It’s One API, Michael. What Could It Cost? $42,000 Per Month?

from the you've-never-actually-set-foot-in-the-api-market,-have-you? dept

When Elon Musk moved to take over Twitter, Jack Dorsey, who endorsed the deal, talked to him about making the site more open, specifically turning it into a protocol that anyone could build on. This would have been a good plan. Indeed, it’s one that seems to now be gaining traction for basically every company not named Twitter. Elon Musk, however, went the other direction entirely.

Rather than opening up its systems to third party developers, Elon has pulled the API from many, told developers that no client apps were allowed, and revoked free access to the API. There has been a ton of speculation around the API pricing, which had been promised in early February, but kept getting pushed off. Musk had suggested a $100/month fee would make sense. However, it appears that the $100/month API will have very, very, very limited functionality.

Of course, academics, who have long relied on Twitter’s free API to do all sorts of useful research regarding the platform, were also quite concerned about what this would mean for them. And, it looks like they were right. Twitter is now pitching academics and enterprises on API access… that will run a mere $42,000 per month.

That’s for the cheapest tier.

Small Package: Price per month $42,000

Small package, indeed.

This seems, a bit, well, out of touch concerning how many users, especially academics, use the current API.

The cheapest, Small Package, gives access to 50 million tweets for $42,000 a month. Higher tiers give researchers or businesses access to larger volumes of tweets—100 million and 200 million tweets respectively—and cost $125,000 and $210,000 a month. WIRED confirmed the figures with other existing free API users, who have received emails saying that the new pricing plans will take effect within months.  

“I don’t know if there’s an academic on the planet who could afford $42,000 a month for Twitter,” says Jeremy Blackburn, assistant professor at Binghamton University in New York and a member of the iDRAMA Lab, which analyzes hate speech on social media—including on Twitter. 

It’s a choice. But it seems like a choice from someone who still doesn’t understand how third parties add much of the value to Twitter. Cutting them all off, and thinking that you’ll actually make revenue by massively overcharging for API access is, well, a choice. But seeing as the lack of API will do so much harm to users, it seems like it makes it even less valuable even for those who have the means to pay.

Once again, it seems to be decision making based on desperation for revenue, and not for any sort of strategic, long-term thinking on what would be best for the site and its users.

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Comments on “It’s One API, Michael. What Could It Cost? $42,000 Per Month?”

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Cover the new censorship leaks released last week, you coward.

I don’t care much about Twitter’s API (I in fact came from a company years ago which paid for the twitter’s “full pipe”) and you have no evidence that academic’s would have to pay full price and I don’t care if if they did. (they have budgets and anyway, sociology is not a real science, real science is reproducible)

I care a great deal about government censorship by proxy, though. Several dozen proxies, apparently.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Lol

I don’t care much about Twitter’s API

You don’t know the value of interacting with twitter, either reading data or posting. Got it.

you have no evidence that academic’s would have to pay full price

Except having been in academia, I know how razor-thin their budgets are for things. And $42k/month absent a healthy grant specifically for such a thing is about as common as unicorn teeth (and I’d love to see the proposal for said grant, specifically the expected outcome).

(cough) “academics”*

Being barely literate doesn’t lead much credence to your arguments about academia.

sociology is not a real science, (blah, blah, strawman)

Said someone who obviously never took an introductory course in said subject.

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bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:3

Mr. Bar Weiss, […]

Yeah, no idea who that is. Whatever, you mention stuff that I talked about, so I’ll respond anyways.

I know quite a bit about sociology……including it’s reproducibility rate, which shows it’s not science.

Yeah, suffice to say I don’t believe you when you say that any more than you believe me about… anything, really. Based on what you say, you don’t know anything about the reproducibility rate of sociology; you just don’t like it.

Do you EVER learn something about a subject before commenting on it?

All the time. Including now. Took a course on the subject in college. Just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about. You have got to stop jumping to conclusions like that; it makes you look like an idiot.

Moreover, you have the burden of proof here. Technically, I don’t have to research your claim for you if you don’t provide evidence for it. Maybe provide some evidence, and if you do, I could provide mine to counter it.

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:4

Yeah, no idea who that is. Whatever, you mention stuff that I talked about, so I’ll respond anyways.

