Stephen King calls on Elon Musk to change 'X' back to Twitter (mashable.com)
from Jezebelley@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 16:24
https://lemmy.zip/post/5045356

Hey, Stephen, I love you and all but really? Just join us over on Mastodon instead of sticking with the fascists.

#technology

threaded - newest

tygerprints@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 16:28 next collapse

I'm with Stephen on this one. It's so annoying that news reports and news articles have to keep saying "so and so said this on X, formerly Twitter." To make sure that we know what "X" is. What kind of name is that for a social media site? Leave the letter X to strip joints and Las Vegas brothels.

thetoastmonster@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 16:45 next collapse

I think Musk could do what Google did, and make X a parent company like Alphabet, and leave the product with the well known name.

vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 03 Nov 2023 16:50 collapse

He could. But he won’t because he’s stupid, vain and conceited.

DJDarren@thelemmy.club on 03 Nov 2023 17:07 collapse

And also stupid.

boredtortoise@lemm.ee on 03 Nov 2023 16:53 next collapse

News should just stop reporting stuff on musk’s platform. Did they lurk on the platforms Trump created

CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works on 03 Nov 2023 17:24 collapse

Petition to refer to it as Twitter, formally XXX

originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com on 03 Nov 2023 16:32 next collapse

im with op on this one. king and other needs to jump the sinking ship already. be the change you want to see

nomnomdeplume@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:08 next collapse

Yeah. This headline reads to me as “Stephen King begs X users to forget they are making Elon Musk money”

glimse@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:26 collapse

making Elon Musk money

More like “allowing musk to lose less money”

RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip on 03 Nov 2023 17:33 next collapse

This is what blows my mind. Everyone keeps complaining about how terrible he is and how terrible twitter has become, but they keep fucking using it. I think if you were just using twitter to reach your audience you wouldn’t care too much what you used. I think these people know they stand to lose money and so they won’t jump ship.

Pussies. This website has effectively drawn a line in the sand and said we are where fascist voices can unite and coordinate. If you remain on twitter even if that’s not your belief you are providing them with legitimacy and enough of a smokescreen to do what they intend to do.

I listened to Rogan and Musk talk briefly because my curiosity got the best of me and you can tell musk has lost it. He’s full Kanye right now. You can kind of tell when someone’s fucked in the head. Their mannerisms and pacing tell the story. He’s totally off it and is going to continue to funnel millions of dollars into the hands of fascist dickheads in one way or other. Today it’s providing them with a platform. Tomorrow it’s funding politicians. He’s just up his own ass enough to do all kinds of fucked up shit because HE thinks it’s ‘what’s best for everyone’.

The world can decide to just dump this shitdick. The sooner the better. Unfortunately a number of people are very keen on keeping things how they are and super pleased to have his stupid ass spewing their talking points.

railsdev@programming.dev on 03 Nov 2023 17:49 next collapse

Everyone keeps complaining about how terrible twitter has become, but they keep fucking using it.

This is what gets to me too: I notice this pattern a lot with all kinds of products and services. I understand wanting a company to improve a product as a customer but when something gets to this point it’s time to hop off the train and go somewhere else.

It’s astounding to me that people expect the companies of everything they use to have an exact customized version just for them. It’s just never going to happen.

Rentlar@lemmy.ca on 03 Nov 2023 17:56 collapse

Cory Doctorow put it well, the social media companies make the switching cost high by holding their “friends”, connections and follows ‘hostage’ to them.

It’s difficult to convince any individual to jump to the lifeboat unless they know the others with them will.

LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net on 03 Nov 2023 18:16 collapse

If you want to reach your audience, you have to be on a platform they use. Despite loss of users, Twitter still has a much larger audience than alternatives. This remains a problem for people seeking alternatives. In my view the best approach is to use both and promote the less popular but better platform on the bad one. But this takes knowledge of what alternatives exist, willingness to learn them, and of course extra time.

StraightArrow@feddit.de on 03 Nov 2023 18:04 collapse

It’s not easy to jump ship (because of the network effect) and possibly not being tech savvy enough to know where to land.

I jumped ship from Reddit this year after reading some posts about alternatives. I tried Tildes too, which I found interesting, but more of an experiment, than a substitute.

King (and others like him) may not know alternatives exist and can work just as easily.

Also, even if King knew of Mastodon, maybe his fans wouldn’t jump ship too even if he had said he’s moving there

It’s complicated

hardypart@feddit.de on 03 Nov 2023 18:28 collapse

According to your comment the solution seems to be keeping the status quo where a single company has that much power. This mega corporation power shit needs to stop, no matter what. The naming is the least issue. We’re heading towards a dystopian cyberpunk future and no one seems to give a fuck.

StraightArrow@feddit.de on 03 Nov 2023 20:29 collapse

Not really, no. I said I informed myself about alternatives to Reddit (as an example) and then dropped it and moved to Lemmy.

