Anybody considering leaving Twitter?

[Karl Henning]

Three Stories About the Death of Twitter

[JBS]

Oh, to be so rich, you don't care how much cash you hemorrhage thanks to one's unbridled id.

To borrow a line about the US federal budget, a billion here, a billion there, soon you'll be talking about real money!

[Brian]

To borrow a line about the US federal budget, a billion here, a billion there, soon you'll be talking about real money!

I just saw a little fight on Twitter. Someone said, "If you think you're smarter than Elon, find $40 billion and buy Twitter back from him." And the reply was, "I know I'm smarter than Elon, because if I had $40 billion, I wouldn't buy Twitter."

[Todd]

I just saw a little fight on Twitter.

People dissatisfied with Musk's ownership can also just build their own platform.  That "argument" was used to defend people being banned under Dorsey.

[Karl Henning]

Elon's Twitter Apocalypse

[Karl Henning]

GMG is the nicest, friendliest "social media" place I've ever known.

+ 1

[greg]

I just saw a little fight on Twitter. Someone said, "If you think you're smarter than Elon, find $40 billion and buy Twitter back from him." And the reply was, "I know I'm smarter than Elon, because if I had $40 billion, I wouldn't buy Twitter."

Haha! Bam! 

Although personal values very so widely, so often, that we can look from the outside and it looks crazy from our perspective, but it could still be worth it to him, anyways, if he gets whatever it was that he was looking for.

[Karl Henning]

Wow. Just wow:

Welcome to all new users!

Currently a lot of new users are joining the community and the servers try to keep up, this may result in a little slowness in the interface. Normally this is not the case!

If the  need comes to upgrade servers @stux will announce this.

Please remember, we are not a big company just a single person. If you wanna help me out in this please checkout the following links:

https://paypal.me/stuxOS
https://patreon.com/mstdn
https://ko-fi.com/mstdn
https://liberapay.com/mstdn
https://opencollective.com/mstdn
https://bunq.me/stuxhost
Emphasis mine.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Wow. Just wow:

Welcome to all new users!

Currently a lot of new users are joining the community and the servers try to keep up, this may result in a little slowness in the interface. Normally this is not the case!

If the  need comes to upgrade servers @stux will announce this.

Please remember, we are not a big company just a single person. If you wanna help me out in this please checkout the following links:

https://paypal.me/stuxOS
https://patreon.com/mstdn
https://ko-fi.com/mstdn
https://liberapay.com/mstdn
https://opencollective.com/mstdn
https://bunq.me/stuxhost
Emphasis mine.

Karl,

I didn't know anything about Mastodon before you mentioned it.  You might be interested in reading this short article.  I found it to be quite interesting.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/thousands-have-joined-mastodon-since-twitter-changed-hands-its-founder-has-a-vision-for-democratizing-social-media/ar-AA13N4Mi

PD

[Spotted Horses]

The twitter acquisition has certainly been a spectacle, it is interesting to distinguish what is truly unusual about it and what is pretty typical.

Mass layoffs after and acquisition are very common, and when the target has lost money for 8 of the last 10 years, it would be shocking if there were not layoffs. Laying off 50% of the workforce is pretty extreme, and would only be expected of a company that is near to financial collapse. I didn't think twitter was at that point. There is much hew and cry about the suddenness of the layoffs, with people logged out of their work computers and having access to corporate resources cut without warning. Again, this is standard practice. You can't have employees who are laid off or anticipate they will be shortly laid off having access to corporate resources. Disgruntled employees may sabotage, or copy sensitive data. It would be customary to receive notice simultaneously with denial of access.

Mr Musk's tactics and strategy strike me as unclear. There was the narrative that he wanted to fix Twitter and make it an ideal communication platform based on unhindered free speech. If that were the case the bloodbath is not a good opening move. It leaves him with what is probably an inadequate and resentful workforce to implement the changes he wants to make. If he wants to make a profit, there are better ways to make a profit than buying a bloated money-loosing company an creating a public relations disaster which drives advertisers off the platform.

Revisiting the question of whether I will leave Twitter, I probably won't. Why would I sign up for Mastadon to replace twitter when I don't actually use twitter?

[Todd]

Mr Musk's tactics and strategy strike me as unclear.

