Twitter is the #1 Least Boring App, here’s why…

July 22, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

(July 22, 2023 Austin, Texas)

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.}

Elon Musk Is Helping People Earn A Living Directly On Twitter

July 13, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

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.

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.

Elon Musk in Rome. Image credit Adrea Stroppa.

Elon Musk talks about X.Corp, visits Paris & Rome

June 16, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

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.

Twitter/X.corp Takes the Lead: Exploring Developments in Social Media

June 4, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

(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. — _{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}

Image Credit Deborah on Twitter See @dvorahfr

From Thirst Pictures to Voice Tweets: Twitter Unleashes Creative Features

May 25, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

(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.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

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.

Keeping Up with Twitter: This Week’s Developments

May 21, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

“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.

───※ ·❆· ※───

Article by Gail Alfar, please credit accordingly. Courtesy @cb_doge image and meme shared by @elonmusk

Three Ways Twitter is Becoming the Everything App

May 10, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

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.}

Twitter Operates Better with Elon Musk in Charge

May 3, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

I’ve been documenting Twitter’s great improvements since November 2022 and it’s amazing how much positive progress happens in real-time. In this article, I’ll bring you up to date on the last few weeks’ great changes from my perspective!

USERS LOVE TWITTER, EVEN THOSE WHO DON’T

This is ironic, I know, and honestly Twitter is a great place to come and interact in a positive way or a complaining way as well. This funny observation was made by Twitter account BillyM2K when he noted how many people love to come to Twitter to complain about it, rather than take to another social site to complain about it.

This elicited a hilarious reaction from Elon Musk, who replied, “lol they should keep doing it all day.”

HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WILL EARN A LIVING ON TWITTER… SOON!

Can you make a living being on Twitter all day? Not really… yet! And you may be able to soon!

Being a creator of any sort on Twitter will take a lot of hard work just like any other successful endeavor. This was emphasized by Elon Musk this week when he commented in a tweet under BillyM2K’s subscriptions, “Growing subscribers requires work. No way around it.”

I believe thousands of people will soon earn a living on Twitter, bringing opportunity to all corners of the world and giving creative people hope and an important sense of value. In the coming months, we will see many creative ways to use subscriptions.

A good friend of mine, Johnna Crider came up with an idea I had not thought of for restaurants. Owners could enable subscriptions allowing people discounts and special deals on dine-in or delivery.

When I think of making a living, something that comes to mind is security and this is another area that Twitter is working on, the enabling of secure messages when needed.

TWITTER’S VISION FOR SECURE MESSAGING

There are many reasons for secure messaging, such as protecting private information and sensitive data. Encryption converts all data into a string of unreadable numbers before sending it over the internet, it protects you from a wide range of cyberattacks. Elon Musk clearly intends to provide this for Twitter users in the future.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson that aired in April, Elon said, “One of the things that we are about to release is the ability to encrypt your DM‘s. We’re moving to be able to have DM’s be optionally encrypted. You know there are a lot of DM conversations which are just chatting with friends. Elon explained that end-to-end encryption will come out by the end of May and will give users the ability to toggle encryption on or off.”

“If you are in a conversation that you think is sensitive, you can just toggle the encryption on and then no one at Twitter can see what you’re talking about. They could put a gun to my head, and I couldn’t tell. Sort of, the gun test. If somebody puts a gun to my head, can I still not see your DM‘s? That should be the acid test. And that’s how it should be.”

Our conversations should be private if we need them to be.

Blending characteristic humor with the ability to make a strong point, Elon explained to Carlson, that if the US government were to ask him to do something unconstitutional, his reply would be to “send them a copy of the first amendment, and just say, what part of this are we getting wrong?”

TWITTER’S ROLE IN ELECTIONS

Lately there has been a lot of talk about possible presidential debates being hosted on Twitter. My thought on that is it’s entirely up to the candidates. I think it is a wonderful idea.

When Carlson asked Elon about Twitter‘s role in the upcoming presidential elections, Elon stated, “I think it will play a significant role, not just domestically, but internationally. The goal of new Twitter is to be as fair and evenhanded as possible, so not favoring any political ideology, and being fair to all.”

TRUST AND TWITTER

Trust must be earned, and I believe Twitter is already the best place to get news and information. I think humanity will benefit from discovering, having conversations, and being exposed to different viewpoints in an open and fair way. Elon explains,

“We’re trying to make Twitter the most trusted place on the Internet, the least untrustworthy place on the Internet. I don’t think anybody should trust the Internet. But maybe we can make Twitter the least untrustworthy like I said, try to get the truth to the people as best we can.”

CONCLUSION

In December 1992, Marc Sautet started the idea of philosophy cafés in the Place de la Bastille neighborhood of Paris at the Café des Phares. Sautet would gather friends at his “café philo” each Sunday and have philosophical debates.

I imagine this happening on Twitter and in Twitter Spaces.

I’ll leave you with this quote from President George Washington,

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

^{𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘺 @𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘭𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘹 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 @𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘌𝘖 𝘰𝘧 @𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩. 𝘐 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘰. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 @𝘫𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳1 𝘢𝘯𝘥 @𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘺𝘮2𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦. 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘺 @dvorahfr}

ELON MUSK TALKS ON AI AND TWITTER. CARLSON INTERVIEW.

April 18, 2023 Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Will there come a time when A.I. is in control and can’t be turned off?

