harder at winning over voters. Especially in key House and Senate races and Presidency.”
Ramaswamy said this country has blessed him with so much. He said he wants to win the Presidency and has invested mostly his own dollars in his campaign thus far. He says it takes $2B to get elected and he raises money through donors. He invited listeners to donate. His link is on his X account profile.
Elon said it is “Rare to meet a politician that is not an NPC.” referring to Ramaswamy.
Looking over the new Capitol Mall, the Texas Capitol Building and the Austin, Texas skyline. http://art.cvsherman.com
It’s early in the morning and I wake up and… check Twitter. If this is you then you’ll love this article as it takes you through the past week of Twitter in minutes and you get to read about Twitter. From lawsuits to engineering advancements, Twitter 2.0 is not boring.
Elon Musk’s role at Twitter is executive chairman, and chief technical officer overseeing product, software, and system operations. Linda Yaccarino is CEO of Twitter (and doing a great job). Twitter has improved under their leadership. Additionally, Tesla is thriving under Elon’s leadership as Technoking of Tesla and CEO, as reported in Tesla’s Q2 2023 Update Report. So, when Sen Elizabeth Warren suddenly came along to throw false accusations at Elon Musk and the Tesla board, it was cringe, to say the least. Elon’s legal team responded…
TWITTER TO SUBPOENA SEN. WARREN
Twitter legal informed a federal court on Thurs, July 20 that they’re seeking for Sen.Warren to disclose her communications with the SEC and the Federal Trade Commission from the past few months. This includes the document she sent to SEC Chair Gensler, where she falsely accused Elon Musk of harming Tesla.
META CAN NOT LEGALLY COPY TWITTER (THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPANY)
Meanwhile, Twitter has addressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s haphazardly created “Threads” app. Representing Twitter, Lawyer Alex Spiro sent Zuckerburg a cease-and-desist letter saying, “Twitter has serious concerns that Meta has engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
Alex Spiro said of Twitter last March,
“Once you get to Twitter, you realize the geopolitical significance, the significance across so many different things, thought, speech, the community of viewpoints. You realize it may actually be the most interesting and important company in the world.” (Vanity Fair Interview, March 2023)
Sadly, in the past year, Zuckerburg’s “Meta” hired many ex-Twitter employees to gain access to Twitter’s trade secrets and highly confidential information. Meta then assigned these employees to develop their copycat “Threads” app in a few months, with the sole intent of using Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to accelerate their copycat “Threads” app. This is a violation of state and federal laws and the employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter.
Competition can be a good thing, but cheating is always wrong.
Elon Musk said it well, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
So, as the copycat app “Threads” reaches an all-time low in interest, Twitter continues to employ hard-core engineering, 24/7 under the direction of Elon Musk. What cannot be underestimated, is the high value of having Elon Musk, as chief technician at Twitter. Not only will Twitter become one of the top places alongside SpaceX and Tesla to work as a software engineer, but Twitter will eventually become so advanced in software engineering that it will become the gold standard, assuming it isn’t already.
TWITTER IS A VALUE-ADDED APP
In an incredibly short amount of time, Twitter became an app with a generous toolbox for writers, creators, artists, and more!
Twitter‘s publishing capability can now extend to essentially an unlimited amount. Is possible to publish an entire encyclopedia on Twitter, if somebody wanted to!
Don’t be surprised if Twitter is used by teachers extensively due to the usefulness of having books directly on Twitter combined with an extensive bookmark system available on the app, as well as an entire safety team dedicated to making sure abuse, hate, and threats are de-amplified on the app.
I’ll end this article with my heartfelt thoughts. It is difficult for me to understand why anybody would want to work against what Elon Musk is doing at Twitter. He is allowing creators on Twitter to share ad revenue, which brings income to places far and wide in this world. It brings needed income to places where, truly, it could be the income that a family needs to provide a living. These opportunities have never been available before and can provide amplification of talent, art, and culture. Make no mistake, Twitter is not just for North America, its reach is global, and so the goodness that it can provide through education, books in different languages, and creative and unique art, are for the good of all humanity.
