The Twitter Debacle

[jaybee83]

On 11/18/2022 at 7:48 PM, Etern4l said:

 

Elon went full ghetto startup mode on a "$44B" business. Hope those who endure will be rewarded appropriately.

 

I mean he might have an actual point. I am not sure what Twitter does that warrants, what? a 5k headcount originally? 

 

Still, a pretty crazy management strategy. 

 

im pretty sure somewhere there are Elon fanatics who manage to tell the story in a way that their hero comes out an absolute 4D chess genius 😛 

 

23 hours ago, Etern4l said:

Looks like he is also hurting Tesla shareholders. He actually took out gigantic loans secured against $62bn of Tesla stock. Interest alone exceeds Twitter's pre takeover earnings. His vision for Twitter included:

 

* Open sourcing the algorithms - why, other than to be able to cut in-house engineers? At least the layoffs are consistent. Who will be the open source team?

* Combating spam bots - that's fine, although it would be good to know how he was proposing to improve on what Twitter was already doing. If the anti-bot algos are open sourced, won't that make bot writers' life so much easier? 

* Championing free speech - that's probably where the $7bn he took from private investors came from

 

Well, if he can avoid the meltdown, he will probably turn this into something. He still has deep enough pockets to carry the company for a bit to avoid a complete disaster and embarrassment. Then he can flog what's left to some fellow champions of free speech, like the Saudis or Qataris.

 

Really weird, but looking deeper things are leaning more on the nefarious side. 

 

dunno about being able to turn it around... seems more like trying to save face now. he realized its not a good idea before going through with the deal, thats why he tried getting out of it, unsuccessfully. and now were in damage control level 1000 😄 

 

20 hours ago, Reciever said:

Not to derail, but I have been more interested in the recent reintroduction of the Doom Eternal debacle. That situation kind of bummed me out overall.

 

whats that about? didnt hear anything...

 

11 hours ago, Etern4l said:

 

A lot of people might be, although we are just a group of sophisticated individuals - with (by declaration) no direct exposure to Musk - discussing. Nobody is butthurting here.

 

Now, folks referring to the guy as "Elon", as if he was their friend or something, is one of his fairly amazing PR achievements. He's kind of like this "Boris" guy in the UK. Very charismatic, a bit eccentric, but essentially a despicable and rotten individual who significantly damaged the country.

 

Not being able to discern the glaring difference between 10%ish cuts where even the most pompous CEOs come out expressing deep regrets etc., and this hostile takeover sh*tshow resulting in a significant media company being basically bulldozered is quite an "achievement".

 

ha nice comparison to Boris 😄 and pretty accurate, i might add!

 

9 hours ago, Etern4l said:

 

That's so meaningful. A Twitter poll is definitely not easily manipulated by fake accounts and bots. I mean it's a joke. On the other hand, should this guy or another have the power to ban an account from the platform? Probably not either. There should be a legal framework around it, with a right to recourse. I am not sure Web 3.0 blockchain-based decentralization is the solution either.

 

LOL exactly my thinking... especially in their current status of total chaos. sure sure, completely iron-clad such a poll hahaha

[Mr. Fox]

LoL. I agree with Chris. This needed to happen. It evolved into a scummy mess. Somebody needed to clean it up. It had become a political tool of misinformation for the extreme left. It's only a tragedy if you were part of the problem and now you don't have a platform.

[Aaron44126]

Looks like he was serious about that poll!

Elon Musk allows Donald Trump to return Twitter  - https://www.npr.org/2022/11/19/1131351535/elon-musk-allows-donald-trump-back-on-twitter

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/19/23467280/donald-trump-twitter-back-elon-musk-poll

(Sure enough, the account is unblocked and the timeline is visible again.  Remains to seen if Trump will actually do anything with it.  The follower count might have been reset?  He has "only" one million.)

[Etern4l]

55 minutes ago, Mr. Fox said:

LoL. I agree with Chris. This needed to happen. It evolved into a scummy mess. Somebody needed to clean it up.