Mr Musk makes grandiose statements and undertakes ambitious projects.  He has said he'd like to die on Mars and plans to get there using a SpaceX rocket.  He built Tesla into a profitable company in an industry with extreme barriers to entry.  He runs The Boring Company, which has perhaps the most ambitious mission of all his companies.  In several cases, he took big financial risks, putting a lot of his money at stake, to achieve his publicly stated aims.  He has been mocked when undertaking some endeavors.  He may actually be setting out to do precisely what he said he wanted to do with Twitter.  He may very well fail, of course, but his track record since the mid-90s is pretty good.  He may succeed, even if his approach seems unorthodox.  Given his record and his resources, he may be willing to lose tens of billions of dollars to see his mission succeed. 

Similarly, Mark Cuban has publicly stated that he is willing to lose money for years on Cost Plus Drug Company to see it succeed. 

I hope both succeed in all their efforts, even if they may fail. 

[Karl Henning]

Karl,

I didn't know anything about Mastodon before you mentioned it.  You might be interested in reading this short article.  I found it to be quite interesting.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/thousands-have-joined-mastodon-since-twitter-changed-hands-its-founder-has-a-vision-for-democratizing-social-media/ar-AA13N4Mi

PD

Interesting indeed, PD, thx!

Mr Musk's tactics and strategy strike me as unclear. There was the narrative that he wanted to fix Twitter and make it an ideal communication platform based on unhindered free speech. If that were the case the bloodbath is not a good opening move. It leaves him with what is probably an inadequate and resentful workforce to implement the changes he wants to make. If he wants to make a profit, there are better ways to make a profit than buying a bloated money-loosing company an creating a public relations disaster which drives advertisers off the platform.

Right?

Revisiting the question of whether I will leave Twitter, I probably won't. Why would I sign up for Mastadon to replace twitter when I don't actually use twitter?

Non-use of Twitter works, too.

[Karl Henning]

Jennifer Rubin:
The debate among social media users, analysts and pundits is no longer about just how malevolent Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership will become but whether it will rival New Coke in the annals of corporate pratfalls.

On Friday, Musk laid off half the company, reinforcing fears that Twitter's standards would unravel, enforcement would decline, and Twitter would come to resemble a toxic waste dump of election denial, conspiracies, hate speech and pro-Russian propaganda. "The mass layoffs Friday gutted teams devoted to combating election misinformation, adding context to misleading tweets and communicating with journalists, public officials and campaign staff," The Post reported.

The results may be disastrous. When he cut the curation team, The Post said, Musk slashed the jobs of employees assigned "to counter election-related falsehoods, such as claims that vote-by-mail ballots would be discarded, and provide credible information in cases where losing candidates have falsely claimed victory."

Not even God knows what Musk can do to manage Twitter well. As to his "plans," I don't speculate beyond his Chaos Monkey act to make the platform a MAGA-friendly dumpster fire.

[Brian]

Forgive my skepticism over Mastodon, a company named after an extinct animal 

[Todd]

There's always reddit.

[Karl Henning]

Forgive my skepticism over Mastodon, a company named after an extinct animal 

(* chortle *)

[Spotted Horses]

Forgive my skepticism over Mastodon, a company named after an extinct animal 

Reminds me of the early days of Twitter, when it was supposed to be a place where you would "tweet" little tidbits about your day to day existence to an audience consisting of your acquaintances. Not what it is become, largely a forum for megalomaniacs, hate mongers, celebrities and corporate marketers.

When I think of it, I have a little list of Facebook friends, but almost all are people I met outside of Facebook (some on GMG). GMG is the only "social media" site where I interact with people I don't otherwise know.

[Karl Henning]

Al que quiere

A n00b's guide to Mastodon

[Spotted Horses]

Let me see if I have this right.

Elon Musk's first email to Twitter Staff described the financial state of the company as "dire."
Elon Musk has told Twitter Staff that a bankruptcy declaration of the company is on the table.
Twitter's chief compliance officer and chief privacy offers have quit (among other high-ranking officers).
The FTC has warned that Twitter is now under investigation and that Elon Musk "is not above the law."
Blue check marks which used to indicate a verified account now indicate that the owner of the account has paid $8. A rash of fake accounts with blue starts have been reported.

So much winning!

[bhodges]

From MIT Technology Review:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/08/1062886/heres-how-a-twitter-engineer-says-it-will-break-in-the-coming-weeks/

-Bruce