You dumb fuck. Ms Bari Wiess, formerly a NYT reporter? You kinda hilariously while ad hominening her thought she was a guy and a NYpost reporter, which according to you made her disreputable. It was hilarious BECAUSE not only were you dramatically wrong about her and reputation, you trash talked her based on things that absolutely were not true and would have been corrected by like 30 sec of googling. She’s pretty famous, actually, you should have at least known of her, but trash talking her (in order to discredit her reporting, it was blatant ad hominem) based on characteristics…you imagined, I guess? Assumed based on a very thin context of the thread in question?

And after all that you don’t even remember? Jesus fuck. It was epically dumb, and I will never take you seriously after it.

Yeah, suffice to say I don’t believe you when you say that any more than you believe me about… anything, really. Based on what you say, you don’t know anything about the reproducibility rate of sociology; you just don’t like it.

hahahahaha again, this is something you should know, but whatever, take the lesson and get the fuck out of my face.

https://www.wired.com/story/social-science-reproducibility/

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/psychologys-replication-crisis-real/576223/

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/8/27/17761466/psychology-replication-crisis-nature-social-science

https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phc3.12633

bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:5

You dumb fuck. Ms Bari Wiess, formerly a NYT reporter?

Sigh That was a joke, you idiot. I was poking fun at your misspelling. You typed “Mr. Bar Weiss” instead of “Mr. Bari Weiss”. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been joking about every time you mention that name because you seriously can’t seem to let it go.

You kinda hilariously while ad hominening her […]

No, I didn’t ad hominem her. I was just noting what someone else was arguing, and asked you to address the argument that person was making. I never actually took a position on whether the claims made were true or false.

[…] thought she was a guy […]

I made an incorrect assumption based on the name, though it was always tentative. It was never relevant to what I was doing, which was to ask you to address the actual arguments someone else was making.

[…] and a NYpost reporter, […]

That was me misreading what someone else said because there were two different reporters being discussed, one named but not associated with a specific paper, the other unnamed and working for the NY Post. Not realizing that these were two different people, I assumed that they were the same person. This was incorrect.

[…] which according to you made her disreputable.

I suggested that, to the person you were arguing with, that could be sufficient to make her disreputable. Again, I never stated my opinion on whether she would be disreputable.

It was hilarious BECAUSE not only were you dramatically wrong about her and reputation, […]

You greatly exaggerate. For one thing, nothing I said involved anything about her reputation to anyone other than the other people in the conversation. At all. Given that they clearly felt she was disreputable, I was clearly right in saying that they felt her reputation was poor.

The only things I got wrong were the gender (which was entirely irrelevant) and whether someone else said she worked for the NY Post (which was relevant to one of my arguments, but it was a minor one, and I immediately conceded that argument). Anything else was literally just me saying what the arguments made by someone else were and telling you to address them. I even offered advice.

[…] you trash talked her based on things that absolutely were not true and would have been corrected by like 30 sec of googling.

I didn’t “trash-talk” her. All I did was point out the claims others were making about her and ask you to address them. That you think I assumed them to be true is just you jumping to conclusions as much as I did about Bari Weiss’s gender.

Also, I think I made it clear that I don’t research other people’s claims for them if they don’t provide evidence.

She’s pretty famous, actually, you should have at least known of her, […]

Not really. I pay no attention to the names of journalists I don’t read, and I’m bad at remembering names regardless. There also is little correlation between someone’s fame and whether I’ve heard of them.

[…] but trash talking her (in order to discredit her reporting, it was blatant ad hominem) based on characteristics…you imagined, I guess? Assumed based on a very thin context of the thread in question?

Once again, anything about her reputation was literally just me telling you about the claims others made. None of it was reflective of my own opinion, which I was reserving judgment on. I was waiting for you to provide evidence of it.

And after all that you don’t even remember?

In case it wasn’t obvious by now, I do remember. Quite clearly. Better than you, apparently, since you got a number of details wrong.

The thing is that you took an incredibly obvious joke seriously. It’s kinda amazing that you missed it, really. (And no, I don’t think it’s terribly funny. It’s vaguely entertaining, but nothing more than that. But then your jokes aren’t exactly funny, either, so it seems fair.)

