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

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#611

Post by spaced-out » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

concinds wrote: post #307

julianeon wrote: post #57

In the spirit of trying to be high-information and add value: Where Musk is going, there are no maps. So it's very very hard to project. But we can predict likely developments. At a very high level, it's going to involve: bringing back controversial personalities like Donald Trump; increasing Twitter's commitment to 'free speech'; assuaging skittish advertisers; retaining users who might be concerned, while bringing…

Most people are focused on censorship/content issues, but I really think the X.com "mega app" vision is the most significant part of this. It'll be hard to gain a foothold in those markets, and there'll be antitrust challenges, but it really fits perfectly with the rest of Musk's vision: X.com Maps could tie in with Teslas, X.com Carhailing could tie-in with (future) full self-driving; Twitter could be expanded to be…

I wonder how this jives with his stated plan to lay off a lot of people? If he wants to implement that he'll need a lot more engineers and related support staff.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#612

Post by eecc » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

I wonder if he’ll really get the dev teams to defuse flame wars.

The TL algorithm will push any account that trends and those strongly networked, it will also promote and make you curate your own strong network.

Whenever these two adversarial groups collide is bloody warfare, yet it’s so obvious to detect such incidents: likely confrontational accounts collide, strongly connected accounts start to systematically love and retweet friendlies, text sentiment turns to aggressive and taunting.

It’s probably a take-at-home assignment for a data science position to detect these dynamics. Yet Twitter introduced precious little to suppress this rage machine, just “block” to further entrench bubbles and long, lawyerly drawn out questionnaires for manual report. I’d say the most half-hearted attempt since Facebook’s.

So if he’s really serious about driving away the trolling flame throwing, I guess it’ll be that.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#613

Post by strangattractor » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

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…

Sounds like you think he will move in exactly the same direction as all the other social media platforms. He has to make the platform unique in a way that will be difficult for competitors to simply imitate. Or preferably in a direction where there are no competitors at all.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#614

Post by activitypea » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

This list of news makes it abundantly clear that the US is little more than a playground for the rich. That's true of most countries nowadays, but the US' overwhelming influence on the rest of the world makes this one sting even more.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#615

Post by yonaguska » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #320

julianeon wrote: post #57

In the spirit of trying to be high-information and add value: Where Musk is going, there are no maps. So it's very very hard to project. But we can predict likely developments. At a very high level, it's going to involve: bringing back controversial personalities like Donald Trump; increasing Twitter's commitment to 'free speech'; assuaging skittish advertisers; retaining users who might be concerned, while bringing…

> managing the exodus of users (size:?) that will happen regardless; This is probably the biggest risk in this acquisition. Twitter wasn't doing anything special, and it's easy to launch a clone of their business model. Elon's talking about taking an axe to the things that keep the lights on at Twitter: effective content moderation and talent.

> effective content moderation

That's very subjective. "Misinformation" is more moderated than child porn and literal terrorist organizations.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#616

Post by fleddr » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:56 PM UTC

batch12 wrote: post #600

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…

I'd work for twitter if they were less driven by political ideology. Maybe I am wrong, but it looks from the outside that one would have to walk the thought line to succeed in many of these west coast companies. Edit: If I am wrong (possible), help me understand why.

You're entirely right, but it's not a popular thing to say in this forum.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#617

Post by qwertox » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

freejazz wrote: post #579

qwertox wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's assume he makes Neuralink happen in the sense of really giving a locked-in person the ability to communicate in real words and sentences. He now has the network to connect those people directly to the rest of the world, under his umbrella. Sure, he could have just used (old) Twitter's API, and that's what he'll be using, but it won't be "we (as in 'Neuralink') and Twitter made this happen", but "we (my companie…

Quoted post unavailable.

I'm saying this from the perspective that he made a shitty acquisition and trying to see ways he could consider it as a positive thing.

If I'd had made this acquisition, specially in the circumstances he did it, I'd probably get so depressed that I'd put and end to it all.

I'm not a fanboy, but I'm also not a hater.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#618

Post by twblalock » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 10:01 PM UTC

everdrive wrote: post #377

twblalock wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think many people are cross-shopping Teslas with Bolts or Leafs. The difference in performance and technology is big enough to put them in a different vehicle class. Most of the people I know who are buying Teslas are coming from Audi and BMW, and never would have considered buying a Chevy.

Serious question, don’t they all cost about the same amount of money? 35-45k? I understand not comparing an individual 18k Chevy sedan to a 35k BMW sports car. But with regard to price, most EVs seem to be in the same ballpark.

The cheapest Tesla has a $47k MSRP now, but most people add on several thousand dollars in options even on that one.

The Leaf and Bolt both have starting MSRPs around $28k, and most probably sell in the mid-$30k range, so there is a significant price difference.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#619

Post by wrycoder » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 10:01 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…

> It is the town square for the elite (politicians, celebrities, experts)

Only for a subset of those elites who conform to certain ideological views. The rest have been actively censored or banned from Twitter.

> There isn't really anywhere else to go.

And that has been the problem for those with non-preferred views. Twitter clones have been actively denigrated and, in some cases, forced to shut down.

IMO, Twitter needs to add up and down voting, like HN has.

Open discourse is not for the faint of heart. Never was - it can get your adrenaline up and teach you self control.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#620

Post by rednerrus » Fri, Oct 28, 2022, 10:01 PM UTC

julianeon wrote: post #57

In the spirit of trying to be high-information and add value: Where Musk is going, there are no maps. So it's very very hard to project. But we can predict likely developments. At a very high level, it's going to involve: bringing back controversial personalities like Donald Trump; increasing Twitter's commitment to 'free speech'; assuaging skittish advertisers; retaining users who might be concerned, while bringing…

It sounds like Musk is going to tell advertisers to kick rocks and try to monetize the platform.

Where are people gonna go if not on Twitter? The left isn't gonna have better luck with their own truth social or parler. The network effect is too big with Twitter. It's not fun if you're not dunking on your enemies. That's the fun of Twitter.