X plans new creator payout system to reduce engagement spam, low-quality bait

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has announced efforts on a new creator payout system that will reduce engagement spam and low-quality bait from users who try to game the system. According to Nikita Bier, X  product head, the social media platform needs to off-ramp to a different system.

X is positioning this as a way to encourage higher-quality content and combat engagement farming. As data shows, most users engage in low-effort posts like meme recycling, outrage triggers, and fake debates just to generate replies, comments, and clicks. 

The new payout system will aim to tie payouts more closely to meaningful engagement, especially from paying or premium users. X is working to reduce rewards for those cheap engagement tricks.

To that end, Nikita Bier has announced, “Over the next week, I’ll be dropping some small upgrades for power users. Most of these things were quick fixes that somehow fell through the cracks. Stay tuned.”

Cut the spam, cut the noise, and boost actual quality

X has faced advertiser pullbacks and volatility. Since Elon Musk acquired the social media platform, users and advertisers have experienced losses due to concerns about brand safety, as well as a decline in trust following Musk’s controversial comments and actions. Shifting away from pure ad-dependency gives more flexibility. 

If all goes as planned and premium users’ engagement becomes more valuable, that will further tie the platform’s financial health to subscriptions and a more committed user base.

However, “quality” is subjective. Some content is deeply niche, some is playful, some is controversial for valid reasons. If “quality” equals high interaction from premium users, not just high raw numbers, that’s an improvement but it also can skew toward content that already appeals to elites or “paid user” demographics.

One user asked, “Bier, please fix the monetization. I have consistently compared my pay-outs with my peers and have been consistently underpaid.” However, according to Nikita Bier, creator payouts do more harm than good, and X needs to off-ramp to a different system. 

Nikita Bier’s insights on how to make money

Nikita advised that users should think about one subject matter they’re an expert on and keep posting about it. “It can be anything: plumbing, menswear, Indian food, furniture, social apps, whatever,” he said.

He said that creators should post one unexpected insight picked from the experience in that area. Keep it under five sentences and do this every day for six months. Bier said that if someone does this consistently for six months, X will promote their account to others.

“By the end, you will be recognized as the world’s leading expert in that subject area, and you can charge whatever you want for endorsements, your time, or whatever,” Bier said. “And no one will be able to take that way from you.”

However, according to users, Bier’s method wouldn’t work because the X algorithm favors slop. Bier responded that things have changed. He added that users should make sure to write in a way that is accessible to broader audiences.

In other news, as reported by Cryptopolitan, Musk confirmed that X is preparing to replace its current ranking system with an entirely AI-powered model before the end of the year. He said that the algorithm will be purely AI by November, with significant progress along the way.”

He added that by November or December, users will be able to dynamically adjust their feeds by directly asking X’s AI chatbot, Grok.

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