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Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

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Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#41

Post by defrost »

rippercushions wrote: post #8
gareth_untether wrote: post #4

What has Twitter done exactly?

paulg@ is claiming that Twitter no longer allows you to like or retweet any tweets that link to Substack, like this one: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1644344779507916805 (note that this tweet indeed has zero of both, unlikely virtually everything else paulg has ever posted) And I'm not even seeing the tweet in the OP's link, I had to dig it up from paulg's Twitter feed.

Good grief .. I went to that tweet and clicked the substack link to reach the essentially text only article.

Twitter inserted a giant scary WARNING!! page with a tiny continue (if you're really sure you can handle the risk) link

    Warning: this link may be unsafe
    https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/most-technologies-arent-races

    The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe, in accordance with Twitter’s URL Policy. 

    This link could fall into any of the below categories:

    * malicious links that could steal personal information or harm electronic devices
    * etc.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#43

Post by mtzet »

hinkley wrote: post #12
extr wrote: post #3

I've run out of the mental energy to give Musk the benefit of the doubt. His capricious and poor decision-making is ruining one of my favorite products day and day. It's so frustrating to watch, a complete train wreck in slow motion. I'm simultaneously beyond caring and unable to ignore it at this point.

I had a coworker who would have anger lines come out of his skull if you said Musk had anything to do with PayPal success. It was like Barney Stinson talking about Ralph Macchio. Then Tesla and SpaceX happened and I was like, “hmm, maybe he was wrong” and then Twitter happened and I’m thinking, “no, I get it now”.

As someone who knows nothing at all about the success of PayPal, can you elaborate on why?

I'm also curious about his role in the success of Tesla and SpaceX. I personally find those to be two of the most interesting startups in a long while, and have been inclined to think that Musk being involved in both to be unlikely to be a coincidence.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#44

Post by asynchronous »

HopenHeyHi wrote: post #28
extr wrote: post #3

I've run out of the mental energy to give Musk the benefit of the doubt. His capricious and poor decision-making is ruining one of my favorite products day and day. It's so frustrating to watch, a complete train wreck in slow motion. I'm simultaneously beyond caring and unable to ignore it at this point.

This is the last straw. I give up. You can find a link to my new Mastodon profile on my site. https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1604556563338887168 Heh. Y'all are hilarious. 6 months in and countless predictions of imminent doom, site will collapse, everybody will leave for Mastodon, its all going to shit.. Meanwhile dude changes the logo to Doge and the building sign to Titter. I think you're taking a silly website w…

You’re right, of course.

I personally grow tired of watching the same crowd saying “go build your own Twitter” throw the world’s largest and loudest hissy fit when Twitter got bought and ran in a different direction.

And where has all this outrage been posted to? Twitter.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#45

Post by mgdlbp »

MattGaiser wrote: post #5

Do organisations tend to regret bans, especially if they are willing to hold firm for a few days? As Reddit banned all its creepy communities, people had a fit for a few days and made similar proclamations about how Voat would beat them as a result, and then life went on. It didn't destroy Reddit at all. Same with the crackdown on the conspiracy subreddits. Off they went to Voat. But Voat is gone and Reddit remains.…

LiveJournal?

Tumblr.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#46

Post by paulgb »

Animats wrote: post #42

No, it's not a mistake. It had to have been done deliberately. It may be a bad business decision, or immoral, or something, but it's not a mistake.

He means “mistake” as in “unforced error which will backfire on them”, not “accident”.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#47

Post by khochesh_kushat »

lelanthran wrote: post #35
garrettgarcia wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Still running" is a pretty low bar. Is that really how success should be measured? Yahoo! and AOL are also "still running".

> "Still running" is a pretty low bar. Is that really how success should be measured? Yahoo! and AOL are also "still running". I'm no Musk fan, quite the opposite (check my old comment history), but "still running" is exactly the opposite of what I (and many other naysayers) thought would happen if a tech company laid off over 50% of their staff. Whether you like it or not, "still running" is the bar for success for…

If just still running was the goal, any company that raised money would just take it and keep a mailbox open in perpetuity, and do nothing else, thus achieving the bar for success.

However, in reality, growth is the bar for success in nearly every business.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#48

Post by khochesh_kushat »

r721 wrote: post #19
reducesuffering wrote: post #17

What do you call it when someone has dug in their heels in contrast to what’s obvious to everyone else? Especially when their fear of being wrong just causes them to be more and more wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment

Really interesting set of examples. Cults like Heaven's Gate would fit in there for sure too.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#49

Post by pfannkuchen »

forgingahead wrote: post #29

What if this is just his "4D chess" move to condition people that removing ANY links to ANY domain on Twitter is wrong? Twitter pre-Musk would arbitrarily remove links they went against party orthodoxy (The NY Post during the Hunter Biden laptop story was the biggest example I remember). Just declaring "we won't censor anyone any time" is fine, but you still get all corners clamoring for their "opponent side" to be s…

The surface level explanation makes so little sense that this could actually be right.

Re: Paul Graham on Twitter's anti-Substack measures: “It's a mistake.”

#50

Post by Freedom2 »

extr wrote: post #3

I've run out of the mental energy to give Musk the benefit of the doubt. His capricious and poor decision-making is ruining one of my favorite products day and day. It's so frustrating to watch, a complete train wreck in slow motion. I'm simultaneously beyond caring and unable to ignore it at this point.

Controversial take: I believe that Twitter has significantly improved as a platform, with extended tweet lengths, enhanced media quality, a consistent reverse chronological timeline, reduced advertisements, broader access to verification, and initial steps towards algorithm transparency.

The issue lies with the users, as the overwhelming criticism of Elon tends to eclipse any reasonable discourse about the platform.

In my opinion, Twitter had reached a plateau and required some revitalization. As time goes on, we can expect further enhancements to emerge.

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