4 ms·

Is Twitter going away? What did I miss? I know a lot of folks are taking Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter as a “the sky is falling” moment, but can we please hav

Is Twitter going away? What did I miss? I know a lot of folks are taking Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter as a “the sky is falling” moment, but can we please have a reality check here? As a business Twitter was bloated and has stagnated over the past few years. I’m taking an optimistic view of where Twitter may go as a product/service. Take a deep breath folks. We don’t need a half assed Twitter replacement.

rendall 4y ago
> Is Twitter going away? What did I miss? Speaking as a person who has been generally well-disposed towards Elon Musk and like him also would describe myself as a left-leaning, centrist, free-speech absolutist, I think his behavior has been erratic lately. Perhaps his behavior has always been erratic, but it just never affected me personally. Speaking as a resident of a country neighboring Russia, his amateur diplomacy from a few weeks ago does affect me, and in my view was literally dangerous. He pontificated from a place of profound ignorance at best and continued to double down even in the face of very smart domain experts and ordinary Ukrainians asking him - begging him - to please zip it. Then he acted aggrieved and hurt when his "peace proposal" was not received well. I'm not sure what is being accomplished by the latest Twitter shenanigans, but I'm seeing the same behavior of his ignoring domain experts. For instance, moderation is a difficult social and technical problem irrespective of political view. Advertisers are not renewing their contracts with Twitter, not because of Musk's political views, but because they did not have confidence that their brands would not be tainted by association with unmoderated nastiness. Again, Musk attributed this to left-wing activists and not his own inability to reassure his business associates. He framed it as a free-speech issue when it is absolutely not. Then he threatened to "name and shame" the advertisers who declined to renew. He fired the domain experts who understand moderation, and so the institutional knowledge about it - arguably, what he bought when he bought Twitter - is gone, never to return. So, I don't think Twitter will recover from that. Perhaps if I had not experienced his amateur diplomacy directly, I would just continue to think of Musk as a fellow who is very good at business and is possibly playing multi-dimensional chess. But I cannot unlearn what I have learned. His personal brand is permanently tarnished, for me.
- rc_mob 4y ago
  Why on earth would you like Elon Musk? He's just selfish and only looks out for himself and himself only. I fail to understand why you or anybody would like someone such as this.
  - rendall 4y ago
    First sentence could benefit from some commas but the window for editing has passed. "Speaking as a person who has been generally well-disposed towards Elon Musk and, like him, also would describe myself as..." like as in "similar" Although, I do suspect I would like Musk, personally. I like lots of people who would make absolutely terrible public figures and business decisions
eurasiantiger 4y ago
It is fairly obvious Musk’s business decisions only make sense in the context of dismantling Twitter.
- rexreed 4y ago
  At first I was thinking what sort of self-destructive person would do that, and then I realized he saddled Twitter with $1B in debt payments and foisting this onto other investors, and I realized that Elon was exactly the kind of vindictive person who would do that, given that he was pretty much cornered into buying Twitter in the first place. I'm sure the boat is being put on fire and made to sink. When they declare bankruptcy and file Chapter 11 to resolve their $1B in payments then you know that's what this was all about. I can do without Twitter, so it doesn't bother me. Let the billionaires have their space-age pissing contests.
  - 0x445442 4y ago
    Unfortunately I think your last sentence is right on target. I think the world is headed straight towards a neo-techno feudalism where individuals seeking any form of protection will need to pledge their fealty to some big corporation feudal lord.
  - arwineap 4y ago
    > given that he was pretty much cornered into buying Twitter in the first place Just to be clear; Elon put himself in that corner, no one forced him there.
heresie-dabord 4y ago
> We don’t need a half assed Twitter replacement. Twitter as an announcement platform offers nothing approaching USD $40b in value. Other governments and organisations could follow the example of the EU and establish a Mastodon server. Twitter as another "social media" cluster of coitus never really had a clear value proposition apart from 90% of its revenue coming from advertising. As such, it is just another advertising delivery system.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  I doubt he'll ever make his money back, but does that mean twitter will cease to exist? I don't think so. I think the rich buy media for the influence, not profit. Obviously he severely overpaid, but owning twitter still gives him influence. And it's not like twitter is loaded with assets; liquidating the company won't get his money back.
Vaslo 4y ago
Or worse, look at all the different things being recommended instead of Twitter - this, Mastodon, etc. Everyone will end up at different places, then end back at Twitter anyways. Old relatives and tech disliking spouses will never use this or Mastodon. Too much work, too confusing.

