4 ms·

Sounds like Elon didn't accept Twitter's conditions for joining the board. For Twitter this is serious; Elon could destroy Twitter. Sell it again, and create

Sounds like Elon didn't accept Twitter's conditions for joining the board. For Twitter this is serious; Elon could destroy Twitter. Sell it again, and create (or buy) an alternative. Just like Trump he has a personal brand big enough to jumpstart a social network, and unlike Trump (it seems) he could probably build it.

rsynnott 5y ago
> Just like Trump he has a personal brand big enough to jumpstart a social network That appears to be an embarrassing failure, tho. And Musk's personal brand is much smaller than Trump's.
- raspberry1337 5y ago
  >And Musk's personal brand is much smaller than Trump' The world is larger than just the USA. Elon has an international following that probably outsizes what's left of Trumps crazy republicans.
  - rsynnott 5y ago
    So, it's kind of horrifying, but so does Trump. Musk's fanbase is probably more Very Online than Trump's, but it's still a lot smaller.
    - qeternity 5y ago
      Indeed. Musk is famous because he's rich. Trump is rich because he's famous.
      - rsynnott 5y ago
        Well, Trump is rich because he's famous because he was rich, more precisely.
  - whywhywhywhy 5y ago
    I’m outside US and if you go outside the city you’ll be surprised how many people you encounter that were/still are fans of him, much more than people who know who Elon Musk is. Think it was easy to underestimate it when you’re in the city/tech bubbles.
  - RickJWagner 5y ago
    - Jgrubb 5y ago
      Is it though? In this media environment there’s not a lot of subtlety and honest conversation between differing viewpoints, and the vast majority of people believe what they’re told so, is it really _our_ fault?
      - RickJWagner 5y ago
        It has to be. We have to be critical of our favorite news sources, and have to make intentional efforts to see the good in the other side. Otherwise, things will only get worse. I honestly believe this.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - loudmax 5y ago
      There are lots of good people on the Republican side of the aisle. Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol, and everyone involved with the Lincoln Project. Trump's admiration of Vladimir Putin should make Republicans realize what America could have become if he had succeeded in defeating democracy on January 6th, 2021. That might restore the Republican party to former levels of honesty. And even sanity.
      - carlivar 5y ago
        Uhh you might want to look into Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver. Not to mention the graft within the organization. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/lincoln-project-trump-fraud/ https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/lincoln-project-t...
    - antattack 5y ago
      What you said might have been true when Trump was first elected, in 2016. Claiming that Trump is for smaller government or anti corruption is ignoring what happened 2016 - 2022.
- throwaway4good 5y ago
  The Trump stuff is hard to understand; seems like he had such a massive oppurtunity.
  - core-utility 5y ago
    He had a market, but simultaneously didn't if that makes any sense. The world didn't need another Twitter clone, it already had Parler and Gettr. Social networks are difficult to get users onto because people want to go where their "friends" are, so you're not just convincing one user individually. Getting wide enough adoption to where users actually use the platform regularly is difficult.
    - throwaway4good 5y ago
      I think it would make very much sense. However it seems like the problem is scaling / delivering in a technical sense. I find that incredible given the momentum he had just after election and the fact that the project was valued at 3 b usd via a spac.
    - overthemoon 5y ago
