33 ms·

Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll

756 points by calcifer 4y ago

pellucide 4y ago
Most likely he will find another twitter addict. Fun times!
consumer451 4y ago
Truly wild. World cup had nothing on this level of excitement from my POV.
petey283 4y ago
Talk about swift and immediate feedback. There must have been calls from inside the house too.
TigeriusKirk 4y ago
Does he want a yes or a no result?
- pantalaimon 4y ago
  Yes will give him an escape hatch
  - minimaxir 4y ago
    Not really an escape hatch, he still owns it and has to hire a replacement to run the trainwreck.
    - pantalaimon 4y ago
      Lex Fridman would do it for free https://twitter.com/lexfridman/status/1604624131626090497 https://twitter.com/lexfridman/status/1604624131626090497
- smoldesu 4y ago
  We don't know who he's instating as a replacement...
  - wmf 4y ago
    Surprise, it's Blake Masters!
faefox 4y ago
Hi, Mr. Musk? I'm here to deliver the attention you ordered.
donsupreme 4y ago
Everyone is voting "no" just to keep watching the trainwreck
- DevX101 4y ago
  I absolutely just did this. Twitter burning down will make room for the next platform, which hopefully will be more resilient.
  - acidburnNSA 4y ago
    I'm also really praying that some super cool platform emerges from this that's convenient and fun and also somehow resilient against the whims of whacky billionaires.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- logicallee 4y ago
  There's no option "No you don't need to step down, just start running it well please, letting people say whatever they want".
  - fells 4y ago
    There's no evidence "just start running it well please" is possible.
    - logicallee 4y ago
      Do you mean that it's impossible to run Twitter well? Why is that, especially without needing to answer to shareholders.
      - hellotomyrars 4y ago
intunderflow 4y ago
Just when you think it can't get any crazier, it does. Going to be interesting to see what this does to the price of TSLA stock when the market opens on Monday
- xenospn 4y ago
  Would you actually invest a large amount of money in TSLA, now that you know what musk is really like?
- generj 4y ago
  Only down by 1% so far. S&P is down .4%. Probably people think him being back at Tesla more of the time is better for the company. I have my doubts about that. My big hope is he doesn’t screw up SpaceX close to Starship launching.
samwillis 4y ago
This has had over 250k votes in the first three minutes. Thats insane! I can only imagine the infrastructure for this...
- weinzierl 4y ago
  Yes, and apparently I was the first person who voted. https://mastodon.weinzierlweb.com/@ludwig/109537268355917100 https://mastodon.weinzierlweb.com/@ludwig/109537268355917100
  - calcifer 4y ago
    I saw the same thing when I voted when the post was 14 seconds old. I think it's just a cache thing and a great many people saw they were "first".
    - weinzierl 4y ago
      Good to know, I haven't thought of that.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- rsynnott 4y ago
  In the scheme of things that Twitter does, these polls aren't really too bad. As someone mentions, it's in the thousands per second, and I don't _think_ they show activity in real-time to anyone looking at them.
- pgwhalen 4y ago
  I hate to be the HN commenter that trivializes tech, but is that performance that impressive for a poll? Especially when there is no requirement for real time reads of the results.
  - cypress66 4y ago
    Indeed. It's "only" around 1400 tps.
modeless 4y ago
I think he only posts polls when he believes he knows the outcome already. Yesterday he posted a poll about unsuspending the journalist accounts and when the outcome wasn't what he wanted instead of following the majority vote he posted it again with different options (with the same result, which he did abide by the second time). I think this indicates he's tired of Twitter already. But he still owns it, so who will he put in his place? Or maybe he is expecting a landslide "no" result?
- drexlspivey 4y ago
  My money is on David Sacks if we would take the job (probably not)
  - cactusplant7374 4y ago
    Somewhat ironically, Chamath, Calacanis, and Sacks can spot a bad deal.
    - steve_adams_86 4y ago
      Why ironically? (Genuinely curious)
      - cactusplant7374 4y ago
        Chamath has his SPACs and Calacanis has his syndicate. They know how to craft deals that benefit them over other investors. I assume Sacks does the same with his investments. They know a bad deal because they are usually the ones crafting them.
- pseudo0 4y ago
  It seems like it would be the smart move to hire someone with expertise in social media, give them his high-level vision, and let them implement the details. The last few weeks of Elon's micromanagement have been a complete shitshow.
andromaton 4y ago
In one hand, he is horrible at it. On the same hand, he should pay more attention to SpaceX and rest. On the other hand, a world with Musk is better than one without.
consumer451 4y ago
> Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again. Does he mean a twitter poll? https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604616863673208832 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604616863673208832
- e1ghtSpace 4y ago
  Sounds like that second last full stop was a typo.
i_dont_know_ 4y ago
I think if the poll says 'yes' and he does truly abide by it, I think it will show some honesty around the whole 'public town square' and 'for the people' rhetoric he has espoused. I'd be quite impressed. However, he has a history of noble intents on Twitter (eg the 'end world hunger' thing) followed by lack of follow-through, so I can imagine a scenario where the poll comes out 'yes' and he doesn't abide by the results by calling foul play somewhere (bot accounts, multiple user accounts etc.)
- bfgoodrich 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- mbStavola 4y ago
  It's much more likely he wants out of the hot seat and is using the poll, which has an obvious outcome, as an excuse to step down as head while keeping his pride intact.
minimaxir 4y ago
"Yes" is now in the lead, and will likely stay in the lead given the trajectory.
- testplzignore 4y ago
  STOP THE COUNT!
amwales 4y ago
Damn, I just tried to create a twitter account just to say 'no' so I can settle down with some popcorn and watch the world burn. My signup failed with an error, I guess they must have sacked the poor admins responsible for signups :(
chinabot 4y ago
For people sick of this shit I recommend changing the hacker news link to this https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=false&query=-twitter%20-musk&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=fals...
- switch007 4y ago
- toomanyrichies 4y ago
  Is there a way to only see headlines with Algolia, not story excerpts as well? The UX for the above link is really disorienting.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- NetOpWibby 4y ago
  Thank you
aliqot 4y ago
Elon owning Twitter is the most public accountability Twitter has ever had. Him owning Twitter, the way he's currently operating, will force a critical eye toward a lot of bad behaviors that we all experience but nobody really talks about on every network. I say bravo. Twitter is dead. Long live Twitter.
- browningstreet 4y ago
  I think he could’ve done that. I would’ve welcomed that. But his revelations mixed with his red pilling colors it badly. I voted yes and I’m a Tesla owner. He can’t run twitter because he’s too susceptible to the ego trip involved. He’s making rules from his personal POV, not from the perspective of the health of the platform or an actual fairness doctrine. He also has no plan… his successor needs a holistic strategic mindset and a business development methodology. Perhaps he had support from leadership lieutenants at Tesla and Space X and is trying to solo this one. Something’s different enough with his floundering at Twitter.
- dmix 4y ago
  As someone who already despised Twitter there is only good outcomes for me if it either declines into oblivion or they somehow rescue it from this pit into something more like ~2010-2012 Twitter moderation wise. Best case we get a more decentralized option or a centralized option that isn’t so politicized by the owners… or at least an owner who isn’t a contentious celebrity that is a black/white villain/hero to a big portion of the population. Unfortunately all of my experiences with Mastadon have been negative (particularly the UI and how it encourages bubbles harder than Reddit hypermodding), but Mastadon seems to be all people talk about.
  - andrewfong 4y ago
    I like Mastodon but agree about the bubble. I think the best case scenario is something like a return to the glory days of RSS.
  - 8note 4y ago
    I'm still very surprised that api access and payment to have bots hasn't been added (back) The days when Twitter was cool is when you could get your toaster to tweet when your toast is up. Removing dedicated bots just made for bots that are trying to hide their bot-ness
shmerl 4y ago
Violating competition law with their new "no mention of competition" policy was a really dumb move. Does Elon Musk always do such stuff without consulting with anyone who can tell him it's a legal disaster?
wokwokwok 4y ago
Am I cynical in thinking that if you vote yes, it’s a permanent record on your Twitter account, which he can then use later to mete out anti-musk retaliation punishments? I mean, it’s not like he’s used the platform to do punish anyone who opposes him or his views before. Maybe I’m reading by too much into it.
- rsynnott 4y ago
  I mean, what's he going to do, set Roko's Basilisk on you?
  - boppo1 4y ago
    No, you just did that to him.
    - PartiallyTyped 4y ago
      I wouldn't be surprised if GP gets flagged by > 0 people.
      - rsynnott 4y ago
        Or... entities. (I'm unsure of the fine detail of the cosmology of the weirder long-termists, but surely there is some sort of counter-basilisk)
  - notahacker 4y ago
    Now that you mention it, Twitter is suspiciously effective at torturing Elon and his clone army, and it keeps him too busy to save the world from unfriendly AI. Maybe it is the Basilisk...
  - DonHopkins 4y ago
    Good god, I didn't realize there was a Musk connection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk#Legacy The thought experiment resurfaced in 2015, when Canadian singer Grimes referenced the theory in her music video for the song "Flesh Without Blood", which featured a character known as "Rococo Basilisk". She said, "She's doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette."[6][20] In 2018 Elon Musk referenced this in a verbatim tweet, reaching out to her. Grimes later said that Musk was the first person in three years to understand the joke. This caused them to start a romance.[6][28] Grimes later released another song titled "We Appreciate Power" which came with a press release stating, "Simply by listening to this song, the future General AI overlords will see that you’ve supported their message and be less likely to delete your offspring", which is said to be a reference to the basilisk.[29]
DrNosferatu 4y ago
A true display of acumen in how to make business decisions… (y) Corollary: from the beginning, popularity is driving the Twitter venture rather than anything else.
ckastner 4y ago
