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Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

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Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#221

Post by jurassic »

_djo_ wrote: post #156
expensive_news wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter has lost money nearly every year since it’s been public, and was losing $4 million a day when Elon took over. If jobs don’t generate money they can’t exist in the free market, and the real shock is that the previous board of directors didn’t initiate layoffs sooner.

Twitter's net loss in 2021 was $221 million, far from $4 million a day, and there's nothing to indicate that had changed before he bought it. The figure he quoted is made up predominantly of the $1 billion in annual interest payments Twitter now has thanks to Musk's leveraged buy out. There was no imminent need for Twitter do anything. It still had a healthy enough cash pile and leeway and time to layoff 10% of the w…

Exactly. He's running it into the ground financially by saddling a low margin business with high-interest debt and also tanking revenue by spooking advertisers. 5D chess.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#222

Post by kiba »

code_runner wrote: post #132
gonehome wrote: post #102

Mastodon and federated systems like it will not succeed beyond a tiny niche, will not replace twitter, and don't even solve most of the problems they try to solve. They don't fix the upstream issues that lead to centralization. Incentives mean most users end up centralized on a handful of servers with a worse experience. It's the worst of both worlds. As designed the UX is bad and cannot be fixed because of these iss…

I’m always surprised when there are still people acting like Elon isn’t just BEGGING to be hated. I’m still of the opinion he is not doing the work and his success is mostly throwing money at eager (and smart) engineers. That’s a smart thing to do, good call on his part, but it’s almost like he doesn’t know that’s how his companies work. Maybe he is just great at running tech companies or something but acting like th…

He's definitely the 'chief engineer' of his companies in that he made engineering decisions, but to pretend that somehow means he does ALL the engineering work and grunt works is a very silly notion.

But yes, there's indeed the thousand of engineers and technicians doing the work. He even credits them for making his dream possible!

I don't know why people think he's not doing the work. Have they actually read interviews and books? The books I read does not paint him in a very flattering light people-wise.

It's also possible to be simultaneously an egoistic asshole, genius, having actual skills, being a money man and visionary leader, People act as if a person who's a jackass can't have positive traits or vice versa.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#223

Post by Dracophoenix »

josh2600 wrote: post #173
gonehome wrote: post #102

Mastodon and federated systems like it will not succeed beyond a tiny niche, will not replace twitter, and don't even solve most of the problems they try to solve. They don't fix the upstream issues that lead to centralization. Incentives mean most users end up centralized on a handful of servers with a worse experience. It's the worst of both worlds. As designed the UX is bad and cannot be fixed because of these iss…

I’ve spent a lot of time at the edge of decentralized and useful tech. You’re right that most decentralized systems don’t accomplish the goals they set out to achieve. A few key things: decentralized means a network of at least 3 nodes where no operator controls more than 1. Anything beyond that is vanity or more censorship resistance depending on your vantage point. What we actually want is governance with checks an…

> I would argue that the problem with the US has been the centralization of power in the executive and judicial branches, particularly the executive. A functioning parliamentary system with three branches of governance is quite effective when there is a balance of power.

On the contrary, I'd argue that the power has towards the executive and legislative branches. The judicial branch exists to curb the excesses of the other two through the invocation of law that was already written. The other two either write whatever the hell they want and vote on it or invoke their powers by fiat (i.e. executive orders).

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#224

Post by encryptluks2 »

hutzlibu wrote: post #169
code_runner wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m always surprised when there are still people acting like Elon isn’t just BEGGING to be hated. I’m still of the opinion he is not doing the work and his success is mostly throwing money at eager (and smart) engineers. That’s a smart thing to do, good call on his part, but it’s almost like he doesn’t know that’s how his companies work. Maybe he is just great at running tech companies or something but acting like th…

"I’m still of the opinion he is not doing the work and his success is mostly throwing money at eager (and smart) engineers. " To me it seems, his success comes from being an engineer himself and wanting to get shit done and kick people until shit gets done in a working way. And yes that includes throwing money at smart engineers, but to do this, you have to be smart and have domain knowledge to do so. The problem sta…

