Linked List: July 15, 2023

Saturday, 15 July 2023

Twitter Has Begun Paying a Select Group of ‘Creators’ 

Twitter:

To be considered eligible for creator ads revenue sharing you must:

  1. Be subscribed to Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations
  2. Have at least 5M impressions on your posts in each of the last 3 months.
  3. Pass human review for Creator Monetization Standards.

The idea is that this will turn Twitter into a YouTube-like platform for high-profile accounts. Seems like it might be a sham at this point though — there’s no open enrollment, and the people who are getting paid now seem hand-selected by Elon Musk. Taylor Lorenz, writing for The Washington Post:

Former Twitter staffers who worked on creator-focused products expressed skepticism over the rollout, with several calling it a PR stunt. One former Twitter executive who worked on creator partnerships and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, said that “any kind of content monetization we’ve done in the past was based on a revenue model. This just feels pulled out of thin air for a specific subset of creators that he wanted to placate.”

The former Twitter executive also cast doubt on Twitter’s revamped metrics, including impressions. “The numbers are totally and completely bogus. It’s all completely made up. It really feels like they’re arbitrarily writing checks to people they like, which is not a sustainable creator strategy.”

It’s worth taking quotes from anonymous “former Twitter staffers” with a grain of salt (and, perhaps, taking Lorenz’s byline with its own grain of salt), but it’s worth taking new Twitter initiatives with a truckload of salt. I really doubt this is going to prove sustainable. Would be kind of awesome, though, for someone to eventually be able to declare themselves a professional tweeter.

But it kind of smells like a scam: First you sign up to pay Twitter $8/month. Then you wait and see if you get selected to participate. Then they might start paying you. It’s like Amway-style multi-level marketing for social media.

The Bell Labs Holmdel Complex 

Matthew Christopher at Abandoned America:

The Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in Holmdel, New Jersey was created as a new research and development facility for Bell Telephone when they decided to move operations out of Manhattan. Constructed between 1959 and 1962, it was the swan song of architect Eero Saarinen, who also designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Center. Saarinen died a year before Holmdel was completed and six years before the six story complex would be named Laboratory of the Year by R&D Magazine. The outside curtain wall of mirrored glass that allowed in 25 percent of the sun’s light while blocking 70 percent of its heat led to the Holmdel Complex being christened “The Biggest Mirror Ever” by Architectural Forum, and the complex was used in universities as example of one of the crowning achievements of the modernist architectural style. [...]

Architect Alexander Gorlin allowed me to photograph Bell Labs shortly before the renovation began. Much of the interior had been stripped to the basic elements and the plants in the atrium were gone, but the architecture was still mesmerizing. I had visited the building when it was open many years ago but it was unfamiliar to me now. Many of the rooms were entirely anonymous after everything in them had been removed.

Fans of Severance will recognize that stunning atrium immediately — this building serves as the set for Lumon Industries’s headquarters.

It’s Official: Lionel Messi Joins Inter Miami CF 

Inter Miami CF:

Inter Miami CF today announced the signing of seven-time Ballon d’Or winner and World Cup Champion, Lionel Messi. The Argentine superstar, who will occupy a Designated Player slot, is expected to join the team in the coming days, and his contract will run through the 2025 Major League Soccer (MLS) season.

He starts playing in the Leagues Cup tournament next week.