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Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

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Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#341

Post by mjmsmith »

tlogan wrote: post #127
belligeront wrote: post #15

Amazing that just a month ago he tweeted[1]: "It's remarkable how many people who've never run any kind of company think they know how to run a tech company better than someone who's run Tesla and SpaceX.". It's been fascinating watching so many VC types ignore so many red flags just because some of Elon's early actions validated their priors (e.g. tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff). [1] https://twi…

Majority of people here on HN were also convinced he will try to make Twitter better. Not everybody believed that he will succeeded but it seems like majority belived that he will at least try hard. Like improve app to purchase things (one click checkout), integrate with real time news, some free speech, sports, … so many ideas

See also Donald Trump, 2016.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#342

Post by josteink »

wpietri wrote: post #273
josteink wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're assuming that Elon isn't doing what he intended to do, turn Twitter into his own personal, right wing echo-chamber with political influence. He simply unbanned accounts which were wrongfully banned. Accounts which simply communicated legal to hold opinions. There is nothing wrong or morally objectionable about this. I’d rather say it commendable. If Twitter is becoming a right-wing echo-chamber it’s because…

> There is nothing wrong or morally objectionable about this. Depends on the opinion. "We must kill all the [insert ethnic group]" is a legal-to-hold opinion. But I'd say it's both wrong and morally objectionable to provide a platform for transmitting that opinion. Which is why Twitter banned people like that. And even for those without a moral sense, I should point out that it was also bad for business. Twitter had…

> "We must kill all the [insert ethnic group]"

To be fair, that has always been allowed to say on Twitter as long as the target is either white, men or both.

The only news is now you’re (equally) allowed to spread that kind of toxic hate towards other groups as well.

Is that a good thing? Possibly not, but at least it is objectively more fair than it used to be.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#343

Post by redbell »

belligeront wrote: post #15

Amazing that just a month ago he tweeted[1]: "It's remarkable how many people who've never run any kind of company think they know how to run a tech company better than someone who's run Tesla and SpaceX.". It's been fascinating watching so many VC types ignore so many red flags just because some of Elon's early actions validated their priors (e.g. tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff). [1] https://twi…

Paul's first comment [1] in the referenced tweet says: "Do you think Elon will fail and Twitter will go out of business?" and finished it with: "Bet your reputation on a prediction now".. it's a heavy prediction and a bold statement to bet your reputation on!!

1. https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1593199305384685573

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#344

Post by txru »

permalac wrote: post #143
input_sh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The policy change was on the frontpage of HN just a couple of hours ago, but you can imagine how comments went and why it's no longer there.

Self censoring? Or cease and desist?

HN relatively deweights posts that get a lot of argument without a lot of insight. Things about politics, or tech involved culture war, or continuous divisive news stories disappear from the front page quickly.

I would classify that as ‘generic moderation policy’ rather than censorship

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#345

Post by dredmorbius »

quaintdev wrote: post #96
TekMol wrote: post #11

This is his Mastodon account: https://mas.to/@paulg/with_replies His first toots remind me of his first tweets: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/22300310058 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/22307238459

The most ridiculous problem with Mastodon I think is the fact that even if I visit his profile I can't follow him because we are on two different servers. I have to copy his profile url and paste it in my logged in instance. This then takes me to his profile where I can follow him. That's just too much work!

The mechanism is not friendly or intuitive but:

1. On your own instance ...

2. Paste "@paulg@mas.to" into the search dialogue and click the magnifying glass ...

3. Paul's profile will pop up in the results under "People".

4. Either click on the person icon to follow directly, or ...

5. Click on the avatar / profile name/description to view the profile page itself.

If you do click the "Follow" icon from mas.to (and don't already have an account there), you'll be prompted to do what I've described above.

Keep in mind that the Fediverse is, well, Federated. Someone else's home instance is where their bits and their configuration live. Your instance is where your configuration lives. You subscribe from your instance for that reason.

Some instances block others, in which case the profile won't appear, though odds are low that mas.to is among those yours has blocked.

(I've been on Mastodon since 2016, yes, this was confusing at first. I've since sorted it out.)

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#347

Post by dopidopHN »

rglullis wrote: post #218
barathr wrote: post #91

For those wondering about how to sign up to mastodon and what server to pick: It's like picking an email server. They all have their differences, but generally they are interoperable. You can read users from anywhere, and follow from anywhere. Better yet, it's fairly easy to move your account from one server to another if you don't like it. Your best bet is some of the bigger second-tier servers (ones that have thous…

> Your best bet is some of the bigger second-tier servers. Until they get overloaded, and face the same issues as the "first tier" ones... I know that what I am about to say is out of personal interest, but I really wish people took the analogy to email servers more seriously and started looking at commercial providers. I'm offering Mastodon services for about $0.50/user/month [0], and I have the infra to host 20-30k…

I created my twitter account when sending tweet via text was still a thing. Never really used it, so I'm not the right demographic.

But I do think your approach is the right one. I hope you succeed a breaking even and generate a margin for your time.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#348

Post by talkingtab »

dnissley wrote: post #63
belligeront wrote: post #15

Amazing that just a month ago he tweeted[1]: "It's remarkable how many people who've never run any kind of company think they know how to run a tech company better than someone who's run Tesla and SpaceX.". It's been fascinating watching so many VC types ignore so many red flags just because some of Elon's early actions validated their priors (e.g. tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff). [1] https://twi…

When I disagree with someone, I do not necessarily think they're stupid. That's a needlessly polarizing mindset.

When I think someone is stupid, I don't necessarily disagree with them. That's a needlessly polarizing mindset.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#349

Post by dale_glass »

mrtksn wrote: post #186
dale_glass wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You know how Musk promises one thing and delivers something else? I'm not the biggest Musk fan but I believe he has a very effective process and he is a product person - that is understands what is a good product. No, in the case of Twitter he clearly doesn't. Twitter's business model is advertising, yet he's been driving them away since he's started. Even in the user-facing side he made a weird mess with the blue…

> Twitter's business model is advertising That's true but as I've learned here on HN, that wasn't working very well already and Twitter was just an afterthought for the large advertisers. Twitter wasn't huge money maker. That's something that he can change, this is not something fundamental about the product.

Yeah, but he's making it even worse.

Now one might argue that Musk wants to ignore advertisers entirely and target the actual users. That could be an interesting thing to try. But when why is he naming and shaming and whining about advertisers? If he decided to change business models, then it doesn't matter whether Apple advertises.

If he's aiming to profit from the users, he's also doing it wrong by bringing back all kinds of formerly banned unsavory people. This will over time reduce the market share to the very specific audience that's in line with his preferences, and probably invite trouble from the EU.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#350

Post by pg »

I'm not leaving Twitter. It seems more likely than not that Elon will reverse the ban on links to other social media sites. I just don't want to hang out there in the meantime. Plus given the way things are going, it seemed like a good time to learn about alternatives.

I still think Elon is a smart guy. His work on cars and rockets speaks for itself. Nor do I think he's the villain a lot of people try to make him out to be. He's eccentric, definitely, but that should be news to no one. Plus I don't think he realizes that the techniques that work for cars and rockets don't work in social media. Those two facts are sufficient to explain most of his behavior.

He could still salvage the situation. He's the sort of person it would be a big mistake to write off. And I hope he does. I would be delighted to go back to using Twitter regularly.

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