      I think this is right. In addition, IMO ultimately it feels hollow if you can't piss anyone off. Twitter makes it possible to search for the living avatar of whatever you hate the most so you can tweet invective at them until your head explodes. It feels good, even for a moment, to tell your enemies what's what. If you're on a platform with only MAGA people, what's the point? I signed up out of curiosity after it launched and there was so little actual engagement. Maybe that's changed, I dunno, but at any rate, a key component of the MAGA movement was how much certain high profile people obviously hated it and felt threatened by it. (Whether one thinks they should have or not is immaterial to the fact that it thrived on the hate and contempt from mainstream liberal mores havers.) If you can't see them being mad at you for having your own social media network, it loses its charm. Also, the fact that as far as I know Trump still hasn't posted anything there is a major unforced error. If nothing else it was a way to get a direct line to him post Twitter ban.
      - deleted 5y ago
- rsynnott 5y ago
  Also, thinking about it more, there's more of an obvious _cause_ for Trump enthusiasts to go to another network than Musk enthusiasts. For a start, Trump has actually been _banned_ from Twitter; realistically "Twitter kinda snubbed Musk" just doesn't have the same impact.
smcl 5y ago
I don't think the failure of Gettr or Truth Social or Gab, or any of these other networks is down to technical chops that a Musk-backed dev team would have that a Trump-backed dev team wouldn't. I think it's more down to the users. Gab/Gettr is attractive for the alt-right because you can say anything you like[0], Truth Social is attractive for Trump fans because it's backed by Trump himself. A hypothetical Elon Musk social network would probably be popular with fans of Tesla, SpaceX. Twitter is popular with hundreds of these sorts of categories of people, it's way more universal. [0] - sort of, I've seen stuff mocking the alt-right getting taken down which is pretty funny
- actionfromafar 5y ago
  [0] - It's not witch friendly, it's witches only, in other words.
- nicce 5y ago
  This is the current social network in nutshell. Almost anyone has technical capabilities to make them, but you need to find users. Someone with influnce can pull specific kind of users. It is becoming like a cult. Like ycombinator is its one kind of cult.
- rchaud 5y ago
  Truth Social doesn't seem to be that popular. Trump himself hasn't 'truthed' on there in over a month.
  - smcl 5y ago
    Yep it's really not popular. They had some very grand plans, distributing an infographic showing that there was a "Truth" group of companies in the pipeline[0] which were planned to directly with a number of big players in the traditional and social media spaces. I don't think anyone believed they would succeed, but if even Trump has lost interest I think the writing's on the wall [0] - https://i.insider.com/6171b3c713a46d0012b3c7c9 https://i.insider.com/6171b3c713a46d0012b3c7c9 - it's from this article, in case that link is ethereal https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-media-company-pitch-deck-app-social-media-truth-2021-10#-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-media-company-p...
mromanuk 5y ago
> Just like Trump he has a personal brand big enough to jumpstart a social network, and unlike Trump (it seems) he could probably build it. I'm under the impression that Elon Musk personal brand is orders of magnitude bigger than Trump, measuring them with how much market cap was generated by both of them.
- KarlKemp 5y ago
  Well then you’re measuring wrong. And, FWIW, neither Yesla nor Space X were created with his “personal brand”—its the other way around. The personal brand is good for some crypto coin manipulation and maybe 5hat boring thing I haven’t heard of on a while.
fuzzylightbulb 5y ago
No one is leaving twitter to join some alternative where the only thing that binds the members is their bizarre adoration of Elon Musk.

