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I do find it curious that talk of Twitter bots have died down since the takeover. Since Elon was pushing it himself, don't you think there should be some conti

I do find it curious that talk of Twitter bots have died down since the takeover. Since Elon was pushing it himself, don't you think there should be some continuity if that was indeed an issue? Like, if you're trying to objectively rate Elon and not be subject to some kind of EDS, then continuity would be a good way. Also, Elon said that returning Donald Trump to Twitter was writing a fundamental wrong. So why the poll?

sn0w_crash 4y ago
If the bot volume was high, then it would be an error to reveal it now post-transaction as it would harm the perceived value of your company for a future IPO or acquirers. Talking up the bot problem was only valuable during the transaction as a means of price pressure. Even revealing that “there was a bot problem and we solved it” creates meaningful risk because it still drives down the credibility of the platform as a whole. Ideally as owner of the company you would want it’s pre-acquisition state to be perceived as “low quality / not credible” and post acquisition to be the inverse of that. As much as we would love to know the true bot count, I suspect we are not going to hear about it anytime soon. And this is not true for the current leadership, it’s true for the previous leadership as well. Any true bot count reveal if above a certain margin from what was sold to the public is detrimental to the value of the company.
- mikkergp 4y ago
  But you're right, it's not Musk's fault the bots are high, or the numbers are wrong? If he really wants to increase trust in the platform, why not just be honest about it? He said himself he didn't buy the platform to make money, so why lie about it to protect the "value of the company"
  - sn0w_crash 4y ago
    I agree it would make them look better to reveal some truth about bots. Hell, even if it wasn’t true, they could even lie about it at this point, right? These are immoral deceitful business people acting purely out of self interest, according to the rolling stone. But I maintain that It would be a critical error for a business owner to do anything that harms the potential value of the business. In this case revealing any “truth” about bot volume would do so because it would adjust the true $/user value the company has maintained for years. Re: your question on motivations - This is a business man. He can say whatever he wants, unless he donates the company to a non profit I must assume he has purchased it for extracting maximum value. Whether it be from a future IPO or a potential sale. The very fact that they are trying to optimize burn and generate revenue should tell us they are dressing it up for a future exit.
quantified 4y ago
Talk of bots was low before Musk entered the picture, and absent entirely since the takeover. You'd expect continuity only if it really was important to him, so clearly it isn't/wasn't. He evidently makes stuff up all the time, and at least sometimes has the stones to say so.
someNameIG 4y ago
> Also, Elon said that returning Donald Trump to Twitter was writing a fundamental wrong. So why the poll? As it was a controversial decision and he wanted to remove the responsibility off himself, despite knowing what the outcome would be.

sn0w_crash 4y ago

If the bot volume was high, then it would be an error to reveal it now post-transaction as it would harm the perceived value of your company for a future IPO or acquirers. Talking up the bot problem was only valuable during the transaction as a means of price pressure. Even revealing that “there was a bot problem and we solved it” creates meaningful risk because it still drives down the credibility of the platform as a whole. Ideally as owner of the company you would want it’s pre-acquisition state to be perceived as “low quality / not credible” and post acquisition to be the inverse of that. As much as we would love to know the true bot count, I suspect we are not going to hear about it anytime soon. And this is not true for the current leadership, it’s true for the previous leadership as well. Any true bot count reveal if above a certain margin from what was sold to the public is detrimental to the value of the company.

mikkergp 4y ago
But you're right, it's not Musk's fault the bots are high, or the numbers are wrong? If he really wants to increase trust in the platform, why not just be honest about it? He said himself he didn't buy the platform to make money, so why lie about it to protect the "value of the company"
- sn0w_crash 4y ago
  I agree it would make them look better to reveal some truth about bots. Hell, even if it wasn’t true, they could even lie about it at this point, right? These are immoral deceitful business people acting purely out of self interest, according to the rolling stone. But I maintain that It would be a critical error for a business owner to do anything that harms the potential value of the business. In this case revealing any “truth” about bot volume would do so because it would adjust the true $/user value the company has maintained for years. Re: your question on motivations - This is a business man. He can say whatever he wants, unless he donates the company to a non profit I must assume he has purchased it for extracting maximum value. Whether it be from a future IPO or a potential sale. The very fact that they are trying to optimize burn and generate revenue should tell us they are dressing it up for a future exit.

quantified 4y ago

Talk of bots was low before Musk entered the picture, and absent entirely since the takeover. You'd expect continuity only if it really was important to him, so clearly it isn't/wasn't. He evidently makes stuff up all the time, and at least sometimes has the stones to say so.

someNameIG 4y ago

> Also, Elon said that returning Donald Trump to Twitter was writing a fundamental wrong. So why the poll? As it was a controversial decision and he wanted to remove the responsibility off himself, despite knowing what the outcome would be.