[Capella]

Originally Posted by drewprops While I have personally found nothing to make me love Twitter, I have great sympathy for the people who have built real communities on the platform. The (seemingly) inevitable death of a platform is an irreplaceable cultural loss, for good or bad. Since I perceive Twitter as a place to go hate on other people, I will not miss that (should it disappear). But again, it's a shame for those who will lose so much. ...

I'm really upset about the vibrant romancelandia book community being gutted by this. I've personally been involved in a recurring fundraiser this year and have raised over $75,000 to help charities supporting trans youth, and while we have some uptake via Instagram and TikTok, the bulk of our reach is Twitter. I don't know if this last round we're going to do will raise enough to get us to out $100k goal given what's happening to twitter.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by PB PM Which is why he fired so many people, still likely clueless as to what most of them did, but it could be a plan to try and rehire some as contractors for lower pay. Another common cost cutting scheme. Let’s not forget to add all the severance pay, and likely wrongful dismissal cases they’ll get hit with. We’ll see how it pans out, but Musk didn’t buy twitter out of the goodness of his heart, so he must have some plan to make money.

I know some of the people asked to come back. These are not people who have to accept lower contractor pay, he's getting their fuck-you consulting fee, if they even agree. So far I'm not aware of a single person agreeing to come back at any rate.

[Ryan]

The Chief Info Security Officer, Chief Privacy Officer and head of compliance resigned together last night. I cannot think of a bigger red flag what he's got planned than that.

[turtle]

Let's be realistic though, no old leadership was going to stay long. Them doing it in solidarity/unity just means they have their safety net to land on. I'm sure they disagree with Musk's methods, but Musk has been abundantly clear he doesn't like the way the platform has been run.

Interestingly this has Brough Mastodon into the spotlight and I'm curious enough to actually check it out.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by turtle Let's be realistic though, no old leadership was going to stay long. Them doing it in solidarity/unity just means they have their safety net to land on. I'm sure they disagree with Musk's methods, but Musk has been abundantly clear he doesn't like the way the platform has been run. Interestingly this has Brough Mastodon into the spotlight and I'm curious enough to actually check it out.

Those are positions you need in Twitter's position. The company is under a strict FTC consent decree and the three people who understand it just walked out the door. Compliance with that order isn't optional, it comes with billions in fines.

Keeping data safe and adhering to privacy regulations isn't something you can just ignore. He's now telling engineers to self-certify compliance with the FTC decree, something that has to be done under penalty of perjury. You'd have to be insane to blindly sign that.

[709]

[Brad]

To hopefully nobody's surprise, Musk continues to throw fuel on the fire by terminating Twitter's remote/work-from-home policy.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...nomic-outlook/

Elon Musk reportedly told Twitter staff in an email Wednesday that he is banning remote work and that any exceptions to the ban must be approved by Musk himself on a case-by-case basis. The new rules "will expect employees to be in the office for at least 40 hours per week, he added," Bloomberg reported. The change takes effect today. "Obviously, if you are physically unable to travel to an office or have a critical personal obligation, then your absence is understandable," Musk wrote in yesterday's email, according to the Verge.

This is a great way to push away any remaining developers, devops, sysops, etc. to quit so Twitter doesn't have to pay them severance. Brilliant cost savings.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by 709

This really is so perfect.

It is fun to watch from the outside as one who it optimistic that Musk will manage to not just lose a ton of money. Lots of shakeups and gnashing of teeth in the process though.

[709]

Originally Posted by turtle Interestingly this has Brough Mastodon into the spotlight and I'm curious enough to actually check it out.

I still don't quite understand it other than it's 'decentralized', so apparently I can... read and post to other servers or something?

I dusted off an account that I had from 2017 (still running, to my surprise!) but also created new ones on two of the more trafficked servers. I don't know if it makes a difference.

[Ryan]

The FTC doesn't fuck around with consent decrees. An Uber exec faced criminal charges for obstructing theirs.

This is nothing like all his tangos with the SEC.

[Bryson]

Post your Mastodon handles, folks:

I'm @bryson@mastodon.social because I tried looking for a server I liked, discovered "Furry" was a top-level category and declined to go any further than the "default."

[turtle]

Reports are now saying that Musk is telling employees that bankruptcy is an option.

That might buy him to time to make more radical changes without completely folding.

[kscherer]

There's an itch in the back of my mind that says Musk bought Twitter to destroy it.

Intentionally.

Like a game.

But, I don't know.

And then he can write off $35billion in losses.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by turtle Reports are now saying that Musk is telling employees that bankruptcy is an option. That might buy him to time to make more radical changes without completely folding.

Bankruptcy won't hold off the FTC, keep advertisers around or stop talent from fleeing.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by kscherer There's an itch in the back of my mind that says Musk bought Twitter to destroy it. Intentionally. Like a game.

I think that's giving him way too much credit.

Originally Posted by kscherer And then he can write off $35billion in losses.

Remember that it's not just loans on Twitter's balance sheet that he'd be "writing off".

To pull off this deal, Musk took billions in personal investments from Saudi royals, Qatar Holding, and other private parties. Somehow I doubt all of his foreign investors would be happy to see their stakes squandered so flippantly. If they wanted to ruin Twitter, there are far cheaper ways to do it.

Given Musk's history, Hanlon's razor seems far more likely.