[…] I will never take you seriously after it.

You didn’t take me seriously before it, either. Heck, you probably still think I’m in my 20s or something. You’re a terrible judge of character.

Yeah, suffice to say I don’t believe you when you say that any more than you believe me about… anything, really. Based on what you say, you don’t know anything about the reproducibility rate of sociology; you just don’t like it.

hahahahaha again, this is something you should know, but whatever, take the lesson […]

Sorry, I don’t read pop science. Too much sensationalism. When it comes to the state of any science, I only pay attention to peer-reviewed journals. Come back with an actual study to prove your point.

[…] and get the fuck out of my face.

No, I don’t think I will. You certainly won’t do that for anyone else.

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:6

Sigh That was a joke, you idiot.

No, it was not. You continued for some time and were visibly confused and said something to the effect “how would I know who that was” after being confronted on it. (you should have known who that was)

So now I know not only that you are deeply uninformed and kinda dumb (I’m actually starting to suspect you have severed aspergers?) but that you’re willing to lie about it. It’s encouraging you have the sense to be embarrassed about it now, but also sad you’re willing to lie about it.

I’ve been joking about every time you mention that name because you seriously can’t seem to let it go.

I absolutely do not believe you, especially in light of your comments at the time. And I will not let it go, because it’s my reminder not to interact with you.

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:8

And yet… for some strange reason you’ve been going back and forth with them on the topic of your “reminder” and totally failing to “not interact” with them…

As in “not go through line by line and refute his ridiculous long posts” Still going to remind him of that really dumb thing he said and tell him to fuck off.

bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:7

No, it was not. You continued for some time and were visibly confused and said something to the effect “how would I know who that was” after being confronted on it. (you should have known who that was)

That’s not what I’m talking about. The joke is where I said things like this:

Mr. Bar Weiss, […]

Yeah, no idea who that is.

I have no idea why you thought I meant anything else. I explicitly said:

I was poking fun at your misspelling. You typed “Mr. Bar Weiss” instead of “Mr. Bari Weiss”.

and:

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been joking about every time you mention that name because you seriously can’t seem to let it go.

How could that possibly be referring to the time I got the gender and employer wrong?

You continued for some time and were visibly confused and said something to the effect “how would I know who that was” after being confronted on it.

If by “visibly confused” you mean “immediately admitted I was wrong”, then yes, and by “continued for some time”, you mean “immediately admitted the error and apologized for it, then tried to move on, but you kept going on and on about it.”

As for “How would I know who that was?”, I meant “Why would you expect that I knew who that was?” Not once did I claim that I knew who Bari Weiss was. Everything I said about her other than gender was either based on a misunderstanding of what was said by others like yourself (specifically what publication she worked for) or me pointing out the claims of others.

So now I know not only that you are deeply uninformed and kinda dumb […]

No. You just have a hard time comprehending what I write.

[…] (I’m actually starting to suspect you have severed aspergers?) […]

That isn’t a thing. Asperger’s is (or, rather, was, as the term is no longer in use as a medical diagnosis or scientific term) the higher-functioning end of the spectrum of autism. “Severe Asperger’s” is a nonsensical term.

But, to answer your question, you are correct to say that I have Asperger’s (or, rather, high-functioning autism spectrum disorder to be more accurate, though I’m not at all bothered if you continue to say “Asperger’s” instead), but quite incorrect to say it is “severe” (even disregarding the fact that it doesn’t even make sense, but I’ll just take it to mean severe autism instead). Frankly, among others with high-functioning autism, I am actually closer to neurotypical than average. The fact you think that I’m a severe case suggests to me that you have had little interaction with autistic persons.

[…] but that you’re willing to lie about it.

No, you just misunderstood what I was talking about.

It’s encouraging you have the sense to be embarrassed about it now, […]

Not really. Any embarrassment I might have felt initially faded due to your harping on about it. You greatly exaggerated the magnitude of the error and its repercussions.

[…] but also sad you’re willing to lie about it.

I’m not, and I didn’t. What’s sad here is your reading comprehension skills. Aren’t you the least bit embarrassed about that?

I’ve been joking about every time you mention that name because you seriously can’t seem to let it go.