It truly pains me to think that Zuck, Warren, and others, would love to see Twitter fail. The memes I’m sharing with this article are useful for making humor out of senseless acts of intended destruction. Twitter 2.0 will prevail, for the benefit of humanity!
Meta CEO Zuckerburg coped Twitter illegally.
This article is by Gail Alfar please credit accordingly and thanks for your support.
Creator Ads Revenue Sharing is exclusive to Elon Musk’s Twitter 2.0. It did not exist with the Twitter 1.0 business model.
“Absolutely essential. Creators need to make a living!” – Elon Musk on 11/1/22 after buying Twitter on 10/27/22
Twitter made history with a generous new program to share advertising revenue with creators. This was one of Elon Musk’s intentions from the very beginning when he purchased Twitter. Since his purchase, Twitter has improved dramatically through Elon’s deliberate shift in prioritizing technology and software at Twitter.
On July 13, Twitter selected an initial group of talented creators, and they were invited to accept ad revenue payment. I’ll share a few of their enthusiastic comments later in this article.
WHEN CAN MORE CREATORS APPLY FOR AD REV SHARING?
Twitter plans to roll out Creator Ads Revenue Sharing more broadly later this month and all eligible creators will be able to apply. When the program goes wide, Twitter will have tens of thousands of people applying, so I expect the program to take some time to regulate.
Here are a few of the requirements:
Be subscribed to Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations
Must be in a country where Stripe supports payouts
Have at least 5M impressions on posts in each of the last 3 months per Twitter analytics
Pass human review for Creator Monetization Standards. This process may take time.
Twitter says, “You cannot feature the identity of another person or a fake identity that is intended to deceive others. This includes parody, fan, and commentary accounts.”
REACTIONS TO TWITTER REV SHARING ARE HEARTFELT
I have seen many positive comments about the program, here are a few:
Kanekoa The Great was chosen to share in Twitter ad revenue, he said,
“Twitter 1.0 silenced me for expressing my opinions. Twitter 2.0 rewards me for sharing my ideas. Thank you Twitter for the opportunity to earn a living! Gratitude to Elon Musk for investing $44 billion to revive freedom of speech on the internet!”
Alex Larusso (ALX) said,
“Less than a year ago, I was banned from this platform, now I’m getting paid to Tweet. This is a game changer. Thank you Twitter!”
Nick Sorter shared his enthusiasm,
“Independent journalists like myself can literally make a living off Twitter now reporting REAL, censorship-free stories that you won’t see in the mainstream media. This is HUGE. Can’t thank you enough, Elon Musk! THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
My favorite reaction was from Billy Marcus, who simply shared,
“i like twitter”
MORE TWITTER IMPROVEMENTS!
Before I leave you, I’d like to share a few more Twitter updates,
Elon Musk responded to a meme that communicated the importance of people being free to express themselves without fear of being fired by their employers for different opinions. For this reason, Twitter will continue to allow anonymous accounts to be verified.
Twitter quietly unveiled an icon to appear on video content that lets you connect directly to watch content on your big-screen TV.
You can also watch videos from Twitter while scrolling using the pic-in-pic video feature.
Twitter has made improvements so that, on average, it will only take 1-2 days for a new account to be verified or for a blue check to be restored after changing a profile picture or username.
Jessica Kirsh, a space history archivist, uncovered that Twitter now limits how many accounts you can “tag” in a tweet. This is a good feature to limit potential spam. Imagine a longform tweet tagging hundreds of people?
Advertising on Twitter aims to reach people who may need the products they see, and therefore only human views of ads matter. On July 5th, Thomas Slabbers observed, “There is an even greater assurance that ads are reaching real humans since these view limits primarily impact automated entities rather than human users.” Elon Musk responded, saying “Unless bots start buying things at scale, only human views count.”
Will you find our next job through Twitter’s upcoming Verified Organizations jobs feature? Twitter plans to allow companies to post up to 5 jobs. The feature is a way to “feature jobs on your company profile, and attract top talent to your open positions.”
SEE YOU ON TWITTER!
I’ve been an observer of Elon Musk’s unmatched style of using technology to allow Twitter to evolve rapidly. After closing the Twitter deal, Elon Musk said on 11/13/2022,
“It’s just that Twitter at its core is a software and servers company. The technology needs to evolve rapidly, which requires a technologist.”