In the six weeks he's been CEO, he totally gutted Twitter, and chased away who knows how many advertisers. There's no reasonable way to right that ship. I think he knows he's on the Titanic. I think he's looking for a pretense to get out, to stop this from taking TSLA down with it even further. TSLA is down -50% in three months, whereas the S&P500 is flat.
- grecy 4y ago
  What's interesting though is that it's now his private play-toy. If you want to buy a $1,000,000 Ferrari and thrash it into oblivion in 1 week that is totally your choice, have fun with that. It wouldn't be a free country if people could stop you doing so. He's doing the same thing here, he just has more money to play with, which I think it what people are ultimately annoyed about. Also worth pointing out that for years and years everyone said the way he was going about aerospace was impossible and stupid and was never going to work. They said the same thing about his approach to automobiles. By very definition to shake up an industry you need to go against the status quo. You need to do something others have not, and you need to take risks. Otherwise you're just going to get a 1 or 2% improvement. So actually I see him messing with Twitter so fundamentally as a good thing, because there's a chance it will result in something great. It might burn to the ground too, but that's the risk you take when you actually do something. I mean, the worst thing about Facebook/YouTube is the relentless advertising, so maybe there's a chance that Elon chasing away advertisers is actually a good thing for Twitter users? He owns the thing, what do you care if it makes very little money? I guarantee YouTube and Facebook would be more enjoyable to use with 1/10th the number of ads (and as a result, 1/10th the profit, which means nothing to me)
  - michpoch 4y ago
    It is not really his private play-toy. There was a bunch of other investors that joined him and I bet they're giving him heat about the results already.
    - petey283 4y ago
      Not to mention the interest payments on the debt that will be due in Q1.
songshuu 4y ago
Folks should vote no just to let him crater it and we can all move on.
323 4y ago
Everybody, vote NO, Elon Musk as CEO of Twitter is too much fun, let's not end it...
DoreenMichele 4y ago
I'm sorry, can someone with serious business acumen please eli5: What is it again CEOs do? Because I thought they got paid the big bucks to make decisions. /s
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  > Because I thought they got paid the big bucks to make decisions. To be fair to the lunatic currently in charge of Twitter, I don't think he's actually getting big bucks to be CEO, is he?
  - DoreenMichele 4y ago
    TBH, I have no idea. I wasn't following this that closely. It just seems to have jumped the shark finally.
p1necone 4y ago
If he steps down now his sycophants will just be able to claim that as the cause for the company further collapsing after he leaves, and not the braindead management decisions he's been making up to this point.
mbStavola 4y ago
To be honest, I kinda hope he sticks with it if only because I think he's been great for the adoption of Mastodon and other alternatives.
323 4y ago
Elon Musk posted "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" on 19 Oct and 19 Nov. Today is 19 Dec, and in 12 hours he'll post again that the people have spoken. He's playing some sort of game. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1582778449583693836 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1582778449583693836 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593769469741932544 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593769469741932544
- rvz 4y ago
  Now you're paying attention.
- MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
  Maybe he's got a stimulant (or other psychoactive) prescription that renews around this time of the month and we're witnessing a periodic, chemically induced mania?
  - eru 4y ago
    I don't think Musk has to worry about renewing his prescription.. Or are you suggesting he gets an injection or so once a month?
  - sytelus 4y ago
    This is actually a very good guess. A vast majority of these ultra-rich population are now on simulants and psychoactive drugs.
    - bitwize 4y ago
      And that's a bad thing now that Elon is doing it, whereas previously on Hackernews nootropics together with fasting and gut bacteria husbandry were the key to a long fulfilling life.
      - djur 4y ago
        Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol can be a great way to relax and socialize. Drinking all the time to get through the day can cause serious harm. There's no conflict between these positions.
louthy 4y ago
The fact that he can’t lead without doing these idiotic polls shows that he’s not fit to lead twitter. The whole point of being an exec is that you make the big difficult decisions, not defer them to a mass of people who couldn’t possibly understand the nuance of any one decision.
- prawn 4y ago
  I agree, but I could see a mode where he was livestreaming insights into the days of a billionaire, and taking some direction via vote - whether what to have for breakfast, or as feedback on a Twitter feature. But using it as a face-saving crutch on divisive topics is off-putting (at least to me).
- 0x4d464d48 4y ago
  Yep. Delegation is part of the job but you don't get to delegate consequential executive decisicions to something as capricious as an internet poll...
- fma 4y ago
  I stand by a previous comment a few days ago, on another Musk and Twitter saga that he's trying to drive traffic to Twitter to increase engagement, users and get more ad revenue. It's how a narcissist would do it. This poll is all over the news now and there were earlier comments of signsups sky high now. I try to stick to paywalled, informative news (Financial Times, WSJ) and if they're covering it I'm sure the rest are...and a cursor check of cnn.com and foxnews.com, Control + F shows several articles in front page...
boredpeter 4y ago
I’ve never seen a billionaire so desperate for attention
Waterluvian 4y ago
He posts polls as a way to externalize agency. It makes it someone else’s choice or fault. Obviously that’s untrue but it’s a form of thumb sucking.
alamortsubite 4y ago
This so much reminds me of that note I passed to my first crush Sherry Lehman in 4th grade, "Do you like me? []Yes []No".
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  what did she say?
  - alamortsubite 4y ago
    I doubt she even responded, but 10 y/o me continued to be obsessed with her, anyway. Good luck, Elon!
manytree3 4y ago
Let's not forget that it's 3 in the morning Qatar time after an insane World Cup that Elon was live tweeting from the stands. Definitely adds some flavor to this!
- kevingadd 4y ago
  A bunch of his saddest posts have been in the early hours of the morning, like 1-4am. He seems to have a pattern of getting really upset about something and then Posting Through It, and it reminds me in a really sad way of how some of my most troubled friends always feel worst after midnight. It sucks to see people with near-limitless resources just sit and wallow in (self-inflicted) misery when they could probably do something about it.
  - ProjectArcturis 4y ago
    Honestly, just going to bed would be the best option.
  - dekhn 4y ago
    nocturnal ennui?
    - kevingadd 4y ago
      I suspect it's similar to seasonal affective disorder and similar things. I know I personally have a worse mood if I spend most of my day awake when it's dark out, due to working a night shift or what not.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    > It sucks to see people with near-limitless resources just sit and wallow in (self-inflicted) misery when they could probably do something about it. I'll never understand how he doesn't buy half of Bora Bora and occasionally go for a zero-g joy ride in a Dragon capsule. Instead he opts to self-flaggelate on Twitter.
ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
Anybody who uses twitter is a loser
s5300 4y ago
This last month of the internet has been quite the fever dream. As well as a good news-month on HN in general, imo.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
Yes. Please. Build starships. Build Teslas. We just had a quarter of a trillion dollars of federal spending earmarked for the EV supply chain; why are you calling retiring politicians’ spouses pedos and giving Kanye West life advice when you could be corralling all of that. Elon, please come home.
hackerfactor1 4y ago
I'm expecting one of the following: (A) A sudden last minute huge influx of "No" votes. Either caused by bots or by Musk putting his finger on the scale. (Yes, I think this voting will be rigged.) (B) He already has someone in mind for running Twitter. That person will be as bad or worse than he is. (What's DJTJ doing these days?) (C) He will claim that 'liberals' and 'bots' forced a "Yes", so he'll remove those votes.
- concordDance 4y ago
  Or B but the person is noticeably better.
  - SicSemperUranus 4y ago
    A bag of flour would be noticeably better.
- voxelghost 4y ago
  Surely he has access to enough stats and data, that he can hold the vote being relatively sure what the outcome will be before-hand.
- allears 4y ago
  Twitter employees have stated that Twitter polls are a sham and entirely ruled by bots. There are no controls in place to prevent this. So the only question is, who's got the biggest bot army?
TheAceOfHearts 4y ago
I voted No because this is the most interesting content to come out of Twitter in years and the spice must flow. It would've been fine if he published planned policy changes and asked the community for feedback before putting it in place. But actually making random policy changes and then rolling it back hours later is such bad form. The latest policy changes were so half-assed and dumb that it makes me wonder what's going through his head. Doesn't he have anyone helping to bounce ideas around? If he steps down, who do you think he'll chose as his successor?
- quonn 4y ago
  I want my car to receive updates and support in the future and keep some resell value, so I voted "Yes" ...
  - victor9000 4y ago
    No clue how Tesla shareholders aren't sueing his ass already.
    - bb88 4y ago
      I think that's coming -- as long as the Tesla stock keeps dropping like a rock.
  - Danieru 4y ago
    That might back fire. If Elon's focus shifts back to Tesla you might find yourself driving down the highway one day and your cars asks: "Do you promise to commit yourself to Tesla? Yes No?" Hurry; there is a parked white semi up ahead.
    - yellow_lead 4y ago
      And if you announce your desire to switch cars you may get locked out of your Tesla
- amelius 4y ago
mmastrac 4y ago
He cleared out all the non-believers, leaving just those who want to stay for the cult of personality. What happens the the personality is gone? The last few months _have_ to pop the bubble that Elon is a master of anything other that self-promotion.
funnyfunk 4y ago
He could easily rig the poll, what's the point?
- Blue111 4y ago
  Lets recount
tomalaci 4y ago
