Elon Musk: Officially a fraud and piece of shit. Official or unofficial war criminal?

[Brisketexan 104226]

4 minutes ago, Herpa Derpa said:

Those dudes weren't fighting.

NTTIAWWT.

Well....that scene was immediately after we saw a hot topless gal just walking down the street, and moments before we saw a drunk dude on horseback riding the wrong way on 6th street, so....anything is possible, man.

[NoName 16265]

‘The Flash’: Entire DC Universe Movie Was Leaked On Twitter

https://heroichollywood.com/the-flash-entire-dc-universe-movie-leaked-twitter/

Quote

Yes, before The Flash could even finish its second week at the box office, the entire movie was leaked through a camera recording on Twitter. While the leaked film has since been removed, it lasted a shocking 8 hours on the platform, giving users plenty of time to pirate to their heart’s content. During that time, the Tweet got a massive 1.7 million views.

 

i'm sure this will do wonders for the existing music copyright lawsuit they have out there.

[Hagbard Celine 10657]

no one seems to like space travel in this thread so i updated the nerdz thread with the latest Starship news if anyone wants to check it out

[956 Worldwide 34241]

On 6/23/2023 at 3:23 AM, Hook1997 said:

Can Musk finish neuralink before we all wish death on him?  He’s a dbag for sure but the possibilities for Parkinson’s, epilepsy, spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s and dementia with neuralink are pretty amazing.  It sounds crazy but he has with the help of the people he puts in place to has done everything he said he would tech wise so far and this one might be a game changer for many.  

This man promised he’d be flinging us at near supersonic speeds on underground hyper trains between cities and instead he dug a tunnel in Las Vegas that only Tesla taxis can use. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19111]

18 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Well....that scene was immediately after we saw a hot topless gal just walking down the street, and moments before we saw a drunk dude on horseback riding the wrong way on 6th street, so....anything is possible, man.

It’s impossible to go the wrong way if you’re on a horse. You running shit at that point. 

[Francisco 2.0 32290]

https://www.fastcompany.com/90914627/news-of-elon-musks-17-billion-loss-on-twitter-is-brought-to-you-by-fidelity

 

Quote

Do you need a good laugh? If so, you’ll probably get a giggle from the tale of how what seemed like a big break for Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout has instead turned into a big embarrassment for him and his co-investors. Musk’s big break consisted of getting the giant Fidelity mutual fund company to kick in $316 million to be part of his buyout of Twitter. Had Fidelity not agreed to have the Twitter stake held by some of its funds converted into stock of Musk’s buyout company rather than getting $54.20 a share of cash, he would have had to kick in $316 million more of his own money to get the deal done.

 

Quote

But having Fidelity as a Twitter coinvestor has turned out to be a huge mistake—and a major source of embarrassment to him. And a source of nine digits of losses to holders of the Fidelity funds that went along with the buyout.

Even though Twitter, now known as X Holdings, is a private company and isn’t required to file public financial reports, Fidelity’s presence in the deal makes it possible to figure out how much X Holdings’ investors have lost (on paper) since the takeover was completed last October.

 

Quote

I’m not sure any of the players realized that Fidelity would have to disclose this stuff when the Twitter buyout was put together—none of the 20 players would talk with Fast Company when we approached them last month and I didn’t bother trying this time around. However, Fidelity’s presence in the deal has been a boon for financial journalists.

I’ve been thinking about this since I first wrote about Musk’s Twitter debacle in May. In the month since that article appeared, there have been about a zillion similar stories, none of which would likely have been written if Fidelity weren’t part of the buyout.

 

Spoiler

LISTING MUSK’S UNLUCKY CO-INVESTORS

As a result, my bet is that in future takeovers of companies that plan to stay private post-buyout, no one will invite Fidelity into the deal because of the problems and embarrassment that Fidelity has caused for Musk and Musk’s 18 other Twitter buyout coinvestors. In addition to Fidelity, they are A.M. Management & Consulting; Andreessen Horowitz; Aliya Capital Partners; BAMCO; Binance; Brookfield; DFJ Growth IV Partners; Honeycomb Asset Management; Key Wealth Advisors; Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust; Litani Ventures; Qatar Holding; Sequoia Capital Fund; Strauss Capital; Tresser Blvd 402; VyCapital; and Witkoff Capital.

Let me explain why the presence of Fidelity (whose spokesperson didn’t respond to my requests to talk) in the buyout has generated problems and embarrassment.

Fidelity, unlike the other X Holdings investors, is legally required to disclose how much its stake in X Holdings is worth.

That’s because the Fidelity mutual funds that own X Holdings stock are bought and sold by investors based on the funds’ asset value per share. Even though X Holdings stock isn’t publicly traded, Fidelity has to value it as accurately as possible.

As best I can tell, Fidelity estimates that value monthly. I have no idea how it does that, but I’m sure it’s doing its best to come up with an accurate number. And if you know how to find that number, which involves parsing some of the Fidelity funds’ monthly filings, you can apply it to the whole buyout.

I’ve been using reports filed by Fidelity’s Contrafund to calculate the paper losses Fidelity and the other Twitter buyout players have suffered.

According to Contrafund filings, it paid $53,469,000 for its X Holdings stake when the buyout took place last October. As of the end of May, after taking three separate writedowns, Contrafund valued the stake at $17,826,565. That’s almost exactly two-thirds below its cost.

Apply that two-thirds loss, and you see that Fidelity fund investors have taken a hit of about $210 million on the funds’ initial $316 million X Holdings stake. Apply that two-thirds loss to all of Musk’s coinvestors, whose reported initial stake was $7.14 billion, and their total paper loss is about $4.75 billion.

CALCULATING MUSK’S PERSONAL LOSS ON TWITTER

Musk’s personal paper loss on Twitter is far greater. If we assume a total buyout cost of $46.5 billion–$44 billion to shareholders and $2.5 billion for various costs—and subtract the $13 billion that X Holdings borrowed, that leaves $33.5 billion that Musk and his coinvestors had to put into the deal. Subtract the coinvestors’ $7.14 billion, and Musk’s personal cost is about $26 billion. A two-thirds loss on that is more than $17 billion.