Elon Musk adds something else to Twitter. He adds kindness and has the ability to make people feel valued. Creator Ads Revenue Sharing is an act of kindness that will forever set Twitter/X.Corp apart from all other attempts at social media. Additionally, Elon himself generously gave all of his revenue to other creators,
“I gave my share to the creator payout pool.” – Elon Musk
Happy Tweeting and I’ll see you on Twitter!This article by Gail Alfar. Please credit accordingly. Since January 2022, I have been writing and recording many of Elon Musks’ talks on my blog and here in order to preserve his important words in writing. My blog link is on my Twitter bio and I thank you for reading and for your support. You rock and you are part of Team Humanity! Thank you! Mentioned are Jessica Kirsch, Thomas Slabbers @Thomasslabbers @KanekoaTheGreat @ALX @nicksortor and Billy Markus.
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.
You will save substantially when you subscribe to Twitter Blue on the Web instead of on your phone.
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.
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.
Summer is here and I love writing these quick updates. If you love X.Corp, then read on…
“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
Elon Musk charmed the audience in Paris at VivaTech, he explained how Twitter is building trust through transparency. Twitter is the only social media company with open-source code for the algorithm.
Elon also explained that X, the Everything App, is a way to finish the task that was started 20 years ago.
You may know that X.com was an online bank co-founded by Elon Musk, Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho in 1999. In 2000, X.com merged with Confinity Inc., and subsequently changed its name to PayPal.In 2022, it was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.
Twitter’s Beautiful International Reach
X.Corp, as I like to call it, or Twitter, announced on June 14, that Community Notes has expanded to another 8 countries. These include Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. For more information on Community Notes, see @CommunityNotes on Twitter for details.
Left or Right, Twitter is your platform
If you consider yourself left or right (in a political sense), then Elon Musk has, once again, offered equal treatment to all. On June 14, he tweeted,
“Once again, I’d like to offer this platform to anyone on the left. You will get equal treatment.”
Hidden Replies?
Staying true to his words, Elon Musk responded to Twitter account TitterDaily, when he tweeted,
“OPINION: As part of Twitter Safety’s rollout of transparency features, Twitter should aim to clarify how the ‘More Replies’ filter works. Verified accounts and even original poster replies to replies are sometimes hidden under this filter, without a clear reason.”
Elon responded, “Agreed, this is broken in random ways. Will be fixed.”
Smart CEOs will improve their products like this with direct feedback in real-time.
The Usefulness of Group Chats
Twitter Support announced on June 12 that group Direct Messages can include up to 100 people, with larger limits upcoming.
What is a great use for such a large group chat? Here are a few ideas: Professional Networking, Event Planning (like weddings, conferences, fundraisers), Interest-Based Discussions (car clubs, hobbies, news groups), Project Management, and Community Engagement.
Elon Explains Why X.Corp Will Survive
My Twitter account has many bots that follow it and with most tweets, automated ones respond. Bots can also mimic real people using AI. I believe I have seen these as well. X.Corp has a way to battle this attack. On June 11, Elon explained,
“It is increasingly difficult to distinguish between AI bots. Soon, it will be impossible. The only “social networks” that survive will be those that require verification. The payment system is a means of verification that increases bot cost by ~10,000X.”
On June 8, Titter Daily also revealed that Twitter is working on limiting the ability to send Direct Messages to people who don’t follow you to Verified (Blue) users only. This will also apply to creating group chats. This is another way to lessen Direct Message bot spam.
Would You Love to see Twitter AI Art?
In my last article, I wrote about Kris Kashtanova’s amazing Twitter account. On May 25, she tweeted that “Twitter is the most welcoming space for our AI community. I invite you to create images inspired by the platform that connected us all. I’m grateful for you here.”
Kashtanova’s prompt idea resulted in many amazing AI images for the Bird App! Check out her account at @icreatelife on Twitter!
Enjoy your Summertime Sadness! I love Lana Del Rey and her melancholy music so I thought I would add that here. I do hope you have a great week and take time, as always, to love yourself immensely and love the ones close to you!
