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Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

nytimes.com

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Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#71

Post by rch »

seiji wrote: post #63
rch wrote: post #47

Who had the most significant role in getting Twitter results prominent placement in Google desktop results? That seems like a mutually beneficial development.

Google used to have twitter results a long time ago. Then Google got a little pissy and decided they wanted to be The Only Social On The Internet and killed Twitter priority indexing (e.g. receiving the firehose). It was probably the most ineffectual attempted flexing of monopoly power in the history of monopoly abuse. Now that Google realized they can't be good at everything (really, are they good at much besides a…

Noted, but I thought there was some posturing on Twitter's side regarding terms and pricing for firehose access as well.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#72

Post by davidcgl »

talmand wrote: post #53
davidcgl wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> any competent web developer could make A non-scaling Twitter in an afternoon I wish people would stop claiming how they could clone a social media app in an afternoon / weekend.

What do you mean? I fully believe that a competent developer could sit down and make something like Twitter in a weekend. Especially since the concept and what to do with it is already on display for them to copy. Now, to create a Twitter clone in a weekend when there's no Twitter to go by? Nope.

If you boil down the entirety of Twitter into just a CRUD app that allows you to post 140 characters at a time, then yes, you can make that in a weekend.

Well, how about recommended posts / people to follow (ML)? Sponsored posts with a buy button (3rd part integration)? Growth and metrics (data analytics)? A software product is never just about pixels on the screen; and trivializing the engineering effort behind it is insulting to Twitter employees, some of whom are brilliant engineers I know.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#73

Post by untog »

ryandetzel wrote: post #31
code4tee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally unreadable. This sums up a lot of what's wrong with Twitter. If even the CEO struggles to communicate effectively using the platform then...

I think it's unreadable to people who don't understand how Twitter works...It reads fine for me.

I use Twitter every day and tweetstorms like that still seem like an utterly stupid way to work around a limitation in the system.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#74

Post by antiffan »

Slightly off-topic, but I recently interviewed at Square, and I also have some long-time contacts there. I can honestly say they have some of the most brilliant engineering minds I have encountered working there. Whether it's a trickle-down effect from Dorsey or otherwise, they have succeeded in recruiting and retaining many extremely talented individuals.

I am curious if anyone has recent anecdotes in regards to the engineering talent at Twitter (aside from the talent that came in with Periscope).

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#75

Post by catshirt »

davewiner wrote: post #61
catshirt wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"see more" link? groundbreaking stuff. someone get Twitter on the line! i know Dave deserves respect but if i was even a janitor at Twitter this post would piss me off.

It wasn't written for the janitor at Twitter, rather it was for people outside Twitter who want to think about what might be coming next. Yes, it is obvious. The idea was taken straight out of Facebook. I thought people would benefit from seeing what it would look like in action. As developers it's easy for us to imagine it, but even we need to mock things up to get a look at it, to help think better about it.

i think my main point is that the display mechanism must be the least of the concerns with respect to introducing > 140 characters. that is to say- I don't believe anyone thinks it's an aesthetic impossibility.

it seems fruitless to dictate "how" without being part of the "why and why not" discussions.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#76

Post by kibibu »

catshirt wrote: post #52
criddell wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dave Winer mocked up how a fat tweet could look and I think he has it right: http://scripting.com/2015/10/02/whatWouldAFatTweetLookLike.h... Obviously, they've thought of this internally too. I wonder what the point of the 140 character limit is today (I think it made sense originally).

"see more" link? groundbreaking stuff. someone get Twitter on the line! i know Dave deserves respect but if i was even a janitor at Twitter this post would piss me off.

What made me giggle was:

> that doesn't force you to click a link to see the rest

(includes a link you click to see the rest)

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#77

Post by [deleted] »

kibibu wrote: post #76
catshirt wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"see more" link? groundbreaking stuff. someone get Twitter on the line! i know Dave deserves respect but if i was even a janitor at Twitter this post would piss me off.

What made me giggle was: > that doesn't force you to click a link to see the rest (includes a link you click to see the rest)

[deleted]

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#78

Post by metaphorm »

davidcgl wrote: post #45
kylebgorman wrote: post #44

I'm short Twitter. The fact of the matter is it that Twitter should never have become a multibillion-dollar company. There is no barrier to entry into this space---any competent web developer could make a non-scaling Twitter in an afternoon---except network effects, and those have proved weak due to poor user experience, particularly for new users. Twitter should have treated itself like a utility, and focused less o…

> any competent web developer could make A non-scaling Twitter in an afternoon I wish people would stop claiming how they could clone a social media app in an afternoon / weekend.

Its a credible claim. Social media apps are a fairly basic kind of CRUD app, and if you forego the complex layers of privacy settings and permissions, monetization schemes, and scalability issues you end up with what amounts to a weekend project for an experienced developer.

Now, social media apps are worthless without the aforementioned features that would have to be omitted to get it done in a weekend, so obviously there's some hyperbole going on with statements like that. However, on a fundamental level its correct. The technical requirements of building a social media app are small/easy and within the scope of what a startup on a shoestring budget could manage if they felt like it was a good business opportunity.

The issues start to pile up only much later down the road. Maintaining scalability after you cross some critical threshold of traffic gets hard, but you don't have to think about that until you're at or near the threshold anyway. Not a lot of barrier in getting started.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#79

Post by demian »

austenallred wrote: post #42
demian wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He seems to be there mostly for PR and customer relations.

To the people whose only contact with a company are via PR and customer relations, of course it seems like that's all he does. That's the only side you see. Does anyone making comments like this have any idea what happens internally? The employees I know at Twitter are thrilled.

Right, he fits a role in the company's narrative, both for the inside and outside.

He is perceived as twitter "creator/inventor" after all, so I can understand why the employees are thrilled.

Re: Twitter Names Jack Dorsey Chief Executive

#80

Post by austenallred »

demian wrote: post #79
austenallred wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the people whose only contact with a company are via PR and customer relations, of course it seems like that's all he does. That's the only side you see. Does anyone making comments like this have any idea what happens internally? The employees I know at Twitter are thrilled.

Right, he fits a role in the company's narrative, both for the inside and outside. He is perceived as twitter "creator/inventor" after all, so I can understand why the employees are thrilled.

I've actually heard that he's making long-needed changes on the product side of things since he's been back, so the employees I talk to at least believe that he will help in more than just "the narrative." Of course, those were people with a lot of stock in the company, so they're not impartial; I fear there are very few knowledgable, impartial sources in this one.
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