[Capella]

Originally Posted by kscherer There's an itch in the back of my mind that says Musk bought Twitter to destroy it. Intentionally. Like a game. But, I don't know. And then he can write off $35billion in losses.

Starting to think this myself. Unfortunately, it's devastating a ton of microcommunities that Twitter created. Some maybe need destroying (the Nazis, etc). Others are vibrant and useful, like how I'm in one that raises thousands of dollars on the regular. I'm going to miss being able to do that.

[PB PM]

After he's done with Twitter, can Musk buy Meta? Maybe he can kill that too. Maybe he'll have to sell SpaceX or Tesla to pay off his debits.

[turtle]

Oh man if he would buy Meta and drive it into the ground I would be THRILLED! Heck, I might even chip in on that one.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by PB PM After he's done with Twitter, can Musk buy Meta? Maybe he can kill that too. Maybe he'll have to sell SpaceX or Tesla to pay off his debits.

Originally Posted by turtle Oh man if he would buy Meta and drive it into the ground I would be THRILLED! Heck, I might even chip in on that one.

Count me in!

[turtle]

So I've actually been looking at Mastodon. I think I might start a thread on it rather than have it get lost in here. Bottom line is setting up a server isn't that hard. Still looking into the cross connections though. Seems like it might be akin to the old internet, WWIVnet, FidoNet, etc...

Edit: Done.

[PB PM]

Apparently Musk is now proposing to make Twitter like a bank. This is going to be a treat to watch. Twitter becomes PayPal 2.0.

[Brad]

I thought that must be an absurd misunderstanding, but nope…

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...k-tells-staff/

Near the end of Twitter’s staff call, one employee who seemingly wasn’t satisfied with how Musk answered an earlier question about staff priorities asked Musk, “Sorry, just to be a little bit more specific, is your recommendation that all of us in different teams, we try different things in the next few months to see what works, what doesn’t, or do you have a specific recommendation of what our focus should be?” Musk repeated his top priorities, directing staff to envision a Twitter that works more like a financial institution, where digital payments are sent as easily as direct messages, creators can get paid more than they would on platforms like YouTube, and average users can generate higher interest on payments accounts held right there on Twitter. “That’s definitely a direction we’re going to go in, enabling people on Twitter to be able to send money anywhere in the world instantly and in real time,” Musk confirmed, detailing plans to link debit cards to Twitter accounts and even issue checks to users so they can pay rent from their Twitter accounts. “It sounds like more of a bank,” one employee noted. “Do you also foresee us loaning?” Musk—who in the past two weeks has conducted business by riling key advertisers, threatening to diminish reach of Twitter’s top users' posts, and firing key staff in charge of key money-generating products—responded, “Well, if you want to provide a comprehensive service to people, then you can’t be missing key elements.”

I mean if you want to put your failing company under even more regulatory oversight, then why not…

[drewprops]

What in the DEUCE??

This is like watching a building collapse in slow motion.


...

[709]

The last 24 hours of 'verified' accounts have been the funniest thing on Twitter since the tiny-fingered vulgarian. For the low price of $8 you can literally be verified as anyone.

[drewprops]

From @mcmillen (whose provenance I have not checked) on Twitter:

"Reportedly, Elon stack-ranked Twitter engineers by "lines of code written in the last year" and fired the bottom X%, which likely means he's gotten rid everyone who worked on particularly challenging things, like security, privacy, performance, & reliability."


...

[PB PM]

And anyone who, you know, didn’t scew up a lot?

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by Brad I thought that must be an absurd misunderstanding, but nope… https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...k-tells-staff/ I mean if you want to put your failing company under even more regulatory oversight, then why not…

I should have linked to this, since it was where read about this. This gets better every business day he’s in charge.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by drewprops From @mcmillen (whose provenance I have not checked) on Twitter: "Reportedly, Elon stack-ranked Twitter engineers by "lines of code written in the last year" and fired the bottom X%, which likely means he's gotten rid everyone who worked on particularly challenging things, like security, privacy, performance, & reliability." ...

Yep.

The core service teams who run the tweet, user and follow graph are down to about a quarter of their previous staffing level.

World Cup starts in eight days.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Brad I think that's giving him way too much credit.

Agreed.

I don't think there's much of a conspiracy here.

1. Back in April, Elon thought it'd be funny to bid on
2. but then Twitter Inc. actually accepted the bid
3. so he tried to find excuses to not to buy (e.g., inflated bot numbers)
4. he gets sued
5. he realizes he has no out, and tries to sell it as "I want to buy after all"
6. to buy, he needs to take on new debt
7. he loads Twitter Inc. with that debt, which puts him under even more pressure
8. he's in way over his head and tries to play it off as cool

TL;DR: the former Twitter Inc. board called his bluff and we're watching it go down as one of the most expensive mistakes of human history.

[drewprops]

I've started thinking about what I would do if I had just purchased Twitter, but I just can't understand the platform enough to know what wasn't working.

What would YOU change?


For my part, I don't understand how you can have coherent, evolving conversations when any random stranger (or bot) can hop in and shitpost.

The only reason I go there is to follow an event live in real time. When Smith slapped Rock, I went there to find out what other people thought they'd seen.

I do feel the company was somewhat overvalued, but that's a feeling, not an informed opinion.

The thing I do know is that this must be a desperate hurt for him to have gone in and started slashing so QUICKLY.


...