Tell HN: Twitter switched temporarily to rate limited mode

Post by bardak » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 7:47 PM UTC

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #331

housemusicfan wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By your logic, everyone with a paid subscription constitutes "a sea of bullshit" and the "real replies" are at the back of the line? That's the most hipster-esque description of Twitter I've ever heard. Underground Twitter, it's where the cool kids hang out and vape behind the gymnasium. This sounds more like unresolved personal grudges rather than an issue with the platform itself and the masses that use it. If you…

This is incorrect, Twitter was profitable 16 quarters of the last 20 quarters under the past leadership. Elon tried to rewrite some of Twitter's history, suggesting Twitter's financial problems were always this bad... but the financial situation only really became drastically worse the moment he bought Twitter, saddled it with 13 billion high interest rate debt, and advertisers fled, cutting Twitter's revenue in half…

Post by jdminhbg » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 7:48 PM UTC

zimpenfish wrote: post #382

bardak wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you actually looked at the balance sheet of twitter before Elon took it over it was quite possible to make it profitable. It would have needed to cut cost and probably try and to boost its ad platform a bit more but well within the realm of possibilities. With the debt that Elon has saddled them with I doubt they will ever be profitable again without declaring bankruptcy.

> it was quite possible to make it profitable Without the $760M settlement, they'd have made about $270M in 2021[1]. [1] "2021 operating loss of $493 million, or an operating margin of -10%, includes a one-time litigation-related net charge of $766 million" - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/twitter-announces-f...

Post by valval » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 7:49 PM UTC

partiallypro wrote: post #244

loso wrote: post #130

I knew the end of the cheap money era would cause some businesses to be exposed but wow. We are basically in the middle of watching someone flush 44 billion down the drain. I could understand if it was a 600 posting limit. But a 600 viewing limit? wow. For example, NBA free agency just started. There are types of trades & signings being talked about. Just looking at that information I'm going past the 600 limit in ab…

I don't think this is because of the "end of cheap money" (I don't think this high interest rate environment will last that long) but just sheer incompetence by Musk and his staff. Elon has become increasingly erratic on the platform, he just tweeted recently a reply to a Tweet saying Islam would take over France. I don't know if he's always been like this or if the stories of his heavy ketamine usage are true and ta…

Post by pinkcan » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 7:49 PM UTC

parthdesai wrote: post #452

dspillett wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to be more specific about the inaccurate parts and/or provide counterpoints (preferably with appropriate counter-evidence)?

“Elon is fundamentally a dumb guy” This is the guy who’s had more than a few successful businesses now. A lot of smart people did want to work with him. Andrej Karpathy himself has said that Elon was very quick to pick up AI technically. That doesn’t sound like a “fundamentally dumb” guy to me

Post by Xen9 » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 7:50 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #458

anonymousab wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To some extent she is also probably there to play the same "say yes to Elon about some dumb idea and then get the team to implement a somewhat less dumb version and convince him it was his idea all along" game with him that Tesla and SpaceX leadership reportedly does.

I’ve always wondered what it’s like to work for a CEO where you simultaneously 1. can’t say no to him, and 2. can’t implement their hairbrained ideas without killing your product and then being blamed for it. I heard a rumor (who knows if it’s true) that in the early-ish days of Amazon, they had an entirely separate backend and frontend just for Bezos that would only display if his account was logged in. So when he a…