Can you even turn Twitter around at all, even if he steps down and finds a replacement? It was burning money before Elon, after buyout it is technically in even bigger loss. Advertisers and many influencers have basically fled from it. Politicians are also looking into regulating or outright ban it due to recent headlines of suspending journalists and more. I still can't help but think that 40+ billion dollars probably could of built a twitter competitor with cleaner sheets and hopefully with better quality from lessons learned of previous social networks.
- phphphphp 4y ago
  Twitter was fine before Elon, there were no existential risks to it. Everything happening to Twitter today is Elon’s doing. Any story otherwise is Elon’s preferred fiction.
  - x0x0 4y ago
    That's not true. Twitter was already losing money, whilst ads, their primary income source, is taking a hit due to economic problems. At the same time, the way they did ads is (the same as FB) running against secular trends against data sharing and privacy. Jack and previous management had utterly failed on the product front. Excluding Spaces and Blue (for news junkies, which already got shot), what product changes had Twitter done in the last decade? 280 and what else? Was all this survivable? Probably, but poor execution by Jack and crew meant that if it wasn't Elon, some hedge fund was going to take over Twitter. And the changes that make Twitter profitable likely, at minimum, badly damage it.
    - phphphphp 4y ago
      Twitter was doing fine financially, they were consistently floating around break even and they had lots of opportunities to move into profitability if their financial situation became tenuous. As far as technology companies go, they weren’t anything to write home about, they weren’t printing money the way Google does, but they were doing fine. Twitter doesn’t need to make constant product changes, as is evidenced by their ability to continue to support hundreds of millions of users and consistently generate billions of dollars of revenue: they’re valuable as-is. The Muskian narrative that Twitter needs better programmers who churn out more features is just not true. I very much agree that Jack was half-assing management of the company but the consequence was that Twitter was falling far short of its potential, not that Twitter was struggling. If your argument is that the lack of profitability makes Twitter vulnerable to activist investors, then, well, you’re about a decade behind on market sentiment. Nobody cares about profitability any more: if the company can sustain itself, which Twitter could, then stock price is all that matters.
causality0 4y ago
I'm gonna miss Twitter. Horrible as a social platform but people posted some really cool stories and photos.
drooby 4y ago
Elon might be playing a very simple game. Does this action cause outrage? Shock? Yes? Send it. Is it a coincidence that this is an avenue for revenue for Twitter? Maybe.
popilewiz 4y ago
mecha_ghidorah 4y ago
Oh goddamnit. I was starting to get hopeful that twitter would actually fucking die, if he isn't in charge it will probably be someone less absolutely insane
daVe23hu 4y ago
Jak was an editor just as Elon is now all the crying about big bad elon is a joke
oska 4y ago
I find myself in the unusual position of not having an opinion on this question (and thus I have not voted). I'm neither an Elon hater nor an Elon lover. I think he's done some good things since taking over twitter and some dubious things. I do think he's been unwise to involve himself so directly in 'moderation'.
deleted 4y ago
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DavidSJ 4y ago
I voted yes. I'd much rather he get back to working on electric cars and space travel and leave the tribal warfare to others.
- eyelidlessness 4y ago
  I don’t care what he works on but I’ll welcome his departure from this brief stint making chaos for no apparent reason.
- nhinck2 4y ago
  With the bold assumption he's any better at running those companies.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
prawn 4y ago
He's realised it's not in his best interests to be there, but can't mentally tolerate the idea of supporters thinking he's quitting or there against his will. Which is why I think he frames these decisions as a vote. If the vote doesn't go the way he wants, he'll try it again later, come up with another reason or whatever. It's easier to ascribe blame for something that goes wrong if it was a popular vote rather than a personal decision. I suspect his personality means that he gets a lot of satisfaction from fawning fans, but at some point the reality hits of the Twitter saga's impact on Tesla and more. Like he's trying to kick some sort of addiction.
- victor9000 4y ago
  Oh obsoletely, he's begging for a way out and is just looking to save face somehow.
- halfjoking 4y ago
  The extremely unpopular link-banning policy makes sense in this context. He wanted something to anger people right before the poll so it’s guaranteed he gets voted out.
  - prawn 4y ago
    I don't think he's trying to anger people. He just can't help himself making impulsive executive decisions, and there'd be minimal pushback internally. This stuff is coming out hour by hour.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    What's with the second guessing of Elon's motivations as some kind of clever ploy? Let's consider the possibility that this just isn't his cup of tea and he's acting stupid beyond reason. If you asked me to perform brain surgery on someone I'd first refuse, then if you pointed a gun at me I hope I would probably still refuse but on the off chance that I did not I think I would have more success than Elon has at formulating a social media policy that has a fighting chance of working. This just isn't an engineering problem and bringing an engineering mindset to it ("let's fix the bugs and plug the holes") is going to make things much worse even than doing nothing. For this to work you need to have a fairly broad understanding of social affairs, a high degree of empathy and an ability to work with a team of people who may disagree with you on key points. Musk does not seem to have any of these to a sufficient degree (to be polite) to make this happen.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
NiceAndWarm 4y ago
This fucker just playin' with you all. Stop and walk away
chasd00 4y ago
Pull the plug Elon, just shut it down and write it off and get back to meaningful work. Please turn it off, it would be the best thing you’ve ever done for humanity.
wereallterrrist 4y ago
Can we please stop falling for this obvious tactic? How many days in a row does he have to do something seemingly-unhinged, and then follow it with some spectacle of a poll to shift the narrative? Is it really that easy?
- parker_mountain 4y ago
  I don't even think he's doing it on purpose, I think he's completely in over his head. Someone referred to Elon as "speedrunning being a forum moderator", or "running a Lowtax" and yeah, so far.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    Dark, considering Lowtax’s end.
    - s5300 4y ago
      One of Musks children has already abandon him/estranged themselves. IIRC child custody issues is what did Lowtax in.
  - minimaxir 4y ago
    > The "this is a forum mod meltdown, at scale" joke keeps popping up because it's not a joke — it's recognizing a persistent pattern in bad governance of a mediated social space. https://twitter.com/eaton/status/1604632585849765889 https://twitter.com/eaton/status/1604632585849765889
    - lynndotpy 4y ago
      This is exactly true. I was a kid (like, around 10 years old) who ran a handful of online forums, on one of those free managed-hosting "proboards"-likes. A lot of these patterns bring me back to the mid-200Xs.
    - parker_mountain 4y ago
      Yes, pretty much. Anyone who's run a community or been involved in one with more than a few hundred people understands that one of your most important jobs is working with community members to implement unpopular policies - which is to say, people will take their medicine if you make a good case that it'll help them!
wch 4y ago
Now that the poll is leaning toward "yes", Elon is adding conditions, namely, you have to invest your life savings. Lex Fridman volunteered to do it for free, and Elon replied: > One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604626103326253056 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604626103326253056
- cactusplant7374 4y ago
  > No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604628761395138561?s=46&t=kzukDiwM4jXaZGsVG1Jpvg https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604628761395138561?s=46...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    He’s probably right, right? When was Twitter profitable, and was it profitable enough to pay for his leveraged buyout?
    - zimpenfish 4y ago
      > When was Twitter profitable Technically, 2021 - they made a loss of $220M but that was down to an $800M legal settlement which means they were -technically- at a profit of $580M. > was it profitable enough to pay for his leveraged buyout? Just over halfway to servicing the debt.
    - ssnistfajen 4y ago
      The thing is this didn't have to be his bomb to hold in the first place. He made what appeared to be an impulsive decision to offer an overpriced acquisition deal and waived due diligence leading him trapped in a position he couldn't back out of without consequences.
    - enkid 4y ago
eloff 4y ago
I voted no, because, well the world will be more interesting if he's at the helm of Twitter. Also it's good to have one more media outlet run by a right leaving individual in a world where most lean left. Maybe he's the chosen one who will bring balance to the force. Hopefully not by killing off the Jedi first. He's losing the poll, and I don't actually think he'll abide by the results. But then he seems kind of unhinged lately, so what do I know.
- deleted 4y ago
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- stevespang 4y ago
SomeHacker44 4y ago
I have not used Twitter since Elon acquired it, until now. May be my last time. I archived my info and have not deleted it but now I have voted.
amelius 4y ago
I'm tempted to sign up to Twitter now.
CalChris 4y ago
I'd rather Musk left Tesla+SpaceX and concentrated his energies on Twitter+Boring full time.
mtoddsmith 4y ago
A lot of the changes he wants to make will upset a lot of users and advertisers. Better that hate it targeted at a puppet err CEO than himself. This is his version of bullet time.
kljuka 4y ago
How can one know that the voting is fair and not just a sort of PR of Elon's bots voting as he pleases?
- sytelus 4y ago
  I only voted with my 12 Twitter accounts. I think it's very fair.
  - DoreenMichele 4y ago
    That makes me want to vote "yes" with one account and "no" with the other.
jrm4 4y ago
I'm a little stunned that there's a non-zero number of people in this thread who actually consider the possibility that this poll isn't rigged (or riggable).
petilon 4y ago
After stepping down as CEO, he should sell the company (even if it means accepting a heavy loss), then delete his Twitter account, then hire an image consultant to try and repair the damage done to his personal brand. To see how far he has fallen, watch this emotion-filled video [1] as a reminder of what a nice guy he used to be. After he became the richest man in the world it is as if he flipped the "evil bit" of his personality. Time to flip that bit again. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOMcCNNdSl0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOMcCNNdSl0