I absolutely do not believe you, especially in light of your comments at the time.

Once again, I am joking about your calling me Bari Weiss, not the original error about her gender and her employer or my response to being “called out” for that error. Seriously, you really need to learn some reading comprehension.

And I will not let it go, because it’s my reminder not to interact with you.

A reminder which you never fail to ignore, as you still continue to interact with me. It’s also a really dumb thing to be hung up on. Hence why I make fun of each of your “reminders” and ignore your demands that I shut up.

But hey, you do you. I really don’t care. At least I get some amusement out of it.

Though, you know what the funny thing is? You’ve been acting as though I was referring to the original error when I said I was joking (which I obviously wasn’t), but then you ignore everything I did say about that. Maybe if you had paid attention to the rest of what I said, you’d have realized that the joke I was referring to is not what you think it is.

Bloof (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:5

New York Times Op ed columnist, not a journalist, not a reporter, her entire in was to write sh*tty takes on culture war issues because reality has a left wing bias and the NYT was trying to bring on ‘conservate voices’ and she was friends with the editor as they worked together at the WSJ, where again, she didn’t work as a journalist. She’s as much a reporter as all the dogcrap former Bush admin officials who’ve had the same gig, both at the NYT and on TV.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re:

I don’t care much about Twitter’s API

Which essentially means:

“I know nothing of Twitter’s API and in reality, I have no fucking clue of what an API is?

Oh, and add to that, I have no fucking clue about almost everything I say here, but if I say enough times, I might start believing myself.”

I think that about sums up Matty.

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bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: No one cares

Cover the new censorship leaks released last week, you coward.

The comments section of an article is not the place to suggest an article for an unrelated topic you want to be covered. (Also, this is a terrible tone to take if you want to persuade them to cover what you want. I, for one, would not be convinced to change my mind because someone called me a coward. What are you, a child?)

This is an article on Twitter’s API. It is not an article about whatever it is you want covered. If you don’t care about Twitter’s API, fine, but then you don’t have to read this article if you don’t care about the subject it’s covering. And that this article covers a different subject than the one you want to be covered doesn’t prove that the subject you want covered will not be covered in some other, future article.

I don’t care much about Twitter’s API (I in fact came from a company years ago which paid for the twitter’s “full pipe”) […]

Irrelevant. If you don’t care about the topic of this article, then don’t read it or comment on it. No one cares that you don’t care about the topic. Plenty of others do care.

Look, I don’t care about everything that TechDirt covers. That’s why I don’t read every article it publishes, nor do I comment on every article I read on this site. If you don’t care about this, just move on to something else.

[…] and you have no evidence that academic’s would have to pay full price […]

The presumption is that they would have to absent evidence to the contrary. You would have to present evidence that they wouldn’t.

[…] and I don’t care if [] they did. […]

Your opinion is noted, but it’s also irrelevant. I don’t care whether or not you care.

[…] (they have budgets […])

Not $42,000-a-month budgets.

([…] and anyway, sociology is not a real science, real science is reproducible)

Sociology is a real science, and it is reproducible. That you don’t understand that is not my problem.

I care a great deal about government censorship by proxy, though. Several dozen proxies, apparently.

[citation needed]

Also, it’s irrelevant. That this article doesn’t cover what you want to cover doesn’t mean this site doesn’t intend to cover it, and even if it doesn’t, so what? TechDirt isn’t a site dedicated to only providing content you care about, nor should it be. If you want to be in charge of what gets covered, start your own blog or something.

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bhull242 (profile) says:

Re:

I still don’t get it: why everyone is so obsessed with what Elon does to Twitter? How does that matter anything to anyone except for the Twitter stock owners?

Well, it matters to people who use Twitter, and it matters to academics who do research using Twitter’s API.

Also, care for academics in this article resembles care for children in anti-encryption laws. Just saying.

I don’t see the resemblance.

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bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

“Research” implies science […]

It actually doesn’t. Not all research is scientific. There are lots of fields of research besides science. History, literature, political science (which actually isn’t really science), journalism, etc. Those aren’t sciences, but they can involve research.

[…] and if were science, it would be reproducible.

It (assuming you mean sociology) is reproducible. Anyone can reproduce the experiments and get similar results.

