2y ago

Twitter is now X as the little blue bird disappears

www.theverge.com Twitter is now X as the little blue bird disappears

The new X logo has started replacing the blue bird on the web.

Twitter is transforming into X, as the site’s former bird logo has now been replaced by an official new X logo. Elon Musk, who owns the transformed social media site, began signaling the change early Sunday morning with a series of tweets, starting with one that said, “and soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”

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2y ago

Twitter is now X as the little blue bird disappears

www.theverge.com /2023/7/24/23804973/twitter-x-logo-brand-replacement

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2y ago

VERGE

Twitter is now X as the little blue bird disappears

www.theverge.com /2023/7/24/23804973/twitter-x-logo-brand-replacement

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94 comments

I've never been more sure of my decision to move to the fediverse. Y'all still on Twitter should go make a mastodon account
- Is there a recognized excellent guide for non-techy-people-moving-from-twitter-to-mastodon?
  I don't twit, but I can see how it would still baffle the average user.
  
  https://joinfediverse.wiki/GettingstartedwithyourFediverseaccount
  Also, if they miss quote-tweets there's Firefish, which is still on ActivityPub and can talk to Mastodon, that has quote-posts.
  
  I don't know about guides, but I do agree it can be a little confusing. Trying to work out what instances are and which one you should join is difficult until you understand the concept and a little about how the tech works - it's the same with the threadiverse. Realising it's like email domains is what made it click for me.
  And if you personally ever decide to get into Mastodon: you're on kbin already, which federates with Mastodon and has support for microblogging, so you don't even need to do anything new - you just need to start using that functionality on kbin!
  
  There are several out there.

And yet every journalist, youtuber, podcaster or creator complaining about it will do everything in their power to find an excuse not to leave.
- Because that's still where all the people are
  
  I rest my case
  
  For now.
  
  Okay then
  
  Chicken and egg problem.

Couldn't even pay for the new logo....
Twitter replaced the logo after Musk requested for people to post logo submissions and that “if a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow.” Musk then pinned a tweet featuring a video created by a Twitter user named Sawyer Merritt and changed his own profile photo to the new X logo. Musk did note that the new X logo is an “interim” one, so it could be replaced at a later stage.
- Uh, what? There’s gotta be some copyright issues with doing this…
  
  How? He's owned "X" for decades. It was the name of his first company. Dude is obsessed with calling everything X.
  
  I mean, a functional company would have made it a legit co tests with terms/Conditions so that they owned every submission or at least the winner.
  Musk probably just sent the tweet and picked a winner, so yeah, they may not own it and if they start using it the creator may be able to sue.
- No doubt infringement issues there - I've seen similar existing logos online, not to mention very old ones like X11.
- What's even funnier is that anyone pretending to be the creator of the logo is a liar. (It is a scammer's website, after all.)
  It's a symbol that's part of the "mathematical alphanumerical symbols" subset of Unicode since 2001: *�, also known as Mathematical Double-Struck Capital X (U+1D54F).
- This is literally the only thing on-brand about this whole fiasco

What, is he trying to ensure his new product is entirely branded as "shit"? I am amazed. Usually you rebrand to get away from something the previous direction was doing. Considering he was still operating on the goodwill from the previous direction while actively tanking the platform, this is astounding.

The twitter branding was one of the few things actually going for it. Oh look a cute birdie, oh look the house is a birdhouse! GET IT!
Now it's, an X? A meaningless X? With a birdhouse home icon and bird-related words everywhere?
- It looks close enough like a swastika that he can sell merch easier to his fanbase. Armband sales are gonna go through the roof
- He killed the blue canary in the outlet by the light switch. Where is the birdhouse in our soul now?
  
  Omg, it's "outlet by the lightswitch!" I've been trying to decipher that line for years!
- As has been pointed out elsewhere on the net, the Twitter branding was the most valuable part besides the already existing userbase. Having "tweeting" and as a verb in everyday English has been a godsend marketing specialists can only dream of and it has become so prevalent in news and journalism, it's both hilarious and depressing.
  Elon is really working to make the dream of mainstream Mastodon and a big fediverse a reality.
  
  start tootin' everyone lets make it catch on...
  
  Nah, people will move to Threads or Blusky not Mastodon.

Click X to go to Twitter. No the other X - you just closed the window.
- Closing the window seems like a better choice, let's call it a happy accident.