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This article by Gail Alfar please credit accordingly. Thanks for your support and let me know your thoughts about X.Corp.
(Austin, Texas) This article unveils an alluring panorama of the latest updates on Twitter and may leave you craving for more.
Join me this beautiful evening, we will walk through the intro of notes on AI-generated media, which is a new feature that adds an extra layer of transparency to combat misleading content. Just as topaz and amethyst possess inner beauty, these notes will shed valuable light on the authenticity of media shared on Twitter.
We will also look at YouTube’s policy change regarding claims of fraud in the 2020 US election, changes to Twitter’s infrastructure maintenance, and the emergence of multiple organization affiliate badges on Twitter. I’ll introduce you to an intriguing Twitter account of a professor who engages with cool AI assignments… to her followers!
Increased Capacity for Twitter Spaces
Twitter recently enhanced its ability to handle larger Spaces/audio-only chat rooms.
This upgrade is aimed at providing a better user experience and accommodating a greater number of participants in Spaces. this is exciting because of Elon Musk’s historical interview of Robert F Kennedy, Jr. on June 5.
Community Notes on “AI-Generated Media” on Twitter
Community Note Contributors with a Writing Impact of 10 or above now have the option to mark their notes as “About the image” when they believe the media is potentially misleading, regardless of the specific Tweet it is featured in.
These notes automatically appear on recent and future matching images, providing contextual information to readers and raters.
Notes on AI-generated media empower contributors in combating misleading media by providing additional information directly attached to the image.
By marking their notes as “About the image,” contributors ensure that the focus is on the media itself and not just the specific Tweet containing it.
Limitations and Future Enhancements
Currently, the AI-generated media notes feature supports Tweets with a single image.
However, Twitter is actively working on expanding its functionality to include videos and Tweets with multiple images or videos.
To prioritize accuracy, the matching algorithm may not identify every image that appears to be a match, but Twitter aims to refine the system to expand coverage while avoiding false matches.
Feedback from users and contributors will be crucial in shaping the future enhancements of this feature and maximizing its effectiveness.
YouTube’s Policy Change and its Impact on Twitter
YouTube recently announced a significant policy change regarding claims of fraud in the 2020 US election.
In a shift that may be influenced by Twitter’s free speech policies, YouTube will no longer enforce its previous policy against such claims.
This relaxation of moderation signifies a potential response to the competition posed by Twitter’s approach to free speech.
Content creators, including political shows and podcasts, have expressed intentions to upload their content on Twitter alongside or even in place of YouTube.
This shift in content distribution suggests that YouTube’s policy change may be an effort to mitigate the migration of creators to other platforms.
Emergence of Multiple Organization Affiliate Badges on Twitter
A recent development on Twitter is the introduction of multiple organization affiliate badges, allowing companies to showcase their affiliations on their Twitter accounts.
Examples have emerged of companies displaying two affiliate badges on the same account, highlighting their multiple partnerships.
This development holds significance as it enables organizations to visually demonstrate their associations and build trust with their audience.
Special Feature: Kris Kashtanova’s Engaging Approach to AI Education on Twitter
An interesting Twitter account that deserves special attention is that of Kris Kashtanova, an AI professor who teaches at Columbia University.
Kris has adopted a unique approach to engage with students and the wider Twitter community by offering AI assignments accessible to anyone on Twitter.
Her dedication to providing educational opportunities and fostering discussions on AI topics has garnered significant interest and engagement. Find Kris at @icreatelife on Twitter.
Downtown Austin, Texas with the building the “Wilson” added in as a render. This building was slated to be 88 stories tall. It was subsequently reduced to 44 as depicted here.
Article by Gail Alfar and first appeared on Twitter. Please credit accordingly
(Austin, Texas) While brewing hot coffee in the morning, I have an old habit of listening to newsradio. Today, NPR (haha, I’m not endorsing NPR) proudly announced that “Elon Musk, American Billionaire” would interview Ron DeSantis today and DeSantis would announce his run for presidency on Twitter. NPR bantered back and forth a bit, in the expected way, but there was no denying that they are intensely curious how this will go. I am confident that it will go great!
