[chucker]

Originally Posted by Frank777 What the..? What? Social Media. Pandemic. Inflation. Crime. Election Cycle. Literal war in Europe. Potential war in half-dozen other places. Who are you connected to on social media? Monks?

Yeah, I mute some of the people who post of nothing but the same alarmism over and over. Like, not to say some of those aren't real issues, but I don't need the added anxiety over something that isn't very actionable anyway.

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by drewprops No monastery, just friends of different stripes who are not currently at loggerheads. My conservative friends have not been posting much... until today. I have seen 3 joyous, revel-filled posts by arch-conservatives. We are talking "dancing in the streets" level celebrations, with likes and loves by the friends who are politically aligned with them. However, a friend who is an arch-liberal suggested that there could be issues facing Elon, including: GDPR laws in Europe that could affect the way the platform behaves. A dearth of liquid cash, meaning tangibles may have to be placed on the table. Annual interest on the debt he's using to purchase the platform. ...

I have not observed people "calling each other out" like I did for the past 3 or 4 years.


...

[709]

Personally I feel like he won't go through with the final sale and he'll pay whatever backout-fee Twitter and he agreed to. The guy may be a genius, but he's also a grade school level whiner when things don't go his way. I think he'll quickly realize it's more fun to be an occasional outside agitator than to be scrutinized on what he allows on "his" platform, daily.

[turtle]

Jack Dorsey seems to really like Musk owning Twitter. It will be interesting if they collaborate in some way.

[psmith2.0]

Why does Jack Dorsey look like the mugshot of every homeless, drug-addicted intruder and/or "I'm Jesus, mannnnnn" serial killer in existence?

Good grief.

[709]

"Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”



Too much money does things to one's brain, I swear.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by drewprops No monastery, just friends of different stripes who are not currently at loggerheads. My conservative friends have not been posting much... until today. I have seen 3 joyous, revel-filled posts by arch-conservatives. We are talking "dancing in the streets" level celebrations, with likes and loves by the friends who are politically aligned with them. However, a friend who is an arch-liberal suggested that there could be issues facing Elon, including: GDPR laws in Europe that could affect the way the platform behaves. A dearth of liquid cash, meaning tangibles may have to be placed on the table. Annual interest on the debt he's using to purchase the platform. ...

Yeah I think he's gonna face an uphill battle. This company is also pure chaos internally and always has been. I've been working here for nearly half the company's life and I can safely say he's about to face the only weapon more powerful than money—bureaucracy.

A lot of people seem to think that we're going to "open source the algorithm" and they'll find some smoking gun that says "if (tweet.isConservative) shadowBan()" and that's just not how any of this works. There's no single "algorithm" and most of it is gigantic machine learning models. If you want to go crazy staring at thousands of matrix coefficients, be my guest.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by turtle Jack Dorsey seems to really like Musk owning Twitter. It will be interesting if they collaborate in some way.

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 Why does Jack Dorsey look like the mugshot of every homeless, drug-addicted intruder and/or "I'm Jesus, mannnnnn" serial killer in existence? Good grief.

Originally Posted by 709 "Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.” Too much money does things to one's brain, I swear.

Jack was an... interesting dude to work for. In some aspects very down to earth. He insisted on walking to work even though he could obviously afford any car he wants. He would bring his parents to company events! One time our CMO brought his parents on stage to tell embarrassing stories about Jack as a child in front of all 8000 of us.

On the other hand, he would also spend twenty-five grand on clothes designed to make him look homeless. At one all-hands he was wearing some very high-fashion shoes. We found them online: $10k a pair.

We once gathered the entire company for an in-person all-hands in San Francisco. He led all of us in guided meditation in the Moscone Center and then had us drink salty lemon water.

Yes I work for a cult.

He refused to wear a tie when he testified before Congress and became the first person to testify in the House while wearing a nose ring.

The Economist once captioned a picture of Jack as "Jack Dorsey during a recent Old Testament beard experiment."

[psmith2.0]

I'm all for no ties, but the guy seems to go out of way to embrace hobo chic. Hence, my comments a few posts above.

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by drewprops I have not observed people "calling each other out" like I did for the past 3 or 4 years.

Give it six months past the midterms, and the U.S. Presidential Cycle will take care of that.

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by Frank777 Give it six months past the midterms, and the U.S. Presidential Cycle will take care of that.

That is why I am intentionally paying attention to the relative peace in my end of the world right now. I want to appreciate it WHILE it's happening.

...

[turtle]

Well, you could always just not use Twitter (or any social media) and watch from the outside.

It is very refreshing actually. There is so much I "miss out on" and it is glorious.

[Matsu]

So, overnight it seems that right wing political figures are seeing huge gains in new followers while democrats are losing existing followers. Musk will probably just turn it into a platform for market manipulation of crypto.

[chucker]

There's been some speculation on manipulation on the follower counts, but I'm guessing it's as simple as it looks:

• some people no longer feel welcome and are deleting and/or deactivating (I know some folks who have at least considering it)
• the flipside of that is that some people who previously didn't feel welcome now do again

[drewprops]

"We've got stars on ours."