 

The thesis that the net result of all this 'rebuilding' will be positive could prove very wrong. That's taking fairness of the platform as the measure of goodness, which is optimistic - for many people a hard shift left or right would be the preferable outcome.

 

BTW an interesting video and a sobering caution against the escalating polarisation, the negative effects of which on the affected countries couldn't be clearer anyway. It's a bit long, but worth a watch:

 

 

(Ray Dalio is one of the most famous investment managers)

  

45 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Looks like he was serious about that poll!

Elon Musk allows Donald Trump to return Twitter  - https://www.npr.org/2022/11/19/1131351535/elon-musk-allows-donald-trump-back-on-twitter

 

I mean that was a done deal at the time he completed the acquisition, if not well before that.

 

I was also curious why they suspended Jordan Peterson. Well, an aggressive anti-trans post. So, should there be any line, or should absolutely any content be allowed?

[Mr. Fox]

The Blueanon platform losing their minds is a good thing as far as I am concerned. I can't really see a downside to it. Elon is a fixer. He takes over broken companies and makes them useful and relevant. The loss of control of the narrative for the left is what the world needed. A "free-speech platform" needs to be a free-speech platform. It wasn't.

LOL... hilarious meme

[Etern4l]

1 hour ago, Mr. Fox said:

I can't really see a downside to it.

 

Sometimes these downsides take a while to develop, uncover or understand.

 

1 hour ago, Mr. Fox said:

 Elon is a fixer. He takes over broken companies and makes them useful and relevant.

 

Well, 'Elon' certainly isn't your buddy, and he also hadn't taken over any companies before (as far as I know, let me know which ones he did if I missed something).

 

An interesting meme indeed... curious how his foray into politics will affect future Tesla sales.

[Reciever]

While obviously this isn't a simple request, given the cult of personality involved and the many hats the individual in question wears, that I humbly remind everyone to keep things on topic. 

 

No one has explicitly crossed any lines, just a friendly reminder of the guard rails. 

 

Thank you everyone for your continued civility and I look forward to seeing differing perspectives here. 

[Etern4l]

I like how 'Twatter', as @Mr. Fox used to aptly call it not long ago, now immediately requires sign in - that should drive usage down nicely. I'm not signing in or allowing any cookies you greedy, goodbye.

 

Reminded me of a prophetic song written 36 years ago (lyrics in the description should anyone need a little help :)

 

 

Edit: Surprisingly, even Trump knows better than to get involved at this point lol

[Jarhead]

All I have to say is, aside from the HR nightmare happening to the employees leaving/being fired, am happy to see Twitter dying off and Musk looking more like a fool.

[jaybee83]

luckily, im not really the social media type, so this whole twitter thing for me is like:

 

i only use LinkedIn for career stuff, Whatsapp for everyday messaging and NBT to scratch my tech itch 😁

 

[Etern4l]

49 minutes ago, jaybee83 said:

luckily, im not really the social media type, so this whole twitter thing for me is like:

 

i only use LinkedIn for career stuff, Whatsapp for everyday messaging and NBT to scratch my tech itch 😁

 

 

I'm in a similar boat, however - taking a broader view - this kind of mess is really not welcome in the tech space. If you want to reorg, reorg, but don't be a new textbook definition of a jerk.

 

Edit: a bit of old news, but apparently some people have been recalled with "accidental dismissal" being given as a reason. TBH I don't think I remember anything quite like this before. <facepalm>

 

https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/07/twitter_recalls_staff/

 

[Reciever]

1 hour ago, jaybee83 said:

luckily, im not really the social media type, so this whole twitter thing for me is like:

 

i only use LinkedIn for career stuff, Whatsapp for everyday messaging and NBT to scratch my tech itch 😁

 

I stopped using LinkedIn, I get nothing but spam and ideology there these days.