rsynnott 5y ago

> Just like Trump he has a personal brand big enough to jumpstart a social network That appears to be an embarrassing failure, tho. And Musk's personal brand is much smaller than Trump's.

raspberry1337 5y ago
>And Musk's personal brand is much smaller than Trump' The world is larger than just the USA. Elon has an international following that probably outsizes what's left of Trumps crazy republicans.
- rsynnott 5y ago
  So, it's kind of horrifying, but so does Trump. Musk's fanbase is probably more Very Online than Trump's, but it's still a lot smaller.
  - qeternity 5y ago
    Indeed. Musk is famous because he's rich. Trump is rich because he's famous.
    - rsynnott 5y ago
      Well, Trump is rich because he's famous because he was rich, more precisely.
- whywhywhywhy 5y ago
  I’m outside US and if you go outside the city you’ll be surprised how many people you encounter that were/still are fans of him, much more than people who know who Elon Musk is. Think it was easy to underestimate it when you’re in the city/tech bubbles.
- RickJWagner 5y ago
  - Jgrubb 5y ago
    Is it though? In this media environment there’s not a lot of subtlety and honest conversation between differing viewpoints, and the vast majority of people believe what they’re told so, is it really _our_ fault?
    - RickJWagner 5y ago
      It has to be. We have to be critical of our favorite news sources, and have to make intentional efforts to see the good in the other side. Otherwise, things will only get worse. I honestly believe this.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - loudmax 5y ago
    There are lots of good people on the Republican side of the aisle. Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol, and everyone involved with the Lincoln Project. Trump's admiration of Vladimir Putin should make Republicans realize what America could have become if he had succeeded in defeating democracy on January 6th, 2021. That might restore the Republican party to former levels of honesty. And even sanity.
    - carlivar 5y ago
      Uhh you might want to look into Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver. Not to mention the graft within the organization. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/lincoln-project-trump-fraud/ https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/lincoln-project-t...
  - antattack 5y ago
    What you said might have been true when Trump was first elected, in 2016. Claiming that Trump is for smaller government or anti corruption is ignoring what happened 2016 - 2022.
throwaway4good 5y ago
The Trump stuff is hard to understand; seems like he had such a massive oppurtunity.
- core-utility 5y ago
  He had a market, but simultaneously didn't if that makes any sense. The world didn't need another Twitter clone, it already had Parler and Gettr. Social networks are difficult to get users onto because people want to go where their "friends" are, so you're not just convincing one user individually. Getting wide enough adoption to where users actually use the platform regularly is difficult.
  - throwaway4good 5y ago
    I think it would make very much sense. However it seems like the problem is scaling / delivering in a technical sense. I find that incredible given the momentum he had just after election and the fact that the project was valued at 3 b usd via a spac.
  - overthemoon 5y ago
    I think this is right. In addition, IMO ultimately it feels hollow if you can't piss anyone off. Twitter makes it possible to search for the living avatar of whatever you hate the most so you can tweet invective at them until your head explodes. It feels good, even for a moment, to tell your enemies what's what. If you're on a platform with only MAGA people, what's the point? I signed up out of curiosity after it launched and there was so little actual engagement. Maybe that's changed, I dunno, but at any rate, a key component of the MAGA movement was how much certain high profile people obviously hated it and felt threatened by it. (Whether one thinks they should have or not is immaterial to the fact that it thrived on the hate and contempt from mainstream liberal mores havers.) If you can't see them being mad at you for having your own social media network, it loses its charm. Also, the fact that as far as I know Trump still hasn't posted anything there is a major unforced error. If nothing else it was a way to get a direct line to him post Twitter ban.
    - deleted 5y ago
rsynnott 5y ago
Also, thinking about it more, there's more of an obvious _cause_ for Trump enthusiasts to go to another network than Musk enthusiasts. For a start, Trump has actually been _banned_ from Twitter; realistically "Twitter kinda snubbed Musk" just doesn't have the same impact.

smcl 5y ago

I don't think the failure of Gettr or Truth Social or Gab, or any of these other networks is down to technical chops that a Musk-backed dev team would have that a Trump-backed dev team wouldn't. I think it's more down to the users. Gab/Gettr is attractive for the alt-right because you can say anything you like[0], Truth Social is attractive for Trump fans because it's backed by Trump himself. A hypothetical Elon Musk social network would probably be popular with fans of Tesla, SpaceX. Twitter is popular with hundreds of these sorts of categories of people, it's way more universal. [0] - sort of, I've seen stuff mocking the alt-right getting taken down which is pretty funny

actionfromafar 5y ago
[0] - It's not witch friendly, it's witches only, in other words.
nicce 5y ago
This is the current social network in nutshell. Almost anyone has technical capabilities to make them, but you need to find users. Someone with influnce can pull specific kind of users. It is becoming like a cult. Like ycombinator is its one kind of cult.
rchaud 5y ago
Truth Social doesn't seem to be that popular. Trump himself hasn't 'truthed' on there in over a month.
- smcl 5y ago
  Yep it's really not popular. They had some very grand plans, distributing an infographic showing that there was a "Truth" group of companies in the pipeline[0] which were planned to directly with a number of big players in the traditional and social media spaces. I don't think anyone believed they would succeed, but if even Trump has lost interest I think the writing's on the wall [0] - https://i.insider.com/6171b3c713a46d0012b3c7c9 https://i.insider.com/6171b3c713a46d0012b3c7c9 - it's from this article, in case that link is ethereal https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-media-company-pitch-deck-app-social-media-truth-2021-10#-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-media-company-p...

mromanuk 5y ago

> Just like Trump he has a personal brand big enough to jumpstart a social network, and unlike Trump (it seems) he could probably build it. I'm under the impression that Elon Musk personal brand is orders of magnitude bigger than Trump, measuring them with how much market cap was generated by both of them.

KarlKemp 5y ago
Well then you’re measuring wrong. And, FWIW, neither Yesla nor Space X were created with his “personal brand”—its the other way around. The personal brand is good for some crypto coin manipulation and maybe 5hat boring thing I haven’t heard of on a while.

fuzzylightbulb 5y ago

No one is leaving twitter to join some alternative where the only thing that binds the members is their bizarre adoration of Elon Musk.