49 ms·

Is this like the other rumors that turned out to not be true? Or maybe not? This is such a bizarre spectacle. I'm not sure why there is a such a media frenzy

by refurb 4y ago

Is this like the other rumors that turned out to not be true? Or maybe not? This is such a bizarre spectacle. I'm not sure why there is a such a media frenzy? It's one tech company.

MBCook 4y ago
First, Twitter is has huge and oversized importance. It’s vey big in both the tech and journalism worlds. There’s a reason celebrities are on it and tweets show up on the news and in articles. Second, it’s Musk. He’s famous, a celebrity (of sorts), and VERY VERY rich. Not only does he have haters, people seem to love watching the successful fail. “I knew it. He’s not so great. I could have done better.” And finally, it’s just 100% nuts. This is not how the business world works. He over bid on a company as a joke (?) after getting high (?) with the price being a weed joke. Then he tried to back out and got sued. Then at almost literally the last moment he went through with it and has almost DESTROYED the company in a week. It’s a perfect storm of WTF-hate-drama about a world famous company and a publicity hound.
- NegativeK 4y ago
  > I could have done better. I pretty much never assume this, from grocery bagger to CEO, but in this case I'm absolutely confident that I could've done better. Because not buying the damn thing is obviously better.
NegativeK 4y ago
I'm being as kind as I can here: It's one very large, very visible social network that had a very dramatic, drawn out, and absurd takeover executed by someone who is very eccentric.
- refurb 4y ago
  Right, it gets clicks. But if I think of the impact of Twitter for most Americans and I’m not sure they’d notice if it disappeared one day.
  - dagmx 4y ago
    The impact if it disappears is perhaps minimal (though I do think it’s a valuable place for many topics like programming, art and game dev among others). However the real impact is if it becomes a service to push partisan agenda. Elon has already shown his biases multiple times and his duplicitous nature. He is very much on the cusp of being the new Murdoch. Whether or not many Americans use Twitter is going to be irrelevant compared to the impact it will have on society.
    - refurb 4y ago
      However the real impact is if it becomes a service to push partisan agenda. It already has? Do you remember the banning of the Hunter Biden laptop story right before the election. You know, that story that turned out to be 100% true?
      - dagmx 4y ago
        How very disingenuous of you. Anyone who paid attention knows that the issue was the conspiracies surrounding that event, which are most definitely not “100% true”. Even today, it’s not “100% proven” that the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden. So the goal was to curtail misinformation, which is clearly needed for folks like yourself.
throwawaylinux 4y ago
I think it is a big deal to them because Musk does not appear to be completely subservient to the corporate-political orthodoxy. Same reason why Trump was made such a spectacle.
- djur 4y ago
  There are plenty of people with right-wing politics who are not "made a spectacle" like Trump. Trump and Musk are spectacles because they have made careers out of spectacle.
  - throwawaylinux 4y ago
    It is not only people with ostensibly left-wing politics are part of the corporate-political orthodoxy.
threeseed 4y ago
> I'm not sure why there is a such a media frenzy I've been in tech for 20+ years now and never seen a situation like this. In a single week, Musk has single-handedly put them on a course to bankruptcy. The firings have been sudden, indiscriminate, short-sighted and ineptly executed. Advertisers who Twitter desperately needs are fleeing the company in droves and may never come back. The level of debt is clearly unsustainable and its revenues are declining rapidly. The only thing that comes close to this is the Digg V4 redesign.
- SkipperCat 4y ago
  If it is true that the economy is shrinking and we are heading into a recession, I would guess that many companies are going to pull back on advertising buys. Their hardest decision would be where to do that. Elon has answered that question for them and delivered it on a silver platter.
  - ta988 4y ago
    Advertising on Twitter was not really efficient anyway.
    - brewdad 4y ago
      Once in a while I would take a week and block every single promoted tweet account. Major brands had the opportunity to advertise to me once and then I never saw them ever again.
- refurb 4y ago
  The level of debt is clearly unsustainable and its revenues are declining rapidly. He's owned it for like a week. This is hysteria.

by refurb 4y ago

Is this like the other rumors that turned out to not be true? Or maybe not? This is such a bizarre spectacle. I'm not sure why there is a such a media frenzy? It's one tech company.

