Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#581

Post by pwinnski » Mon, Aug 08, 2022, 7:02 PM UTC

hunterb123 wrote: post #96

pwinnski wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the language twitter surrounded that number with, they probably could. They called out that it was uncertain, described how they estimated it in detail, and stated that reality could be higher or lower. Given all of that, they could have said the number was .01% or 90%, and neither would have been misrepresentation.

Exactly, so what's the point of Twitter's number or using it for valuation? Now knowing it's surrounded by loose language because the number is so loose, assume the worst prediction, which is 15-20% from 3rd parties.

There isn't, and it wasn't used for valuation. The number appears nowhere in the purchase document which assigned the valuation; nor does any reference to it. It could be 20%, or 50%, and it wouldn't have any bearing whatsoever on the purchase agreement.

Musk agreed that the number of bots not currently being caught was probably higher than 5%, which was a big part of his stated reasons for buying Twitter. Then the market took a turn, and now up is down, Musk is pretending this number matters.

It doesn't.

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#582

Post by int_19h » Mon, Aug 08, 2022, 7:26 PM UTC

wnevets wrote: post #144

jjeaff wrote: post #105

Imagine this whole ordeal playing out on a house that was not listed for sale. The buyer starts harassing the homeowner to sell to them, they say no, so he buys up the mortgage lender and tries to force a sale. His antics are hurting the home's value so you relent to selling and give him an as-is sale contract, which he signs and gives you 24 hrs to respond or he will try to force a sale. All the while, this is of co…

> Who could possibly be on the side of the buyer? The buyer is rich and if I side with the buyer maybe one day I'll be rich too!

I think it usually works the other way around: "one day I'll be rich, so ..."

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#583

Post by vehementi » Mon, Aug 08, 2022, 10:06 PM UTC

jawns wrote: post #530

vehementi wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not caught up with things. Twitter is suing to force the deal to go through at the original price, not to get the $1B.

I'm aware of the latest developments, but let's work through this. There are basically two categories of Twitter shareholders: Those who are invested in the business's long-term success, and those who could care less about the business and want to dump the stock as soon as they can get a good price for it. Right now, the latter category want the sale to go through so they can divest; they don't care if Twitter burns…

Granted such people exist but twitter i.e. the board acting in shareholders interest, in fact wants the deal to go through, not to get the $1B thing.

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#584

Post by larkost » Tue, Aug 09, 2022, 5:36 PM UTC

onos wrote: post #327

cycomanic wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your analysis, but would like to add that I feel that "traditional conservatives" seem to have largely disappeared or become voiceless not only in the US but also in other places like e.g. the UK. I imagine in decades prior traditional conservatives would have found people like Trump or Boris Johnson obscene and distasteful. However, I don't see many of that old guard speak out against them. It seems wit…

I wonder if the lack of voices you notice is at all related to the well-publicized data indicating conservatives do not feel they can express their opinions publicly without risk of punishment.

I don't think you are getting this right. A example would be Senator Elizabeth Chaney. She has been actively shunned by conservatives because she is willing to tell the truth about the 2020 elections. So she is being publicly punished for not just opinions, but actual facts, by conservatives.

I also disagree with the idea that conservatives are being punished for their opinions. Rather conservatives have been complaining that they are no longer allowed to punish other people for the way those people want to live their lives. A couple of examples:

1. The "Don't say gay" bill in Florida is not about people who were teaching about sex to young kids (there have been no actual accusations of this, only badly worded things that sounded like this). It is entirely about teachers teaching that it is ok that a child in their classroom has two dads or two moms. It is trying to wind back the clock to when those families would have to be kept "in the closet", or face social shunning.

2. In the recent case of the football coach who lost his job for leading prayers on the field after games. That one is again about the majority wanting to be able to use social power to push its religion. Despite what the majority of the Supreme Court said, he absolutely was using his position as a coach to push his religion. There was even testimony from a player who felt pressure to participate in order to get playing time.

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#585

Post by jliptzin » Thu, Aug 11, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

jackvalentine wrote: post #512

jliptzin wrote: post #511

Why is twitter so desperate to sell to Musk? Are they really out of ideas? If they just want to squeeze out an extra $11.50 / share I can think of tons of ways to do it, they don't have to just copy Facebook's monetization model. They could let people buy followers; they could add an onlyfans clone to the service; charge a monthly fee for premium features; charge a premium to be the first to know about trending topic…

What makes you think the features you suggested are worth $11.50 a share? Some of them I think would tank the share price like buying followers so they’d have to be worth even more. There are 765 million twitter shares.

I don’t know for sure what will work, but they don’t seem to be trying anything other than forcing Elon to buy them out as hard as they can