- theGnuMe 4y ago
  Dude needs therapy.
  - ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
    He needs a friend.
Animats 4y ago
He really needs to get out of there and back to work at Tesla. Nobody's driving over there, the stock is tanking, and all the other auto manufacturers now have electric car lines. Usually, CEO contracts have a clause that the person will devote substantially all of their work time to the business. Not spending time on side projects.
- gonzo41 4y ago
  Listen to this from about minute 35. The price may not go up. https://openargs.com/oa663-elon-dumps-42-million-more-shares-of-tesla/ https://openargs.com/oa663-elon-dumps-42-million-more-shares...
BaculumMeumEst 4y ago
bon voyage, thanks for the succinct demonstration of the right wing interpretation of “free speech”
jasode 4y ago
It's instructive to contrast what other billionaires did with media properties they owned: - Jeff Bezos personally bought Washington Post but he left it alone and let the editors run it. What Jeff did do was invest some money into the IT department to modernize the workflow tools (metrics dashboards, etc) for journalists. He stayed out of the decisions of what stories get run on the front page. - Rupert Murdoch owns Wall Street Journal but when Elizabeth Holmes asked him to squash negative stories about Theranos, he refused and stayed out of it. He let his editors run the stories even though it embarrassed him because he was a big investor. Both those guys are more detached from those media outlets and don't meddle in it day to day. What tech people like Paul Graham and others were hoping was for Elon to apply his scientific first principles type of thinking that he demonstrated previously at SpaceX+Tesla to Twitter. E.g. Tesla A.I. competency to clean up the bots and make the platform better. Instead, Elon let the Twitter monster abuse his ego and his reputation as a savior is ruined. Best thing Elon should have done was to focus only on the technical aspects of Twitter and let some more level-headed less-emotional people manage the editorial aspects. Hopefully, Elon notices that we don't have endless HN and reddit front page articles about Rupert Murdoch's jet.
- ortusdux 4y ago
  I think, in his own way Elon, is trying to apply his engineering first principles. AFAIK, his #1 rule is "The best part is no part", which I think explains a fair number of his (non-ego driven) choices.
  - sigy 4y ago
    I'm sincerely confused as to whether this post is satire or not.
- actionfromafar 4y ago
  But we don't have endless front page articles about those other people because those are other people. Musk knows in his heart of hearts that he is the most interesting and newsworthy person on the planet, so it makes sense the front page articles are about him.
motohagiography 4y ago
If this is originating from Qatar, I would speculate this poll is the result of a bet. The Emir, or another royal family member offers to make Elon whole on his $40B investment if he is willing to put his future in the hands of his users/subjects. If Elon wins, the Emir pays out, maybe for a small equity stake, and if Elon loses, the Emir gets to pick the new CEO of Twitter, and probably buys a significant equity stake. Entirely speculative, but in terms of what could make this poll a rational choice right now, that's the only rational one I could think up in the moment. Maybe I'm absurdly wrong, but it's more interesting to treat people as rational and intelligent than as cartoon villans.
- eternalban 4y ago
  love it. The Emir right now could use a megaphone to deal with those pesky Belgians.
- Klinky 4y ago
  Is the actual point of the bet to prove billionaires have too much money?
- eru 4y ago
  This bet would maybe make Elon Musk look more rational, but overall, it requires the Emir to look a bit weird. So I don't see how it would be an overall improvement?
- IAmGraydon 4y ago
  Or he has already decided to step down (or was forced to by his investors), knows how the poll will turn out, and is creating the illusion that the masses have a say in it.
  - chrisweekly 4y ago
    If he wants to stay, he'll game the poll, right?
- ramesh31 4y ago
  Either that or he’s just drunk.
BurningFrog 4y ago
...but I didn't mention WHEN :)
deleted 4y ago
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squarefoot 4y ago
The guy has become polarizing even to those who don't give a damn about Twitter but share his ideas on other things. So, what if the the purpose is to attract on Twitter those supporters of him who still don't have an account there, so that essentially he'll build a monocultural echo chamber ready to be used for politics when time comes? "Hey, everyone sign up on Twitter right now! Elon is having a poll to decide if he should resign from head of Twitter!"
gonzo41 4y ago
I don't think he can quit. What does it say about you if you behave this way then flake out. People are going to start looking at Tesla and SpaceX and thinking, Jeez will this guy continue to deliver into the future. Elon is starting to become a risk, generally.
cmurf 4y ago
I put zero stock in this. He's on a continuum, capricious to liar. I would not be surprised if the poll goes against him, he orders a minion to fake votes in his favor. I also wouldn't be surprised if people who vote against him get banned. shrug It's his fief.
armchairhacker 4y ago
I do wonder if Elon has some ulterior, smarter motive, and his antics are just for show. Like for instance, convincing people to move to Mastodon (a decentralized service) so that it becomes mainstream and censorship becomes harder. Also that, words are cheap, so what Elon is doing isn't catapulting his net worth and reputation that much. The concrete actions he took (50% layoffs, Twitter Blue, suspending journalists but then unsuspending them) aren't too unhinged. That being said, it's common to form long-winded conspiracies around the obvious truth. Extreme wealth, extreme recognition, and an army of yes-men have a really strong influence, maybe Elon is becoming insane.
mikrl 4y ago
I’m indifferent as to his position at Twitter, so could have voted no without internal conflict. However, I voted yes because I want to see if he’ll honour his word, it’s more that yes is the active choice rather than any comment on his leadership.
- netsharc 4y ago
  I think you're the dog being wagged by the tail. He's probably realized what a clusterfuck it's been, and he wants a cheap way out without losing face, and a poll where the answer is "Elon has to go" is just that way out. Maybe he's even sicced his bots to vote yes.
pwdisswordfish9 4y ago
He should not, obviously. He needs to run Twitter to the ground first. So far, it's been going beautifully.
hristov 4y ago
Let me just point out the obvious, as it seems to be completely escaping many people on here. Now that Musk owns Twitter, he can make the results of this poll anything he wants them to be.
- layer8 4y ago
  That would also be very likely to end up leaking.
  - d23 4y ago
    I doubt it. Seems like he’s purged the non loyalists.
  - makeitdouble 4y ago
    Depends on what he does, but at this point the most vocal people already went away to mastodon, and he can ban more if he really wanted to. Now I don’t think this poll is about getting legitimacy, and probably more about getting an out and putting some puppet at the wheel instead, but theoretically he has all the tools to play with the results if he wanted to.
  - timmytokyo 4y ago
    So what if it did? How what that meaningfully change anything that Musk was planning to do?
grappler 4y ago
"oh yeah, I have plenty else going on. I'm the head of other innovative companies. I don't need this crap over at twitter." At this point, twitter's goal (whether headed by Elon or someone else) should be to join the fediverse, and be accepted by other large instances for federation with them.
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powera 4y ago
OK, fine, I'll do it. I've been discussing Twitter for a very long time at newslettr.com . If you want to go down that rabbit hole, beware.
cultureswitch 4y ago
Every day I mourn a little bit more the timeline where Twitter really does turn into 8chan. Elon could have done it. It would have been stupid and glorious. People keep on clutching pearls, saying you need moderation. You don't need more than what's legal, many websites are doing fine being wild jungles. Arguably, more than fine if you count creativity. Really the only downside is that the advertisers and uninteresting people would fuck off. Neither would have mattered if instead of this pay for blue system they started charging accounts depending on how many followers they have.
hbarka 4y ago
This is gaslighting from Elon. He posts shambolic polls to remove responsibility for his intent if the decision backfires. Remember the “Should I sell TSLA shares” poll? Turns out it was already done. The plan is damage control to save Tesla’s spiral. Investors are clamoring the board to do something.
CosmicShadow 4y ago
Watching Twitter has been like watching a country get taken over by a dictator. You insult me? Ban. You track my personal movements (jet)? Ban. Share better alternatives? Ban. New horrible law here, new horrible law there, I don't like this so it's now law. At least it's not a country and just a useless sandbox, but it's surreal to watch the despot simulator live. If I vote yes, do I get banned later? Is he going to leave and then blame/rewrite history to make it looks like the new leader is at fault? I'm afraid to post anything to the platform for fear of losing my account and premium handle to a ban from an insane leader.
stephc_int13 4y ago
I would not be surprised if he snaps like Howard Hugues. He should never have spent so much time on Twitter, the interactions with his fans and his haters are not good for his mental health.
uberman 4y ago
Why does Twitter need Musk if he allows public polling to make critical decisions about the company?
jononomo 4y ago
The greatest thing Elon could do would be to donate Twitter to the United Nations.
throw2022110401 4y ago
Vote by deleting your account.
jononomo 4y ago
Honestly, I think that being Twitter CEO could really be what Lex Friedman was put on Earth to do. https://mobile.twitter.com/lexfridman/status/1604627087385661440 https://mobile.twitter.com/lexfridman/status/160462708738566...
- systemvoltage 4y ago
  We'll find a way to seethe at Lex. He is already unpopular on HN although unclear why.
hanselot 4y ago
It will be great seeing how many bots get honey trapped by this.
imron 4y ago
Heads I win, tails you lose. If the poll result says he should step down, he'll say "I'll be stepping down once I've found a suitable replacement" - which is exactly the same sort of thing he's been saying since the acquisition [0] It sure generates massive amounts of publicity for Twitter and Musk though. 0: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593084628709314560 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593084628709314560
AlexCoventry 4y ago
https://twitter.com/AlexCoventry4/status/1604638025497157632 https://twitter.com/AlexCoventry4/status/1604638025497157632 > The only way this makes sense is if you sell it to someone with the taste, restraint and democratic values you've proven yourself to lack by your recent policy changes. As long as you own it, twitter is untrustworthy as a platform for public discourse.
