This is excellent, curious to see how bot networks respond. I doubt just using a VPN will change much (maybe they'll just disable this feature so you won’t realize you’re arguing with Indians and Russians pretending to be Americans).

What

25 minutes ago, Matt! said:

This is excellent, curious to see how bot networks respond. I doubt just using a VPN will change much (maybe they'll just disable this feature so you won’t realize you’re arguing with Indians and Russians pretending to be Americans).

Most of the bots I encounter on X and on Tiktok are an endless stream of fake accounts pretending to be attractive women. They constantly follow my account/dm me a few times a week and I have to remove them.

In war & politics the overwhelmingly majority of the aggressive bots on X are paid propagandists that work for US political parties, NATO, and the US military establishment. I rarely see anyone representing other countries.

I've accumulated some experience on X premium. Overall I do see an increase in impressions that is similar to what other users experience- approx. 50% more. Overall it's not a silver bullet. Besides that as a verified member I can make longer tweets and have more options to customize things.

I also notice that only the first 3 hashtags of my tweets go into the system while the others are discarded. This is to be expected, I guess the higher premium tiers "unlock" further hashtags. On bluesky, all hashtags go into the system as it is a platform that desperately needs more engagement.

As a whole my experience on X shows that outside of politics & news the other subjects on X are pretty disappointing especially compared to youtube. As an influencer/content creator it is better to create youtube videos, stuff like X/bluesky is only supplementary at acquiring followers for monetization.

I don't expect to get more than a few hundred legit followers if I advertise routinely for a year.