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Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

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Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#471

Post by Waterluvian »

john-radio wrote: post #402

A lot of the tweets that are quoted in the article have been removed. For example, Twitter employee Cristina Angeli is mentioned in the story for having tweeted an image of "staff members... flooding an internal Slack channel with blue heart emojis as they wait to learn their fate tomorrow", but that tweet is deleted on twitter itself because "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules." This is ironic if you consider all…

It's the same thing you see with millions of people, especially in some political demographics: Freedom for me, not for thee.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#472

Post by grumple »

q1w2 wrote: post #461
john-radio wrote: post #402

A lot of the tweets that are quoted in the article have been removed. For example, Twitter employee Cristina Angeli is mentioned in the story for having tweeted an image of "staff members... flooding an internal Slack channel with blue heart emojis as they wait to learn their fate tomorrow", but that tweet is deleted on twitter itself because "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules." This is ironic if you consider all…

> Smart journalists are going to stop relying on Twitter's API now. This seems unlikely. Journalists are pragmatists and won't abandon Twitter unless there is an alternative.

The alternative is screenshots or direct quoting, both of which are actually easier than using the api.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#473

Post by mrtranscendence »

chasd00 wrote: post #353
losvedir wrote: post #180

And so the grand experiment begins. I feel bad for the folks losing their job because that always sucks, and I hope there's a decent severance package. Now we'll see what happens to Twitter... I hardly use it, so if it implodes it won't bother me too much. But I am curious to see if all the "how do you need X people to do Y?" commenters are correct in this case. The app is simple but doing simple things at scale is h…

> Anyone want to make predictions about the state of Twitter in a few years? what I hope is that it shrinks to about 1/20th its current size. And then many many smaller platforms spring up. I think one thing that makes social media hard to manage is the sheer scale. It's likely much easier to manage/moderate a smaller social network than a huge one. Also, it wouldn't be as dramatic to be kicked off a platform because…

Having to pay to tweet would be the death of Twitter. It wouldn't just shrink, it would be thoroughly decimated. It would initiate a vicious spiral in which Twitter becomes less attractive to read because fewer people are using it to tweet, which causes fewer people to feel the need to tweet, etc. As the audience shrinks big names leave the platform (because getting attention was the name of the game for them), causing even more of the rank-and-file to leave. Advertiser revenue would plummet. Any Twitter that does possibly survive would be a zombie, so minimally profitable there'd be no conceivable way of keeping up with those interest payments.

I get the point information warfare, but you may as well just wish for Twitter and other social media platforms to outright die.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#474

Post by compiler-guy »

lupire wrote: post #341
mikkergp wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be interesting to see how Elon defines success. Twitter in it's current form is a dead end, and there's no way "more free speech" is going increase either revenue or users. So if you think Elon is going to succeed at making Twitter a better Twitter as we know it, then I'm confident this take is wrong. Which is why he's focused on the everything X app or whatever. Now, I wouldn't want to underestimate Elon, he…

If the guy can make a fully self-driving car, he can make a fully self-moderating social network. He'll either be the GOAT or the goat, but the gamble is clearly on the table, and Musk being Mush will declare victory before the dice even start to roll.

If the guy can blow enough hot air about self driving cars to make people buy the hype, he might be able to blow enough hot air about a self-moderating social network to make people buy the hype.

Unfortunately, eventually you need more than hype before the public and regulators come for you because you haven’t delivered.

And musk hasn’t delivered.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#475

Post by q1w2 »

thinkingemote wrote: post #409

Musk and friends compare Twitter to other tech companies and see that it's ratio of employees to revenue is lowest. He therefore thinks he must halve the number employees and/or increase revenue to get this ratio up. From the chat log exhibits from the Twitter vs Musk case: https://danluu.com/elon-twitter-texts/#47 A VC (Jason Calacanis) does back of the envelope calculations: Twitter revenue per employee: $5B rev /…

Purely looking at the math and the product portfolio, I would argue that since Twitter is such a single-product company, with a near-monopoly in this specific niche, it should have a much higher ratio.

Given these factors, I wouldn't be surprised if Mush cuts the employee base in half again.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#476

Post by gdubs »

Be Civil. Really shouldn't have to be said.

Lots of gross comments here today, and I don't have the time to go check every last username but I only hope it's not long-timers here who are being so snarky and callous at people losing their jobs.

And if it is, y'all should remember that the best developers have long memories. Would be wise to have a little empathy and delight a little less in the turning of the business cycle, even you think it benefits your interests.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#477

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

devwastaken wrote: post #384
rdtwo wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think that’s true. Twitter is/was the only remaining news medium where experts had a voice. During the pandemic doctors and infectious diseases experts were using it to call or government blow hards. Now that’s going to die as well and we may return to complete darkness.

I saw the opposite. "Experts" being totally wrong and fear mongering without evidence. It was rural governments that said "prove it". Recall how various studies on covid lethality, vaccination and masks were wildly different. The Israel study is a quick one. This is exactly what happened when influenza was new in the 1920's. Yet the "experts" made it sound like everyone is going to die if you are not wearing a mask 2…

I see Twitter as possibly working up to the ideal of "crowd sourcing" the truth. If Musk does what he seems to be saying he will do -- and take the training wheels off the moderation, and get the government out of it -- we might be left with a system that really can sort out the truth from fiction. Or, at least, present both sides, and let people decide for themselves, without hiding one side.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#478

Post by titzer »

KaiserPro wrote: post #308

THe issue we all have here is this: if Musk is successful then treating employees nicely will fall out of fashion. Tech was a bastion of "treat your employees right, and they'll be productive". Musk is not a proponent of that. He is a micromanaging, capricious, easily distracted, arrogant and vindictive CEO. If twitter thrives then we can expect copycats to try and spread his shitty work philosophy (like everyone ido…

The same is true of leadership at all levels. The US political situation isn't looking that great because of the popularity of all kinds of jerk behavior that has become the norm. Ironically, Twitter itself is partly responsible for that, as crapping on your political opponents has become more important than having policy proposals or solving problems. It's a downward spiral when we accept shitty behaviors from leadership, because of exactly this copycat tendency of people--they emulate behavior of elites, sometimes unconsciously.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#479

Post by goldenchrome »

devwastaken wrote: post #384
rdtwo wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think that’s true. Twitter is/was the only remaining news medium where experts had a voice. During the pandemic doctors and infectious diseases experts were using it to call or government blow hards. Now that’s going to die as well and we may return to complete darkness.

I saw the opposite. "Experts" being totally wrong and fear mongering without evidence. It was rural governments that said "prove it". Recall how various studies on covid lethality, vaccination and masks were wildly different. The Israel study is a quick one. This is exactly what happened when influenza was new in the 1920's. Yet the "experts" made it sound like everyone is going to die if you are not wearing a mask 2…

Absolutely based. There are more morale virtues than just “prevent harm”.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#480

Post by smrtinsert »

mabbo wrote: post #259
losvedir wrote: post #180

And so the grand experiment begins. I feel bad for the folks losing their job because that always sucks, and I hope there's a decent severance package. Now we'll see what happens to Twitter... I hardly use it, so if it implodes it won't bother me too much. But I am curious to see if all the "how do you need X people to do Y?" commenters are correct in this case. The app is simple but doing simple things at scale is h…

> Anyone want to make predictions about the state of Twitter in a few years? Myspace still exists in some form.

Sure, no social network has maintained prominence ever.
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