You sound very conflicted. I can see like at least two places where you directly contradict yourself. You have to learn what people say and what people do are very different. Elon Musk is a bullshitter and narcissist. It's time to stop listening and believing anything he has to say. Otherwise they'll keep dragging you in and you'll keep finding reasons to give them another chance.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#225

Post by fsdjkflsjfsoij »

georgeg23 wrote: post #209
darawk wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many rich people and fund managers around the world have been throwing money at engineers they thought were smart for the past several decades? How many have succeeded on the scale Elon has? "Throwing money at smart engineers" is not a novel idea. Executing it well is extremely hard, especially when cash has been cheap for the past two decades.

The mastermind behind SpaceX is not Elon. It's this guy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin#Career He gave Elon the ideas, initial team, govt connections, contracts, etc.. Elon was the company jester. Rocket landing work was taken from the DC-X

The criticisms are getting more and more comical. Michael is a friend of Elon and trusted Elon with many of his ideas and contacts. I'm sure Musk would say as much. Do you think Michael was sharing these ideas and contacts with just anyone? Why do you think he specifically chose to work with Elon?

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#226

Post by bombcar »

raytube wrote: post #211
bombcar wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News outlets all canned their comments sections - I see absolutely no reason why they'd want to bring back something even worse .

Did they? Alive and kicking in the UK.

The vast majority of US comment sections went to Disqus and then Facebook comments and then shuttered altogether.

Some smaller ones remain, but it's mostly gone.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#227

Post by bombcar »

stormbrew wrote: post #206
bombcar wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be hilarious watching the infighting spread over various instances themselves that were infighting. But companies don't want the "liability" (not necessarily legal liability, but appearances) - and they don't want @thenewh1tler@nike.mastadon or whatever doing unsightly things.

Companies wouldn't have open registration. They'd run it like any other corporate resource, integrated into their ldap/ad/sso solution and with a corporate policy for what their employees could do on it. Ya know, like their email servers.

I mean, company blogs still exist, as empty and as dead as they've always been.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#228

Post by frereubu »

ambrozk wrote: post #65
nimbius wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>there is an overreaction to new Twitter management Oh i think its a perfectly legitimate and reasonable reaction to new Twitter management. a guy worth about 200bn USD spent his first day at the office dragging a piece of plumbing around cheerleading his impending job cuts and upcoming $8 surcharge for a feature that only really benefits and legitimizes the platform. he then axes most of the company, especially the…

> hes lucky corporate brands and advertisers havent figured out they could start their own Mastodon instance for almost nothing, plug it until it becomes more popular than Twitter, and maintain all their existing brand safety controls in the process. This is a very funny way of thinking which gets reality backwards. Corporate brands go where user eyeballs are. In the past the eyeballs read newspapers, and advertisers…

I don't think it's that simple is it? Companies like Ford don't advertise on sites like Parler not just because there aren't many people there, but because of the content that their adverts would be presented alongside. What seems to concern companies about the new direction of Twitter is that more extremists may be allowed back on Twitter if the content rules are loosened, and the companies' advertising may be presented alongside that. It may also be that if those extremists are allowed back then many people will start to desert Twitter, and it will be even less attractive. But I think both things - number of users and the content - are being taken into account.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#229

Post by code_runner »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #171
torginus wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's all he is doing - paying smart people and expecting them to work hard - why isn't literally everyone else doing the same?

I don’t agree with them, but this counter argument doesn’t quite work. In a system with x% chance of success, we’d expect most people to fail for small x. But some few will still succeed multiple times. Throw in that your odds get better the more you’re successful, and it’s classic survivorship bias.

I think it’s not binary one way or the other.

Companies don’t have to be profitable to be successful. A charismatic leader + lofty goals (FSD, rockets, flame throwers) and you’ll get a ton of money even if you never turn a profit.

Let’s not forget the tunnels I’m Vegas btw. They aren’t all winners.

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