This loss isn’t about to send Musk into poverty–Bloomberg says his current net worth is about $220 billion. I reached out to X Holdings to try to confirm this and got Musk’s traditional pop emoji response.

We wouldn’t know any of these loss numbers if Fidelity weren’t involved in the Twitter buyout. So thanks, Fidelity. And thanks, Elon.

Since I can’t imagine Musk or any other takeover type ever making this mistake again, let’s enjoy the access while we can.

 

[NoName 16265]

3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

This man promised he’d be flinging us at near supersonic speeds on underground hyper trains between cities and instead he dug a tunnel in Las Vegas that only Tesla taxis can use. 

that only Tesla taxis can use...at 35 MPH.

[Pig Bellmont 8664]

4 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

This man promised he’d be flinging us at near supersonic speeds on underground hyper trains between cities and instead he dug a tunnel in Las Vegas that only Tesla taxis can use. 

And didn’t Elon just steal that idea from Hyperloop after Richard Branson got involved? Of course Branson and Virgin have demanded to remove their brand from that project last year- so at least Branson can spot a failure and exit

[NoName 16265]

1 hour ago, Pig Bellmont said:

And didn’t Elon just steal that idea from Hyperloop after Richard Branson got involved? Of course Branson and Virgin have demanded to remove their brand from that project last year- so at least Branson can spot a failure and exit

Hyperloop historical info:

the Branson stuff was a different version of the same hyperloop concept - Hyperloop One was that company's name vs The Boring Company.

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13388]

Looks like you now have to log onto Twitter to read a tweet. I'm fairly certain that wasn't required before. 

[atomheartbevo 89304]

23 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Looks like you now have to log onto Twitter to read a tweet. I'm fairly certain that wasn't required before. 

It's been that way for me for a while, on browsers that I'm logged out on. I can go to somebody's main profile page and read their tweets, and click on said tweets, but if I get a link in email and go to it, it tries to force me to login.

Which is ironic, because Musk promised to make reading twitter easier.

[F250 28623]

So when are we getting the cage match? I heard Musk has started training for the fight.

[NoName 16265]

6 minutes ago, F250 said:

So when are we getting the cage match? I heard Musk has started training for the fight.

didn't you hear? his mother got it cancelled (not really, but it's the funniest possible outcome in this situation - and as far as i know nothing more has been said about it from either end)

 

 

 

 

[F250 28623]

25 minutes ago, NoName said:

didn't you hear? his mother got it cancelled (not really, but it's the funniest possible outcome in this situation - and as far as i know nothing more has been said about it from either end)

 

 

 

 

I saw this article earlier this morning.

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10080798-elon-musk-agrees-to-train-with-ufc-legend-georges-st-pierre-for-mark-zuckerberg-fight

 

[Captain Ron 12770]

On 6/27/2023 at 9:54 AM, NoName said:

Hyperloop historical info:

the Branson stuff was a different version of the same hyperloop concept - Hyperloop One was that company's name vs The Boring Company.

 

 

Shocking a guy that makes cars wants to stop projects that get people out of cars.

 

[atomheartbevo 89304]

2 hours ago, NoName said:

didn't you hear? his mother got it cancelled (not really, but it's the funniest possible outcome in this situation - and as far as i know nothing more has been said about it from either end)

That is the ultimate incel move - having your mom try and stop a fight with somebody who can (and wants to) beat your ass.

That's a helluva lot of incel cred that Musk just picked up.

[MrBig 5249]

3 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

That is the ultimate incel move - having your mom try and stop a fight with somebody who can (and wants to) beat your ass.

That's a helluva lot of incel cred that Musk just picked up.

Mothers know when their wimpy sons are about to get their asses kicked. 

[atomheartbevo 89304]

3 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Looks like you now have to log onto Twitter to read a tweet. I'm fairly certain that wasn't required before. 

And if I'm reading somebody's tweets, and click on the "What's Happening" topics, it tries to force me to login.  Been doing that for a while.

[SydneyCarton 47809]

2 hours ago, F250 said:

I saw this article earlier this morning.

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10080798-elon-musk-agrees-to-train-with-ufc-legend-georges-st-pierre-for-mark-zuckerberg-fight

 

Makes sense. He clearly has plenty of free time on his hands. Can't think of anthing else he should be focusing his energies on, frankly. 

[Brisketexan 104226]

Shit, my family was talking about this Musk tough-guy bullshit last night.  When the idea of a fight comes up, the exact way to handle it would have been "cool....I'm on my way to Austin [or wherever he is].  I'll be in the Tesla factory parking lot at 8:00 tonight.  If you're up for the fight, meet me.  If you're a gutless pussy, don't."  Then livestream it, either way.  Elon's a fucking coward.  If he can't bully his way with money, he folds.

[MrBig 5249]

Would not be surprised if Elon, Lex and Joe Rogan spearheaded the martial arts department at the University of Austin.

 

[Post Oak 20174]

9 minutes ago, MrBig said:

Would not be surprised if Elon, Lex and Joe Rogan spearheaded the martial arts department at the University of Austin.

 

There never gonna fuck you Lex

 

[Sawbonz 27296]

On 6/26/2023 at 12:03 PM, NoName said:

‘The Flash’: Entire DC Universe Movie Was Leaked On Twitter

https://heroichollywood.com/the-flash-entire-dc-universe-movie-leaked-twitter/

i'm sure this will do wonders for the existing music copyright lawsuit they have out there.

[F250 28623]

15 hours ago, MrBig said:

Would not be surprised if Elon, Lex and Joe Rogan spearheaded the martial arts department at the University of Austin.

 

Isn't the University of Austin at Dallas?

