Elon Musk's next idea for X may be his worst yet - again

X (formerly known as Twitter), is charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines in order to let them post, like, and retweet others, for a $1 fee.

Elon Musk, owner of X, previously spoke of charging users to post on the social platform in order to combat spam. While some users thought this wouldn’t amount to much, he’s followed through with this idea.

If you don’t pay for this $1 ‘Not a Bot’ service in these countries, you can only view your feed and not much else. This may expand to other countries if the trial becomes a success, but this could result in more users leaving the platform.

It’s another in a long line of bad ideas that will likely harm X rather than save it. Already, there’s proof that traffic to the site has dropped by 19% so far this year. So it’s only a matter of time before more users decide to move on.

With decisions such as changing the name from Twitter, unbanning abusive users, and a glitchy website, it’s not looking good if you’re using X as your main social platform.

I’ll be happier with the Dollar — iMore’s Take

Correct, read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users.This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.October 18, 2023

Since Musk took over, I’ve been using X far less compared to previous years. In the past, it was a great tool for catching up on news, making friends, and keeping in touch with existing ones.

But now, I use it for work purposes a few times each week, alongside checking my messages and that’s it. Both my ‘For You’ and ‘Following’ feeds also rarely show me the followers and content I follow, and engagement for the posts I do share, is next to nothing.

As an alternative, I’ve been mainly using Threads and Mastodon this year, and they have been great. Through them I’ve discovered new apps for iOS 17, kept up with the latest news, and caught up with friends who have also quit X.

So while there’s a good chance that this trial may be rolled out to all new users soon, I don’t mind if it does. I’ll use it as a rolling news feed, and then share my thoughts on those two competitor social platforms instead. Thanks, Elon.