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Crowdfunding the purchase of Twitter
Now I know several of my friends on here have no interest in/actively dislike Twitter, but I do like it, so my thoughts these last few weeks have turned to 🎶How-do-you-solve-the-problem-of-the-owner.🎶
And I got to thinking, why not crowdfund a buyout? World's largest Kickstarter--$44 billion! Since Kickstarter doesn't take donated money unless the goal is met, and since $44 billion is not likely to be met, people could donate without worrying that it was a scam that was designed just to enrich whoever was behind the Kickstarter. And it would be a great gimmick, worthy of coverage on the news, especially if it picked up any steam at all.
And if it *did* pick up steam, then maybe serious organizations might consider for real whether they'd be willing to put money behind a serious attempt to revive the mortally wounded platform.
The money could be put in trust, only to be used to negotiate a purchase once a board of responsible people/organizations were in place to do the negotiations and run the future organization. There have to be some people who'd be interested who aren't nightmares--former employees of Twitter, maybe? And people who've been involved in running other social media platforms? And maybe people with interests in/experience with foundations or nonprofits?
But as I spun this fantasy out, I started thinking, If this effort got any coverage whatsoever, it would be two seconds before all my social media were hacked, my bank account drained, and vicious slanders and horrible things posted in my name or about me.
Well that doesn't sound great!
What if I did it anonymously? First thing would be to get a new email--I could do that through Duck Duck Go--they're always advertising about being super private. --One of my internal voices.
And how long do you think it would take the forces of the Dark Net to link that account to you? --A very skeptical other internal voice.
Not long, probably --The first one, sullen.
All things come to an end; maybe lots of decentralized, little social-media sites are, in the end, better --Yet another internal voice, one that's good at making backing down from grand plans sound not like timidity but like wisdom.
... Anyway, if Ido launch discover someone has launched a kickstarter, I will let you know. ;-)
And I got to thinking, why not crowdfund a buyout? World's largest Kickstarter--$44 billion! Since Kickstarter doesn't take donated money unless the goal is met, and since $44 billion is not likely to be met, people could donate without worrying that it was a scam that was designed just to enrich whoever was behind the Kickstarter. And it would be a great gimmick, worthy of coverage on the news, especially if it picked up any steam at all.
And if it *did* pick up steam, then maybe serious organizations might consider for real whether they'd be willing to put money behind a serious attempt to revive the mortally wounded platform.
The money could be put in trust, only to be used to negotiate a purchase once a board of responsible people/organizations were in place to do the negotiations and run the future organization. There have to be some people who'd be interested who aren't nightmares--former employees of Twitter, maybe? And people who've been involved in running other social media platforms? And maybe people with interests in/experience with foundations or nonprofits?
But as I spun this fantasy out, I started thinking, If this effort got any coverage whatsoever, it would be two seconds before all my social media were hacked, my bank account drained, and vicious slanders and horrible things posted in my name or about me.
Well that doesn't sound great!
What if I did it anonymously? First thing would be to get a new email--I could do that through Duck Duck Go--they're always advertising about being super private. --One of my internal voices.
And how long do you think it would take the forces of the Dark Net to link that account to you? --A very skeptical other internal voice.
Not long, probably --The first one, sullen.
All things come to an end; maybe lots of decentralized, little social-media sites are, in the end, better --Yet another internal voice, one that's good at making backing down from grand plans sound not like timidity but like wisdom.
... Anyway, if I
no subject
In the fantasy I spin that *doesn't* involve the hacking of my accounts, a group of committed people are brought together (that very useful passive voice again), with relevant skills, and they guide the setting up of a way to run Twitter as a nonprofit, like Wikipedia.
Something as big as Twitter would still need a-lot-a-lot of funds to pay for all the moderation, hardware, and energy required to run it. But there are many examples of huge nonprofits. I suspect all huge organizations in our world have problems (I think that goes along with the hugeness), but I'm sure there are some that are more or less ethical and more or less fiscally responsible--so that committed group would model their set-up on that.