[atomheartbevo 89304]

So now Elmo is trying to turn twitter into substack and once again showing the world that he still doesn't "get" twitter and why people used it/liked it.

For reference, that's probably 10-15 pages worth of text in an average novel.

 

[Francisco 2.0 32290]

Ah yes.  Hire an ad exec to bolster Twitter's dwindling ad revenues, only to discover that the ad exec has a non compete that prevents her from [checks notes] doing advertising deals:

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Francisco 2.0

[SydneyCarton 47809]

7 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Ah yes.  Hire an ad exec to bolster Twitter's dwindling ad revenues, only to discover that the ad exec has a non compete that prevents her from [checks notes] doing advertising deals:

 

 

 

I feel like this is a big nothingburger. She hires a head of advertising and then tells her exactly what to do and say and how to approach shit, and that person goes and does it. 

[NoName 16265]

18 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I feel like this is a big nothingburger. She hires a head of advertising and then tells her exactly what to do and say and how to approach shit, and that person goes and does it. 

a lot of what she did was based on relationships and schmoozing with ad buyers, but per that article (unpaywalled here:https://archive.ph/hmZYW)

 

Quote

But just over three weeks into her new job, Ms. Yaccarino, the former head of advertising at NBCUniversal, has been prevented from working on a key component of what she was hired to do: drum up advertising for Twitter.

Ms. Yaccarino, 60, has spoken with some of Twitter’s advertisers about unsavory content on the site, four people with knowledge of the conversations said. But she has not engaged in public hobnobbing and hands-on negotiating with advertisers to increase Twitter’s revenue.

That’s because a contractual agreement with NBCUniversal prevented Ms. Yaccarino — at least initially — from working on advertising deals that would conflict with the interests of her former employer, three people familiar with the arrangement said.

 

 "its hard for them to enforce but we are not going to do anything to push the boundaries on it"

Quote

Twitter did not make Ms. Yaccarino, a longtime Madison Avenue power player, available for an interview. A person close to her said the noncompete clause extended only for her first few weeks at Twitter, while another said it was difficult for NBCUniversal to enforce. The clause’s expiration date was unclear.

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

+

Quote

Ms. Yaccarino also did not appear last week at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, a glittering networking event on the French Riviera that is often considered the apex of the ad industry calendar. Twitter significantly scaled back its spending and presence there compared with previous years.

this sure seems like an engineering issue, not a business ops issue to me - which is why she stayed in SF vs going to Cannes lol

Quote

Still, Ms. Yaccarino tweeted that she was soliciting feedback from Cannes attendees. “I’m here for ALL of it!” she wrote.

She had remained in San Francisco at Twitter’s headquarters, where she hosted a European Union delegation led by Commissioner Thierry Breton. The group was testing whether Twitter’s content moderation systems would comply with a new European law, the Digital Services Act, that holds social platforms responsible for policing illicit content and disinformation. It goes into effect in August.

Edited June 29, 2023 by NoName

[SydneyCarton 47809]

2 minutes ago, NoName said:

a lot of what she did was based on relationships and schmoozing with ad buyers, but per that article (unpaywalled here:https://archive.ph/hmZYW)

 

 

 "its hard for them to enforce but we are not going to do anything to push the boundaries on it"

+

this sure seems like an engineering issue, not a business ops issue to me - which is why she stayed in SF vs going to Cannes lol

Yeah, that's unenforcable. Those relationships are still in place, and that's all that matters. "You mean to tell me the CEO can't meet with the folks they're doing business with?"

[Pig Bellmont 8664]

4 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Yeah, that's unenforcable. Those relationships are still in place, and that's all that matters. "You mean to tell me the CEO can't meet with the folks they're doing business with?"

Maybe unenforceable but even still that conclusion requires a court and a judge to agree. Non-solicits have more enforceability than non-competes and C-suite/EVP types can be subject to more restrictive covenants than your average employee- even in California. Plus, does he really want to be in court defending against a temporary restraining order? Maybe, but given his unwillingness to pay basic bills like rent and mounting mandatory arbitration costs, it all just is another example of him exercising poor judgment with an important piece of his company- the (purported) CEO

[NoName 16265]

24 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Yeah, that's unenforcable. Those relationships are still in place, and that's all that matters. "You mean to tell me the CEO can't meet with the folks they're doing business with?"

reading some stuff it and her in the past, it may have been to keep her from that specific event that she missed.

[trza-hawk 269]

Guy who trends on twitter every couple of months was at the UN today with a bunch of other guys who only seem to get any traction on twitter and literally no other social networking app

 

[Blotto 23366]

On 6/28/2023 at 10:13 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Looks like you now have to log onto Twitter to read a tweet. I'm fairly certain that wasn't required before. 

 

On 6/28/2023 at 10:38 AM, atomheartbevo said:

It's been that way for me for a while, on browsers that I'm logged out on. I can go to somebody's main profile page and read their tweets, and click on said tweets, but if I get a link in email and go to it, it tries to force me to login.

Which is ironic, because Musk promised to make reading twitter easier.

Yeah, I have never had to log in to view individual tweets or someone's main profile page using a browser (don't use the app). All of the sudden tonight,  I get a login prompt if I try to visit an individual tweet, a user profile page, or even just the twitter.com homepage. Fuck off Elmo, I'll just do without. How's that ad revenue coming along? 

 

[NoName 16265]

Article: Twitter's API keeps breaking, even for developers paying $42,000

 

Quote

 

Twitter's API issues have frustrated developers in each of Twitter's new API access tiers. Those with Basic or Pro plans — paying $100 and $5000 a month for API access, respectively — have experienced unannounced changes to their plans, numerous bugs, and often receive zero customer support. And developers shelling out for Twitter's Enterprise API Plan, which starts at $42,000 per month, are experiencing sudden outages and disappointing service considering the money they're paying.

"Everything used to work fine before we started paying half a million per year," shared one developer in a private Twitter developer group chat shared with Mashable.