I said jumping ship for King may be hard for various possible reasons which I was trying to guess (and don’t pretend to know).

Mastodon is further along than Lemmy is, so I hope Stephen King can move there soon, but it might still take time.

If you have an X account (I never used Twitter/X), you can write King to let him know about Mastodon

heygooberman@lemmy.today on 03 Nov 2023 16:36 next collapse

Regardless of what the platform is called, I don’t think it’s worth staying on it, because the problem remains.

eran_morad@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 16:39 next collapse

Nah he should call it “rekt”

ZeroCool@feddit.ch on 03 Nov 2023 16:48 next collapse

Unless he’s announcing that he’s moving to Mastodon I don’t give a single shit about anything Stephen King is saying on Twitter. You’re part of the problem dude.

Whiskeyomega@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 17:26 collapse

He actually joined mastodon in November last year but left again because some wasteland instances took to attacking him AFAICR. He just wants to wallow in his own crapulence now

tygerprints@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 16:49 next collapse

That would work, I just think people are always going to call "X' by the name Twitter - that's how we've come to know it and that's the way we refer to it still.

GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 16:54 next collapse

I tried, I really tried. Instead of talking to thousands of people like I was on Twitter, I was talking to like three on Mastodon.

ripcord@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 17:03 next collapse

When was that?

GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:35 collapse

Less than a week ago. Not many people on that platform, and the interest circles kind of fragment that number

Jezebelley@lemmy.zip on 03 Nov 2023 17:11 next collapse

Except those three were actual people instead of the hundreds of bots and clout chasing influencers.

GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:35 collapse

I talked to real people that weren’t toxic. Sorry if my experience doesn’t track with the hateful memes everyone endlessly parrots

Jezebelley@lemmy.zip on 03 Nov 2023 17:36 collapse

Make sure you follow their twitch stream and subscribe to their patreons!

GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:42 next collapse

Yeah, not all of Twitter is like that 😅

nomnomdeplume@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:44 collapse

After you click like, don’t forget to check out our merchandise page!

Jezebelley@lemmy.zip on 03 Nov 2023 18:05 collapse

Sick merch bro wanna collab?!

kbal@fedia.io on 03 Nov 2023 17:14 next collapse

Did you try being Stephen King? That'd be one way to instantly get a big Mastodon audience without any effort.

seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org on 03 Nov 2023 18:18 collapse

Where do you draw the line? What would Musk have to do before you said “Fuck it. I’m not using this site anymore”?

GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 19:08 collapse

I don’t interact with that manchild. I talk to a certain subculture that mainly exists in a corner of Twitter. If I could go anywhere else for it, I would, but the option doesn’t exist 🤷

seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org on 03 Nov 2023 20:40 collapse

So, Musk could do anything at all with X, and you’d still keep using it. Got it.

GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 21:05 collapse

The world isn’t as black and white as you think it is.

vikinghoarder@infosec.pub on 03 Nov 2023 16:56 next collapse

We should still call it twitter, never refering to X

CobblerScholar@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:07 collapse

Already do, it devalues the property even more when you don’t really have control over what it’s called

glimse@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:27 collapse

I don’t use it a lot but I refuse to update it. The bird stays

HuddaBudda@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 16:59 next collapse

If you build it they will come.

Focus on making your communities great, having great conversations, seeing something from a different lens. People like Steven King hang out in great places, so focus on making this a great place to visit.

DessertStorms@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 17:55 collapse

Steven King hang out in great places

evidently not if he's still on twitter lol

tygerprints@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 17:02 next collapse

Anything that creates controversy, the news and the media thrives on it. They keep reporting on the brutality of the Mid East war (and there's no arguing that it is), but they actually love it, it's their bread and butter. ABC spends a half hour news broadcast on it every night. They LOVE this stuff, it's ratings gold. Without this crappola, where would they be. To me, it's like bad advertising, when they talk about trump I simply turn to another channel.

DessertStorms@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 17:52 collapse

Bread and circuses..

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works on 03 Nov 2023 17:11 next collapse

This is like petitioning the owner of PiPi’s water park to change the name. Like, dude… You’re still swimming in piss. Get out, you idiot!

mojo@lemm.ee on 03 Nov 2023 17:14 next collapse

I love King but why the fuck is this news

Jezebelley@lemmy.zip on 03 Nov 2023 17:38 next collapse

When The King speaks it’s always newsworthy.

