Let’s Talk | Twitter Blue and SL Content

First NFTs hit the market with their hexagonal profiles (and honestly eff NFTs, eff them hard) now we are presented with the paid version of Twitter going by the name Twitter Blue.

There has been a lot of uncertainty regarding Twitter and its status after Mr. Musk’s take over, the many movements he has done, the stuff he is set to do and much more. While there’s a lot of murkiness around a lot of the things happening as content creators from Second Life dot com (pls sponsor kthxbai) that have been ran out of several social media platforms that have found a home in Twitter we are now faced with this new opportunity/change, so is it worth it for SL content creators?

Let’s talk about Twitter Blue and SL Content.

Twitter Blue is a monthly subscription service that provides access to certain features, benefits, and/or services, as described in the Terms of Service.

Source: Twitter

Twitter and SL Content

After the great SL-User migration of 2022 many people have been trying to carve a new home in this new social media, some people took to it like duck to water, others had to learn and adapt and after months of being present, producing content and more, they found a new home.

The freedom and immediatness Twitter offers as well as its somewhat seamless interaction for all users, on top of the allowance to share adult oriented content, should you choose to do it, fits perfectly into the social aspect SL offers to all of us, new friendships and possibilities for discovery is what brought many of the former flickr users over.

This takes us to a separation between SL users and SL content creators, the first one being all of us while the second one being the ones who also create some type of content for consumption inside or outside of Second Life, think of them as store owners, bloggers, event coordinators, etc. And on these last one is where I would like to focus, since Blue seems to be more oriented for them.

Not only because most of the content users I mention above were specifically leaving another platform because it was paywalling content, but also because Twitter is, in the end, a free-to-use and grow social media.

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So after all this, is it worth the expense?

Now, is this another Flickr/SL situation? Not at all. Unlike the Flickr “pay me to keep your content” scheme (sorry but that is what it was) Twitter is not forcing anyone and anything into paywalling content, it is instead giving THE option to people to do so, much like Patreon or the other platforms do. People can choose to engage and block their content or not do it. It really depends on what each person chooses to do.

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In conclusion:

Is paying for Twitter Blue worth it? I believe this answer is up to each of you. Will you be offering subscription only content? Will you give away things of equal or greater valus (eventually) to your followers? Will it be worth it to pay up to 15 USD a month for this service (should you get all 3 services offered) that may or may not go up or down in price?

All of the above are questions you would need to ask yourself should you be considering becoming part of the Blue experience. But that is up to each one of you entirely and you should consider what it may or may not do for your followers. And at no point are they forcing or paywalling content, that is a personal decision.

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Personal opinion:

I think there is other services currently available that do a lot of what Twitter Blue and other services are doing and they are way better set up. I like the freedom Twitter offers and the connection it presents. It helps with your audience and community, so for me I will keep what I have set up already. But if eventually it becomes better and offers more of what other services give me, I might consider it. But that seems to be some time away.

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