rendall 4y ago

> Is Twitter going away? What did I miss? Speaking as a person who has been generally well-disposed towards Elon Musk and like him also would describe myself as a left-leaning, centrist, free-speech absolutist, I think his behavior has been erratic lately. Perhaps his behavior has always been erratic, but it just never affected me personally. Speaking as a resident of a country neighboring Russia, his amateur diplomacy from a few weeks ago does affect me, and in my view was literally dangerous. He pontificated from a place of profound ignorance at best and continued to double down even in the face of very smart domain experts and ordinary Ukrainians asking him - begging him - to please zip it. Then he acted aggrieved and hurt when his "peace proposal" was not received well. I'm not sure what is being accomplished by the latest Twitter shenanigans, but I'm seeing the same behavior of his ignoring domain experts. For instance, moderation is a difficult social and technical problem irrespective of political view. Advertisers are not renewing their contracts with Twitter, not because of Musk's political views, but because they did not have confidence that their brands would not be tainted by association with unmoderated nastiness. Again, Musk attributed this to left-wing activists and not his own inability to reassure his business associates. He framed it as a free-speech issue when it is absolutely not. Then he threatened to "name and shame" the advertisers who declined to renew. He fired the domain experts who understand moderation, and so the institutional knowledge about it - arguably, what he bought when he bought Twitter - is gone, never to return. So, I don't think Twitter will recover from that. Perhaps if I had not experienced his amateur diplomacy directly, I would just continue to think of Musk as a fellow who is very good at business and is possibly playing multi-dimensional chess. But I cannot unlearn what I have learned. His personal brand is permanently tarnished, for me.

rc_mob 4y ago
Why on earth would you like Elon Musk? He's just selfish and only looks out for himself and himself only. I fail to understand why you or anybody would like someone such as this.
- rendall 4y ago
  First sentence could benefit from some commas but the window for editing has passed. "Speaking as a person who has been generally well-disposed towards Elon Musk and, like him, also would describe myself as..." like as in "similar" Although, I do suspect I would like Musk, personally. I like lots of people who would make absolutely terrible public figures and business decisions

eurasiantiger 4y ago

It is fairly obvious Musk’s business decisions only make sense in the context of dismantling Twitter.

rexreed 4y ago
At first I was thinking what sort of self-destructive person would do that, and then I realized he saddled Twitter with $1B in debt payments and foisting this onto other investors, and I realized that Elon was exactly the kind of vindictive person who would do that, given that he was pretty much cornered into buying Twitter in the first place. I'm sure the boat is being put on fire and made to sink. When they declare bankruptcy and file Chapter 11 to resolve their $1B in payments then you know that's what this was all about. I can do without Twitter, so it doesn't bother me. Let the billionaires have their space-age pissing contests.
- 0x445442 4y ago
  Unfortunately I think your last sentence is right on target. I think the world is headed straight towards a neo-techno feudalism where individuals seeking any form of protection will need to pledge their fealty to some big corporation feudal lord.
- arwineap 4y ago
  > given that he was pretty much cornered into buying Twitter in the first place Just to be clear; Elon put himself in that corner, no one forced him there.

heresie-dabord 4y ago

> We don’t need a half assed Twitter replacement. Twitter as an announcement platform offers nothing approaching USD $40b in value. Other governments and organisations could follow the example of the EU and establish a Mastodon server. Twitter as another "social media" cluster of coitus never really had a clear value proposition apart from 90% of its revenue coming from advertising. As such, it is just another advertising delivery system.

MichaelCollins 4y ago
I doubt he'll ever make his money back, but does that mean twitter will cease to exist? I don't think so. I think the rich buy media for the influence, not profit. Obviously he severely overpaid, but owning twitter still gives him influence. And it's not like twitter is loaded with assets; liquidating the company won't get his money back.

Vaslo 4y ago

Or worse, look at all the different things being recommended instead of Twitter - this, Mastodon, etc. Everyone will end up at different places, then end back at Twitter anyways. Old relatives and tech disliking spouses will never use this or Mastodon. Too much work, too confusing.