7 ms·

What's really behind Twitter's staff exodus

41 points by ssclafani 15y ago

nhangen 15y ago
FWIW, I hate the new design and feel like it's a major step backwards, both from a design standpoint and from a usability standpoint. The bigger question I'd like to see answered is what's the story with the board shakeup?
gcr 15y ago
What's with the annoying video advertisements?
krogsgard 15y ago
The new web interface appears very ad driven (sidebar left, for instance). And all Twitter did with Tweetdeck / Chromedeck is destroy it. It's near unusable.
- jijoy 15y ago
  Try hotot . Change the default font though. Disclosure : I didn't build hotot
ozten 15y ago
Twitter has 800 employees? Just say'n...
- ebiester 15y ago
  Apparently, many are in ad sales if they're up to 2400 advertisers on a platform where you don't have to see the ads if you're on mobile.
diego 15y ago
"Company insiders say the old guard is being wiped out by Twitter's new leadership team. They also say that's probably a good move." What's not said in the article is that those insiders (even those who left) must still have company stock. What else are they going to say? The article sounds too favorable, I wouldn't be surprised if a PR agency had a hand in it.
- jpdoctor 15y ago
  > (even those who left) must still have company stock. The ones who are no longer there should prepare for punitive dilution.
ChristianMarks 15y ago
Contemptible. This emphasis on "culture" is fatuous horse excrement. Whenever you hear that word, reach for your resume. It means that a cohort of smug self-satisfied untalented didactic mansplainers is about to institute a policy of competent mediocrity. I used to think that anyone who presumed that the rest of the world was as intellectually limited as themselves was merely mistaken. I was wrong: if they have any power at all, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy as they kick anyone with ability out. The new twitter is a dreary testament to the deceased neurons of the new management. Color me unemployable for saying so.
- jphackworth 15y ago
  This emphasis on "culture" is fatuous horse excrement. Whenever you hear that word, reach for your resume. The new twitter is a dreary testament to the deceased neurons of the new management. This sort of comment doesn't belong on Hacker News. There's nothing here besides insulting Twitter in a way that uses interesting words.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
    - jaredmck 15y ago
      Whether this is true or not, the original comment hid any meaning behind a veil of fancy words.
      - forensic 15y ago
        The expressive language actually makes his point clearer. An inexpressive comment is when someone makes short insults and doesn't explain themselves. He explained himself in detail. Good English communicates the ideas and feelings of the writer, which he did with aplomb! Since he is a primary source for his particular polemic, his rhetoric is a valuable contribution to the discussion.
- roel_v 15y ago
goodweeds 15y ago
One of twitter's engineers has been accused of attempting to rape a female speaker at ApacheConf. That's the reason two friends of mine have quit Twitter last year. Their culture is incredibly broken.
- sk5t 15y ago
  Source? And why should we presume the accused guilty? Does Twitter company policy suborn rape?
- harlanlewis 15y ago
  This is a very serious accusation that implies a lot about how the company handled it, and after a handful of searches I've found no other references to it.
  - noste 15y ago
    I assume goodweeds refers to this http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Noirin_Shirley_ApacheCon_incident http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Noirin_Shirley_ApacheCon_... . That page classifies the incident as sexual assault instead of attempted rape, but I have to admit that I don't know the precise distinction between the two.
  - earl 15y ago
    That would be Noirin Plunkett. Her account [1] and the discussion that went about the same way all posts on HN that touch on sexual assault or misogyny do... [2]. [1] http://blog.nerdchic.net/archives/418/ http://blog.nerdchic.net/archives/418/ [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1875718 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1875718
    - harlanlewis 15y ago
      Thank you (and noste) for providing links. Shameful.
- goodweeds 15y ago
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/google-blogger-noirin-shi_n_780372.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/google-blogger-noir... There was no handling of it. The typical rapist response was "she was drunk, she asked for it". Then it was swept under the rug.
airlocksoftware 15y ago
I really don't know what Twitter's next move is. They've done a great job of building a successful platform. But the product is very simple (by design), and it seems they've largely exhausted the obvious extensions to it. How are they going to stay relevant for the next 5-10 years?

