4 ms·

All the musky users of hacker news seem to have vanished. Curious

dmonitor 4y ago
I was admittedly giving him benefit of the doubt at first, because an active user of the website would understand how not to break it. I just struggle to rationalize any of the decisions he's made thus far.
- philosopher1234 4y ago
  I think benefit of the doubt was somewhat warranted. Waiting to see what happens. But there were many who just completely dismissed the valid risks and criticisms people raised.
  - bagels 4y ago
    He was either: completely making wrong inferences and misunderstanding the statistics around the bots problem, or just lying to try to get out of the deal. Neither deserves benefit of the doubt.
    - philosopher1234 4y ago
      Maybe wrong phrase. It still seems plausible that he comes out ahead here. But it’s probably not good for the world.
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  I think it could go hand in hand. What an "active user" does and expects from Twitter is wildly different depending on your residence country, social position, gender, age, occupation etc. There is not one Twitter experience, but a multitude, and expecting to fully grasp the platform just by being on it for a few years is unrealistic.
  - ncallaway 4y ago
    I think that's important to note, and also worth keeping in mind that Elon's Twitter experience is probably an extreme outlier in terms of how users interact with the site.
thrown_22 4y ago
Twitter doesn't need 10,000 engineers to keep running. I'd be shocked if a well designed system would need more than a hundred given the head counts as some of the places I've worked at. That doesn't stop Musk from killing it in the transition from here to there. And what glorious fun we're all having looking at this train wreck.
recuter 4y ago
I don't know what a musky user is but if site keeps functioning with a 90% reduction in head count it would be one of those most hilarious events in SV history. Bet it stays up and a certain crowd moves on to boycotts before eventually returning as users next year.
x86_64Ubuntu 4y ago
It is kind of strange how before, HN was an altar of Musk devotees praising him and his crusade for Free Speech Absolutism. And now, it's crickets. While the changes he's making are far worse than imagined, no one that wasn't a devotee imagined he was going to do anything beneficial for the platform. So I assume they are just being quiet now since nothing that's being done can be handwaved away.
- paweladamczuk 4y ago
  Maybe it's better to assume the best of people? Maybe we are just changing our minds in light of new facts rather than remaining "devotees"?
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    The ever-present problem with that way of looking at it is that there's actually nothing special or new or more obvious about these events than any previously that should have keyed you in that he's a petulant, stupid man-child. If this actually woke you up, why didn't you wake up when he called a diver a pedo for no reason, and instead of apologizing he fought it in court saying that "nononono it's perfectly normal we said it all the time as kids" as if that should make it okay.
- Strom 4y ago
  I wouldn't call myself a devotee, but I'm still on the positive side of the opinion spectrum. The primary reason to not talk much is that it's useless. You can't reason with an angry mob. Sure there are plenty of things to criticize, but the mob is not focused on valid criticism targets. Anything and everything is hailed as a sign of evil and/or incompetence. It is incredibly exhausting to try to provide nuanced reasoning against kneejerk hate. Overall I thought the whole Twitter purchase was a distraction when it was first announced and I still think that. I'm much more interested in SpaceX.
  - smcl 4y ago
    There's definitely some vitriol flying around relating to this - some directed at Musk, some directed at the woke/left/liberals they feel are responsible. But there are far more reasonable criticisms of the last couple of weeks' worth of chaos that express a tone of incredulity than anything. To me I think it's just that most of the things people have a problem with are basically indefensible, so either his fans won't try defend them or they've come round to the idea that he's maybe not who they thought he was.
dougmwne 4y ago
I have found plenty to be impressed with at points in the past and I suspect he will still go down in the history books. But he’s been losing it for awhile now and this Twitter mess seems to be his crash and burn moment that could take his other companies down with it. What else is there to say?
pkulak 4y ago
Or maybe our beliefs changed as the facts changed.
331c8c71 4y ago
I am neutral towards musk and quite dislike wokist twitter (e.g. biden laptop censorship story). Hence I favor musk in relative terms. Whether musk destroys twitter or rebuilds it's a postive thing in my book.

