Linda Yaccarino is leaving X • Hacker News Board

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#171

Post by hollerith » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:31 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #166

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter is a graveyard being propped up grudgingly by people who don't want to have fewer followers elsewhere, and enthusiastically by other people as way to virtue signal alliance with the ownership's political incorrectness. It has no true value to anyone. It was going downhill already before the new ownership and for completely apolitical reasons.

It is weird that “political correctness” has been taken to mean, like, being polite and nice to people or something. A politically correct answer is one that keeps the currently politically powerful people happy, right? Musk/Trump defined politically correct for a couple months. I guess Musk might be politically incorrect now. Are they friends or enemies today?

"Politically correct" in the US context means essentially the same thing as "woke". In both cases, the word or phrase was adopted first by progressives, then by critics of progressives to refer to progressive beliefs and sensibilities.

It is surprising to find someone that doesn't know that, but would be less surprising if you don't live in the US.

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#172

Post by taurath » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:32 PM UTC

alpha_squared wrote: post #66

Hoasi wrote: post #50

X has been nothing short of an exercise in brand destruction. However, despite all the drama, it still stands, it still exists, and it remains relevant.

Which really says a lot about how hard it is to leave platforms. The network effect is hard to overcome.

There's no technical reason that one couldn't move from platform to platform and link identities - the restrictions around IP and platform lock-in only benefit the platform owner, ensuring that competition will be stifled rather than the platform made useful for its users.

The sad part is that ad networks know more about our connections across platforms than we're allowed to.

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#173

Post by pxc » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:32 PM UTC

gtsop wrote: post #38

Bender wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not defending Elon or the infobot but my theory is that by leaving that LLM unfiltered people have learned how to gamify and manipulate it into having a fascist slant. I could even guess which groups of people are doing it but I will let them take credit and it's not likely actual neo-nazi's, they are too dumb and on too many drugs to manipulate an infobot. These groups like to LARP to piss everyone off and they ofte…

> it's not likely actual neo-nazi's, they are too dumb to manipulate an infobot. No they are not. There exist brilliant people and monkeybrains across the whole population and thus the political spectrum. The ratios might be different, but I am pretty sure there exist some very smart neo-nazis

There are, but fascism's internal cultural fixtures are more aesthetic than intellectual. It doesn't really attract or foster intellectuals like some radical political movements do, and it shows very clearly in the composition of the "rank and file".

Put plainly, the average neo-Nazi is astonishingly, astonishingly stupid.

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#174

Post by odo1242 » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:33 PM UTC

CyberMacGyver wrote: post #4

One time they let her speak publicly it turned out to be a disaster. She never had any say and worst part is she was not even a good fall guy, it was clear who’s pulling the strings. The most immaterial and inconsequential hire ever. I love all the replies on Twitter thanking her but during her time the valuation dropped 80% and they were suing advertisers for not advertising. Remarkably inept.

Genuinely, I wasn't even aware that Musk had actually done the initially promised thing of appointing a different CEO.

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#175

Post by TechDebtDevin » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:33 PM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #82

eviks wrote: post #68

> I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me But he didn't? She wasn't even in the loop for many of the consequential decisions

Rule #0 is you don't disparage the company on the way out. She may even have a contractual obligation not to.

Just wait until Musks enters his "John Mcaffee in exile(but with much more resources)" era, which I think is going to come soon. Then all these people will talk.

Or maybe his "Howard Hughes in Hiding" era. Remains to be seen which route he takes. Could also be "Rasputen shot in the ** era" if hes not careful.

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#176

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:33 PM UTC

madeofpalk wrote: post #139

josefresco wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both things can be true: Valuation did drop during her tenure, AND she was not to blame. Therefore the praise is weird, because she seemingly neither helped nor hurt the business.

One would imagine that a CEO lacking power is the precise reason a company would perform poorly.

[deleted]

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#177

Post by vintermann » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:33 PM UTC

abirch wrote: post #75

xnx wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> her legacy will forever be stained Where can I sell my legacy for $6 million/year?

My question is where does she go from here? Like if she became my CEO, I'd really worry about my company/job.

Politics! Or maybe management consultants. Lots of consulting jobs are really just about taking the blame.

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#178

Post by moomin » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:36 PM UTC

She was still there?

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#179

Post by guywithahat » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:38 PM UTC

Hoasi wrote: post #50

X has been nothing short of an exercise in brand destruction. However, despite all the drama, it still stands, it still exists, and it remains relevant.

I certainly wouldn't call it brand destruction, a lot of people returned to X and while the branding has changed, I certainly wouldn't call it brand destruction

Re: Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

#180

Post by mrweasel » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:40 PM UTC

threetonesun wrote: post #152

mrweasel wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More and more I think Musk managed to his take over of Twitter pretty successfully. X still isn't as strong a brand as Twitter where, but it's doing okay. A lot of the users who X need to stay on the platform, journalists and politicians, are still there. The only issue is that Musk vastly overpaid for Twitter, but if he plans to keep it and use it for his political ambitions, that might not matter. Also remember tha…

Well sure if you give up on moderation, and close the platform to people who aren't signed in, and shut off the API then yes you didn't need the people supporting those parts of the platform. And I guess if you consider "the place with the MechaHitler AI" as good branding there's no arguing with you that it's doing just as well as Twitter.

I don't agree with the direction Musk has set for X, but businesswise it's not doing worse. Twitter was a financial catastrophe before the take over, so you didn't need much improvement. Moderation was a financial drain, the API didn't make them any money and none of the users seems to care all that much about the platform not being open to users without an account... because they all have accounts and wasn't able to interact with you anyway.

The media seems to get a good laugh out if Grok arguing the plight of white South Africans and is fondness to Hitler, but I'm not seeing journalists and politicians leaving X in droves because of it.