Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far • Hacker News Board

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#601

Post by RC_ITR » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:43 PM UTC

fleddr wrote: post #547

Random thoughts. 1. I think any effort to figure out rational motives for this buy are in vain. It seems things just pop into his head and if considered a fun challenge, then why not? A child-like YOLO attitude. 2. Town square. The one thing that keeps Twitter standing is its cultural relevance. It is the town square for the elite (politicians, celebrities, experts). There isn't really anywhere else to go. An exodus…

>His goals are good: focusing on the 80% bandwidth of free speech, but getting there for sure is going to be tricky. This has to be by far the biggest risk factor.

What I think will be the real litmus test is Azealia Banks, whose account currently remains suspended [0]

She was banned for allegedly transphobic tweets [1] which were political speech by any reasonable definition (she was banned because the way she said it, not the content of the idea).

Why I don't think she'll be allowed back is because she has a personal relationship with Musk/Grimes where she sends that same kind of hate their way.

But like I said, interesting litmus test.

[0]https://twitter.com/Azealiaishere [1]https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/10/14/azealia-banks-suspende...

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#602

Post by namuol » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

fleddr wrote: post #547

Random thoughts. 1. I think any effort to figure out rational motives for this buy are in vain. It seems things just pop into his head and if considered a fun challenge, then why not? A child-like YOLO attitude. 2. Town square. The one thing that keeps Twitter standing is its cultural relevance. It is the town square for the elite (politicians, celebrities, experts). There isn't really anywhere else to go. An exodus…

Regarding #3: I think the stated missions of e.g. SpaceX and Tesla are the main draw of talent. The rest is loyalty, without which most talent would leave for less a less stressful work environment. At the very least I think we can expect much higher turnover and a distinctly younger talent pool. Sounds almost good if you don’t have concerns about the chaotic whims of ruthless and impatient leadership.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#603

Post by debacle » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

animitronix wrote: post #598

All I know is that permanently suspended accounts have not been reactivated yet, despite all his blundering about it

Trump stated he is returning to Twitter on Monday. He must've already spoken with Musk.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#604

Post by cbsks » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:46 PM UTC

fleddr wrote: post #585

dub wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Class A players don't work for controlling managers who overload them with near impossible targets. Class A players have plenty of options in tech, and have no need to tolerate having their skills called into question or disrespected by pointy-haired middle managers. When Bill Coughran was asked how he was able to successfully manage so many famously high performers (engineers like Jeff Dean), Bill explained how that…

You're wrong. This is exactly how he runs things at Tesla and SpaceX. Class A players are well compensated and love working on challenges that are extreme and/or world relevant. They live and breath what they do. If you're that type of player, Musk will respect you and your opinion.

That’s true, but does working for Twitter inspire employees the same way that Tesla and SpaceX do? The koolaid goes down easy if you are working on cutting edge problems like self driving cars and rockets. A social media (i.e. advertising) company doesn’t do the same for me.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#605

Post by danpalmer » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:46 PM UTC

animitronix wrote: post #598

All I know is that permanently suspended accounts have not been reactivated yet, despite all his blundering about it

Kanye has been reinstated. I think he had been banned indefinitely. Not sure if that’s the same as a “lifetime ban”.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#606

Post by miohtama » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:46 PM UTC

cutenewt wrote: post #289

thinkingemote wrote: post #248

They need to re-free up the API. Early adopters and hackers really did some great work using the API until they walled-gardened it and rate limited it to make it unusable. They need to do this for goodwill at the very least, but I think it will spark the fire to make it popular with techies again. Based on the recently published discovery chats we will probably see: * High def video * Focus on music publication * The…

I think it's going to be more in the other direction. He really hates the bots, so he'll probably close up the API. Until bots gets solved, no developer should expect the API to open up.

With free API, third party providers can fill the gap with bad spam moderation Twitter could never figure out themselves.

Instead of trying to maximize in-house value open ecosystem works better for Twitter.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#607

Post by taeric » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:48 PM UTC

datavirtue wrote: post #429

cinntaile wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Starlink is a gamechanger, but I guess that's part of SpaceX?

I was excited about it also, until I looked into it deeper. It is internet service of last resort. I would default to Hughesnet or skyblue first if I didn't have access to DSL, fiber or cable.

This has me intrigued, why? Hughesnet has ludicrously low data caps.

(Asking as someone that fits your description. DSL is offered where I live, at 3mbps. :( Cable/fiber are offered if I want to shell a quarter million to help them build their infrastructure... so no.)

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#608

Post by jwmoz » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:49 PM UTC

Does nobody remember akismet?

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#609

Post by goatcode » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:49 PM UTC

nmilo wrote: post #407

> Musk hasn’t said all that much since the takeover on Twitter, but he has replied to a couple of users who have complained about platform censorship in the past. One is a user called “catturd2” who claims he’s shadowbanned and who tweets COVID misinformation among other things. The other is Canada Proud, a right-wing propagandist group that also spreads COVID misinfo and focuses on attacking Canadian PM Justin Trude…

>I bet he wasn’t feeling too great about that bit of litigation the deal closing helped him escape.

>Maybe one of the cronies who were cozying up to him

>freedom isn’t free.

There are a few nasties in the article. This nerd writer got so angry his writing even got pretty sloppy in his section (3).

Seething is in fashion!

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#610

Post by fleddr » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

RC_ITR wrote: post #601

fleddr wrote: post #547

Random thoughts. 1. I think any effort to figure out rational motives for this buy are in vain. It seems things just pop into his head and if considered a fun challenge, then why not? A child-like YOLO attitude. 2. Town square. The one thing that keeps Twitter standing is its cultural relevance. It is the town square for the elite (politicians, celebrities, experts). There isn't really anywhere else to go. An exodus…

>His goals are good: focusing on the 80% bandwidth of free speech, but getting there for sure is going to be tricky. This has to be by far the biggest risk factor. What I think will be the real litmus test is Azealia Banks, whose account currently remains suspended [0] She was banned for allegedly transphobic tweets [1] which were political speech by any reasonable definition (she was banned because the way she said…

The trans debate is extremely polarizing and aggressive on both sides. I'll leave it at that.

I think the real litmus test is a possible Trump unban. That's would be earth shattering.