 

+

Quote

Many developers have shared both publicly online and in private emails and group chats viewed by Mashable that the Twitter API will mistakenly suspend their apps or remove apps from projects within the API platform. Some have experienced this on a near-weekly basis since April, when the paid API subscription tiers first launched. Developers have also experienced issues such as their plans' rate limits suddenly being changed as well as endpoints breaking, which cuts off communication from their third-party app to the Twitter platform. 

Even worse, major issues with Twitter's API appear to be changes that are intentionally made with zero regard for the developers paying them specifically for those API features. Developers have complained that Twitter doesn't even notify them of these changes and they often don't find out until their app breaks.

+

Quote

"Is this some kind of joke? I paid $100 specifically for this endpoint, and now it’s deprecated?" posted another. "This is a fiasco. It feels as though they’re managing a small-scale business with a mere ten employees, not a technology company."

+
 

Quote

 

All of these issues are further compounded by the fact that Twitter API customer support is not only unresponsive to specific problems but oftentimes seem completely nonexistent, according to developers who have shared these issues. Simple matters may take days to get resolved, major problems take weeks to get fixed – if the issue is even resolved at all. 

And in the case of these endpoint removals, Twitter has made the choice to not even communicate deliberate changes to its paying customers at all. The company offers no notification to users so that they can attempt to reach out for clarifications or to report bugs. Developers often find out about Twitter API-related issues from their own users seeking help when something breaks.

 

 

full:

 

Spoiler

Twitter's API keeps breaking, even for developers paying $42,000

Everything worked fine until Elon Musk took over.

By Matt Binder  on June 29, 2023Share on Facebook (opens in a new window) Share on Twitter (opens in a new window) Share on Flipboard (opens in a new window)

 

Developers who pay for and depend on Twitter's API have experienced nothing but trouble since Elon Musk acquired the company. Credit: Mashable / Kyle Tippett

---

> Tech

Twitter's new API may now cost tens of thousands of dollars per month, but the service being provided to its customers appears to be worse than ever.

That's the general sentiment among developers who are still part of the once-robust third-party Twitter app ecosystem. According to developers paying Twitter, since the switch over to Elon Musk's paid API subscription plans, Twitter's API has experienced frequent issues that make it extremely difficult to run their apps. 

Twitter's API issues have frustrated developers in each of Twitter's new API access tiers. Those with Basic or Pro plans — paying $100 and $5000 a month for API access, respectively — have experienced unannounced changes to their plans, numerous bugs, and often receive zero customer support. And developers shelling out for Twitter's Enterprise API Plan, which starts at $42,000 per month, are experiencing sudden outages and disappointing service considering the money they're paying.

"Everything used to work fine before we started paying half a million per year," shared one developer in a private Twitter developer group chat shared with Mashable.

Before Elon Musk, Twitter was known for having a robust third-party developer ecosystem. Apps providing users with everything from entertainment to useful business utility flourished on the platform. Now, though, those third-party developers are leaving Twitter behind in droves. And the ones who are forced to stick around because they've already built a company on top of it are wondering when Twitter will eventually make the changes that will break their app and destroy their business.

The collapse of Twitter's once burgeoning third-party ecosystem

Who Unfollowed Me is a popular Twitter app that tracks a user's unfollows. It's likely one of the oldest, active third-party Twitter apps. It has been around for nearly a decade and a half. At present, Who Unfollowed Me boasts 150,000 monthly active users with 1.4 million total users over the last 12 months.

"The API has been stable for the better part of 13 years," its creator, Collin Robinson, told Mashable.

But then on June 13, Who Unfollowed Me suddenly broke.

A note on Who Unfollowed Me's homepage explaining the Twitter API issues that the app was having. Credit: Mashable Screenshot

According to Robinson, Twitter had not communicated to developers clearly that it was going to completely remove the old Twitter API when it switched over to Musk's version of the API with the new paid plans. In Twitter's communications about the switch, the company said the old API would be "deprecated," which led some developers to believe that the old API would remain accessible to its existing users, but that Twitter would just not provide support or updates for it anymore. Many were left scrambling to fix their apps after Twitter completely cut the old API off.

Robinson had to rewrite "every call" he had going to the API after the switch, a process that took about two weeks to complete.

On June 26, Who Unfollowed Me was finally ready to relaunch after all the rewrites. But then Twitter suddenly removed the followers and following endpoints from the API. These endpoints provide Who Unfollowed Me and other third-party apps with the follower and following list on a user's Twitter account. Without access to these endpoints, a Twitter follower-tracking app like Who Unfollowed Me will not function.

Robinson learned about the change from another developer. "Someone noticed the GET calls for user/:id/followers and user/:id/following were no longer part of the accessible APIs for basic or pro users," Robinson told me on Wednesday, referring to the API functionality that allowed third-party apps to access a users' follower and following lists. "It wasn’t until Wednesday that they were removed from the official API reference index. All the while there is no word from @twitterdev, even though they posted a few times in the forums. There is nothing in the changelog either."

Robinson was hopeful(opens in a new tab) that Twitter would provide some sort of update on the situation and he'd still be able to make Who Unfollowed Me work. Then on Thursday, without any notification and four days after the endpoints disappeared from the API, Twitter finally updated its changelog.

Twitter updated it's changelog on June 29 to reflect the removal of the follower endpoints on June 26. Credit: Mashable Screenshot

"Today, we are removing the Follows and List Follows endpoints from the Basic and Pro tiers of the Twitter API v2," it reads. This means that unless a developer is paying a minimum of $42,000 per month, the Twitter API will not provide an app with the follower and following information.

It signals the end of Who Unfollowed Me and any other third-party app like it.

"It’s been a good 14 year run," Robinson told Mashable after the changelog update on Thursday. "Sad to see it end this way."

"Today, I’ll go ride my bike with my triathlon team and get curious about what’s next for me," he continued." "Tomorrow, I’ll get up and start something new."