Though, again, nothing I said mentioned or implied science specifically, so this is kinda a moot point.

I don’t see the resemblance.

You would if you were smarter.

Maybe (though I’m doubtful), but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explain anyways. I’m not a mind reader, so I don’t know what you’re thinking if you don’t say it.

I’m not saying there is no resemblance. I’m just saying it’s not apparent to me, so could you please explain the similarity that is so apparent to you? No need to insult me over it.

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bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:3

Ok Mr Bari Weiss.

“Bari can’t come to the phone at the moment. Please leave a message after the beep. BEEEEEEEEEEEP”

You didn’t even know about the reproducibility crisis affecting sociology

There is no such crisis outside of your own imagination.

I have wasted too much explaining stuff you’re not smart enough to grasp already.

You spent zero time explaining anything. You just asserted stuff with no evidence and which had nothing to do with what I was asking you to explain to begin with.

And as for not being smart enough, you haven’t even tried, so you have no basis for such a claim.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:4

To Matthew, the reproducibility crisis is a code word for women realizing that they cannot have fulfilling relationships with straight men, because the only purpose for reproduction is to populate the Earth, which has outgrown its necessity and instead strains our planet beyond sustainability. We no longer have a reason to support straight men in their filthy, boorish desires, which is what unsettles Republicans like Matthew.

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:4

You didn’t even know about the reproducibility crisis affecting sociology

There is no such crisis outside of your own imagination.

This is why I don’t believe you when you claim the Bari Weiss thing was a joke. (that and that it clearly wasn’t a joke)

https://www.news-medical.net/life-sciences/What-is-the-Replication-Crisis.aspx#:~:text=The%20replication%20crisis%2C%20also%20known,almost%20impossible%20to%20accurately%20reproduce.

bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:5

This is why I don’t believe you when you claim the Bari Weiss thing was a joke. (that and that it clearly wasn’t a joke)

The “pretending I don’t know what you’re talking about” Bari Weiss thing? Yes, it clearly was a joke. In one case, I immediately followed up with a sentence that began with, “Jokes aside,” which should have made it crystal clear it was a joke. I also told someone else in this discussion that I was well aware of what you meant, even directly referencing it, and that I was going to play along with the joke. And in this case, I literally don’t know how you could think I was serious; what would that even mean if I wasn’t joking?

If you mean the thing that caused you to start calling me Bari Weiss in the first place, no, that wasn’t a joke, nor did I ever say I was.

This is why people think you have difficulties with reading comprehension, Matthew.

As for the link, did you even read it? That isn’t specific to sociology or even to social sciences in general. It doesn’t even specify sociology as being of particular concern. It specified psychology and medical science (which isn’t even a social science). Moreover, there are several causes for the crisis that have nothing to do with difficulties replicating the studies but a combination of a lack of people bothering to replicate them, a lack of journals eager to publish them, and a lack of attention being paid to them. And even regarding those difficulties, the issue is that they are relatively difficult and/or costly to try to replicate, not that they cannot be replicated (which is what you were claiming). This doesn’t support your case at all.

When I said there is no replication crisis, I meant one exclusive to social sciences or which disproportionately affected sociology, as you claimed, and which was of the kind where people were trying and failing to replicate the results, which you also claimed. This isn’t like that at all; it’s just a lack of attempts to replicate experiments combined with lesser publication of and attention toward the replications.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re:

They’re obsessed with Musk because they loved the censorship that the old management of Twitter provided for them, silencing viewpoints that went against woke ideology, and they hate that the new management is depriving them of that. So they just post article after article disparaging Musk. But it’s not going to bring the censorship back.

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That One Guy (profile) says:

Re: Re:

*Conservative: I have been censored for my conservative views
Me: Holy shit! You were censored for wanting lower taxes?
Con: LOL no…no not those views
Me: So…deregulation?
Con: Haha no not those views either
Me: Which views, exactly?
Con: Oh, you know the ones

(All credit to Twitter user @ndrew_lawrence.)

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:

Not wanting men in women’s sports, prisons, shelters? That’s one.

Disagreeing with Dr Fauci (who has lied under oath mind you, and admitting to lying about masks) that’s another.

How about just pointing out real, actual medical information about covid? Even if you’re a doctor? Oh yeah, that’s a third.