In this article, I’ll highlight a range of Twitter improvements already here and on the way, from content quality and verification measures to exciting future developments in audio/video. Twitter continues to get better, offering you a unique space to engage and express yourself, whether you’re a gardener or a politician.
PREVENTING AI MANIPULATION
This week, talking in an interview with the WSJ, Elon Musk underscored the importance of Subscriber Verification in combating AI-driven manipulation of public opinion on social media.
He outlined the requirements to create a verified account, including a credible phone number from a reputable carrier, a credit card, and a small monthly payment. These safeguards aim to prevent the proliferation of fake accounts and ensure the integrity of information shared on the platform. Elon stressed that social media companies that fail to implement such verification measures would be overwhelmed by bots, undermining trust in their platforms.
MIKE SOLANA’S ENGAGING AUDIO INTERVIEW AND TWITTER’S VIDEO CONTROLS
Mike Solana’s captivating audio interview with artist Grimes, shared on Twitter, demonstrated the platform’s potential for podcast-style content.
I listened to the interview and loved the integration of soundwaves and easy-to-read captions by Solana. Twitter’s ongoing rapid deployment of quality features continues to amaze me.
ALGORITHMIC PREFERENCE AND THE RISE OF SUBSCRIPTIONS
Twitter’s algorithm prioritizes posts with the highest cumulative user-seconds, placing native content at the forefront and favoring it over external links. This makes sense, as you may notice, people rarely like to click on links that take them off the Twitter App.
Author Tim Urban shared what he likes about subscriptions. For Urban, they create a more casual and authentic space reminiscent of texting among friends. Tim (as of 5/24/23) subscribes to a great mix of people! Among them Liv Boree, Mike Solana, Billy Markus, Rainmaker, and A. James McKarthy.
As of now, you can see who others subscribe to, which I find to be very helpful when looking for accounts I might also subscribe to.
THIRST PICS AND VOICE TWEETS
Twitter designer Andrea Conway urged users to share thirst pictures which are delightful gems often found on Instagram, to enhance visual appeal on the platform. Additionally, Conway encouraged the use of voice tweets, and did one of her own to showcase their potential to add a personal touch to interactions. I created a short voice tweet and was pleasantly surprised when Conway herself commented on my voice, saying “you have the most wonderful voice!!!!” Maybe we should all voice tweet more?
ENGINEERING UPDATE: PUSHSERVICE AND TWEETYPIE ENHANCEMENTS
Twitter’s engineering team highlights Pushservice as the primary recommendation service for surfacing relevant content through notifications. This service fetches candidates from multiple sources, ranks them based on relevance, and applies filters to deliver the best recommendations to users.
Twitter also focuses on Tweetypie, the core tweet service responsible for handling the reading and writing of tweet data, ensuring a seamless user experience.
HOW WILL TWITTER EXPAND AND IMPROVE?
Twitter is the best place today for an electronic digital town square with maximum free speech, expression, engagement, and the exchange of diverse perspectives.
As the Bird App continues to thrive, it invites talented individuals to join the team and contribute to its success. Twitter’s no-nonsense careers page is simply a textured white background with the careers email address: careers@twitter.com. If you are interested in working for the bird app, that is the email to reach out to.
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Article by @GailAlfarATX please credit accordingly. Thank you for reading, sharing & subscribing if you can! Image credit Dedorah. Referenced in this article are Elon Musk, Twitter Engineering, Tim Urban, Liv Boree, Mike Solana, Billy Markus, Rainmaker, and A. James McCarthy.
“A cybernetic collective mind for humanity.” – Elon Musk
In this article, we’ll look at some of twitter’s rapid improvement like encrypted conversations and the shift in leadership,
The Everything App: Interaction and Information
Elon Musk, technologist and memelord, said, “On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique, and refute whatever is said.”
With Elon’s presence on Twitter, the possibilities are endless, and the community knows it. But, to be clear, there’s no special treatment here. Everyone, including Elon Musk, abides by the same rules and “rewards” of content creation.
Enhanced Features: DMs, Emojis, and Beyond
With each app update, Twitter takes a leap forward in enhancing user experiences. In the latest version, you can now reply to any message in a thread, regardless of its order. And who can resist the power FIRE emojis? You can now react with any emoji, giving your conversations an extra dose of fun.