Developers are jumping ship from Twitter

Many developers have shared both publicly online and in private emails and group chats viewed by Mashable that the Twitter API will mistakenly suspend their apps or remove apps from projects within the API platform. Some have experienced this on a near-weekly basis since April, when the paid API subscription tiers first launched. Developers have also experienced issues such as their plans' rate limits suddenly being changed as well as endpoints breaking, which cuts off communication from their third-party app to the Twitter platform. 

Even worse, major issues with Twitter's API appear to be changes that are intentionally made with zero regard for the developers paying them specifically for those API features. Developers have complained that Twitter doesn't even notify them of these changes and they often don't find out until their app breaks.

Mashable has heard these frustrations directly from paying Twitter API users who have reached out, in messages from developers sent in private developer groups, and in publicly available tweets. Twitter's public developer community forum is also filled with developers requesting help when Twitter's API breaks. Those requests often go unanswered.

SEE ALSO: Twitter's new API pricing is killing many Twitter apps that can't pay $42,000 per month

Before Twitter made its follower endpoint changes official, developers on the Twitter developer community forum(opens in a new tab) were expressing their frustration:

"@TwitterDev, please make this clear whether it is a bug or change of service?" wrote one user. "If the latter, we will stop paying for the API as this is our major use case and paid API becomes waste of our money and become completely useless!"

"Is this some kind of joke? I paid $100 specifically for this endpoint, and now it’s deprecated?" posted another. "This is a fiasco. It feels as though they’re managing a small-scale business with a mere ten employees, not a technology company."

Now that these developers know the follower endpoint is no longer included in their API package, some are considering issuing a chargeback to Twitter via their credit card for services unrendered.

"This is ridiculous," posted one developer. "I want my money back!"

The problems started with Elon Musk

One of the first major changes Musk made after acquiring Twitter last year was to shut down the company's generous free API offering for third-party developers and researchers. Twitter soon moved to a paid model, which many were still willing to subscribe to.

That is, until they found out how much it cost: $42,000 per month. This pricing model resulted in the shuttering of many Twitter-based apps that simply could not afford the new exorbitant model. Musk initially promised that there would be an exception for Twitter's "good" bots, which do not generate revenue and just provide services to Twitter's users. But that exception never materialized for some, and many of these bots have also since shut down after dealing with Twitter API issues. (Twitter does have an extremely limited $100 plan, which many developers say is unusable for most applications because many features are not included and the limits are too low for the ones that are. The company has also since rolled out a new $5,000 a month API tier, which is still out of reach for many indie developers.)

SEE ALSO: Twitter launches API 'Pro' plan for 'startups.' Developers think it's a slap in the face.

"This has been a tough journey building on top of the Twitter API since Elon Musk took over," Paul-Louis Hery of Unfollow Monkey told Mashable.

Like many developers, Hery's problems started in April when Twitter officially rolled out its new paid API platform.

"The app got suspended as a way to force us to get a paid plan," he said. "So I paid the plan, $100 per month, no customer service, nothing clear."

But the service provided by Twitter for even paying users like Hery was chaotic at best. Hery said his app would just stop working during the middle of the night after it would be randomly removed from a Twitter API "app project," which basically tells the API which app to give access to. The company would lower limits for features in paid plans without notification.

"It used to be 15,000 DMs per app per day, now it's 500," Hery told me. "At the beginning I thought it was a bug, there was no announcement, and took a few days to realize it was not a bug. Because the paid subscribers relied on DMs to receive their notifications, I decided to stop the subscriptions and refund everyone."

One developer who reached out to Mashable via email shared how Twitter removed API endpoints earlier this month for block lists. There use to be complete apps based around helping users manage their block lists. Many have since shut down as they can no longer function after Twitter decided to remove the API endpoint that allows third-parties to access users' blocks.

---

Related Stories

---

• Twitter API changes crush @PossumEveryHour and other good bots
• Elon Musk offers up Twitter changes none of us want
• Twitter is getting rid of its free API tier. That's a nightmare for accessibility activists.
• The solution to Twitter's downfall isn't five Twitter clones
• Soon, you'll have to pay to DM people who don't follow you on Twitter

Now the same thing is happening to apps that depended on the follower endpoints too.

Like Robinson of Who Unfollowed Me, Hery of Unfollower Monkey had just rebuilt his platform. Hery removed the DM feature due to the new reduced rate limits, still holding out hope he could work within the confines of Twitter's new paid API plans. Then the follower and following endpoint issue hit.

"So my side project seems dead," Hery said. 

"People [in the Twitter developer community forum] whose companies leverage that feature don't know what to tell customers, whether to give refunds, what to tell employees and their families," Hery continued. "I don't know how Elon wants to make an 'everything company' without the developers, brands, and people on his side."

Developer Thomas Shulz shared(opens in a new tab) that Twitter's most recent API issues involving its follower and following endpoint have created problems for the app he is working on called DirectorySF.

"I’m building an app that helps people in tech find housing," Shultz said in a message to Mashable. "Part of what makes this app useful is showing people the following overlaps. That’s how you can tell whether or not to trust someone and/or find like-minded housemates. Without this feature, we have to figure out another method to show social proof which is harder to do."

Luckily for Schulz his app hasn't yet gone live.

"We haven’t launched yet, so I don't have it as bad as other people that are paying thousands of dollars a month and losing paying customers," he explained.

Others, like Robinson and Hery, haven't been as lucky. 

SEE ALSO: Twitter and Reddit's high-priced APIs are bad news for the internet's future

All of these issues are further compounded by the fact that Twitter API customer support is not only unresponsive to specific problems but oftentimes seem completely nonexistent, according to developers who have shared these issues. Simple matters may take days to get resolved, major problems take weeks to get fixed – if the issue is even resolved at all. 

And in the case of these endpoint removals, Twitter has made the choice to not even communicate deliberate changes to its paying customers at all. The company offers no notification to users so that they can attempt to reach out for clarifications or to report bugs. Developers often find out about Twitter API-related issues from their own users seeking help when something breaks.