Arguing that Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense? That’s one. (that happened to me personally, though it was on FB, not Twitter)

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:3

Transwomen are women, but you’re too much of a pussy to admit it

I’m too much of a “pussy” to admit a change in definition?!? (also note emasculating language)

trans people existing threatens your cis straight white male toxic trash thoughts

Male could be inferred but everything else you attribute to me is in your imagination. And no, I’m, quite supportive of transgenders, just facts, are also facts. I.e. I am not willing to pretend I’m not pretending.

You are a TERRORIST

Fun fact: Everyone disagreeing with you is not a terrorist. mmmkay?

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:4

True.

I disagree with Mike regarding moderation of assholes like you but I don’t call Mike names simply because he’s not an abusive, belligerent ass like you.

And even I can moderate my responses despite knowing you don’t deserve civility, simply because the regulars here don’t like incivility.

And even then, I don’t go out of my way to call them hateful names.

Maybe the “terrorist” moniker is right for you and your ilk; after all, you seem to have no qualms admitting you’re here to harass us for the simple reason of being not on your side.

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:5

Maybe the “terrorist” moniker is right for you and your ilk; after all, you seem to have no qualms admitting you’re here to harass us for the simple reason of being not on your side.

Speech is not violence, and if my refuting you and calling you names “terrorizes” you that’s sad really.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2

I hear talking heads claim saying these things will get you “censored” on social media but no one ever publishes the offending tweets. Do you have some? I’m absolutely serious here.

Some citation needed to say men are playing women’s sports, etc. The only evidence of men playing women’s sports, etc has to arise (um) from genital inspection. There’s no other way to prove it. I for one find the sheer number of folks willing to let the government grab their kids’ coochies hoping one of them has a pair rather disgusting, and I suspect everyone here feels the same about government-mandated statutory rape.

When did Fauci lie under oath? Are you thinking about mask guidance, when he answered to the best of his knowledge when we didn’t know how airborne this was and needed supplies in hospitals during the initial response, and where “admitting to lying” is really just him updating his priors in the face of new scientific findings? Scientists admit not knowing things and change their minds all the time (relative to politicians and internet commenters at least). He was very “not politician,” and it was very obvious.

Actual medical information like the nuance of the effectiveness of individual masking vs mask “mandates” when no one complied? Or like the divergence of death rates for Democrats vs Republicans down to the census tract (which is just another way of looking at how higher vaccination rates prevented more death and complications). Or do you have other medical information in mind here?

The last one you may have a point on, but again, what’s the actual post say? Given that Rittenhouse’s homicides of protesters were very public and violent, that fb (or any big website really) forbids glorifying violence, and that folks in opposition to protesters were cheering the homicides including praising the self-defense argument for allowing him to do so, I can see how fb would remove those posts as glorifying violence. Do they remove every post supporting self defense? Doubt it. What did yours say?

bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:2

Not wanting men in women’s sports, prisons, shelters? That’s one.

Do you have evidence of that being “silenced”?

Disagreeing with Dr Fauci (who has lied under oath mind you, and admitting to lying about masks) that’s another.

False. That never happened.

How about just pointing out real, actual medical information about covid? Even if you’re a doctor? Oh yeah, that’s a third.

[citation needed]

Arguing that Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense? That’s one. (that happened to me personally, though it was on FB, not Twitter)

I would need context, but that’s FB, not Twitter, so that’s kinda irrelevant, anyways.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re:

Why do you have to be a tech expert (whatever that means) to use a Mastodon instance and application of your choosing?

That network effect works on Mastodon and other forms of communication, and it’s dying out just a teensy bit at Twitter. But let a million flower bloom – if you like Twitter, that’s great! No one is trying to pry it from your hands. Except maybe Elon.

No one tried to convince you to use Mastodon (or whatever) in the article. i don’t think anyone here cares if slightly less celebs and corps are on Mastodon. At least not in the positive sense.

Anonymous Coward says:

Let’s not forget that academics and other researchers are not likely to be earning top dollar salaries either. I can just see a Request For Funds that included a shot at $42,000 a month, from an Assistant Professor that’s making less than $42,000 a year.

