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Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

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Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#881

Post by rc_kas »

sbarre wrote: post #43
jdrc wrote: post #2

Quoted post unavailable.

So while this one-liner comment seems to be drawing ire, I do think it brings up a difficult point. As more and more of our civic discourse moves online, there are no "public spaces" online where the rule of law and public interest comes first. There is no town square, no soapbox in the park, no public access TV, or the ability for masses to organize and march or protest (or whatever the online equivalent is), with o…

In 1955 if I wanted to have a flamebait war with someone across the country, I'd have to write them a letter. We should go back to that.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#882

Post by ergocoder »

PostOnce wrote: post #698
fleddr wrote: post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

"stagnant company" Why must every company sustain boundless growth and 24-hour engagement? Change and growth for their own sake can be cancers. Twitter does what it does and people like it (as seen by the fact that they all use it), yet armchair generals cry out that twitter's refusal to turn into "not twitter" is somehow a failure of engineering and management, or some form of incompetence. So, I disagree, I guess.

I agree with you. Not every company wants to grow.

But Twitter and twitter employees want the company to grow. But they fail to do so.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#883

Post by nopenopenopeno »

awb wrote: post #863
nopenopenopeno wrote: post #848

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means nobody is allowed to police public discourse and that anyone who wants to be a dick can be a dick and if others don’t want to deal with it they can ignore it. The only complications have always been situations where private enterprise dominates or impedes on public discourse.

In the US, this isn’t accurate at all. > It means nobody is allowed to police public discourse No, it means the government cannot restrict speech. > Freedom of speech, also called free speech, means the free and public expression of opinions without censorship, interference and restraint by the government. [0] Most people assume “free speech” means “nobody” can restrict it, but it is in fact only “by the government”.…

Implying a clear line between private authority and government authority is just dishonest.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#884

Post by nopenopenopeno »

bambax wrote: post #875
awb wrote: post #863

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, this isn’t accurate at all. > It means nobody is allowed to police public discourse No, it means the government cannot restrict speech. > Freedom of speech, also called free speech, means the free and public expression of opinions without censorship, interference and restraint by the government. [0] Most people assume “free speech” means “nobody” can restrict it, but it is in fact only “by the government”.…

Yes, but the paradox is that, because the government can't properly regulate speech (outside of the categories you listed), speech is heavily regulated by private operators, starting with you at your house, going to newspapers, TV, and Twitter, Facebook, etc. Everyone has their own rules, some explicit, some secret, most entirely arbitrary, and there is never a proper appeals process.

Thank you. And these complications are nothing new. Newspapers have long been regulated and the Fairness Doctrine defined the period during which Americans almost universally trusted the news media.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#885

Post by nickstinemates »

colinmhayes wrote: post #756
nickstinemates wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: have any far left politicians/celebrities/blue checkmark people been banned from twitter?

Which far leftists do you think have done things on twitter similar to what caused far rightists to be banned?

I think the framing you're proposing is off; what the right has done are things that are offensive to leftists and as a result they're banned. It's tautological. This is exactly the premise of the criticism levied in this thread and writ-large at Twitter censorship.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#886

Post by codeisawesome »

honkdaddy wrote: post #796
MisterSandman wrote: post #707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at the same time if Twitter as a company isn't really doing much, why do they have thousands of developers on staff? ...to keep the app running? New devices, new standards, a lot of things change that you need devs to keep up with. Also, what's up with people saying twitter is stagnant? They've added Spaces, Twitter Blue and Crypto Profile Pictures - all 3 massive features added to their product. They're all trash,…

FWIW, I have a close friend who worked on Twitter's "Health" team whose job at one point was building mini games for the support/moderation staff to play during company mandated breaks in between looking at racist tweets and CP. He coasted for a while then moved onto a job with more work. This is entirely anecdotal, but from the little I know from his couple months there, Twitter has no idea what to do with the huge…

That seems like an actually valuable, human thing to work on vs the garbage many devs find themselves working on. Mini games can also be super engaging to build and are a showcase for creativity… I’m really not seeing the problem.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#887

Post by dnissley »

pcmoney wrote: post #837
fleddr wrote: post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

5yr returns: Twtr: 235% Fb: 65%

Excellent. Now do returns since IPO through April 1st, 2022:

Twtr: -5%

Fb: +488%

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#888

Post by not2b »

fleddr wrote: post #716
HeavyStorm wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I was thinking exactly that. Assuming that this is the case - that Musk is joining as a savior - is silly. He doesn't fit the profile nor has the track record for that. He may be a visionary (whatever that means), but a excellent, renowned executive that revitalizes companies, heck, that really has never been the case.

Strange that both of you would say that. He's a ruthless result-driven executive that doesn't accept excuses. If it's at all impossible for something to get done, he'll get it done. I'm not at all a fan of him, but his power is in execution. A vision is worthless.

But he isn't a Twitter executive. He has one seat on the board. He'd have to persuade other board members if he wants to force changes.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#889

Post by fastball »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #842
colinmhayes wrote: post #752

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People have been begging for an edit button for a decade. And they haven't implemented it because it's a truly horrible idea. If you messed up your tweet delete it. If it's already got traction, then it shouldn't be changed, especially because the edit feature would mostly be used maliciously to cancel retweeters.

> especially because the edit feature would mostly be used maliciously to cancel retweeters. This could turn out to be a good thing in the long run: force the public to confront the fact that the commentary they are seeing may have, in fact, originally been on something entirely different than the context it is currently presented in.

That doesn't make any sense.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#890

Post by fastball »

oneplane wrote: post #840
fleddr wrote: post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

The two word combination "Free speech" is so Americanised that it needs a bunch of asterisks to define what it's supposed to mean. Is it the legal thing where the government isn't allowed to arbitrarily censor citizens? Or is it the "I want everything I think to be received by everyone" that a good chunk of people seem to think it means? Or is it "I want to be a dick and everyone has to keep dealing with my shit"? As…

It's Americanized because most other countries on Earth don't enshrine it as a principle at any level, whether private or public. The topic is hairy in the US because the government is actually obligated to care, so there are various grey areas when it comes to the interaction between US laws/constitution/government/private businesses.

Compare this to say the UK where neither corporations nor the government enshrine free speech, so these estuaries don't exist.

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