Encrypted direct messages are on the horizon. Your privacy is Twitter’s priority, and even if there were a gun to Elon’s head, he couldn’t peek into your DMs. Stay tuned for voice and video chat capabilities, connecting people worldwide without revealing your phone number.
Twitter Ad Campaigns: aka Comedy Club for Conversion
“Twitter has proven itself to be among the best, if not the best, platform for return on ad spend and conversion campaigns right now.” – Sean Frank, CEO, The Ridge Wallet.
From hilarious brand campaigns to clever marketing strategies, Twitter is the place where ads come alive. Engage, entertain, and convert – that’s the magic formula Twitter offers to businesses, bringing them closer to their target audience and boosting their online presence.
CBC’s Twitter Resurgence
On Apr. 17, The Canadian Broadcasting Co.(CBC) said it would pause activities on Twitter in response to the “government-funded media” label given by the App.
“Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on Twitter,” said CBC.
In just 3 short weeks, CBC was right back on Twitter, and on May 9, they tweeted a story about “threats to press freedom in Canada and the world.” CBC commented,
“Today, the CBC will resume some activity on a handful of Twitter accounts, including CBC News, but we will significantly reduce our overall Twitter footprint and continue to assess the platform against our social media strategy,”
Elon Musk responded with the brokeback mountain meme (added below for humor!)
The Power of Community Notes: Quality Over Quantity
“Contributors’ time is valuable, and best spent reviewing high-quality notes.” In an effort to prioritize valuable feedback, Twitter has made a significant update. The number of notes one can write within 24 hours is now proportional to their track record. The more helpful notes you’ve written, the more you can contribute.
Verified Organizations: Strengthening Trust and Transparency
“Verified organization is one of the most important additions to Twitter.” At the bottom of this article, you’ll find a visual treat – a verified organization badge. Twitter recognizes the significance of trust and transparency, providing a platform for verified organizations to establish their presence and credibility. It’s a seal of authenticity that brings users closer to the content they can trust.
A Change in CEO: The Arrival of Linda Yaccarino
On May 11, Elon Musk announced the appointment of Linda Yaccarino as new CEO of Twitter. With Linda’s expertise in business operations, the stage is set for transforming Twitter into X, the everything app. Elon will shift his focus to product design and new technology, as more users join this ever-evolving platform. Keep an eye out for the upcoming Spaces session, where you can ask anything and participate first-hand in this new partnership between Elon and Linda.
Encrypted Direct Messages: Privacy Redefined
Say goodbye to prying eyes and hello to secure conversations. Twitter is introducing Encrypted Direct Messages v1, offering early access to verified users. This groundbreaking feature prioritizes privacy, ensuring that your messages remain confidential. As the experience improves and expands, all users can look forward to enjoying the benefits of encrypted conversations on Twitter.
Twitter in Turkey: Upholding Freedom of Expression
In recent developments, Twitter found itself navigating a complex situation in Turkey. Negotiations with the Turkish Government revealed that Twitter was the only social media service not fully complying with existing court orders. To maintain availability during the election weekend, Twitter took action based on court orders, impacting four accounts and 409 Tweets. Despite these challenges, Twitter remains committed to freedom of expression and continues to object in court, standing up for users’ rights.
CONCLUSION
As we wrap up this week’s update on Twitter, it’s clear that everything App is continuously improving to meet the needs of its users. From enhanced privacy features like Encrypted Direct Messages to exciting announcements about a new CEO, Twitter is paving the way for a more secure and engaging social media experience.
With Elon Musk’s vision of turning Twitter into X, and the commitment to fostering open conversations, I’m noticing a sense of optimism and anticipation in the people I interact with. As users, we look forward to upcoming developments, voice and video chat capabilities, and a more streamlined and user-friendly platform, thanks to the amazing Twitter team!
Remember, Verified organization is one of the most important additions to Twitter! (related image at the bottom of this article.)
Keep tweeting, engaging, and spreading positivity on Twitter, and let’s make the most of this incredible platform.