41 points by ssclafani 15y ago

FWIW, I hate the new design and feel like it's a major step backwards, both from a design standpoint and from a usability standpoint. The bigger question I'd like to see answered is what's the story with the board shakeup?

gcr 15y ago

What's with the annoying video advertisements?

krogsgard 15y ago

The new web interface appears very ad driven (sidebar left, for instance). And all Twitter did with Tweetdeck / Chromedeck is destroy it. It's near unusable.

jijoy 15y ago
Try hotot . Change the default font though. Disclosure : I didn't build hotot

ozten 15y ago

Twitter has 800 employees? Just say'n...

ebiester 15y ago
Apparently, many are in ad sales if they're up to 2400 advertisers on a platform where you don't have to see the ads if you're on mobile.

diego 15y ago

"Company insiders say the old guard is being wiped out by Twitter's new leadership team. They also say that's probably a good move." What's not said in the article is that those insiders (even those who left) must still have company stock. What else are they going to say? The article sounds too favorable, I wouldn't be surprised if a PR agency had a hand in it.

jpdoctor 15y ago
> (even those who left) must still have company stock. The ones who are no longer there should prepare for punitive dilution.

ChristianMarks 15y ago

Contemptible. This emphasis on "culture" is fatuous horse excrement. Whenever you hear that word, reach for your resume. It means that a cohort of smug self-satisfied untalented didactic mansplainers is about to institute a policy of competent mediocrity. I used to think that anyone who presumed that the rest of the world was as intellectually limited as themselves was merely mistaken. I was wrong: if they have any power at all, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy as they kick anyone with ability out. The new twitter is a dreary testament to the deceased neurons of the new management. Color me unemployable for saying so.

jphackworth 15y ago
This emphasis on "culture" is fatuous horse excrement. Whenever you hear that word, reach for your resume. The new twitter is a dreary testament to the deceased neurons of the new management. This sort of comment doesn't belong on Hacker News. There's nothing here besides insulting Twitter in a way that uses interesting words.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - jaredmck 15y ago
    Whether this is true or not, the original comment hid any meaning behind a veil of fancy words.
    - forensic 15y ago
      The expressive language actually makes his point clearer. An inexpressive comment is when someone makes short insults and doesn't explain themselves. He explained himself in detail. Good English communicates the ideas and feelings of the writer, which he did with aplomb! Since he is a primary source for his particular polemic, his rhetoric is a valuable contribution to the discussion.
roel_v 15y ago

goodweeds 15y ago

One of twitter's engineers has been accused of attempting to rape a female speaker at ApacheConf. That's the reason two friends of mine have quit Twitter last year. Their culture is incredibly broken.

sk5t 15y ago
Source? And why should we presume the accused guilty? Does Twitter company policy suborn rape?
harlanlewis 15y ago
This is a very serious accusation that implies a lot about how the company handled it, and after a handful of searches I've found no other references to it.
- noste 15y ago
  I assume goodweeds refers to this http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Noirin_Shirley_ApacheCon_incident http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Noirin_Shirley_ApacheCon_... . That page classifies the incident as sexual assault instead of attempted rape, but I have to admit that I don't know the precise distinction between the two.
- earl 15y ago
  That would be Noirin Plunkett. Her account [1] and the discussion that went about the same way all posts on HN that touch on sexual assault or misogyny do... [2]. [1] http://blog.nerdchic.net/archives/418/ http://blog.nerdchic.net/archives/418/ [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1875718 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1875718
  - harlanlewis 15y ago
    Thank you (and noste) for providing links. Shameful.
goodweeds 15y ago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/google-blogger-noirin-shi_n_780372.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/google-blogger-noir... There was no handling of it. The typical rapist response was "she was drunk, she asked for it". Then it was swept under the rug.

airlocksoftware 15y ago

I really don't know what Twitter's next move is. They've done a great job of building a successful platform. But the product is very simple (by design), and it seems they've largely exhausted the obvious extensions to it. How are they going to stay relevant for the next 5-10 years?