[6730b]

Kicked out employees ...then had a go at users
lol

(from nov 14)
"if you have SMS 2FA turned on and log out of your Twitter account, you will not be able to log back in. Technically, two-factor authentication isn’t broken, but you’ll never get the text message with your one-time code. The service that sends the message is off so it just doesn’t send."

https://www.androidauthority.com/twitter-sms-2fa-3234698/

 

[KING19]

23 hours ago, Mr. Fox said:

The Blueanon platform losing their minds is a good thing as far as I am concerned. I can't really see a downside to it. Elon is a fixer. He takes over broken companies and makes them useful and relevant. The loss of control of the narrative for the left is what the world needed. A "free-speech platform" needs to be a free-speech platform. It wasn't.

LOL... hilarious meme

 

They make it hard for people to feel sorry for them after these same employees been shadowbanning people they dont like politically for BS reasons for years. I am no fan of Elon but seeing these elites, the media and the woke losing their minds over what Elon doing with twitter especially yesterday by unbanning Trump is pretty damn entertaining!. Wish he kept Twitter Blue though, Blue checkmark Elites was freaking out over paying a $8 month and allowing regular people to get access to the blue checkmark too.

 

Elon would be a hero in my book if he destroys twitter, Its nothing but a toxic cesspool anyways. Take Facebook and half of reddit with it as well. It would be a win for humanity!.

[Mr. Fox]

6 hours ago, Reciever said:

I stopped using LinkedIn, I get nothing but spam and ideology there these days.

Very much so. I hate it for both of those reasons. Disgusting garbage. Unfortunately, my employer uses it for networking with clients and prospects and I cannot purge that filth from my life as easily as Facepoot and Twatter. I will not engage in social media at all where business is concerned. Too easily abused and leveraged. I have a complete profile and have had one since the time of launch. Don't message me there. Notifications are ignored and emails are marked as spam. When the Redmond Retards took over, it got exponentially worse at an accelerated pace. It is predictable with more than 90% accuracy that the moment you let someone "join your network" you are going to get unwanted communication in one form or another. The other 10% is someone looking to build a fake social network or an appearance of favor for the purpose of being found by headhunters.

3 hours ago, KING19 said:

 

They make it hard for people to feel sorry for them after these same employees been shadowbanning people they dont like politically for BS reasons for years. I am no fan of Elon but seeing these elites, the media and the woke losing their minds over what Elon doing with twitter especially yesterday by unbanning Trump is pretty damn entertaining!. Wish he kept Twitter Blue though, Blue checkmark Elites was freaking out over paying a $8 month and allowing regular people to get access to the blue checkmark too.

 

Elon would be a hero in my book if he destroys twitter, Its nothing but a toxic cesspool anyways. Take Facebook and half of reddit with it as well. It would be a win for humanity!.

Yup, same... 

In fact, hard to not be pleased to see their misfortune, and I really hate feeling that way. Out of character for me, but it is so just and deserved. Their pain is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to all of the people they have deliberately set out to harm, with prejudice and malice and reverse-bigotry. As they say, "payback is a..." I am fine with Musk being the self-appointed vigilante to take out the garbage. Long overdue. If not him, then who would have had the ability to make it right? Probably nobody. Would have remained a leftist cess pool indefinitely.

 

The irrational hatred of Musk is exactly the same as the irrational hatred of Trump and Trump-followers. The left has gotten too big for their britches and they are incensed by the idea that anyone has the gall to challenge them or publicly repudiate their agenda. When someone has the financial means to expose their ridiculousness and corruption in all of its filthy glory they go off the rails cuckoo. Sadly, it is with the support and manipulative disinformative power of the mainstream media shill clown possee. It isn't about being Blue or Red, Left or Right with these people. It's about demonizing anyone who does not agree with their agenda and using that demonization to draw attention away from how utterly idiotic and irrational their agenda is. 

 

[Etern4l]

I don't think discussing Trump here makes sense. It's just too divisive and the chance of anyone actually deriving any new information or viewpoint from this is too low. I would appreciate though if we could control those adjectives. Folks on the right seem happy to throw them around, as if without a single worry about offending anyone. I guess that goes back to the OCEAN model CA used to get the individual elected. 

 

When one sees these kind of things, of course there is a primitive urge to respond in kind, but then one can think a few steps ahead and just see this makes no sense unless the idea is to try and annoy people. If someone's posts make it easy to infer such an intent then it's not discussion, it's trolling - and at the end of the day some sort of moderation should probably kick in, although I would rather it never had to.