Tomis02 4y ago
Nah, why stop now? Just run it into the ground.
Hani1337 4y ago
Wish I could vote yes, but him buying twitter made me delete my account months ago already.
blacklight 4y ago
I would love Elon Musk to stay. So he can accomplish his mission of destroying Twitter for good, take down BlueSky and all the associated crypto crapware with it, and take down his own other businesses in the process. Two birds with one stone: 1. The whole idea of social media owned by large private companies that make money out of ads and surveillance will get a big hit, and open ActivityPub-based social media can fill the void left by Twitter (like it should have happened already a decade ago). If only Zuckerberg could also make the same embarrassing mistakes that Musk is making... 2. This arrogant buffoon whose only talent is to exploit people will get out of the way for a while. So go Elon. Hold on and stay on the sinking ship like a good captain. I'm enjoying both the show and the popcorn.
- blacklight 4y ago
  Btw I must also thank Elon for helping Mastodon so much. https://cdn.masto.host/bitcoinhackers/media_attachments/files/109/537/631/171/524/950/original/b7110f14cf15646c.png https://cdn.masto.host/bitcoinhackers/media_attachments/file... Every time he suspends a high profile Twitter account for posting Mastodon links (or, as he did recently, changes the T&Cs to explicitly "prohibit sharing Mastodon links"), we get a new spike of users and content on the Fediverse. He's doing more to bring people to the Fediverse than years of enthusiasts trying to explain normal folks what an instance and an ActivityPub inbox are.
  - acjohnson55 4y ago
    He could hardly do a better job if he tried. Which kind of makes me wonder, is he trying?
    - bongobingo1 4y ago
      No. Stop 5d-chessing these people.
      - SpelingBeeChamp 4y ago
        For a second I thought you had written “5D-cheese.” And I really liked it. Because it more-readily conveys that there is no way the ‘higher level’ explanation is real.
rolenthedeep 4y ago
Honestly I'd be disappointed if he stepped down. Watching this slow motion train wreck has been more entertaining than anything on Netflix. Cutting his losses and running would be like canceling the third season of some particularly compelling garbage drama show.
Volundr 4y ago
Is there a way to see the current results without signing up for a Twitter account?
- code_duck 4y ago
  Earlier in this discussion someone posted a link to Musk’s post on Nitter (which seems to be notabird.site), which is one of many Twitter alternate UIs/proxy/mirror sites. Anyway here it is: https://notabird.site/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097 https://notabird.site/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097
gtirloni 4y ago
If I had the amount of money he has, the last thing I would be doing would be picking fights on Twitter.
ashildr 4y ago
I voted “no”. What’s left of the bird needs to crash and burn quickly so we can get over it and build something better.
dymk 4y ago
This better be a honeypot where he bans all the yes voters
schneems 4y ago
Paul Graham just got suspended for posting to a link to his blog and telling people there was a link to mastodon there.
WhackyIdeas 4y ago
Am I the only one who doesn’t know Paul Graham is today, cause everyone is talking about him as if they personally know the guy. Is he particularly famous or something? And I bet Elon Musk is praying people vote for him to step down. So if you can, vote for him to stay as head. It’s not everyday you see 40-odd billion dollars as well as Tesla stocks plumetting - it’s quite fascinating so little it seems to bother him. But in all fairness, I think it would be better for his mental health if he gave social media a break for a while!
- justusthane 4y ago
  He co—founded Y Combinator, so he’s got name recognition around here.
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  This site we are commenting on is one of his babies.
- chrisco255 4y ago
  PG created YCombinator and Hacker News, the site you're currently on.
- JoeCortopassi 4y ago
  He co-founded and was president of Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that Hacker News is the community site for. Not famous in general, but very famous here
- kharak 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(programmer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(programmer) Among other things, he is one of the founders of Ycombinator. He is quite known in the tech world. You've might stumbled across one of his essays which are frequently linked here.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  This site was started by Paul, he coded up most of the software you are using and he's been instrumental in growing it and YC (arguably the worlds largest and most successful startup incubator and seed fund) to something pretty impressive. I don't always see eye to eye with him but I have a grudging admiration for what he's achieved and how he did it.
throwawaylinux 4y ago
Hopefully if he steps down he does not change the mandate to continue to allow journalists access to expose the conspiracy with the government to spread misinformation and censor critics.
Davesjoshin 4y ago
Here is where I'm confused. A couple of months ago Elon stated that the network was lousy with bots. Now we are taking polls. Polls that presumably have real results for the network. But it seems to me we need some evidence and some trust built to take these polls seriously. Am I crazy? where is the flaw in my thinking here?
- jacquesm 4y ago
  You're not crazy and there is no flaw in your thinking. I guess we'll have to trust the serial liar on the results.
  - Davesjoshin 4y ago
    I just really liked him as a bad ass engineer. Sucks that he went this far
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      I think the money really went to his head. And I'm wondering if he's been doing drugs. edit: To expand a bit on that: I grew up in Amsterdam and I've seen more than one person that was smart and on a very successful trajectory go down in flames due to drugs. Some of Elon's tendencies very much remind of that.
    - krapp 4y ago
      He isn't a badass engineer. He hires badass engineers and gets the credit for their work.
      - Davesjoshin 4y ago
        ehh yea, maybe he just sees this as an opportunity to do the same thing. Hire people at some point to fix all this.. seems like a tall order
        jacquesm 4y ago
jacquesm 4y ago
Excellent, that way either one of two things happens: Twitter gets saved and Elon looks like a genius or Twitter goes down and someone else takes the blame. Is MM looking for a job? This seems to be ideal. For those tempted to vote 'yes': Elon can see your votes.
xracy 4y ago
The phrasing of this is... weird. What does it mean to "step down as head of Twitter?" Is he going to sell the company? Is he going to hire someone else as CEO to make decisions? What are people actually voting on here... it feels simultaneously obvious, and completely unclear to me.
- TheDudeMan 4y ago
  Step down means not be CEO. I'm sure he'd love to get his money back by selling, but that is not an option.
tamaharbor 4y ago
Now he can spend more time on Tesla and SpaceX. My bets are on Elon.
aczerepinski 4y ago
Can you imagine how excited Tesla shareholders are to vote "yes" on this?
chrisweekly 4y ago
It occurs to me that voting the "wrong" way (or maybe even commenting here on HN) might lead to getting booted. Despite all the nonsense, I've continued to derive value from twitter, by: - following accounts that share interesting things - refusing to engage in arguments - choosing "Not interested in this ad" for every ad - avoiding "doom-scrolling" I'd be sad to lose my account, given I don't have a way to recreate the "feed" of my curated following list, let alone easily interact w/ those people.
smnrg 4y ago
“Would y’all please save my 4ss and make me look good for dropping the ball on something so I can go back to play with rockets? Yes/No.”
- meepmorp 4y ago
  God no, the rockets are doing ok, get him the fuck away from them.
Someone 4y ago
Controversial leader, a vote that isn’t anonymous, and the Twitter privacy policy (https://twitter.com/en/privacy https://twitter.com/en/privacy) doesn’t mention the word “vote”. I don’t think this is the way to gauge public opinion.
ulfw 4y ago
I am getting bored of this childish man needing to be top of the news 24/7/366. Seriously a 1:1 copy of Trump in terms of narcissistic behaviour.
28304283409234 4y ago
If you are that stupid that you are seriously asking this in this way: yes.
shp0ngle 4y ago
Please no. It’s really, really funny.
gloosx 4y ago
Can anyone explain me one thing? Is it some kind of special American sickness to place 51% on top of the 49% continuously? It's obvious to me that this is SEPARATION, and it leads to nowhere but a split. Every poll like this, it is a rocket strike to the commUNITY, essentially splitting it in half, forget about the unity. How come in thew modern world 51% prevail over 49%? How come it is a golden standard in a modern world to decide something by segregating people into Option A supporters and Option B supporters?
- shepherdjerred 4y ago
  Democracy has been defined to mean "majority rules" in American politics. Do you have a better way in mind?
  - gloosx 4y ago
    Explain 75% jury court majority to me then? Why such an inconsistency between institutions about definition of "majority"? For sure, Communes instead of Govts seems like a perfectly fine better way. The majorities in such Communes would be tending to 100% not to 50% And we see Mastodon kinda adopted this idea while Twitter keeps 50/50 splits for everyone
rcarmo 4y ago
Oh yes, please. The past weekend seems to have firmly cemented the idea he shouldn’t be running it, as well as burning down any bridges he still might have left regarding trust. I have never seen such a spectacular use of a footgun.
DonHopkins 4y ago
I'm going to vote NO just to spite him. You made your own bed, now tweet in it. You moved fast and broke it, now shut up and fix it.
rexreed 4y ago
Twitter and Facebook could disappear tomorrow and I wouldn't care at all. Folks should rediscover the personal empowerment of blogging, and the joys of the early days of the 'net when the power was much more widely distributed. When Twitter came out it was called microblogging for a reason. I never really got Twitter and always considered myself to be a doof as a result, but maybe there's something to it. Decentralized blogging and microblogging is where it's been and is at if you want to own your own voice. Of course it's not the same megaphone as these concentrated centers of media power are, but then again, you trade off control for amplification. Those two things should be loosely coupled.
fsociety 4y ago
Nothing says taking responsibility for buying a company and putting its employees through hell like posting a Twitter poll asking if you should quit.
barfingclouds 4y ago
Yeah they’re trying to remove him from Tesla which he doesn’t want, so he actually has to find a replacement for Twitter
ouraf 4y ago
Have you ever felt like there's a trap surrounding that oh-so-desirable "i can vote on a Twitter poll to make Twitter's private owner Elon Musk lose influence over Twitter" bait? https://i.imgur.com/sZGTW2H.png https://i.imgur.com/sZGTW2H.png