Maalus@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 19:15 collapse

No, it isn’t. Neither is Musk newsworthy.

can@sh.itjust.works on 04 Nov 2023 03:18 collapse

I’m going to try making !technology@sh.itjust.works as an alternative for like-minded subscribers.

can@sh.itjust.works on 03 Nov 2023 18:14 collapse

Because the mods of !technology@lemmy.world really don’t seem to give a damn. Everyone complained about “duplicate” communities here but I’d be happy to see another !technology but with tighter moderation.

registrert@lemmy.sambands.net on 03 Nov 2023 18:48 collapse

Then go make one. If you need the community to be called !Technology, make it on a different instance. I’ll subscribe.

can@sh.itjust.works on 03 Nov 2023 20:12 collapse

Tempting. Is !technology@sh.itjust.works already established?

Edit: well, now it exists. Don’t have more time tonight but check back soon.

Jackthelad@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:20 next collapse

Doesn’t really matter what the name is, the site is still the same.

Zeppo@sh.itjust.works on 03 Nov 2023 17:24 next collapse

Musk offered an $8 per month price to King as a counteroffer after proposing a higher number. King scoffed at the idea of paying for a blue verification badge at all, which led to Musk gifting the author with an entirely free Twitter Blue subscription.

Wow, I’m sure Stephen King is stoked to be getting a free subscription basically worth nothing rather than paying $96 a year.

dinckelman@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:24 next collapse

The name was never the problem. It’s the nazis, the bigots, the crypto morons, and the clown in command himself. Stop discussing this platform

seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org on 03 Nov 2023 18:11 collapse

I think it’s important to call out bigotry whenever you see it.

njm1314@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 17:35 next collapse

Why is he even using it anymore.

DreamerofDays@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 18:29 collapse

A lot of the internet survives by pattern and habit. Pattern, habit, and the hope, founded or not, that things might get better with a site you’ve been using for years.

Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee on 03 Nov 2023 17:39 next collapse

King is a premium user, so he gets ad sharing revenue from Twitter. He would not get that on Mastodon.

ilinamorato@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 18:03 next collapse

Yeah, the name sucks. But I don’t care so much about the location of the deck chairs on the Nazi Titanic.

alienanimals@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 18:18 next collapse

Downvote Musk spam.

The billionaire doesn’t need your help ensuring him and his businesses stay in the 24 hour news cycle. Don’t be a useful idiot.

const_void@lemmy.ml on 03 Nov 2023 18:39 next collapse

All of the “technology” communities and subreddits seem to be nothing but these kinds of articles. I’ve unsubscribed because I’m seek of seeing this garbage.

skulblaka@kbin.social on 03 Nov 2023 19:34 collapse

Unfortunately the actions of the man who owns a rocket ship company, an electric car company, and a social media company are, by definition, technology news.

Everyone wants to bitch about how much Muskrat is in the news, well then, maybe don't let him buy every company you want to get news on.

"This isn't tech news" it literally is. I hate the fucker as much as the next guy but keeping an eye on his actions is necessary. Letting him run wild with the public turning a blind eye is a recipe for much, much, MUCH more disaster than has already been caused.

This particular article? Yeah I can't give a shit about Stephen King wishing Twitter had it's old name back. This article is worthless. But news about, for example, Musk buying Twitter, or Musk changing the name of Twitter, or Musk undermining all ability to determine fact from fiction by changing Twitter verification, is extremely important information for your average user.

Buffaloaf@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 18:40 next collapse

Yeah, that’s what !enoughmuskspam is for. Keep the Elon shit quarantined there.

Vegasimov@reddthat.com on 03 Nov 2023 20:47 collapse

Ah yes, a space for people who are fed up of hearing about Elon. So they post every single piece of news about Elon they can find in one place, which is populated only by people who are fed up of hearing about Elon

The situation confuses me greatly

PlexSheep@feddit.de on 03 Nov 2023 21:12 next collapse

I like watching it burn

Nudding@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 22:21 next collapse

Knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss.

NoRodent@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 22:38 collapse

France is bacon.

Nudding@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 2023 22:40 collapse

France is bake on

Krackalot@discuss.tchncs.de on 04 Nov 2023 00:15 collapse

I’m baked mon.

Buddahriffic@lemmy.world on 04 Nov 2023 00:31 collapse

If it weren’t for all the Musk spam over the last oh about 5 years give or take a few months, I’d probably still have the impression that Musk was one of the good billionaires trying to save the planet. If it weren’t for the last 3 or so years of it, I’d probably still think he was an impulsive man with a temper and hero complex, but ultimately still trying to do good.

And I don’t believe that all press is good press. If it was, Twitter and Reddit would have both made it to profitability since they have both been frequently in the news and spread the news.

[deleted] on 04 Nov 2023 00:41 collapse

.

Pxtl@lemmy.ca on 03 Nov 2023 18:32 next collapse

Or he could just join the Fediverse and leave the xitter behind.

smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de on 03 Nov 2023 22:43 next collapse

Buy a managed Mastodon hosting and call that instance however you want.

nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 04 Nov 2023 04:23 collapse

He is well known to be a former old Twitter addict