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Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

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Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#991

Post by hnbad »

willmadden wrote: post #844
hnbad wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound like a good advertising strategy for a well established platform, especially given how likely HN users are to block ads.

Not a good advertising strategy? Really? https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097

What's your point? That it gets people to click on links? I'm not disputing that. I'm merely stating that doesn't translate into anything useful. I don't think many will sign up to Twitter over this and clicks alone don't make Twitter money (ads do, but HN users are more likely to have them blocked or at least not click on them) so this is just adding load to their systems for nothing in return.

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#992

Post by stanleydrew »

viknesh wrote: post #957
stanleydrew wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Elon might be getting margin called on Tesla right now, which could wipe him out financially. I don't think this is how margin calls work. Presuming your broker is properly managing risk, then a margin call is explicitly designed to not wipe you out financially. You have to put up more capital or sell positions in order to maintain a certain amount of equity in your account, and that required amount is never zero (…

Margin calls are designed to stop the broker from losing money, not the customer.

The broker only loses money if the customer loses money though. So their interests are aligned. The broker doesn't want a customer to get wiped out, which is exactly the point of margin requirements.

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#993

Post by willmadden »

hnbad wrote: post #991
willmadden wrote: post #844

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a good advertising strategy? Really? https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097

What's your point? That it gets people to click on links? I'm not disputing that. I'm merely stating that doesn't translate into anything useful. I don't think many will sign up to Twitter over this and clicks alone don't make Twitter money (ads do, but HN users are more likely to have them blocked or at least not click on them) so this is just adding load to their systems for nothing in return.

My points are:

1. Elon was planning to put in a new CEO all along. He admitted this back in November!

2. The erratic behavior was a publicity stunt (which PG was in on).

The purpose is to get lots of stagnant and new users engaged with Twitter as the saga unfolds, and to set the stage for the new “hero” CEO to take the reigns from the eccentric owner and lead Twitter into a “new era” etc.

This spikes their active user count, boosts all of their KPI’s, and gets those new/reactivated users following the saga until they form a Twitter habit. It also gives Twitter more favorable optics with “establishment” advertisers as the “bad guy” is dethroned to go focus on rockets and cars, while the tension and drama remain with Elon on the board. I’m sure there will be future drama between Elon and the new CEO that will unfold openly on Twitter. That is also by design.

It’s obvious. They know mastedon isn’t a threat. It’s a federated mess and can’t handle the load.

More on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33594961

There are independent Twitter alternatives that are a threat, refuse to to respect any facet of the establishment Overton window and allow all legal speech, don’t rely on their 3rd party hosting services/app stores, and could easily scale, but notice PG didn’t go to any of those. The Twitter policy also didn’t mention any of the real threats. That is by design. I’m not sure why people here can’t see it.

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#994

Post by Cipater »

Eji1700 wrote: post #587
wereallterrrist wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33991851 Why is it so plainly obvious to many of us and so god damn impossible for others to see it. Elon is not a genius. You got duped. Just accept it and realize he's a petty tyrant whose ego is exploding. It explains every single thing that has happened, and yet people are so desperate not to accept it.

He’s a less self aware Steve Jobs. For whatever reason people will throw themselves on the tracks for them.

This is an insult to Steve Jobs.

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#995

Post by roflyear »

wereallterrrist wrote: post #767
roflyear wrote: post #660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When people get duped, it's really hard for them to admit it. Huge blow to the ego. It's surprising to watch people turn on Trump because of this.

I just wish personal integrity mattered at any scale, anymore. I wish that people actually came to their opinions via some sort of logical process that could be easily later self-evaluated and reflected upon. There's this tendency to double-down, when "admitting a mistake" is really as simple as reflecting, realizing what assumptions were made wrong, going back to base principles and re-assessing. If you have integri…

This never happened, trust me. I would figure it has gotten better.

Look at the US and what was acceptable re: racist ideologies (the height of the lack of any logical thinking). US certainly is not the ONLY racist country either (have you been to Europe today? it is like going back 30 years with regards to racism, in a lot of countries!)

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#996

Post by catach »

wereallterrrist wrote: post #421
mvkel wrote: post #173

It's baffling to me that Elon seems to be taking the opposite of a first-principles view on Twitter. He fails to realize _why_ Twitter uniquely has the reach that it does. It's because it's platform-agnostic in a lot of ways. It's the base-level social protocol that all other platforms are adjacent to. By removing that connection, it completely nerfs that influence and Twitter becomes just another social network. I a…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33991851 Why is it so plainly obvious to many of us and so god damn impossible for others to see it. Elon is not a genius. You got duped. Just accept it and realize he's a petty tyrant whose ego is exploding. It explains every single thing that has happened, and yet people are so desperate not to accept it.

I suspect many are deeply uncomfortable with the idea that a person could ascend to being the richest man on the planet without any personal merit justifying that rise.

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#997

Post by CodeWriter23 »

d23 wrote: post #155
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #120

Quoted post unavailable.

This comment is so depressing. Is there no limit to what he can do? Is there no point at which you'll stop defending him?

Is there no point at which you’ll stop defending SPAM? Because that’s straight up what I saw at least 5x in my feed over about 24 hrs “How to leave Twitter for Mastodon”. He did clearly define that causal sharing was fine just not spamming out free advertising.

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#998

Post by dredmorbius »

mschuster91 wrote: post #511
barathr wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The good thing is that many of these things are now happening at mastodon, among other places.

Mastodon lacks one very important thing: global trends, the most important tool for minorities and the oppressed to call for attention. So many crimes got the spotlight because of that, and Mastodon by design can't replicate it.

Mastodon does have trending hashtags, which can be enabled on instances.

There's no feed interface to that as yet, AFAIK.

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#999

Post by andsoitis »

Chaotic. Not eccentric.

This week Musk banned journalists and then lied about it, suggested the former head of trust & safety was a child abuser (he had to leave his home), stopped paying bills and, announced the ridiculous policy to ban all links to other social platforms before abruptly changing his mind.

Lastly, he launched a Twitter poll asking whether he should remain CEO, and then says the person who takes on the job would be a fool.

Re: Twitter suspends pg's account [fixed]

#1000

Post by gnramires »

echelon wrote: post #93

I was a pretty big Elon fan a year ago. SpaceX is/was a monumental achievement. He's gone insane. Suggesting Taiwan and Ukraine surrender, all this Twitter nonsense... I'm shorting TSLA to $50 on Monday.

I think the word insane may be a bit much here, but it's definitely extremely important to (1) Mind your mental health; (2) Beware of your limitations and knowledge. Even if you want to help the world, you can't do it in self-destruct mode. You can't do it with arrogance -- you can go against the grain, but only with solid knowledge, humility, and skepticism.
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