"I am paying the $42,000 / month sub… and still, our API access got randomly cut off," tweeted(opens in a new tab) TweetHunter cofounder Tibo Louis-Lucas in the early morning this past Saturday, sharing that the same issue occurred just weeks earlier.

Social media management app Publer, which also pays for Twitter's Enterprise API plan, shared with Mashable that it had experienced similar API issues in the past. 

However, TweetHunter and Publer appear to be outliers as they appear to be among the few companies that have managed to actually get help from Twitter support. Both say Twitter's API integrations are currently working for their respective apps at the time of publication. Both also pay for the $42,000 per month plan but it's unclear if that played a role.

"The wild thing about all this is that this all seems to be screwing over developers who are paying up to $5,000 per month for API access and none of them even have support contacts to ask why this is happening," one developer told Mashable. "If this isn't high enough priority for Twitter to dedicate its developers [to]…what are they working on?"

"[Twitter] assured us their #1 priority was to re-establish the stability we were used to…before we started paying $42,000 per month," one startup founder told Mashable, adding a cry-laughing emoji.

 

[Captainant 27250]

2 minutes ago, NoName said:

Article: Twitter's API keeps breaking, even for developers paying $42,000

 

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+

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full:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Twitter's API keeps breaking, even for developers paying $42,000

Everything worked fine until Elon Musk took over.

By Matt Binder  on June 29, 2023Share on Facebook (opens in a new window) Share on Twitter (opens in a new window) Share on Flipboard (opens in a new window)

 

Developers who pay for and depend on Twitter's API have experienced nothing but trouble since Elon Musk acquired the company. Credit: Mashable / Kyle Tippett

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> Tech

Twitter's new API may now cost tens of thousands of dollars per month, but the service being provided to its customers appears to be worse than ever.

That's the general sentiment among developers who are still part of the once-robust third-party Twitter app ecosystem. According to developers paying Twitter, since the switch over to Elon Musk's paid API subscription plans, Twitter's API has experienced frequent issues that make it extremely difficult to run their apps. 

Twitter's API issues have frustrated developers in each of Twitter's new API access tiers. Those with Basic or Pro plans — paying $100 and $5000 a month for API access, respectively — have experienced unannounced changes to their plans, numerous bugs, and often receive zero customer support. And developers shelling out for Twitter's Enterprise API Plan, which starts at $42,000 per month, are experiencing sudden outages and disappointing service considering the money they're paying.

"Everything used to work fine before we started paying half a million per year," shared one developer in a private Twitter developer group chat shared with Mashable.

Before Elon Musk, Twitter was known for having a robust third-party developer ecosystem. Apps providing users with everything from entertainment to useful business utility flourished on the platform. Now, though, those third-party developers are leaving Twitter behind in droves. And the ones who are forced to stick around because they've already built a company on top of it are wondering when Twitter will eventually make the changes that will break their app and destroy their business.

The collapse of Twitter's once burgeoning third-party ecosystem

Who Unfollowed Me is a popular Twitter app that tracks a user's unfollows. It's likely one of the oldest, active third-party Twitter apps. It has been around for nearly a decade and a half. At present, Who Unfollowed Me boasts 150,000 monthly active users with 1.4 million total users over the last 12 months.

"The API has been stable for the better part of 13 years," its creator, Collin Robinson, told Mashable.

But then on June 13, Who Unfollowed Me suddenly broke.

A note on Who Unfollowed Me's homepage explaining the Twitter API issues that the app was having. Credit: Mashable Screenshot

According to Robinson, Twitter had not communicated to developers clearly that it was going to completely remove the old Twitter API when it switched over to Musk's version of the API with the new paid plans. In Twitter's communications about the switch, the company said the old API would be "deprecated," which led some developers to believe that the old API would remain accessible to its existing users, but that Twitter would just not provide support or updates for it anymore. Many were left scrambling to fix their apps after Twitter completely cut the old API off.

Robinson had to rewrite "every call" he had going to the API after the switch, a process that took about two weeks to complete.

On June 26, Who Unfollowed Me was finally ready to relaunch after all the rewrites. But then Twitter suddenly removed the followers and following endpoints from the API. These endpoints provide Who Unfollowed Me and other third-party apps with the follower and following list on a user's Twitter account. Without access to these endpoints, a Twitter follower-tracking app like Who Unfollowed Me will not function.

Robinson learned about the change from another developer. "Someone noticed the GET calls for user/:id/followers and user/:id/following were no longer part of the accessible APIs for basic or pro users," Robinson told me on Wednesday, referring to the API functionality that allowed third-party apps to access a users' follower and following lists. "It wasn’t until Wednesday that they were removed from the official API reference index. All the while there is no word from @twitterdev, even though they posted a few times in the forums. There is nothing in the changelog either."

Robinson was hopeful(opens in a new tab) that Twitter would provide some sort of update on the situation and he'd still be able to make Who Unfollowed Me work. Then on Thursday, without any notification and four days after the endpoints disappeared from the API, Twitter finally updated its changelog.

Twitter updated it's changelog on June 29 to reflect the removal of the follower endpoints on June 26. Credit: Mashable Screenshot

"Today, we are removing the Follows and List Follows endpoints from the Basic and Pro tiers of the Twitter API v2," it reads. This means that unless a developer is paying a minimum of $42,000 per month, the Twitter API will not provide an app with the follower and following information.

It signals the end of Who Unfollowed Me and any other third-party app like it.

"It’s been a good 14 year run," Robinson told Mashable after the changelog update on Thursday. "Sad to see it end this way."

"Today, I’ll go ride my bike with my triathlon team and get curious about what’s next for me," he continued." "Tomorrow, I’ll get up and start something new."