And how is Elmo going to prevent sharing of all that data, once the researchers pool together and pay for just one account?

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2

It varies wildly

Like you have ever had a research grant to even have the foggiest fucking clue of how much money a grant recipient would receive.

But of course anybody can say it varies wildly because so do the research projects themselves… vary wildly.

Christ, what a fucking idiot you are, thinking that saying shit like that makes you sound smart. People like me see right through and and realize what a fucking moron you are… every. time. you. post.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:4

Are you trying to claim they don’t vary wildly? Fucking seriously?!?

I guess you already have proven over and over and over again that you do not possess any reading comprehension skills.

Nowhere in that comment was any mention of grants not varying wildly, and to think that’s what you inferred shows just how fucking stupid you are.

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:5

…you’re thinking of STEM grants

I am, actually! But seriously if you’re not STEM you’re just silly made up bullshit and your grants should be $0. I hope I’ve made myself clear.

Grants can have 7 or 8 zeroes, btw. Just not yours, apparently.

Did you miss the part where I made clear that the social sciences are not actually science?

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bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:8

You haven’t provided evidence that the replication rate for sociology is any lower than any other science, or that it is lower for social sciences than “hard” sciences.

Moreover, the replication rate being low only discredits an entire field as being science at all, rather than an idea in that field, if the replication rate is almost—if not actually—universally low across the entire field and the reason for the replication rate being low in each case is because it is either impossible (not just difficult) to replicate the experimental setup and run it or the results have consistently failed to be replicated when the experimental setup has been replicated and then run. Just having a low replication rate for many of its studies is not, by itself, enough to demonstrate that the entire field is not scientific.

The evidence you provided says that virtually all fields (most especially psychology and medical science, not sociology) have low replication rates, and the reasons for these low rates include difficulty (not impossibility) in setting up some experiments (again, particularly psychology and medical science), a lack of researchers willing to replicate studies, a tendency for peer-reviewed journals to prefer publishing completely new studies over replicated studies, and a lack of citations to replication studies. The reasons do not include impossibility in replicating experimental setups/runs or any failure to reproduce the results of the original experiment when attempts are made to replicate them. As such, the replication crisis does not support your assertion that sociology in particular or social sciences as a whole are not replicable and thus not science. (Note: “replicable” means “capable of being replicated”, not “relatively easy to replicate” or “having been replicated”.) Rejecting an entire field of science as unscientific based on this crisis is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

On top of that, you’re not really being consistent on this. As I said, this crisis is affecting pretty much every field of science to some extent, not just “soft” sciences like sociology, and one of the most affected (medical science) is a “hard” science. So yeah, given the multidisciplinary nature of the crisis, only using it against social sciences is illogical.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

No, but it happens that some folks think that a person’s personal interest just might rear its head when it comes to money. Like for instance, a requester just might think to himself “Hey, why am I asking for this insane amount that will ultimately line someone else’s pocket with a huge profit, and I’m asking for nothing for myself? Don’t I deserve a bit of compensation for the work I’m doing?”.

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Staid Winnow says:

$42,000 a month

It is designed to keep academics out. Too many are concerned with how academic researchers are to continue their studies.

They are not.

That’s the point. Musk does not want Twitter studies out there because some of them may be critical of what Twitter does.

Qwitter will get into bed with more rightwingers and right-wing mainstream media.

Murdouche is itching to get his disinformation machinery into more homes, and Qwitter is a perfect medium.

Watch as advertisers trickle back in around June-July, and how Musk starts monetizing even more during the bonanza Elections 2024 are expected to be.

He fired 75% of the staff, and… Qwitter had a few outages. So what?

Never confuse a cruel narcissist with billions to be an idiot.

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That Anonymous Coward (profile) says:

Something about a banana stand…

They missed putting bolts into steering wheels on his watch AND NO ONE CAUGHT IT BEFORE THEY WERE SOLD.
Perhaps he isn’t a galaxy brain genius that “everyone” seems to think he is…
He whipped his dick out at random female & then bought her a horse to keep quiet… WHO DOES THAT?
Has he taken over a company and not immediately mounted a cute VP?
I can’t wait to see him try to dam the colorado river next to his company town.

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That Anonymous Coward (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

clears throat

CITATION NEEDED.

