Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#141

Post by austenallred » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:39 PM UTC

dchuk wrote: post #136

austenallred wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The origins of the 140 character limit are interesting; it was originally put in place because Twitter was SMS-based, and SMS limits the number of characters to 160. 140 allowed some wiggle room. But retaining the character limit changes the platform entirely. "Lifting the twitter limit" does not a publishing platform make; it changes everything that Twitter is. I think Jack explained the psychological reasons very w…

I get what you're saying, but lifting the character limit doesn't in any way mean you need to write longer tweets. You could still just write off the cuff thoughts when you have them, as the platform currently allows for.

Of course, but I think the psychological benefits to the imposed scarcity are enormous.

I think there are ways to allow tweetstorms without lifting the limit, and I love the concept of things like oneshot that allow you to reference something without making it part of your tweet, but still imposing the limit. My guess would be Twitter builds in some features like that.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#142

Post by mschuster91 » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:39 PM UTC

Another problem that Twitter has, aside from the financial issues, is the "eternal september" phenomen.

Seriously, the influx of kids who spam around anyone they see with "OMG CUT 4 BIEBER" or other pubertic crap sucks. It's even worse than the followback and other kinds of spambots.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#143

Post by grey413 » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:39 PM UTC

austenallred wrote: post #115

binxbolling wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is wildly successful and doesn't cost us taxpayers a dime. If our "leaders" stopped actively sabotaging the USPS, it could be doing even better.

>Which is wildly successful and doesn't cost us taxpayers a dime You might want to double check your info on that one. The US Postal Service lost $32 Billion over the past four years. USPS losses: * 2011: $5.1 Billion * 2012: $15.9 Billion * 2013: $5.5 Billion * 2014: $5.5 Billion 2011/2012: http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/15/news/economy/postal-service-... 2013: https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2013/pr13_0…

So, an average of approximately $65 per taxpayer per year. I'm personally ok with that.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#144

Post by mpdehaan2 » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:40 PM UTC

whoa, interesting.

On one hand, I have ceased to see twitter evolve much at all over the last N years, much like I used to say of Flickr. I eventually left Flickr because I wasn't seeing improvements for photo sharing and browsing that I really wanted as a photographer.

It's a legitimate problem that he needs to solve. I don't think twitter needs to be much different than what it is, because i'm addicted to it, but it not evolving and just investing in scale I think does need to be addressed.

Ways to find more interesting people and content, and to allow people to have more room to link to other pages/sites/things about themselves might be a start. (Without getting to be too myspacey?).

I definitely like that it's a lot more open than Facebook and can read things without always friending everything, but I also want more controls about what type of content I see and get. Lists are ok-ish, but so many things are so marketey from companies versus just being news feeds, I kind of end up not following companies.

Marketers on twitter are I think it's curse, and it's starting to become that kind of platform.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#145

Post by thuuuomas » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:40 PM UTC

blumkvist wrote: post #90

myth_buster wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can be good to your employees and bad for stockholders. One way to do this is to hand out bonuses instead of dividends. Agreed. But don't the employees have higher stakes running on the long term success of the company compared to investors who are known to be in for short term profit and hence can't the former be a better indicator? Eg: Mass employee exodus results in company going bust while the team can still…

Employees often have less business acumen then an old lady selling on the open market. I find it amusing that people who can code think they can do anything and everything. Despite what you like to to believe, those MBAs do have value. Lots of it.

I thought I could do anything & everything before I learnt to code. :)

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#146

Post by colinbartlett » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:42 PM UTC

piquadrat wrote: post #88

mindstab wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and they will make money how? their expenses sure will go up.

Mandatory promoted tweets for 3rd party clients maybe? I use a 3rd party android twitter client due to its superior UX compared to the official app, but I wouldn't mind getting served promoted tweets in that client at all.

I am not sure it would work because I don't believe plain ol' tweets work as an advertising mechanism.

Hence Twitter getting more and more creative with formats: app installs, cards, videos, and have you seen the new "send me spam" ads? http://i.imgur.com/h4H7RQw.png

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#147

Post by harryh » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:42 PM UTC

psykovsky wrote: post #30

harryh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's gotta be a weird feeling when getting fired causes your company to gain 1.7B in value.

Where is that value coming from? Are they even profitable? Stock value means jack shit.

Stock value certainly means something to the people that own the stock.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#148

Post by coryrc » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

binxbolling wrote: post #124

austenallred wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Which is wildly successful and doesn't cost us taxpayers a dime You might want to double check your info on that one. The US Postal Service lost $32 Billion over the past four years. USPS losses: * 2011: $5.1 Billion * 2012: $15.9 Billion * 2013: $5.5 Billion * 2014: $5.5 Billion 2011/2012: http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/15/news/economy/postal-service-... 2013: https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2013/pr13_0…

My understanding was that almost all of that is due to the insane benefits and pension requirements placed on the USPS in 2006. Happy to be corrected if I'm offbase.

The same ones private corporations are required to follow.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#149

Post by unoti » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #142

Another problem that Twitter has, aside from the financial issues, is the "eternal september" phenomen. Seriously, the influx of kids who spam around anyone they see with "OMG CUT 4 BIEBER" or other pubertic crap sucks. It's even worse than the followback and other kinds of spambots.

That's the number one problem with social media-- sometimes you are subjected to what people have to say.

Re: Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

#150

Post by nemothekid » Thu, Jun 11, 2015, 10:45 PM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #125

austenallred wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The origins of the 140 character limit are interesting; it was originally put in place because Twitter was SMS-based, and SMS limits the number of characters to 160. 140 allowed some wiggle room. But retaining the character limit changes the platform entirely. "Lifting the twitter limit" does not a publishing platform make; it changes everything that Twitter is. I think Jack explained the psychological reasons very w…

Incessantly tweeting whatever thought is current in one's stream of consciousness is like mental diarrhea, and is usually about as appealing.

>and is usually about as appealing

Well its usually unappealing, doesn't mean always. Look at it this way - would you tell the world to stop writing so many books unless they knew the book they were writing was a bonafide masterpiece?