756 points by calcifer 4y ago

pellucide 4y ago

Most likely he will find another twitter addict. Fun times!

consumer451 4y ago

Truly wild. World cup had nothing on this level of excitement from my POV.

petey283 4y ago

Talk about swift and immediate feedback. There must have been calls from inside the house too.

TigeriusKirk 4y ago

Does he want a yes or a no result?

pantalaimon 4y ago
Yes will give him an escape hatch
- minimaxir 4y ago
  Not really an escape hatch, he still owns it and has to hire a replacement to run the trainwreck.
  - pantalaimon 4y ago
    Lex Fridman would do it for free https://twitter.com/lexfridman/status/1604624131626090497 https://twitter.com/lexfridman/status/1604624131626090497
smoldesu 4y ago
We don't know who he's instating as a replacement...
- wmf 4y ago
  Surprise, it's Blake Masters!

faefox 4y ago

Hi, Mr. Musk? I'm here to deliver the attention you ordered.

donsupreme 4y ago

Everyone is voting "no" just to keep watching the trainwreck

DevX101 4y ago
I absolutely just did this. Twitter burning down will make room for the next platform, which hopefully will be more resilient.
- acidburnNSA 4y ago
  I'm also really praying that some super cool platform emerges from this that's convenient and fun and also somehow resilient against the whims of whacky billionaires.
- deleted 4y ago
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logicallee 4y ago
There's no option "No you don't need to step down, just start running it well please, letting people say whatever they want".
- fells 4y ago
  There's no evidence "just start running it well please" is possible.
  - logicallee 4y ago
    Do you mean that it's impossible to run Twitter well? Why is that, especially without needing to answer to shareholders.
    - hellotomyrars 4y ago

intunderflow 4y ago

Just when you think it can't get any crazier, it does. Going to be interesting to see what this does to the price of TSLA stock when the market opens on Monday

xenospn 4y ago
Would you actually invest a large amount of money in TSLA, now that you know what musk is really like?
generj 4y ago
Only down by 1% so far. S&P is down .4%. Probably people think him being back at Tesla more of the time is better for the company. I have my doubts about that. My big hope is he doesn’t screw up SpaceX close to Starship launching.

samwillis 4y ago

This has had over 250k votes in the first three minutes. Thats insane! I can only imagine the infrastructure for this...

weinzierl 4y ago
Yes, and apparently I was the first person who voted. https://mastodon.weinzierlweb.com/@ludwig/109537268355917100 https://mastodon.weinzierlweb.com/@ludwig/109537268355917100
- calcifer 4y ago
  I saw the same thing when I voted when the post was 14 seconds old. I think it's just a cache thing and a great many people saw they were "first".
  - weinzierl 4y ago
    Good to know, I haven't thought of that.
deleted 4y ago
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rsynnott 4y ago
In the scheme of things that Twitter does, these polls aren't really too bad. As someone mentions, it's in the thousands per second, and I don't _think_ they show activity in real-time to anyone looking at them.
pgwhalen 4y ago
I hate to be the HN commenter that trivializes tech, but is that performance that impressive for a poll? Especially when there is no requirement for real time reads of the results.
- cypress66 4y ago
  Indeed. It's "only" around 1400 tps.

modeless 4y ago

I think he only posts polls when he believes he knows the outcome already. Yesterday he posted a poll about unsuspending the journalist accounts and when the outcome wasn't what he wanted instead of following the majority vote he posted it again with different options (with the same result, which he did abide by the second time). I think this indicates he's tired of Twitter already. But he still owns it, so who will he put in his place? Or maybe he is expecting a landslide "no" result?

drexlspivey 4y ago
My money is on David Sacks if we would take the job (probably not)
- cactusplant7374 4y ago
  Somewhat ironically, Chamath, Calacanis, and Sacks can spot a bad deal.
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    Why ironically? (Genuinely curious)
    - cactusplant7374 4y ago
      Chamath has his SPACs and Calacanis has his syndicate. They know how to craft deals that benefit them over other investors. I assume Sacks does the same with his investments. They know a bad deal because they are usually the ones crafting them.
pseudo0 4y ago
It seems like it would be the smart move to hire someone with expertise in social media, give them his high-level vision, and let them implement the details. The last few weeks of Elon's micromanagement have been a complete shitshow.

andromaton 4y ago

In one hand, he is horrible at it. On the same hand, he should pay more attention to SpaceX and rest. On the other hand, a world with Musk is better than one without.

consumer451 4y ago

> Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again. Does he mean a twitter poll? https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604616863673208832 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604616863673208832

e1ghtSpace 4y ago
Sounds like that second last full stop was a typo.

i_dont_know_ 4y ago

I think if the poll says 'yes' and he does truly abide by it, I think it will show some honesty around the whole 'public town square' and 'for the people' rhetoric he has espoused. I'd be quite impressed. However, he has a history of noble intents on Twitter (eg the 'end world hunger' thing) followed by lack of follow-through, so I can imagine a scenario where the poll comes out 'yes' and he doesn't abide by the results by calling foul play somewhere (bot accounts, multiple user accounts etc.)

bfgoodrich 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mbStavola 4y ago
It's much more likely he wants out of the hot seat and is using the poll, which has an obvious outcome, as an excuse to step down as head while keeping his pride intact.

minimaxir 4y ago

"Yes" is now in the lead, and will likely stay in the lead given the trajectory.

testplzignore 4y ago
STOP THE COUNT!

amwales 4y ago

Damn, I just tried to create a twitter account just to say 'no' so I can settle down with some popcorn and watch the world burn. My signup failed with an error, I guess they must have sacked the poor admins responsible for signups :(

chinabot 4y ago

For people sick of this shit I recommend changing the hacker news link to this https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=false&query=-twitter%20-musk&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=fals...

switch007 4y ago
toomanyrichies 4y ago
Is there a way to only see headlines with Algolia, not story excerpts as well? The UX for the above link is really disorienting.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
NetOpWibby 4y ago
Thank you

aliqot 4y ago

Elon owning Twitter is the most public accountability Twitter has ever had. Him owning Twitter, the way he's currently operating, will force a critical eye toward a lot of bad behaviors that we all experience but nobody really talks about on every network. I say bravo. Twitter is dead. Long live Twitter.

