Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#211

Post by mbar84 » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:52 PM UTC

qgin wrote: post #113

“Everything that isn’t illegal is allowed” sounds great until you see what that actually means on the internet. Anyone who has ever worked in content moderation / trust & safety knows what kind of unrelenting deluge of obnoxious / disturbing / spam-filled / miserable race to the bottom of the lizard brain stuff that is constantly being pushed back on any moderately popular social media site. It seems so easy from a d…

This is a straw-man argument. Everybody knows there is an issue with a deluge of spam, obnoxious, content etc. The issue is trust/control. Whom do you trust to have control over who sees what content? A public platform should be beyond reproach in terms of its political bias, which is not the case for Twitter. A way to get closer to that would be to devolve the control over content moderation as close to each user as possible.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#212

Post by hooande » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:52 PM UTC

scop wrote: post #68

I wish him and the team the very best. Social media is an incredibly hard problem that by no means has been solved. I raise a glass to a man who has successfully tackled hard problems and seeks to make the future better.

I'd be surprised if there's anyone here who thinks he'll succeed

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#213

Post by loceng » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:52 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #175

Prediction: Musk will buy it, Twitter will tank, Musk will sell it at a loss.

And what do you base that off of?

He seems to do quite well once he puts his focus on a problem, even if that's due to the people he ultimately decides to hire/fire.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#214

Post by itsoktocry » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:52 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #175

Prediction: Musk will buy it, Twitter will tank, Musk will sell it at a loss.

I agree, and not because Elon's not a smart dude.

I think it was Jason Calacanis who suggested charging people for the ability to write essays on the platform. I'm not convinced some of these people even understand what Twitter is.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#215

Post by dfxm12 » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

qgin wrote: post #113

“Everything that isn’t illegal is allowed” sounds great until you see what that actually means on the internet. Anyone who has ever worked in content moderation / trust & safety knows what kind of unrelenting deluge of obnoxious / disturbing / spam-filled / miserable race to the bottom of the lizard brain stuff that is constantly being pushed back on any moderately popular social media site. It seems so easy from a d…

Surely, spam bots aren't illegal, are they?

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1517215066550116354

At this point, he sounds like a politician making conflicting promises that he can't possibly keep... And also like a politician, he probably has his own interests in mind ahead of your average Twitter user's.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#216

Post by HikeThe46 » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

MarcScott wrote: post #178

Am I the only person here that finds Twitter a nice place? I'm careful about who I follow, most of whom are tech people or educators. My feed is a really nice place to go, and I can't remember the last time I read or saw anything that triggered me in the slightest. I'm seeing loads of comments about how toxic Twitter is, but isn't that on you? Don't follow or engage and the algorithm will skip you over.

I have the same experience, I don't dive into trending "drama" I follow people I find funny, companies/athletes/celebrities that I am interested in, etc. I prune who I follow probably about twice a year to cut back on people I maybe followed because I saw one funny thing.

If someone trolls me in a reply, I ignore them and move on. Having the last word means nothing on the internet.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#217

Post by ggepolja234411 » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:54 PM UTC

MarcScott wrote: post #178

Am I the only person here that finds Twitter a nice place? I'm careful about who I follow, most of whom are tech people or educators. My feed is a really nice place to go, and I can't remember the last time I read or saw anything that triggered me in the slightest. I'm seeing loads of comments about how toxic Twitter is, but isn't that on you? Don't follow or engage and the algorithm will skip you over.

>> I'm seeing loads of comments about how toxic Twitter is, but isn't that on you? Don't follow or engage and the algorithm will skip you over.

Its like white people telling brown people that airport security isnt a toxic place and its all in their mind. Things are toxic...just not for everyone. Try being colored or not part of the in-crowd on Twitter and you get to see how toxic it is.

The point of twitter isnt just to read, but also to engage. But engagement is hard when tiki-toting nationalists are sending death threads to anyone that doesnt want to turn the world into prison.

Even technical (non political) conversations get all sorts of hate flung at PoC accounts.

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#218

Post by ausbah » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:55 PM UTC

scop wrote: post #68

I wish him and the team the very best. Social media is an incredibly hard problem that by no means has been solved. I raise a glass to a man who has successfully tackled hard problems and seeks to make the future better.

that's an optimistic take, as much as I dislike Musk it would be nice if he managed to make Twitter a better experience for the average user. given that social media is more of a people problem than a engineering problem, I'm not as hopeful

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#219

Post by WORMS_EAT_WORMS » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:56 PM UTC

Whoever you are, whatever your politics and positions are, you have to admit and appreciate the humor in the saying: “it’s a private company, they can do what they want”.

Full 180 and probably shouldn’t use an argument you don’t believe in to help make your point if you are on the receiving end of that joke.

Just trying to enjoy the ride on by this one…

I’m still much more concerned with the on-demand Ludovico Technique / aversion therapy device TikTok is using on kids.

If anything comes from this Twitter mix up and supposed transparency — hopefully some algo literacy. Just not a healthy way to be informed through a click bait anger machine designed for engagement.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4woPg0-xyAA&t=3m10s

Aka, don’t ever tune in and tune out!

Re: Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources

#220

Post by macspoofing » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 1:57 PM UTC

How did it go from hostility to acceptance so quickly? I understand playing hard-ball to negotiate a higher price, BUT why play hard-ball and just accept the initial offer?

Or is there something else at play (maybe expectation is that shareholders reject it?) and this is just a PR ploy.