I was admittedly giving him benefit of the doubt at first, because an active user of the website would understand how not to break it. I just struggle to rationalize any of the decisions he's made thus far.

philosopher1234 4y ago
I think benefit of the doubt was somewhat warranted. Waiting to see what happens. But there were many who just completely dismissed the valid risks and criticisms people raised.
- bagels 4y ago
  He was either: completely making wrong inferences and misunderstanding the statistics around the bots problem, or just lying to try to get out of the deal. Neither deserves benefit of the doubt.
  - philosopher1234 4y ago
    Maybe wrong phrase. It still seems plausible that he comes out ahead here. But it’s probably not good for the world.
makeitdouble 4y ago
I think it could go hand in hand. What an "active user" does and expects from Twitter is wildly different depending on your residence country, social position, gender, age, occupation etc. There is not one Twitter experience, but a multitude, and expecting to fully grasp the platform just by being on it for a few years is unrealistic.
- ncallaway 4y ago
  I think that's important to note, and also worth keeping in mind that Elon's Twitter experience is probably an extreme outlier in terms of how users interact with the site.

thrown_22 4y ago

Twitter doesn't need 10,000 engineers to keep running. I'd be shocked if a well designed system would need more than a hundred given the head counts as some of the places I've worked at. That doesn't stop Musk from killing it in the transition from here to there. And what glorious fun we're all having looking at this train wreck.

recuter 4y ago

I don't know what a musky user is but if site keeps functioning with a 90% reduction in head count it would be one of those most hilarious events in SV history. Bet it stays up and a certain crowd moves on to boycotts before eventually returning as users next year.

x86_64Ubuntu 4y ago

It is kind of strange how before, HN was an altar of Musk devotees praising him and his crusade for Free Speech Absolutism. And now, it's crickets. While the changes he's making are far worse than imagined, no one that wasn't a devotee imagined he was going to do anything beneficial for the platform. So I assume they are just being quiet now since nothing that's being done can be handwaved away.

paweladamczuk 4y ago
Maybe it's better to assume the best of people? Maybe we are just changing our minds in light of new facts rather than remaining "devotees"?
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  The ever-present problem with that way of looking at it is that there's actually nothing special or new or more obvious about these events than any previously that should have keyed you in that he's a petulant, stupid man-child. If this actually woke you up, why didn't you wake up when he called a diver a pedo for no reason, and instead of apologizing he fought it in court saying that "nononono it's perfectly normal we said it all the time as kids" as if that should make it okay.
Strom 4y ago
I wouldn't call myself a devotee, but I'm still on the positive side of the opinion spectrum. The primary reason to not talk much is that it's useless. You can't reason with an angry mob. Sure there are plenty of things to criticize, but the mob is not focused on valid criticism targets. Anything and everything is hailed as a sign of evil and/or incompetence. It is incredibly exhausting to try to provide nuanced reasoning against kneejerk hate. Overall I thought the whole Twitter purchase was a distraction when it was first announced and I still think that. I'm much more interested in SpaceX.
- smcl 4y ago
  There's definitely some vitriol flying around relating to this - some directed at Musk, some directed at the woke/left/liberals they feel are responsible. But there are far more reasonable criticisms of the last couple of weeks' worth of chaos that express a tone of incredulity than anything. To me I think it's just that most of the things people have a problem with are basically indefensible, so either his fans won't try defend them or they've come round to the idea that he's maybe not who they thought he was.

dougmwne 4y ago

I have found plenty to be impressed with at points in the past and I suspect he will still go down in the history books. But he’s been losing it for awhile now and this Twitter mess seems to be his crash and burn moment that could take his other companies down with it. What else is there to say?

pkulak 4y ago

Or maybe our beliefs changed as the facts changed.

331c8c71 4y ago

I am neutral towards musk and quite dislike wokist twitter (e.g. biden laptop censorship story). Hence I favor musk in relative terms. Whether musk destroys twitter or rebuilds it's a postive thing in my book.