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Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

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Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#71

Post by danaris »

MattGaiser wrote: post #5

Do organisations tend to regret bans, especially if they are willing to hold firm for a few days? As Reddit banned all its creepy communities, people had a fit for a few days and made similar proclamations about how Voat would beat them as a result, and then life went on. It didn't destroy Reddit at all. Same with the crackdown on the conspiracy subreddits. Off they went to Voat. But Voat is gone and Reddit remains.…

I think there are qualitative differences between the bans you mention.

Banning "creepy communities" and conspiracy subreddits on Reddit was about trying to make Reddit less of a haven for people who congregate to validate each other's potentially-dangerous ideas.

Banning Trump from Twitter was a straightforward matter of him serially breaking the rules.

Banning Substack links from Twitter is very clearly an attempt to harm a competitor, with no upside for users.

Trying to claim that the latter will be seen in the same light as the former two after some time has passed doesn't seem to follow logically.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#72

Post by baxtr »

zarzavat wrote: post #66
NhanH wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recently, I have a theory that Musk is a politician, not an entrepreneur. It just so happened that he wasn't born in the US to formally pursuit the politician career (yes, I know that President is nominally the only office limited to US-born citizen. That isn't the point, it's still vastly harder to be a high ranking politician without being born in the country) From that viewpoint, it makes sense as to how he could…

I have the opposite view. Musk is a fantastic engineer, but a terrible politician. He’s the kind of man who starts a rocket company and knows exactly how everything on the rocket works, but then impulsively smokes a joint on a podcast and risks his security clearance and defense funding to said rocket company. Musk has no political sense whatsoever, he’s far too impulsive. But the impulsiveness does make headlines wh…

Same could be said easily about Trump…

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#73

Post by AbrahamParangi »

baxtr wrote: post #72
zarzavat wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the opposite view. Musk is a fantastic engineer, but a terrible politician. He’s the kind of man who starts a rocket company and knows exactly how everything on the rocket works, but then impulsively smokes a joint on a podcast and risks his security clearance and defense funding to said rocket company. Musk has no political sense whatsoever, he’s far too impulsive. But the impulsiveness does make headlines wh…

Same could be said easily about Trump…

The difference between Elon and Trump is that when Trump gets in trouble it’s for something reprehensible that his supporters like.

When Elon gets in trouble it’s for something that nobody supports (like calling that guy a pedo), and his supporters just sort of feel bad about.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#74

Post by pavel_lishin »

NhanH wrote: post #39
hinkley wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a coworker who would have anger lines come out of his skull if you said Musk had anything to do with PayPal success. It was like Barney Stinson talking about Ralph Macchio. Then Tesla and SpaceX happened and I was like, “hmm, maybe he was wrong” and then Twitter happened and I’m thinking, “no, I get it now”.

Recently, I have a theory that Musk is a politician, not an entrepreneur. It just so happened that he wasn't born in the US to formally pursuit the politician career (yes, I know that President is nominally the only office limited to US-born citizen. That isn't the point, it's still vastly harder to be a high ranking politician without being born in the country) From that viewpoint, it makes sense as to how he could…

I think Musk is a celebrity, not a politician or an engineer or an entrepreneur.

Politicians have to answer to their constituents, engineers have to answer to the laws of physics, and entrepreneurs have to answer to the laws of economics.

Celebrities are beholden to nothing but marketing, and until recently, Musk (or someone on his team) has been doing a pretty good job of selling his image.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#75

Post by maxerickson »

Freedom2 wrote: post #50
extr wrote: post #3

I've run out of the mental energy to give Musk the benefit of the doubt. His capricious and poor decision-making is ruining one of my favorite products day and day. It's so frustrating to watch, a complete train wreck in slow motion. I'm simultaneously beyond caring and unable to ignore it at this point.

