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Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

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Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#141

Post by barathr »

haunter wrote: post #123
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…

> It's like picking an email server. They all have their differences, but generally they are interoperable. Disagree. Mastodon servers can be all over the place from politics to hobbies to tech. It’s not like an email handle at all your choice _matters_ because others moderate the server and who you can connect with. Self hosting is the only way to go with Mastodon (costs the same as Twitter Blue btw if you don’t wan…

Yes that's true in terms of the local feeds, but in terms of getting one's feet wet it's fine.

For HN users, this is one among many reasonable tech-oriented choices:

https://techhub.social

Here are a couple that are infosec oriented:

https://infosec.exchange

https://ioc.exchange/

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#142

Post by sdiacom »

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…

It's interesting how VCs suddenly seem to believe "tech companies are bloated and need to layoff staff", now that they can't just show up at a bank and get literal buckloads of other people's money with no justification or due diligence, but were all in on "tech startups must continually grow at any cost" just a few months ago.

Once again, society will be left holding the rich sociopaths' bags and dealing with the externalities of their uncontrolled gambling.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#143

Post by permalac »

input_sh wrote: post #7
ipsum2 wrote: post #3

It's news to me that that users are not allowed to mention other social networks' accounts on Twitter anymore. Seems short sighted, how many users is Twitter losing to Instagram/Discord/Mastodon?

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?

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#144

Post by josteink »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #81
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…

Right? Mass random firings of employees in multiple incompetent waves, blocking and expelling journalists and activists, re-enabling known hate-speech accounts, walking out of press conferences when questioned, spreading QAnon adjacent conspiracy theories... none of this annoyed Paul Graham enough to leave.. and in fact he defended the guy... But blocking links to Mastodon? That makes him leave? Like, uh, fine, but..…

> re-enabling known hate-speech accounts

“Hate speech” is left-wing code for “someone with an opposing point of view”.

Having those accounts unbanned, if nothing else, is a healthy sign.

What this thread is about though (banning outbound links to other platforms), not so much. That plain reeks of desperation.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#145

Post by flutas »

tobylane wrote: post #116
flutas wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's news to me that that users are not allowed to mention other social networks' accounts on Twitter anymore. Isn't that a mischaracterization though? The new policy they announced, as far as I've seen, only applies if the account is "solely" promoting other brands. [0] > Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usern…

That may be the written policy, but there were widespread reports of mastodon ('s largest sites) being considered too harmful a link to be put in a twitter bio. https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blockin... I don't see PG reacting to that news on twitter. Is there a reaction anywhere?

> That may be the written policy, but there were widespread reports of mastodon ('s largest sites) being considered too harmful a link to be put in a twitter bio. https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blockin...

I saw that and assumed (maybe wrongly) that it was an automated ban from some internal automod-like system running amuck and due to the layoffs/quits/staff issues no body at Twitter knowing how to disable it.

Guess the jury is still out, but does anybody know if that same error is showing up for facebook links for example? If so it's a smoking gun.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#146

Post by mrtksn »

vdnkh wrote: post #114
mrtksn wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His process as, I understand it, is to re-discover the wheel and see how else it could have been done. It is messy and might not yield good results if his predecessors already did a good job but I think he has a chance and will look like a dumpster fire until he learns and finds a new path. If he fails, it will look like extinguished dumpster fire :)

It's not a dumpster fire, its 5d chess!

I'm sure some fanboy will say that but that's not what I say. He is still just learning how the product works and tries things. Will he succeed? More likely than not, I think.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#147

Post by MandieD »

throwaway0asd wrote: post #65
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…

Still nothing compared to the billions so many VCs have lost on crypto this year ignoring those far more obvious red flags. No matter how bad Elon damages Twitter at the very least its actually still generating revenue. I cannot tell what crypto generated.

Several hundred terawatt hours of electricity consumption.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#148

Post by bmelton »

wnevets wrote: post #26

Do people on HN still believe Elon isn't destroying Twitter?

I'll take the hit here.

I thought electric vehicles were a really dumb idea. Too many problems to be solved for. Range. Charging. Depreciation. Getting people to switch. All of the other infrastructure. Now it's what everyone does, and Tesla is (last I checked) one of the very few EV makers that is able to make a profit on EVs, while upstarts in the space (including Ford) are losing money on every EV sale.

I thought self-landing rockets was a dumb idea.

I thought Starlink was a dumb idea.

I think a lot of what Elon is doing now is a very dumb idea, but as a Twitter user with friends across the political spectrum, I have seen what has appeared to be a suppression of speech that largely affected my right leaning friends, while my left leaning friends gloated about it. I've watched journalists like Taylor Lorenz break the rules with impunity while journalists on the right were deplatformed for doing less.

This is clearly a departure, and I would argue that many right leaning friends were hoping that Elon would stop the pendulum swing, I don't think any were expecting the pendulum to swing back the other way so hard. Elon's actions have seemed arbitrary, but a) Every change looks bad when you don't know their motivations, and b) I've been wrong about Elon's entire life to this point.

It's possible that he's done surveys or polls or gotten data indicating that fear of doxxing is a thing that is meaningfully suppressing Twitter engagement. It is possible that he knows what he's doing, but it isn't what he's said he's doing and it definitely isn't what we expected him to be doing.

I don't know the answer to those questions, and so I don't know if he's ruining Twitter or just transforming it into something that it hasn't been, and I'm mindful of the fact that practically every single change that Twitter has ever made has been received as "the end of Twitter," from verified accounts, to changing their API ToS, to blocking apps, to suing users with any vague reference to 'tweet' in their apps, to bookmarks, analytics, 280 characters, etc., etc.

Re: Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now

#149

Post by jedberg »

threeseed wrote: post #21

There’s an old adage about never meeting your heroes that applies well to PG. Some of his daily takes were so embarrassing and insipid that it was hard to maintain respect. It’s funny because his long form posts which are often insightful were likely reviewed/edited by a third person. A concept he has actually said only exists in the modern commercial publishing era.

> were likely reviewed/edited by a third person

You don't have to guess, he lists the names of every person who reviews his posts at the bottom of the posts.

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