Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far • Hacker News Board

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#101

Post by philosopher1234 » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #41

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #9

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

You’re wrong, as a staunch advocate of free speech on the web and as a near victim of cancel culture I would gladly work at twitter as long as I were paid more than what I earn now, and I’m sure many people would feel the same. Twitter was already a crappy place to work before Elon with all its woke polítics, now though it may become more tolerable.

Wow cancel culture almost got you huh? How did the doctors save you?

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#102

Post by spinlock » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

jayflux wrote: post #44

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #9

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

Brain drains usually happen due to low or uncompetitive pay, not because of corporate ideology. Otherwise Facebook/Meta would have had a brain drain years ago.

I know one insider at Meta that I could ask about this. I suspect they can't really retain talent like they used to.

The only other anecdote I have is an acquaintance who was early (i.e. the first web-dev) at YouTube. He _hated_ working for Google and left as soon as his shares vested. That was my first experience with someone simply rejecting a fat paycheck because _Google_ was to buttoned down for them.

People are strange (and software engineers are a whole different level of people).

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#103

Post by FormerBandmate » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #30

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #9

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

Brain drain? Twitter stock basically hasnt appreciated since IPO. They have been treading water for a decade, what brains are there providing value?

The entire platform essentially died in 2015 and then was resurrected by Donald Trump being obsessed with it, which got a ton of political and finance people to join. None of their recent initiatives have moved the needle. Musk is going to lose a lot of money on this deal, but they'd probably be better off under him if not for the crushing debt load

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#104

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:40 PM UTC

freespeechrox wrote: post #79

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #9

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

I plan on applying to work for Twitter now that it supports free speech. I’d like to think I can provide a net positive to the org with 15 years experience as a developer, founder and CTO. Maybe it’ll end up being a net zero brain swap.

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#105

Post by mFixman » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:40 PM UTC

fitzroy wrote: post #76

I'm still surprised that Google didn't just clone or buy Twitter in the 2009 "Fail Whale" era. Seems like they had 95% of the work done already: a highly-scalabile real-time infrastructure that took Twitter years to catch up to. (Yes, Google+ came later, but the UX of the boundaries, of where the network started and stopped on the web, felt too amorphous for most people as a social media destination)

Remember Google Buzz? Google tried to copy Twitter and automatically added it to the front page of every Gmail account, fucked up the launch by having everything be public by default, and finally declared it a failed product and abandoned it a year later.

In retrospect, the whole thing was a mini-Google+.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#106

Post by the_optimist » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:41 PM UTC

noncoml wrote: post #90

(Deleted)

There’s no foundation for this premise, but sure, “they” found their own app. People can make infinity apps. Or maybe show that there’s more value in the previous censorship and buy it back.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#107

Post by lake_vincent » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:41 PM UTC

BashiBazouk wrote: post #99

lake_vincent wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, speaking in those terms, I think the thing to watch will in fact be censorship. Elon is extremely idealistic, so it will be fascinating to watch him melt down when confronted with the reality of how complex free speech and censorship issues really are. I predict that he will succeed in turning Twitter into the rightwing safehaven that "Truth" Social, Parlor, etc have all been trying to become. He's making a dea…

And what if China requests a tweet removed or user banned and puts a Tesla factory or those sweet tax cuts on the line?

Oh that's what I mean - he will enforce his own definition of free speech and censorship. It will be usual "Rules for thee but not for me" kinda thing. It will be a constantly shitfing goalpost, and he will always have some bullshit justification for why whatever he decides is correct. It won't be free speech, it will be Elon speech. He is a petulant child with too much money, and not enough humility. His sink stunt tells you everything you need to know - this is all about Elon. God help us all.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#108

Post by Tangurena2 » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:41 PM UTC

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #9

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

People are already calling the departing employees "crisis actors".

https://twitter.com/danahull/status/1586060026866638850

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#109

Post by jshier » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:42 PM UTC

hn8305823 wrote: post #69

He literally said it will not be a free for all. He may be chaotic, but he's not stupid. There is a huge difference between no moderation (anarchy), and not targeting conservative voices solely based on ideology.

No one has been targeted on Twitter solely for being conservative.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#110

Post by phailhaus » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 6:42 PM UTC

hn8305823 wrote: post #69

He literally said it will not be a free for all. He may be chaotic, but he's not stupid. There is a huge difference between no moderation (anarchy), and not targeting conservative voices solely based on ideology.

> not targeting conservative voices solely based on ideology.

This literally does not happen, and is entirely made up in a form of projection. In fact, Twitter has been found to be biased towards recommending right-wing sources. [1]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/22/twitter-a...