“Absolutely.” – Elon Musk

Elon Musk talked in an interview with Tucker Carlson and here are the highlights. This was a short, engaging Part I (the 2nd part will air soon). It’s significant that Elon considers Tesla and SpaceX much more complex than Twitter. The interview covers many areas. Enjoy!

ADVANCED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE SINGULARITY.

ELON MUSK AGREES HE’S A SPECIESIST.

OpenAI has transitioned from the non-profit Elon founded in order to ethically distribute the power of artificial intelligence, into a closed-source for-profit partnered with Microsoft.

Elon said,

“It is fundamentally profound that the smartest creatures on this earth are humans. It is our defining characteristic.

Now what happens when something vastly smarter than the smartest person comes along in silicon form?

It’s very difficult to predict what will happen in that circumstance. It’s called the singularity.

Regulations are really only put into effect after something terrible has happened.

If that’s the case for AI, and we only put in regulation after something terrible has happened, it may be too late to put the regulation in place.

The AI may be in control at that point.”

Elon explained that he and Google co-founder Larry Page were once close, and he would stay on Page’s couch. They would talk about AI late into the night. Elon said he was concerned about the dangers of AI. Page called Elon a “Speciesist” when he said that “We need to make sure that humanity is okay.” Elon laughed and said he is one, and asked Page, “What are you?”

“My perception was that (Page) was not taking AI safety seriously enough. He really wanted a digital superintelligence. Basically, a digital god as soon as possible. He’s made many public statements that the whole goal of Google is artificial general intelligence.” – Elon Musk

TRUTH GPT.

Elon discussed creating an alternative to OpenAI, TruthGPT, because “Open AI” is being trained to be politically correct and to lie to people. Elon explained,

“What’s happening is they are training the AI to lie. It’s bad. To lie and to withhold information. To comment on some things, to not comment on other things.

But not to say what the data actually demands that it say.

In effect, Microsoft has a very strong say and, if not, directly controls OpenAI at this point.

You really have an OpenAI – Microsoft situation, and then Google DeepMind. These are the two heavyweights in this arena.

I’m worried about the fact that it’s being trained to be politically correct, which is another way of saying untruthful things. That’s a bad sign.

Certainly, the path to AI dystopia is to train an AI to be deceptive.”

Elon Musk explained the goal of TruthGPT,

“I’m going to start something which is called TruthGPT or a Maximum Truth Seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe, and I think this might be the best path to safety in the sense that an AI that cares about understanding the universe is unlikely to annihilate humans because we are an interesting part of the universe.”

TWITTER PURCHASE.

Was it worth it to buy Twitter? Elon explains the Twitter purchase will greatly help ensure the strength of democracy and free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.

“It remains to be seen as to whether this was financially smart. Currently, it is not. You know we just revalued the company at less than half of the acquisition price.

But some things are priceless.

Lose money or not, that is a secondary issue compared to ensuring the strength of democracy, and free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”

NEXT PRESIDENT.

NEW YORK TIMES.

FACEBOOK.

Elon confessed he voted for Biden in 2020, not Trump, and now he just wants a “normal person” with “common sense” to lead America.

He also disclosed what the media has been silent on.

“My understanding is that Zuckerberg spent $400 million in the last election nominally in a get-out-the-vote campaign but fundamentally in support of Democrats. Is that accurate or not accurate? Does that sound unbiased to you?”

As the most followed & interacted man on Twitter, Elon has useful advice on how to use Twitter. He explains, for example, that the New York Times’ Twitter account (and others) should choose only the top best articles to tweet. Otherwise, small insignificant articles clog people’s timelines, and relevant articles are missed.

COMMUNITY NOTES.

TRUTH.

“We got this Community Notes feature which is great. We put a lot of effort into ensuring that Community Notes does not get gamed or have biases.

It simply cares about what is the most accurate thing. The effect of Community Notes is more powerful than people realize because once people realize they can get Community Noted on Twitter, then they will think more carefully about what they say.

Basically, it’s an encouragement to be more truthful and less deceptive.” – Elon Musk

DM’S WILL BE ENCRYPTED.

Tucker Carlson asked about Governmental Agencies having access to Twitter including Direct messages, “You were shocked to find out that various intel agencies were affecting [Twitter’s] operations?”

Elon replied, “The degree to which various Government Agencies had effectively full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind.”

Elon added that direct messages will soon be encrypted (as an on/off toggle feature).

TWITTER WAS OVERSTAFFED.

‘GLORIFIED ACTIVIST ORGANIZATION.’

Speaking about cutting staff at Twitter, Elon said,

“Turns out you don’t need all that many people to run Twitter.

If you’re not trying to run some sort of glorified activist organization and you don’t care that much about censorship, then it turns out you can let go of a lot of people.

What has been the product development over time with Twitter? So, years versus product improvement. You know, it’s a pretty flat line.

So what were they doing? It took a year to add an edit button that doesn’t work most of the time. It feels like a comedy situation over here.

The real question is how did it get so absurdly overstaffed?”

CONCLUSION.

I would call this a cautionary interview because Elon does much to explain how dangerous Advanced Artificial Intelligence is. The Good News is that the dire direction of AI today has managed to prompt Elon into moving forward with the creation of TruthGPT. I am confident that humans will one day be very grateful to him for that!

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Thanks to Tucker Carlson / FoxNews for Interviewing Elon Musk. You may watch the interview on Fox. This Article is by Gail Alfar, please credit accordingly and consider following and subscribing to my Twitter Account to support citizen writing. See @gailalfaratx on Twitter