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Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

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Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#841

Post by maxbond »

kjksf wrote: post #684
JasserInicide wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk is going to discover (and maybe admit?) that fixing Twitter is harder than he thought. Yeah I think he's going to intensely focus on Twitter for ~6 months, not change much, get bored, and then move onto something else.

The way he got bored running Tesla and SpaceX for ~20 years? I really don't get where this meme of "impulsive, erratic, hotheaded Musk" comes from given he demonstrated ability to stick with a business in the toughest of times. Tesla was literally days away from bankruptcy at one time and Musk made it work. After first 3 failed launches he was about to run out of money and yet he financed another launch, which worked…

> He hasn't had a business failure yet.

I don't know why people say this when stuff goes wrong for him all the time. He literally just failed to get out of this Twitter deal.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#842

Post by kcplate »

grecy wrote: post #651
maxerickson wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if he just loses a big pile of money while Twitter twists in the wind because there isn't much of a plan? That seems likely enough really.

Looking at all musk has achieved so far - despite (or because of?) boards of experts adamant it couldn’t be done - I think it’s immensely clear a plan is something he clearly has and works very hard towards. Obviously many people will disagree with his plan, though I’m 100% certain he has one, and will make it happen.

> Looking at all musk has achieved so far - despite (or because of?) boards of experts adamant it couldn’t be done

This is where I think his detractors overlook the real benefits he brings. He is fearless and will willingly take long shot bets down roads where others don’t dare tread. His willingness to take the big risk has resulted in some transformative leaps. He’s either very lucky and not very good, or very good and not very lucky, but more likely has a lot of both going for him.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#843

Post by Taniwha »

Just about now Donald Trump is realising he's forgotten his twitter password, because he had people for that, and he can't remember which email account he used.

Meanwhile president@whitehouse.gov is very carefully NOT clicking on those links ...

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#845

Post by MarkMc »

> Plus, for the Twitter top legal brass, I bet he wasn’t feeling too great about that bit of litigation the deal closing helped him escape.

By firing General Counsel Sean Edgett it seems Elon's pride is clouding his judgement.

Edgett demonstrated great skill by drafting a watertight legal agreement at very short notice, then expertly using litigation to prevent Musk from wriggling out of the deal.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#846

Post by fake-name »

pie_flavor wrote: post #696
wzyoi wrote: post #349

I always wonder: how much honesty is in him? For example, he stopped talking about the bot population on the platform altogether after he could not get out of the deal. Was he honest about this being a big issue in the first place? For me, it’s not easy to believe this because this bot issue appeared right after Twitter staff did not like his speech, and talks with the CEO fell apart. Am I mistaken about how it all p…

Many people say they dislike Musk because of his ego, his shitposting, his tendency to lash out at critics, etc. I like him specifically because of those attributes: he may be the richest man on the planet, but he never gives the impression of being a lizard person like e.g. Bezos does. He's a normal guy, including plenty of normal-guy flaws, just an extremely successful one.

You think being a legitimately terrible person is "normal"?

That's extremely depressing, and I think you want to possibly re-evaluate your general outlook in life.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#847

Post by hedora »

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…

Musk has media attention, but I'm not sure it's much of an advantage at this point.

I tried getting a solar system from Tesla, and it convinced me not to consider their cars. I know it is a different side of the company, but I ended up with a used electric BMW. I was resigned to dealing with the B-hole stigma around having a beamer, but whatever. It's a nice car, environmentally friendly, and was inexpensive.

That's not what happened. Instead, Tesla owners say things like "I got the Tesla before Musk went nutso roll eyes, and it's actually pretty good, but I'm not sure I'd buy another one..."

I'm surprised how quickly the Teslas went from being a status symbol to a faux pas around here. Maybe it's a different story in less liberal areas.

However, unless I'm missing something, social signaling / image management is way more important to the Twitteratti than people buying commuter cars / kid taxis.

(Again, whatever. It's a car, not a political statement, but I've seen more than one Tesla owner apologize for owning one.)

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#848

Post by r721 »

roughly wrote: post #831

Firing Vijaya is a hell of a move here. Parag had been in the CEO seat for less than a year and had no real experience, and Twitter's not such a unique company financially that the CFO is anything special, but Vijaya had been in charge of legal and policy for a decade at a company that regularly has to tangle with nation state governments, as well as navigate all the other kinds of various policy hell that is Twitter…

Mike Masnick's post on this topic:

>Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/10/28/elon-musks-first-move-is...

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#849

Post by p4bl0 »

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…

In addition to opening the API, it would be cool if twitter became interoperable with ActivityPub. It would be one of the biggest instances and still attract a lot of people. It would be cool but I don't think it will ever happen, sadly.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#850

Post by pj_mukh »

roughly wrote: post #831

Firing Vijaya is a hell of a move here. Parag had been in the CEO seat for less than a year and had no real experience, and Twitter's not such a unique company financially that the CFO is anything special, but Vijaya had been in charge of legal and policy for a decade at a company that regularly has to tangle with nation state governments, as well as navigate all the other kinds of various policy hell that is Twitter…

AFAICT he's planning on folding to any authoritarian governments demands [1], while fighting for free speech mostly in the American context (and that too, just online). For that, he probably doesn't need Vijaya.

I hope someone pays her buckets of money now to fight at the actual frontline of free speech (Texas government sanctioned book bans perhaps?)

[1]: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-free-speech-twitter-gl...

EDIT: Citation added upon request.

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