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

reuters.com

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

#841

Post by chx »

hk__2 wrote: post #743
abnry wrote: post #631

Ways I think Twitter could immediately improve, from the perspective of users: - Optional verification check marks for anyone who wants them. Throw out the Blue Check status symbol. Offer "real person" twitter filter. - Transparent and consistent moderation policies. Bans are inconsistently applied for reasons that are often hard to figure out. - Return to a reverse chronological time and/or down selection of rage-ba…

> Optional verification check marks for anyone who wants them. Throw out the Blue Check status symbol Those are not mutually exclusive. I may be interested to know that @emmanuelmacron and @emmanuel_macron are both real persons but I’d also want to know that @emmanuelmacron is the famous one while the other is just an homonyme. Blue Check symbols are also a lot useful to distinguish real brand accounts from fake ones…

Every time Yishan's thread comes up, I feel I need to add while he says Elon is behind he is also behind: one half of the debaters left facts and reality behind. This means any fair moderation will be seen as left leaning.

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

#842

Post by sytelus »

khazhoux wrote: post #434

What most troubles me about this whole ordeal: The lack of upper limits on wealth accumulation by an individual means that a single person can eventually directly control enough funds to simply decide one day to buy one of the world's largest communication channels. No one here seems to have a problem with this. For as much as the tech community generally despises generational-wealth families like the Waltons, or for…

> Bill Gates, e.g., still sits at the top of the money-power pile, even though his own success peaked 25 years ago.

Bill Gates made 3X more money after his retirement by doing nothing than what he made through working at Microsoft 12-16 hours a day for 35 years. All hail capitalism!

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

#843

Post by version_five »

fleddr wrote: post #708

I'm optimistic from a nihilistic point of view: for Twitter the only way is up, and yet even a complete failure would be a net improvement to the world. There's a laundry list of uncontroversial improvements he can make to the product itself. Twitter as a product is broken in so many ways. Musk is the kind of outcome-driven character to get things done. And it will be done in a way that does not directly conflict wit…

I don't see how Twitter can be changed away from what it is and still be a place people are interested in going to.

I think the best reasonable outcome will be for it to be destroyed by this, and set the cause of elite outrage back a few years until something else evolves. I assume this is the master plan. Otherwise, what is the real pathway to a single site where opinions coexist, free speech is allowed, and people participate in good faith. It's a bit like democracy, it only really works if the overwhelming majority have the same goals, otherwise it sucks for everyone.

I see the potential here for a tower of Babel type destruction where all the silly tribes fighting each other just get scattered and take some time to regroup, and hopefully give society a chance to thrive for a bit. Let's see.

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

#845

Post by bsder »

syshum wrote: post #683
abnry wrote: post #631

Ways I think Twitter could immediately improve, from the perspective of users: - Optional verification check marks for anyone who wants them. Throw out the Blue Check status symbol. Offer "real person" twitter filter. - Transparent and consistent moderation policies. Bans are inconsistently applied for reasons that are often hard to figure out. - Return to a reverse chronological time and/or down selection of rage-ba…

I have never understood this aversion to Anonymous Speech, free speech requires Anonymous Speech. Some of the most important events in history (like the Founding of the United States) would never have happened with out Anonymous Speech. We should debate idea's not authors. Anonymous Speech enables idea's to be spread not personality cults, one would thing those opposing Elon believing that people just support him bec…

> I have never understood this aversion to Anonymous Speech, free speech requires Anonymous Speech. Some of the most important events in history (like the Founding of the United States) would never have happened with out Anonymous Speech.

The difference before the Internet is that if I found your idea odious I could punch you in the nose you even if you were "anonymous". And, in return, you were not likely to be attacked by a mob unless you actively did something really horrible.

There are two big problems with social media:

1) I have no way to directly punish you when I find what you are saying sufficiently irritating. You are unlikely to say something really nasty to my face if I could slap you for it. I am unlikely to slap you if you can do so in return unless there is a really good reason. I don't have a good suggestion as to how to implement something which works for this.

2) You have no way to defend against a mob who finds what you are saying sufficiently irritating. In the US, we, nominally, run on presumption of innocence before we punish someone, and the defendant has the right to confront their accusers. Mobs are anathema to both of these. The solution for this is that social media should not be granted safe harbor. If you need moderators, you should also be liable for what is being said on your platform. If you want safe harbor, you should only schelp electrons.

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

#846

Post by Thorentis »

> will shift control of the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world's richest person

The subtly terrible journalism continues. The implication of this phrase is that Twitter was previous controlled "by the people", whereas now some rich oligarch will control it. The irony, given that Musk hopes to make the platform more neutral than ever before.

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

#847

Post by itronitron »

fleddr wrote: post #708

I'm optimistic from a nihilistic point of view: for Twitter the only way is up, and yet even a complete failure would be a net improvement to the world. There's a laundry list of uncontroversial improvements he can make to the product itself. Twitter as a product is broken in so many ways. Musk is the kind of outcome-driven character to get things done. And it will be done in a way that does not directly conflict wit…

Twitter should charge every account a monthly fee based on the number of followers they have, unless they have fewer than 100 (or some other n) followers.

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

#848

Post by [deleted] »

fleddr wrote: post #708

I'm optimistic from a nihilistic point of view: for Twitter the only way is up, and yet even a complete failure would be a net improvement to the world. There's a laundry list of uncontroversial improvements he can make to the product itself. Twitter as a product is broken in so many ways. Musk is the kind of outcome-driven character to get things done. And it will be done in a way that does not directly conflict wit…

[deleted]

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

#849

Post by matt-attack »

abnry wrote: post #631

Ways I think Twitter could immediately improve, from the perspective of users: - Optional verification check marks for anyone who wants them. Throw out the Blue Check status symbol. Offer "real person" twitter filter. - Transparent and consistent moderation policies. Bans are inconsistently applied for reasons that are often hard to figure out. - Return to a reverse chronological time and/or down selection of rage-ba…

How about also remove user hostile obsession with diverting users to the app?

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

#850

Post by SteveDR »

Thorentis wrote: post #846

> will shift control of the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world's richest person The subtly terrible journalism continues. The implication of this phrase is that Twitter was previous controlled "by the people", whereas now some rich oligarch will control it. The irony, given that Musk hopes to make the platform more neutral than ever before.

That quote doesn’t imply anything about Twitter being ran “by the people”
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