Controversial take: I believe that Twitter has significantly improved as a platform, with extended tweet lengths, enhanced media quality, a consistent reverse chronological timeline, reduced advertisements, broader access to verification, and initial steps towards algorithm transparency. The issue lies with the users, as the overwhelming criticism of Elon tends to eclipse any reasonable discourse about the platform.…

What's going on with you guys posting the same comment? Like sure, the words changed, but not the structure of the 3 paragraphs.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35490067

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#76

Post by bentlegen »

Freedom2 wrote: post #50
extr wrote: post #3

I've run out of the mental energy to give Musk the benefit of the doubt. His capricious and poor decision-making is ruining one of my favorite products day and day. It's so frustrating to watch, a complete train wreck in slow motion. I'm simultaneously beyond caring and unable to ignore it at this point.

Controversial take: I believe that Twitter has significantly improved as a platform, with extended tweet lengths, enhanced media quality, a consistent reverse chronological timeline, reduced advertisements, broader access to verification, and initial steps towards algorithm transparency. The issue lies with the users, as the overwhelming criticism of Elon tends to eclipse any reasonable discourse about the platform.…

I see that “Musk takes editorial control of users’ content by banning URLs he doesn’t like” isn’t in your list of improvements.

Given your username is “Freedom2”, I don’t understand how “longer tweets” makes it worth it. To me it’s all worthless if you can’t even post your words.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#77

Post by locustous »

bentlegen wrote: post #76
Freedom2 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Controversial take: I believe that Twitter has significantly improved as a platform, with extended tweet lengths, enhanced media quality, a consistent reverse chronological timeline, reduced advertisements, broader access to verification, and initial steps towards algorithm transparency. The issue lies with the users, as the overwhelming criticism of Elon tends to eclipse any reasonable discourse about the platform.…

I see that “Musk takes editorial control of users’ content by banning URLs he doesn’t like” isn’t in your list of improvements. Given your username is “Freedom2”, I don’t understand how “longer tweets” makes it worth it. To me it’s all worthless if you can’t even post your words.

Frankly, Musk's attention is so short and fleeting compared to the censorship engine that existed before. It's more personal and self enriching than party lines.

It's a net win over the previous government censorship and blue check system.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#78

Post by swores »

maxerickson wrote: post #75
Freedom2 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Controversial take: I believe that Twitter has significantly improved as a platform, with extended tweet lengths, enhanced media quality, a consistent reverse chronological timeline, reduced advertisements, broader access to verification, and initial steps towards algorithm transparency. The issue lies with the users, as the overwhelming criticism of Elon tends to eclipse any reasonable discourse about the platform.…

What's going on with you guys posting the same comment? Like sure, the words changed, but not the structure of the 3 paragraphs. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35490067

I think the one you replied to copied the one you linked to and put it through ChatGPT

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#79

Post by locustous »

danaris wrote: post #71
MattGaiser wrote: post #5

Do organisations tend to regret bans, especially if they are willing to hold firm for a few days? As Reddit banned all its creepy communities, people had a fit for a few days and made similar proclamations about how Voat would beat them as a result, and then life went on. It didn't destroy Reddit at all. Same with the crackdown on the conspiracy subreddits. Off they went to Voat. But Voat is gone and Reddit remains.…

I think there are qualitative differences between the bans you mention. Banning "creepy communities" and conspiracy subreddits on Reddit was about trying to make Reddit less of a haven for people who congregate to validate each other's potentially-dangerous ideas. Banning Trump from Twitter was a straightforward matter of him serially breaking the rules. Banning Substack links from Twitter is very clearly an attempt…

It's widely known on many social platforms that efforts to push the audience off platform will not be treated kindly and is subject to... Friction.

This is the same by type. Twitter is hardly the only company engaged in this.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#80

Post by ModernMech »

locustous wrote: post #77
bentlegen wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see that “Musk takes editorial control of users’ content by banning URLs he doesn’t like” isn’t in your list of improvements. Given your username is “Freedom2”, I don’t understand how “longer tweets” makes it worth it. To me it’s all worthless if you can’t even post your words.

Frankly, Musk's attention is so short and fleeting compared to the censorship engine that existed before. It's more personal and self enriching than party lines. It's a net win over the previous government censorship and blue check system.

All this says to me is that you're happy the editorializing is going in a different direction now.
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