If they were on the record you should have linked to them, unless you mean that imaginary record in your head.

Any fuckwit can claim there is evidence that supports their claims, but to move past being seen as a fuckwit you need to provide evidence rather than demand others do the work to prove or disprove your hallucinations.

So roll out this awesome evidence, maybe include notes about exactly how much meth you smoked to see the connections.

Also… Fuckwit.

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That Anonymous Coward (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:3

“fuckwit you need to provide evidence rather than demand others do the work to prove or disprove your hallucinations”

That is a shitty citation, citations are meant to be links to direct information… not some raging fuckwit saying read this whole twitter account to find the things I claim are there.

Umm fuck no.

That’s like saying ‘I can prove covid isn’t real!! just goto google.com’

You want people to believe you, you provide actual evidence.
Links to the tweets you claim prove the fantasy in your head.
I’m a bit of a stickler for this because I had to document, cite, & support every single claim I made about Prenda and the rest because honestly they thought I was fscking crazy when I brought it up.
No law firm would do this… they did.
No lawyer would so this… they did.
No way they would put the porn online themselves… they did.
No lawyer would show up at a targets home & try to talk them into a much worse deal… they did.
No lawyer would have a straw defendant to go after others, then fsck up and threaten the defendant after promising he would get a pass… they did.

I compiled a bunch of actual facts, so that others could verify what I was saying was true. It was never just go read everything on PACER with their name on it.

It’s cute when the fuckwit calls me a dumbass when he can’t even mange a single citation without screwing the pooch.

Try harder or here’s a crazy idea… consider perhaps you ARE a fuckwit and perhaps its time to stop proving how much of a fuckwit you are by babbling incoherently online about things you obviously have no grasp of… like reality.

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Matthew M Bennett says:

Re: Re: Re:4

That is a shitty citation, citations are meant to be links to direct information

It’s a great citation.

When I put actual effort into it you dumbasses eityher don’t understand the math or attack the source.

Nonetheless all the info is there, you don’t even have a scroll very far.

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Stephen T. Stone (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:5

When I put actual effort into it you dumbasses … attack the source.

This is what happens when you post links to sources that lack credibility. Post links to sources with actual credibility beyond “they’re a conservative who is saying things that trigger the libs” and that won’t happen.

(Corollary: Posting links to evidence that doesn’t say what you claim it does also does you no favors.)

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bhull242 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:5

It’s a great citation.

Links to an entire account are terrible citations unless the only thing to be demonstrated is in the bio or something or someone is asking for an account or person rather than a specific source.

When I put actual effort into it you dumbasses eityher don’t understand the math or attack the source.

I… don’t recall math having even come up before, and we’ve certainly done more than attack the source. We’ve pointed out how your sources don’t support your claims, but that’s not the same as not understanding the math or attacking the source.

And yeah, if you use an unreliable source for your claim, attacking the source is fair game. (Would you accept a citation to the Maddie Show as a reliable source for a claim?) And if your source doesn’t include evidence that is sufficient to support your claim, that is going to be pointed out as well. That’s how it works.

Nonetheless all the info is there, you don’t even have a scroll very far.

That doesn’t tell us anything. There are a lot of Tweets you could be referencing even limiting ourselves to the first two or three “pages” of Tweets on that account and disregarding the first few Tweets. On top of that, we have no way of knowing whether or not that account has posted a lot of stuff between when you checked and when we check, so it’s not implausible for the Tweet you specify to be even further down the page.

Finally, we aren’t required to do your research for you. Trying to put the burden of finding which specific part of the source you’re referencing out of such a large and dynamic dataset is tantamount to shifting the burden of proof prematurely. This is especially the case if we don’t know what we’re looking for. If it’s not so hard, then why are you whining about having to put actual effort into it?

Violet Aubergine (profile) says:

Damn Stupid Joke

Yet another juvenile marijuana joke a ten year old would find stupid somehow becoming a randomly determined price point for a product in the Muskyverse. Don’t all multi-billion corporations create their pricing based on childish impulses nobody can keep in check?

You know Elon is thinking he is living in his Marvel Cinematic Extended Universe when he’s not even cool enough to be the sidekick for a guest star on CW’s Supergirl.

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