Developers are jumping ship from Twitter

Many developers have shared both publicly online and in private emails and group chats viewed by Mashable that the Twitter API will mistakenly suspend their apps or remove apps from projects within the API platform. Some have experienced this on a near-weekly basis since April, when the paid API subscription tiers first launched. Developers have also experienced issues such as their plans' rate limits suddenly being changed as well as endpoints breaking, which cuts off communication from their third-party app to the Twitter platform. 

Even worse, major issues with Twitter's API appear to be changes that are intentionally made with zero regard for the developers paying them specifically for those API features. Developers have complained that Twitter doesn't even notify them of these changes and they often don't find out until their app breaks.

Mashable has heard these frustrations directly from paying Twitter API users who have reached out, in messages from developers sent in private developer groups, and in publicly available tweets. Twitter's public developer community forum is also filled with developers requesting help when Twitter's API breaks. Those requests often go unanswered.

SEE ALSO: Twitter's new API pricing is killing many Twitter apps that can't pay $42,000 per month

Before Twitter made its follower endpoint changes official, developers on the Twitter developer community forum(opens in a new tab) were expressing their frustration:

"@TwitterDev, please make this clear whether it is a bug or change of service?" wrote one user. "If the latter, we will stop paying for the API as this is our major use case and paid API becomes waste of our money and become completely useless!"

"Is this some kind of joke? I paid $100 specifically for this endpoint, and now it’s deprecated?" posted another. "This is a fiasco. It feels as though they’re managing a small-scale business with a mere ten employees, not a technology company."

Now that these developers know the follower endpoint is no longer included in their API package, some are considering issuing a chargeback to Twitter via their credit card for services unrendered.

"This is ridiculous," posted one developer. "I want my money back!"

The problems started with Elon Musk

One of the first major changes Musk made after acquiring Twitter last year was to shut down the company's generous free API offering for third-party developers and researchers. Twitter soon moved to a paid model, which many were still willing to subscribe to.

That is, until they found out how much it cost: $42,000 per month. This pricing model resulted in the shuttering of many Twitter-based apps that simply could not afford the new exorbitant model. Musk initially promised that there would be an exception for Twitter's "good" bots, which do not generate revenue and just provide services to Twitter's users. But that exception never materialized for some, and many of these bots have also since shut down after dealing with Twitter API issues. (Twitter does have an extremely limited $100 plan, which many developers say is unusable for most applications because many features are not included and the limits are too low for the ones that are. The company has also since rolled out a new $5,000 a month API tier, which is still out of reach for many indie developers.)

SEE ALSO: Twitter launches API 'Pro' plan for 'startups.' Developers think it's a slap in the face.

"This has been a tough journey building on top of the Twitter API since Elon Musk took over," Paul-Louis Hery of Unfollow Monkey told Mashable.

Like many developers, Hery's problems started in April when Twitter officially rolled out its new paid API platform.

"The app got suspended as a way to force us to get a paid plan," he said. "So I paid the plan, $100 per month, no customer service, nothing clear."

But the service provided by Twitter for even paying users like Hery was chaotic at best. Hery said his app would just stop working during the middle of the night after it would be randomly removed from a Twitter API "app project," which basically tells the API which app to give access to. The company would lower limits for features in paid plans without notification.

"It used to be 15,000 DMs per app per day, now it's 500," Hery told me. "At the beginning I thought it was a bug, there was no announcement, and took a few days to realize it was not a bug. Because the paid subscribers relied on DMs to receive their notifications, I decided to stop the subscriptions and refund everyone."

One developer who reached out to Mashable via email shared how Twitter removed API endpoints earlier this month for block lists. There use to be complete apps based around helping users manage their block lists. Many have since shut down as they can no longer function after Twitter decided to remove the API endpoint that allows third-parties to access users' blocks.

---

Related Stories

---

• Twitter API changes crush @PossumEveryHour and other good bots
• Elon Musk offers up Twitter changes none of us want
• Twitter is getting rid of its free API tier. That's a nightmare for accessibility activists.
• The solution to Twitter's downfall isn't five Twitter clones
• Soon, you'll have to pay to DM people who don't follow you on Twitter

Now the same thing is happening to apps that depended on the follower endpoints too.

Like Robinson of Who Unfollowed Me, Hery of Unfollower Monkey had just rebuilt his platform. Hery removed the DM feature due to the new reduced rate limits, still holding out hope he could work within the confines of Twitter's new paid API plans. Then the follower and following endpoint issue hit.

"So my side project seems dead," Hery said. 

"People [in the Twitter developer community forum] whose companies leverage that feature don't know what to tell customers, whether to give refunds, what to tell employees and their families," Hery continued. "I don't know how Elon wants to make an 'everything company' without the developers, brands, and people on his side."

Developer Thomas Shulz shared(opens in a new tab) that Twitter's most recent API issues involving its follower and following endpoint have created problems for the app he is working on called DirectorySF.

"I’m building an app that helps people in tech find housing," Shultz said in a message to Mashable. "Part of what makes this app useful is showing people the following overlaps. That’s how you can tell whether or not to trust someone and/or find like-minded housemates. Without this feature, we have to figure out another method to show social proof which is harder to do."

Luckily for Schulz his app hasn't yet gone live.

"We haven’t launched yet, so I don't have it as bad as other people that are paying thousands of dollars a month and losing paying customers," he explained.

Others, like Robinson and Hery, haven't been as lucky. 

SEE ALSO: Twitter and Reddit's high-priced APIs are bad news for the internet's future

All of these issues are further compounded by the fact that Twitter API customer support is not only unresponsive to specific problems but oftentimes seem completely nonexistent, according to developers who have shared these issues. Simple matters may take days to get resolved, major problems take weeks to get fixed – if the issue is even resolved at all. 

And in the case of these endpoint removals, Twitter has made the choice to not even communicate deliberate changes to its paying customers at all. The company offers no notification to users so that they can attempt to reach out for clarifications or to report bugs. Developers often find out about Twitter API-related issues from their own users seeking help when something breaks.

