Ribeye-Rare said:
Guys, educate me some more about the blue check marks. I really haven't paid Twitter much attention in the past and so I'm playing catch-up ball.
OK, you buy a blue check mark and Twitter will verify that you are in fact who you claim to be. I've got that part.
But, once they go to the trouble to verify you, it would seem like Twitter wouldn't need to do anything else on their end to keep you verified.
So, why the recurring monthly charge? If it's just a revenue producer, I understand. Why not charge for something if people are willing to pay for it.
FWIW, my better half tells me that Shonda Rhimes produces TV shows where LGBTQ+ stuff is gratuitously shoved down your throat, so to speak. I don't plan to verify that.
The blue check does one other major thing, and depending on how you Twitter depends on the value add. The magic ingredient is that as a blue check you can completely ignore non-blue checks. As Twitter is incredibly political, it essentially was a "we have approved these people for the conversation". A button allowed you to only view and interact with verified people, and the echo chamber was essentially cordoned off. If you were feeling dirty, you could interact with the little people, but that was for when you got drunk or mad or had a really great play to spike the football with.
At $20, musk will probably need to include some additional filtering features, as well as video hosting (parascope, vine) and maybe some other tools not coming to mind, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the overall number of blue checks increase if this was offered.
Prominent right wing people had to get influence with massive follower counts to prove their identity. The leftist rabble will squawk and pay to avoid being held to the same standard... Or risk losing their ability to say "verified since 2015".
The other thing it might offer if it's given to everyone is the "safe space" version where there's a very low chance for bots. This in my estimation is why it's $20 and not $5.