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Article by Gail Alfar, please credit accordingly. Courtesy @cb_doge image and meme shared by @elonmusk
Meet Chad, a proud Tesla owner. He met Bianca on TwitterDate. Chad and Bianca loved each others’ humorous, clever Twitter history and exchanged DMs, and enjoyed hours of TwitterVideo Chat late into the night. They continued to use Twitter after they were married and had their lovely twins. Encryption was what they relied on for all their secure financial and legal communication. X is their everything App.
Life is about love, communication and security. In this article we’ll look at how the everything app improves life for humans and creates a better user experience.
SOLVING UNDERPOPULATION AND TWITTER DATING
Twitter may one day engineer TwitterDate, a way for people to meet. I wrote about underpopulation last year in the article Elon Musk: Discussion About Underpopulation and noted that for years, Elon has been correcting the false perception that there are too many people.
In an interview with Johnna Crider last year, Elon said,
“The population decline problem, I think is possibly the biggest risk to civilization or its certainly one of the biggest risks.
First of all, a lot of people think that there are too many humans on the planet and the planet can’t sustain this number of humans. This is absolutely not true.
We could double the population without any meaningful damage to the environment. You can put all the humans on earth in the city of New York. That’s the cross-sectional area of humans. They could literally fit in the city of New York on one floor, you don’t even need high-rises. And if you’re on a plane flight and you look down and you say, “what percentage of the time, if I were to drop a ball, would that ball hit a person?” Basically zero.
Even in a city like LA, where we think, “oh, that’s a crowded city,” looking at it from above, what’s the cross-sectional area of humans relative to the rest of the ground?” It’s much less than 1%, even in LA.
So if you’re in a big city environment and you see a lot of people you sort of extrapolate that to everywhere, but it’s actually very rare to see a concentration of humans.
Earth is very sparsely populated with humans. There’s not enough humans, far from being too many. I think people are still sort of operating on the assumption that the population is growing like crazy when in fact the opposite is occurring. These numbers are easy to look up, they’re just on the internet. We had the lowest birthrate in recorded history last year.” – Elon Musk
Underpopulation is a very real problem. Twitter may help solve it by helping people meet others and that may possibly lead to more happy families with kids who can say, “My mommy met my daddy on Twitter!”
When Steven Mark Ryan suggested, “When Twitter dating app? Might save humanity from extinction, not even joking. Very low hanging fruit.” Elon Musk replied, “Interesting idea, maybe jobs too.”
DMs are important for dating and beyond. Twitter is improving DMs.
TWITTER DMs
This is a small change but one that will save you time and help you communicate faster.
Twitter quietly revealed a new feature so you may reply to a DM in a message thread and not just the most recent one. This feature just recently came to iPhones in 2022.
Scroll back in your message thread and find the message you’d like to respond to, hold onto it, and reply. You can also use any emoji reaction (hearts are nice) to that message.
TWITTER VOICE AND VIDEO CHAT
Sometimes text is not enough, and you need to do a voice or video chat.
This feature is coming soon to Twitter. Imagine talking with new friends from around the world, without leaving the Bird App?
Voice capabilities on Twitter would mean it could save many people money because it would function as a phone service.
WHY TWITTER ENCRYPTED MESSAGES ARE BETTER
What do Signal, WhatsApp, and Wire have in common? All three are popular encrypted messaging apps that require you to reveal your phone number, which puts you at a security risk.
Twitter encrypted DM‘s are, in my opinion, much more secure. You can talk to people anywhere in the world without revealing your phone number.
In typical fast-moving Elon Musk-style, Version 1.0 of encryption is the first and will improve rapidly.
Elon Musk said,
“The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head.”
Everyday, Elon Musk builds a better, stronger, and more trusted team at Twitter. The future is exciting for both Twitter users and the many dedicated people who are helping to build a better everything App – X.
Consider Cosmos and Mary L. Bender on the wedding day. They are both active Twitter Users.
Article by Gail Alfar, all rights reserved. Photo credits to Viv on Twitter, Consider Cosmos and Mary L.Bender. Gratitude Elon Musk and all the Twitter team. Mentioned in this article: Johnna Steven Mark and Johnna Crider.
whatsuptwitter.com 