MBCook 4y ago

First, Twitter is has huge and oversized importance. It’s vey big in both the tech and journalism worlds. There’s a reason celebrities are on it and tweets show up on the news and in articles. Second, it’s Musk. He’s famous, a celebrity (of sorts), and VERY VERY rich. Not only does he have haters, people seem to love watching the successful fail. “I knew it. He’s not so great. I could have done better.” And finally, it’s just 100% nuts. This is not how the business world works. He over bid on a company as a joke (?) after getting high (?) with the price being a weed joke. Then he tried to back out and got sued. Then at almost literally the last moment he went through with it and has almost DESTROYED the company in a week. It’s a perfect storm of WTF-hate-drama about a world famous company and a publicity hound.

NegativeK 4y ago
> I could have done better. I pretty much never assume this, from grocery bagger to CEO, but in this case I'm absolutely confident that I could've done better. Because not buying the damn thing is obviously better.

NegativeK 4y ago

I'm being as kind as I can here: It's one very large, very visible social network that had a very dramatic, drawn out, and absurd takeover executed by someone who is very eccentric.

refurb 4y ago
Right, it gets clicks. But if I think of the impact of Twitter for most Americans and I’m not sure they’d notice if it disappeared one day.
- dagmx 4y ago
  The impact if it disappears is perhaps minimal (though I do think it’s a valuable place for many topics like programming, art and game dev among others). However the real impact is if it becomes a service to push partisan agenda. Elon has already shown his biases multiple times and his duplicitous nature. He is very much on the cusp of being the new Murdoch. Whether or not many Americans use Twitter is going to be irrelevant compared to the impact it will have on society.
  - refurb 4y ago
    However the real impact is if it becomes a service to push partisan agenda. It already has? Do you remember the banning of the Hunter Biden laptop story right before the election. You know, that story that turned out to be 100% true?
    - dagmx 4y ago
      How very disingenuous of you. Anyone who paid attention knows that the issue was the conspiracies surrounding that event, which are most definitely not “100% true”. Even today, it’s not “100% proven” that the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden. So the goal was to curtail misinformation, which is clearly needed for folks like yourself.

throwawaylinux 4y ago

I think it is a big deal to them because Musk does not appear to be completely subservient to the corporate-political orthodoxy. Same reason why Trump was made such a spectacle.

djur 4y ago
There are plenty of people with right-wing politics who are not "made a spectacle" like Trump. Trump and Musk are spectacles because they have made careers out of spectacle.
- throwawaylinux 4y ago
  It is not only people with ostensibly left-wing politics are part of the corporate-political orthodoxy.

threeseed 4y ago

> I'm not sure why there is a such a media frenzy I've been in tech for 20+ years now and never seen a situation like this. In a single week, Musk has single-handedly put them on a course to bankruptcy. The firings have been sudden, indiscriminate, short-sighted and ineptly executed. Advertisers who Twitter desperately needs are fleeing the company in droves and may never come back. The level of debt is clearly unsustainable and its revenues are declining rapidly. The only thing that comes close to this is the Digg V4 redesign.

SkipperCat 4y ago
If it is true that the economy is shrinking and we are heading into a recession, I would guess that many companies are going to pull back on advertising buys. Their hardest decision would be where to do that. Elon has answered that question for them and delivered it on a silver platter.
- ta988 4y ago
  Advertising on Twitter was not really efficient anyway.
  - brewdad 4y ago
    Once in a while I would take a week and block every single promoted tweet account. Major brands had the opportunity to advertise to me once and then I never saw them ever again.
refurb 4y ago
The level of debt is clearly unsustainable and its revenues are declining rapidly. He's owned it for like a week. This is hysteria.