...

[turtle]

Originally Posted by chucker There's been some speculation on manipulation on the follower counts, but I'm guessing it's as simple as it looks: some people no longer feel welcome and are deleting and/or deactivating (I know some folks who have at least considering it) the flipside of that is that some people who previously didn't feel welcome now do again

I think this is huge. Twitter has been seen as a liberal echo chamber with conservative views being blocked or called fake new and "moderated". So now liberals are leaving because a conservative is buying it. Conservatives are coming back because they feel like they might be able to speak their mind. At least, that is the perspective I from watching this on the outside.

Also enjoy EU saying they will get Musk if he doesn't comply with their laws.

[709]

I'm still predicting that it won't happen and Musk backs out, but if it does we need him to reinstate the former President's Twitter account as one of the first orders of business. Especially if it's before the midterm elections.

[turtle]

[Anonymous Coward]

I do recognize the sarcasm in the previous post, but it was widely reported that the former President does not intend to return to Twitter .

Another interesting item (no supporting link, just from tracking after the "poison pill" news) is that Twitter stock is still trading at a price in the neighborhood of 10% less than Musk's offering price. I don't claim to know what that means and if I did, I might be a more frequent stock purchaser (in general, not TWTR).

[Matsu]

Oh there’s no question follower counts are being manipulated, there’s no way 300,000 Obama followers leave the platform overnight because of Elon. Obama is an insanely popular figure (outside the US) and also popular in many US constituencies, if equally polarizing in others.

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by Matsu So, overnight it seems that right wing political figures are seeing huge gains in new followers while democrats are losing existing followers.

Which was to be expected. Many conservative accounts have seen really shady changes in their follower numbers over the past five years, and Twitter during the buyout is having to truth up to their actions (including lies about subscriber numbers.)

In the meantime, the 'I'll move to Canada if Trump gets elected' crowd is threatening to leave (to Gab or Parler, I guess.)
So liberal/progressive accounts are seeing a visible, if temporary, decline.

So the changes seem easily explained by events. No one, including Musk, seems to be secretly manipulating much of anything.

Right now, anyway.

[Ryan]

Absolutely none of what you just said is true.

Bots, including those used for paid followers, are identified and removed in batches. That's why follower numbers sometimes make big jumps.

There was no lie about subscriber numbers. There was a mistake that led to a discrepancy of <1%.

[Frank777]

So Matsu's contention above that 300,000 Obama followers went away is explained by those being bots that were identified and removed in the period right after Musk came in with his offer?

That seems highly unlikely.

[chucker]

I think you people are conflating two things: the corrected counts for their earnings report, and the perceived changes beginning of this week.

[Matsu]

hmmm... lots of other reporting on this, just highlighting the Obama example, but there's a definite trend in left and right follower count trends. Could be organic? Could be manipulation? I think so... to both

This young lady is interesting 'cause she posts the receipts: https://twitter.com/RVAwonk?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ct wgr%5Eauthor

It's hard to imagine that walking lumps of human shit like Majorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz could see their followers increase, but that's only if you're a more decent human being than I. Maybe someone with a more hopeful outlook of human nature? Whether gained through manipulation or legitimate following, neither speaks well of us. I can see both, because there has been ample evidence for both. People like Gaetz and Greene work the circuit relentlessly. Some will follow for the same reason they watch any number of train wrecks (real and metaphorical). Worse, others because they genuinely agree. Meh.

I don't even use twitter, and I haven't been a partisan for years... In any case it isn't a right or left wing echo chamber. It is an echo chamber, period. It simply hardens people's opinions and fuels modern tribalism. I shouldn't feel this whole dynamic in my body like some kind of weight. I've been writing something that captures my thoughts about where we are. I go to a few places online, with the illusion of anonymity - this being one of them - to sample people's thinking. I have nothing against any of you. I simply feel saddened by what I have seen over the last two years. It's been gnawing at me more than it should.

[chucker]

I guess I don't understand why some people consider "some folks now feel more welcome than before, and some folks now feel unwelcome" so unlikely.

Occam's razor and all.

[drewprops]

As I mentioned previously, I saw legitimate "dancing in the streets" behavior from friends who are rightwing partisans - some of whom had gone on silent running following the insurgency against our government.

Tidal shifts in participants is a real possibility.

...

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by chucker I guess I don't understand why some people consider "some folks now feel more welcome than before, and some folks now feel unwelcome" so unlikely. Occam's razor and all.

This is exactly what happened. Nothing has changed internally.

We have a saying: "Come work at Twitter, where your bugs of today can become conspiracy theories of tomorrow!"

[drewprops]

I just saw a post by a friend, who identifies as liberal, showing that they had deleted their Twitter account. Several of her friends were "Same". Only Twitter has a real breakdown.


...

[709]

Did they give a specific reason? Myself, I don't get the whole jumping-the-gun thing – the deal isn't even done ffs – and for those that already have, I still don't get exactly why. Musk isn't exactly right-wing or anything, a childish troll, sure, but from where I see it he's only a conservative when it comes to people talking about raising his taxes.