Oddbean

Next will be: "We block links to other sites because they might be malicious." Then some kind of "#PivotToVideo." Probably not video (though who knows?) but some other feature that a major rival has, which Twitter will attempt to defraud its captive, commodified suppliers into financing an entry into.

In case you were wondering, yes, this is canonical #enshittification Lure in business customers (publishers) by offering surpluses (algorithmic recommendation and an ensuing traffic funnel). Lock them in (by capturing their audience and blocking interop and logged-out reading). Then rug the publishers, clawing back all the surpluses you gave them and more, draining them of all available capital and any margins they have, until they die or bite the bullet and leave.

@b92dcc07 This also shifts the ad-viewing traffic to X/Twitter's advertising, instead of the advertising on the publisher's site. So X/Tw gets to charge premium prices to advertisers, while also charging a premium price to the publishers for traffic and engagement. Essentially double-dipping on the same resources - X/Tw users' eyeballs

@b92dcc07 I wonder if Twitter will be as helpful as YouTube, whose notification options include one for being told what to do as a creator. I imagine this is why so many YouTube videos are now 35-45 minutes long. They are unwatchable, even though creators spend days or weeks on them. At some point it becomes a cruel joke on all users. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/183/423/331/320/648/original/62f9dbc2a6f7bbbf.jpg

@3ad8f4fb @b92dcc07 Hmm, this explains all those desperate employees at X talking about the checks they are getting to create 'long form boring videos' about their 95% down traffic from usual platform as a service that somehow monetized only ~0.7% of the Userbase because no one is there but... Bots? idk. Bots don't buy shit do they? If they do do you want them to buy your shit though? You do? For real? 🙊🙉📲💩

@3ad8f4fb @b92dcc07 A few years back, Many Youtube creators went to 10+ minute video. The algorithm promoted 10+ minutes, and longer videos could also have more than one ad. The amount of sudden padding for what often was 3-5 minutes of content was incredible and often unwatchable.