"I am paying the $42,000 / month sub… and still, our API access got randomly cut off," tweeted(opens in a new tab) TweetHunter cofounder Tibo Louis-Lucas in the early morning this past Saturday, sharing that the same issue occurred just weeks earlier.

Social media management app Publer, which also pays for Twitter's Enterprise API plan, shared with Mashable that it had experienced similar API issues in the past. 

However, TweetHunter and Publer appear to be outliers as they appear to be among the few companies that have managed to actually get help from Twitter support. Both say Twitter's API integrations are currently working for their respective apps at the time of publication. Both also pay for the $42,000 per month plan but it's unclear if that played a role.

"The wild thing about all this is that this all seems to be screwing over developers who are paying up to $5,000 per month for API access and none of them even have support contacts to ask why this is happening," one developer told Mashable. "If this isn't high enough priority for Twitter to dedicate its developers [to]…what are they working on?"

"[Twitter] assured us their #1 priority was to re-establish the stability we were used to…before we started paying $42,000 per month," one startup founder told Mashable, adding a cry-laughing emoji.

 

If folks are actually paying money for those APIs and TWTR is breaking their SLA left right and center, elmo is gonna have a baaaaaad time

[Parliament 14086]

5 hours ago, Blotto said:

 

Yeah, I have never had to log in to view individual tweets or someone's main profile page using a browser (don't use the app). All of the sudden tonight,  I get a login prompt if I try to visit an individual tweet, a user profile page, or even just the twitter.com homepage. Fuck off Elmo, I'll just do without. How's that ad revenue coming along? 

 

Can confirm

[NoName 16265]

26 minutes ago, Captainant said:

If folks are actually paying money for those APIs and TWTR is breaking their SLA left right and center, elmo is gonna have a baaaaaad time

the line about chargebacks made me LOL - good. hope it happens.

[Snake Diggity 4607]

I can’t believe he made it so you have to be logged in to even view a tweet.  What a fucking idiot.  

[Guest]

On 6/28/2023 at 10:13 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Looks like you now have to log onto Twitter to read a tweet. I'm fairly certain that wasn't required before. 

Just happened to me. Damnit. I've been a long-time lurker.

[Stringer 1435]

Just started for me too. I am logged into the Twitter app but every time I try to view a tweet from Tapa, it asks for my login. Fuck that.

[Brisketexan 104226]

13 minutes ago, Stringer said:

Just started for me too. I am logged into the Twitter app but every time I try to view a tweet from Tapa, it asks for my login. Fuck that.

Yeah, that's been happening to me for a couple of weeks.  I just cancel out of that link, open up my twitter app on my phone, and then go back and click on the link again in Tapa, and it works.  But yes, Twitter is LESS functional now, not more.

To be clear, that's pretty much the ONLY way I use Twitter (to click on links other people embed about topical stories and such), and it's less functional than before.

I think it's beyond obvious that the only way Twitter has "improved" since he took over is if you are a hardcore rightwing nutjob, in which case the ecosystem suddenly go super-friendly and hospitable for you.  For everyone else, it's been a precipitous decline in the platform's quality, desirability, and functionality.

[atomheartbevo 89304]

How long until you have to subscribe to view tweets?

[dcbc 14367]

22 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

To be clear, that's pretty much the ONLY way I use Twitter (to click on links other people embed about topical stories and such), and it's less functional than before.

 

Same.  But I deleted my twitter around the time Elmo took over and can still click links through Tapa without login requests (which is good since I don't have a login).

 

edit:  I spoke too soon.  Gotta login to view tweets now.

Edited July 1, 2023 by dcbc

[Ted Lange 15975]

 

 

[Celery Man 20832]

hopping on board the "it just changed for me" train. My interactions with twitter these days are sometimes clicking a tweet linked here or somewhere else to view up or down the tweet thread. For a while I could do that but I couldn't search for stuff in twitter. Now I can't see anything at all other than a login page from twitter.com. I can see embedded tweets here but that is it for me. Lol good luck buddy.

[Captainant 27250]

13 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

hopping on board the "it just changed for me" train. My interactions with twitter these days are sometimes clicking a tweet linked here or somewhere else to view up or down the tweet thread. For a while I could do that but I couldn't search for stuff in twitter. Now I can't see anything at all other than a login page from twitter.com. I can see embedded tweets here but that is it for me. Lol good luck buddy.

yeah no kidding - I never tweet or really browse twitter, but I would go to the site to read through the rest of a thread or see replies/context to a tweet linked here.

This is legit going to impair the OSINT community's efforts on keeping tabs and informing the public on what russia is doing in Ukraine

[Brisketexan 104226]

1 minute ago, Captainant said:

This is legit going to impair the OSINT community's efforts on keeping tabs and informing the public on what russia is doing in Ukraine

If you think that isn't intentional, you haven't been paying attention.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13388]

25 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

hopping on board the "it just changed for me" train. My interactions with twitter these days are sometimes clicking a tweet linked here or somewhere else to view up or down the tweet thread. For a while I could do that but I couldn't search for stuff in twitter. Now I can't see anything at all other than a login page from twitter.com. I can see embedded tweets here but that is it for me. Lol good luck buddy.

I don't blame Twitter for wanting users of their service to register/login, but Elon appears to be using a stick instead of an carrot approach. I understand the concept of requiring a logon as they can then present you content (& ads) that are relevant to you. However many users & lurkers only want to see the precise tweet they're clicking into. 

The result will be is that Twitter will lose additional views and generic ad revenue. And when Twitters posters see fewer interactions, they will ultimately post less. 

If I'm not mistaken Facebook has almost always required that you log onto their site to read a post. While I'm sure there security concerns to do so, the real reason is that Facebook wanted to know who you were so they could track you across the web for advertising purposes.

[Celery Man 20832]

I’m not an expert on internet advertising, but if they need me to login in order to target me they are a decade behind at least. No matter since I’m not joining back up, so I guess no more Twitter ads at all for me.

[Ted Lange 15975]