 

More broadly, either we learn to debate in a civil manner without personal attacks and adjectives, pointless statements of assumption regarding people's rationale etc., work hard to find a way to compromise and build bridges, or we remain divided and weak. You can't just wish the other half of the population away. There is no division allowed in China, 1.4B people effectively powering forward as one. Best of luck to us old democrats (as in "adherents of democracy").

[6730b]

Musk buys nuclear plant:
 

- Lock out (then get rid of) all these troublesome experts and employees. They have no idea how to run the place (...to be replaced by my aunt and nephew, loyal to me).

- Shut off that reactor cooling system (no need for such expensive and complicated things).

 

[6730b]

& yes, real freedom of expression !!
Jack the Ripper & Charles Manson to be reinstated.

[saturnotaku]

2 minutes ago, 6730b said:

& yes, real freedom of expression !!
Jack the Ripper & Charles Manson to be reinstated.

 

Spare me.

 

Purdue Pharmaceuticals, whose products have killed more than 600,000 people, is allowed to have a platform on Twitter. The Ayatollah is allowed to have a platform on Twitter.

[Aaron44126]

Elon Musk is laying off even more Twitter workers

Mostly focused on ad sales people this time, it looks like.

[6730b]

& now this

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/11/21/twitters-broken-its-copyright-strike-system-users-are-uploading-full-movies/

[Etern4l]

36 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Elon Musk is laying off even more Twitter workers

 

"Twitter no longer has a communications department to contact for comment." 

 

I guess people can tweet Musk directly. That's what CEO's are for. There's no such thing as a full plate, only softcore crybabies say otherwise... oh wait. 

 

BTW He is not getting his money's worth headcount-wise. A bit more and he could have grabbed AIG. 50K staff to fire there. 

[jaybee83]

21 hours ago, Etern4l said:

 

I'm in a similar boat, however - taking a broader view - this kind of mess is really not welcome in the tech space. If you want to reorg, reorg, but don't be a new textbook definition of a jerk.

 

Edit: a bit of old news, but apparently some people have been recalled with "accidental dismissal" being given as a reason. TBH I don't think I remember anything quite like this before. <facepalm>

 

https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/07/twitter_recalls_staff/

 

 

agreed, this kind of stuff should be made acceptable or deemed as a role model. otherwise, no one as an employee could feel safe anymore or plan ahead for their own future.

and sure, accidental dismissal, who hasnt experience that before....? 😄 

 

21 hours ago, Reciever said:

I stopped using LinkedIn, I get nothing but spam and ideology there these days.

 

true, its baffling how many people seem to be using LI more and more to promote their own personal agendas, totally weird and out of place. but still, really helps to stay in touch with prof. network and has helped me in the past get into positions 🙂 i guess theres always pros and cons with such things.

 

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

Elon Musk is laying off even more Twitter workers

Mostly focused on ad sales people this time, it looks like.

 

oh shocked, totally unexpected... 😛 😄 

[Aaron44126]

Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs and ready to hire again

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/21/23472025/elon-musk-twitter-hiring-again-ending-layoffs
 

Apparently, the number of current employees is around 2700.

[Etern4l]

38 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs and ready to hire again

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/21/23472025/elon-musk-twitter-hiring-again-ending-layoffs
 

Apparently, the number of current employees is around 2700.

 

Cue an absolute stampede of enthusiastic high-calibre candidates.

 

 

 

https://candor.co/articles/tech-careers/what-is-it-like-working-at-tesla

 

Tesla has an even high turnover rate than Amazon. 

 

“Staff [morale] is very low, job security is very low, the staff turnover is very high and the work environment is extremely volatile."

 

“...he is a relentless micro-manager and singlehandedly derails production, reduces product quality, makes hundreds of people have to work much harder, and causes massive waste because he wants to see every little detail and change those details at literally the last minute,” the Glassdoor user said. “It’s grossly inefficient and is ruining the company bit by bit.”

 

Tesla's benefits are pretty standard

 

 

No kidding...