Xtinct is what’s going to happen

He scared off a large portion of developers, killed third party clients, destroyed validated users via monetization, let bad actors back onto the platform, and thrown away iconic branding for edge lord bullshit. Manchurian CEO.
- It's not a far stretch to assume that he is tanking twitt.....X on purpose. Probably because he is a spoiled brat and someone made fun of him too much on Twitter.
  
  Except that it goes directly against his "give me money because I'm a genius" thing that he's done everything to cultivate. To deliberately attack his standing with SpaceX and Tesla, et. al., by spending 45 Billion to explode a social media juggernaut is beyond insane.
- His costs of hiring, retention, RFP-bidding, and regulatory compliance are all going up at his other businesses.
  And, his employees at those other businesses no longer think he’s a genius, which might be worse. Morale is going to be a serious issue.
  Elon will be sent to pasture at all of his investments by the end of the decade. The cost of doing business with him is going to become too high.
  
  Doubtlessly true, but by the same token I suspect they're running better than ever without Elon around to "help". Their employees certainly seem to think so.
- I feel at this point it would’ve made more sense to just build his own social media platform from scratch. What he’s doing is like spending billions to buy a specific used car, only to promptly replace every single part of it and throw the existing parts away. I mean sure, but then why not just buy a new car to begin with?
  
  Because he never wanted to buy Twitter
  His plan was likely to act like it, then at the last minute claim some flaw (like too many bots) and that he had reluctantly decided it would be better to make his own.
  If it worked he'd hurt Twitter and build up hype for his new social media.
  But he's an idiot, and accidentally committed to buying it
  
  B/C they made him Big Mad. He's enjoying this.

Musk is one of the biggest cretins I have ever witnessed. Why is he destroying an easily identified, well known brand logo and replacing it with an X?
- I wonder what the equivalent to a “tweet” is going to be.
  
  They really need to be referred to as xits, with people xitting all over the place. There's a solid argument to be made that the platform has been full of xit for a while now, actually.
  
  He's already said tweets will now be known as X's.
  Great isn't it?
  
  "Sending an X", which can be abbreviated to "sex."
- ‘Shut yo mouth, I’m not “Tweeting” at you, I’m X-ing’
  Yeah its such a dumb rebrand and he tried to call Paypal ‘x.com’ too. Musk is as creative as moth shit.
  
  Sir, I represent Moth Shit Local 454 and we take offense to such characterization.
- Because he's obsessed with bringing back his old brand and turning Twitter into a social instant payment Paypal/Twitter hybrid.
  
  Possibly relevant background: https://www.disconnect.blog/p/elon-musk-wants-to-relive-his-start

I have a hard time imagining that a letter individually considered, with only minimal stylization, will not have lots of issues for being protected and defended as a trademark.
- Also, how do you Google something like this?

I know these articles get made but they don’t have to get posted.
- I'd like to see more news about tech, and less news about social media

Isn't that the old Xerox logo?
- Looks more like x.org's logo, just without the ring

Cue marketing professors the world over, having fits over what "branding" is and what one should never, ever do with it.
Seriously that meme about "I thought he was a genius because I don't know about rockets . . " is just more real-life every day. Your roll, Tesla.

Buy one of the most recognisable brands on the planet and then just toss it overboard and replace it with something totally bland. Only a true business genius could come up with an idea like that.
- Yeah, but for a little while at least he'll have an X that hasn't left him.

That logo looks an awful lot like the X Window System one.
- It's the X from AGFA Monotype Special Alphabets 4.
  https://catalog.monotype.com/font/monotype/special-alphabets/4
  
  perchance is that copyrighted?
  Just because. Y'know. That would be high-larious.

This seems like an Elon decision that he likes not one that is good for the site.
- As opposed to? :D

Has anybody considered that Musk could be engaging in a Trading Places style billionaire competition, wherein the players try and trash their multi-billion dollar tech company faster than the others?
- Ok but who are the others like I know about Reddit but who else?
  
  Not sure, the other big companies have lots of individual issues and scandals but Twitter is way ahead, and it seems like there is something new every week. Musk must be winning so far.

He's wanted an X company for so long - it feels like something from a teenager desperately trying to be edgy.
He got x.com in 1999, trying to make an online bank. He then bought/merged with a company that was doing an online payment system, envisioning it as part of X, but that got rebranded to PayPal and ended up being spun off separately, ultimately bought by eBay. The online bank thing failed.
I think he's probably going to try to make Twitter the base for a new online bank thing, but I hope not too many people are dumb enough to trust their money to Musk.