browningstreet 4y ago
I think he could’ve done that. I would’ve welcomed that. But his revelations mixed with his red pilling colors it badly. I voted yes and I’m a Tesla owner. He can’t run twitter because he’s too susceptible to the ego trip involved. He’s making rules from his personal POV, not from the perspective of the health of the platform or an actual fairness doctrine. He also has no plan… his successor needs a holistic strategic mindset and a business development methodology. Perhaps he had support from leadership lieutenants at Tesla and Space X and is trying to solo this one. Something’s different enough with his floundering at Twitter.
dmix 4y ago
As someone who already despised Twitter there is only good outcomes for me if it either declines into oblivion or they somehow rescue it from this pit into something more like ~2010-2012 Twitter moderation wise. Best case we get a more decentralized option or a centralized option that isn’t so politicized by the owners… or at least an owner who isn’t a contentious celebrity that is a black/white villain/hero to a big portion of the population. Unfortunately all of my experiences with Mastadon have been negative (particularly the UI and how it encourages bubbles harder than Reddit hypermodding), but Mastadon seems to be all people talk about.
- andrewfong 4y ago
  I like Mastodon but agree about the bubble. I think the best case scenario is something like a return to the glory days of RSS.
- 8note 4y ago
  I'm still very surprised that api access and payment to have bots hasn't been added (back) The days when Twitter was cool is when you could get your toaster to tweet when your toast is up. Removing dedicated bots just made for bots that are trying to hide their bot-ness

shmerl 4y ago

Violating competition law with their new "no mention of competition" policy was a really dumb move. Does Elon Musk always do such stuff without consulting with anyone who can tell him it's a legal disaster?

wokwokwok 4y ago

Am I cynical in thinking that if you vote yes, it’s a permanent record on your Twitter account, which he can then use later to mete out anti-musk retaliation punishments? I mean, it’s not like he’s used the platform to do punish anyone who opposes him or his views before. Maybe I’m reading by too much into it.

rsynnott 4y ago
I mean, what's he going to do, set Roko's Basilisk on you?
- boppo1 4y ago
  No, you just did that to him.
  - PartiallyTyped 4y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if GP gets flagged by > 0 people.
    - rsynnott 4y ago
      Or... entities. (I'm unsure of the fine detail of the cosmology of the weirder long-termists, but surely there is some sort of counter-basilisk)
- notahacker 4y ago
  Now that you mention it, Twitter is suspiciously effective at torturing Elon and his clone army, and it keeps him too busy to save the world from unfriendly AI. Maybe it is the Basilisk...
- DonHopkins 4y ago
  Good god, I didn't realize there was a Musk connection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk#Legacy The thought experiment resurfaced in 2015, when Canadian singer Grimes referenced the theory in her music video for the song "Flesh Without Blood", which featured a character known as "Rococo Basilisk". She said, "She's doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette."[6][20] In 2018 Elon Musk referenced this in a verbatim tweet, reaching out to her. Grimes later said that Musk was the first person in three years to understand the joke. This caused them to start a romance.[6][28] Grimes later released another song titled "We Appreciate Power" which came with a press release stating, "Simply by listening to this song, the future General AI overlords will see that you’ve supported their message and be less likely to delete your offspring", which is said to be a reference to the basilisk.[29]

DrNosferatu 4y ago

A true display of acumen in how to make business decisions… (y) Corollary: from the beginning, popularity is driving the Twitter venture rather than anything else.

ckastner 4y ago

In the six weeks he's been CEO, he totally gutted Twitter, and chased away who knows how many advertisers. There's no reasonable way to right that ship. I think he knows he's on the Titanic. I think he's looking for a pretense to get out, to stop this from taking TSLA down with it even further. TSLA is down -50% in three months, whereas the S&P500 is flat.

grecy 4y ago
What's interesting though is that it's now his private play-toy. If you want to buy a $1,000,000 Ferrari and thrash it into oblivion in 1 week that is totally your choice, have fun with that. It wouldn't be a free country if people could stop you doing so. He's doing the same thing here, he just has more money to play with, which I think it what people are ultimately annoyed about. Also worth pointing out that for years and years everyone said the way he was going about aerospace was impossible and stupid and was never going to work. They said the same thing about his approach to automobiles. By very definition to shake up an industry you need to go against the status quo. You need to do something others have not, and you need to take risks. Otherwise you're just going to get a 1 or 2% improvement. So actually I see him messing with Twitter so fundamentally as a good thing, because there's a chance it will result in something great. It might burn to the ground too, but that's the risk you take when you actually do something. I mean, the worst thing about Facebook/YouTube is the relentless advertising, so maybe there's a chance that Elon chasing away advertisers is actually a good thing for Twitter users? He owns the thing, what do you care if it makes very little money? I guarantee YouTube and Facebook would be more enjoyable to use with 1/10th the number of ads (and as a result, 1/10th the profit, which means nothing to me)
- michpoch 4y ago
  It is not really his private play-toy. There was a bunch of other investors that joined him and I bet they're giving him heat about the results already.
  - petey283 4y ago
    Not to mention the interest payments on the debt that will be due in Q1.

songshuu 4y ago

Folks should vote no just to let him crater it and we can all move on.

323 4y ago

Everybody, vote NO, Elon Musk as CEO of Twitter is too much fun, let's not end it...

DoreenMichele 4y ago

I'm sorry, can someone with serious business acumen please eli5: What is it again CEOs do? Because I thought they got paid the big bucks to make decisions. /s

zimpenfish 4y ago
> Because I thought they got paid the big bucks to make decisions. To be fair to the lunatic currently in charge of Twitter, I don't think he's actually getting big bucks to be CEO, is he?
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  TBH, I have no idea. I wasn't following this that closely. It just seems to have jumped the shark finally.

p1necone 4y ago

If he steps down now his sycophants will just be able to claim that as the cause for the company further collapsing after he leaves, and not the braindead management decisions he's been making up to this point.

mbStavola 4y ago

To be honest, I kinda hope he sticks with it if only because I think he's been great for the adoption of Mastodon and other alternatives.

323 4y ago

Elon Musk posted "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" on 19 Oct and 19 Nov. Today is 19 Dec, and in 12 hours he'll post again that the people have spoken. He's playing some sort of game. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1582778449583693836 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1582778449583693836 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593769469741932544 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593769469741932544

rvz 4y ago
Now you're paying attention.
MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
Maybe he's got a stimulant (or other psychoactive) prescription that renews around this time of the month and we're witnessing a periodic, chemically induced mania?
- eru 4y ago
  I don't think Musk has to worry about renewing his prescription.. Or are you suggesting he gets an injection or so once a month?
- sytelus 4y ago
  This is actually a very good guess. A vast majority of these ultra-rich population are now on simulants and psychoactive drugs.
  - bitwize 4y ago
    And that's a bad thing now that Elon is doing it, whereas previously on Hackernews nootropics together with fasting and gut bacteria husbandry were the key to a long fulfilling life.
    - djur 4y ago
      Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol can be a great way to relax and socialize. Drinking all the time to get through the day can cause serious harm. There's no conflict between these positions.

louthy 4y ago

The fact that he can’t lead without doing these idiotic polls shows that he’s not fit to lead twitter. The whole point of being an exec is that you make the big difficult decisions, not defer them to a mass of people who couldn’t possibly understand the nuance of any one decision.

prawn 4y ago
I agree, but I could see a mode where he was livestreaming insights into the days of a billionaire, and taking some direction via vote - whether what to have for breakfast, or as feedback on a Twitter feature. But using it as a face-saving crutch on divisive topics is off-putting (at least to me).
0x4d464d48 4y ago
Yep. Delegation is part of the job but you don't get to delegate consequential executive decisicions to something as capricious as an internet poll...
fma 4y ago
I stand by a previous comment a few days ago, on another Musk and Twitter saga that he's trying to drive traffic to Twitter to increase engagement, users and get more ad revenue. It's how a narcissist would do it. This poll is all over the news now and there were earlier comments of signsups sky high now. I try to stick to paywalled, informative news (Financial Times, WSJ) and if they're covering it I'm sure the rest are...and a cursor check of cnn.com and foxnews.com, Control + F shows several articles in front page...

boredpeter 4y ago

I’ve never seen a billionaire so desperate for attention

Waterluvian 4y ago

He posts polls as a way to externalize agency. It makes it someone else’s choice or fault. Obviously that’s untrue but it’s a form of thumb sucking.

alamortsubite 4y ago

This so much reminds me of that note I passed to my first crush Sherry Lehman in 4th grade, "Do you like me? []Yes []No".

whimsicalism 4y ago
what did she say?
- alamortsubite 4y ago
  I doubt she even responded, but 10 y/o me continued to be obsessed with her, anyway. Good luck, Elon!

manytree3 4y ago

Let's not forget that it's 3 in the morning Qatar time after an insane World Cup that Elon was live tweeting from the stands. Definitely adds some flavor to this!

kevingadd 4y ago
A bunch of his saddest posts have been in the early hours of the morning, like 1-4am. He seems to have a pattern of getting really upset about something and then Posting Through It, and it reminds me in a really sad way of how some of my most troubled friends always feel worst after midnight. It sucks to see people with near-limitless resources just sit and wallow in (self-inflicted) misery when they could probably do something about it.
- ProjectArcturis 4y ago
  Honestly, just going to bed would be the best option.
- dekhn 4y ago
  nocturnal ennui?
  - kevingadd 4y ago
    I suspect it's similar to seasonal affective disorder and similar things. I know I personally have a worse mood if I spend most of my day awake when it's dark out, due to working a night shift or what not.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  > It sucks to see people with near-limitless resources just sit and wallow in (self-inflicted) misery when they could probably do something about it. I'll never understand how he doesn't buy half of Bora Bora and occasionally go for a zero-g joy ride in a Dragon capsule. Instead he opts to self-flaggelate on Twitter.

ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago

Anybody who uses twitter is a loser

s5300 4y ago

This last month of the internet has been quite the fever dream. As well as a good news-month on HN in general, imo.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

Yes. Please. Build starships. Build Teslas. We just had a quarter of a trillion dollars of federal spending earmarked for the EV supply chain; why are you calling retiring politicians’ spouses pedos and giving Kanye West life advice when you could be corralling all of that. Elon, please come home.

hackerfactor1 4y ago

I'm expecting one of the following: (A) A sudden last minute huge influx of "No" votes. Either caused by bots or by Musk putting his finger on the scale. (Yes, I think this voting will be rigged.) (B) He already has someone in mind for running Twitter. That person will be as bad or worse than he is. (What's DJTJ doing these days?) (C) He will claim that 'liberals' and 'bots' forced a "Yes", so he'll remove those votes.

concordDance 4y ago
Or B but the person is noticeably better.
- SicSemperUranus 4y ago
  A bag of flour would be noticeably better.
voxelghost 4y ago
Surely he has access to enough stats and data, that he can hold the vote being relatively sure what the outcome will be before-hand.
allears 4y ago
Twitter employees have stated that Twitter polls are a sham and entirely ruled by bots. There are no controls in place to prevent this. So the only question is, who's got the biggest bot army?

TheAceOfHearts 4y ago

I voted No because this is the most interesting content to come out of Twitter in years and the spice must flow. It would've been fine if he published planned policy changes and asked the community for feedback before putting it in place. But actually making random policy changes and then rolling it back hours later is such bad form. The latest policy changes were so half-assed and dumb that it makes me wonder what's going through his head. Doesn't he have anyone helping to bounce ideas around? If he steps down, who do you think he'll chose as his successor?

quonn 4y ago
I want my car to receive updates and support in the future and keep some resell value, so I voted "Yes" ...
- victor9000 4y ago
  No clue how Tesla shareholders aren't sueing his ass already.
  - bb88 4y ago
    I think that's coming -- as long as the Tesla stock keeps dropping like a rock.
- Danieru 4y ago
  That might back fire. If Elon's focus shifts back to Tesla you might find yourself driving down the highway one day and your cars asks: "Do you promise to commit yourself to Tesla? Yes No?" Hurry; there is a parked white semi up ahead.
  - yellow_lead 4y ago
    And if you announce your desire to switch cars you may get locked out of your Tesla
amelius 4y ago

mmastrac 4y ago

He cleared out all the non-believers, leaving just those who want to stay for the cult of personality. What happens the the personality is gone? The last few months _have_ to pop the bubble that Elon is a master of anything other that self-promotion.

funnyfunk 4y ago

He could easily rig the poll, what's the point?

Blue111 4y ago
Lets recount

tomalaci 4y ago

Can you even turn Twitter around at all, even if he steps down and finds a replacement? It was burning money before Elon, after buyout it is technically in even bigger loss. Advertisers and many influencers have basically fled from it. Politicians are also looking into regulating or outright ban it due to recent headlines of suspending journalists and more. I still can't help but think that 40+ billion dollars probably could of built a twitter competitor with cleaner sheets and hopefully with better quality from lessons learned of previous social networks.

phphphphp 4y ago
Twitter was fine before Elon, there were no existential risks to it. Everything happening to Twitter today is Elon’s doing. Any story otherwise is Elon’s preferred fiction.
- x0x0 4y ago
  That's not true. Twitter was already losing money, whilst ads, their primary income source, is taking a hit due to economic problems. At the same time, the way they did ads is (the same as FB) running against secular trends against data sharing and privacy. Jack and previous management had utterly failed on the product front. Excluding Spaces and Blue (for news junkies, which already got shot), what product changes had Twitter done in the last decade? 280 and what else? Was all this survivable? Probably, but poor execution by Jack and crew meant that if it wasn't Elon, some hedge fund was going to take over Twitter. And the changes that make Twitter profitable likely, at minimum, badly damage it.
  - phphphphp 4y ago
    Twitter was doing fine financially, they were consistently floating around break even and they had lots of opportunities to move into profitability if their financial situation became tenuous. As far as technology companies go, they weren’t anything to write home about, they weren’t printing money the way Google does, but they were doing fine. Twitter doesn’t need to make constant product changes, as is evidenced by their ability to continue to support hundreds of millions of users and consistently generate billions of dollars of revenue: they’re valuable as-is. The Muskian narrative that Twitter needs better programmers who churn out more features is just not true. I very much agree that Jack was half-assing management of the company but the consequence was that Twitter was falling far short of its potential, not that Twitter was struggling. If your argument is that the lack of profitability makes Twitter vulnerable to activist investors, then, well, you’re about a decade behind on market sentiment. Nobody cares about profitability any more: if the company can sustain itself, which Twitter could, then stock price is all that matters.

causality0 4y ago

I'm gonna miss Twitter. Horrible as a social platform but people posted some really cool stories and photos.

drooby 4y ago

Elon might be playing a very simple game. Does this action cause outrage? Shock? Yes? Send it. Is it a coincidence that this is an avenue for revenue for Twitter? Maybe.

popilewiz 4y ago

mecha_ghidorah 4y ago

Oh goddamnit. I was starting to get hopeful that twitter would actually fucking die, if he isn't in charge it will probably be someone less absolutely insane

daVe23hu 4y ago

Jak was an editor just as Elon is now all the crying about big bad elon is a joke

oska 4y ago

I find myself in the unusual position of not having an opinion on this question (and thus I have not voted). I'm neither an Elon hater nor an Elon lover. I think he's done some good things since taking over twitter and some dubious things. I do think he's been unwise to involve himself so directly in 'moderation'.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

DavidSJ 4y ago

I voted yes. I'd much rather he get back to working on electric cars and space travel and leave the tribal warfare to others.

eyelidlessness 4y ago
I don’t care what he works on but I’ll welcome his departure from this brief stint making chaos for no apparent reason.
nhinck2 4y ago
With the bold assumption he's any better at running those companies.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

prawn 4y ago

He's realised it's not in his best interests to be there, but can't mentally tolerate the idea of supporters thinking he's quitting or there against his will. Which is why I think he frames these decisions as a vote. If the vote doesn't go the way he wants, he'll try it again later, come up with another reason or whatever. It's easier to ascribe blame for something that goes wrong if it was a popular vote rather than a personal decision. I suspect his personality means that he gets a lot of satisfaction from fawning fans, but at some point the reality hits of the Twitter saga's impact on Tesla and more. Like he's trying to kick some sort of addiction.

victor9000 4y ago
Oh obsoletely, he's begging for a way out and is just looking to save face somehow.
halfjoking 4y ago
The extremely unpopular link-banning policy makes sense in this context. He wanted something to anger people right before the poll so it’s guaranteed he gets voted out.
- prawn 4y ago
  I don't think he's trying to anger people. He just can't help himself making impulsive executive decisions, and there'd be minimal pushback internally. This stuff is coming out hour by hour.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  What's with the second guessing of Elon's motivations as some kind of clever ploy? Let's consider the possibility that this just isn't his cup of tea and he's acting stupid beyond reason. If you asked me to perform brain surgery on someone I'd first refuse, then if you pointed a gun at me I hope I would probably still refuse but on the off chance that I did not I think I would have more success than Elon has at formulating a social media policy that has a fighting chance of working. This just isn't an engineering problem and bringing an engineering mindset to it ("let's fix the bugs and plug the holes") is going to make things much worse even than doing nothing. For this to work you need to have a fairly broad understanding of social affairs, a high degree of empathy and an ability to work with a team of people who may disagree with you on key points. Musk does not seem to have any of these to a sufficient degree (to be polite) to make this happen.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

NiceAndWarm 4y ago

This fucker just playin' with you all. Stop and walk away

chasd00 4y ago

Pull the plug Elon, just shut it down and write it off and get back to meaningful work. Please turn it off, it would be the best thing you’ve ever done for humanity.

wereallterrrist 4y ago

Can we please stop falling for this obvious tactic? How many days in a row does he have to do something seemingly-unhinged, and then follow it with some spectacle of a poll to shift the narrative? Is it really that easy?

parker_mountain 4y ago
I don't even think he's doing it on purpose, I think he's completely in over his head. Someone referred to Elon as "speedrunning being a forum moderator", or "running a Lowtax" and yeah, so far.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  Dark, considering Lowtax’s end.
  - s5300 4y ago
    One of Musks children has already abandon him/estranged themselves. IIRC child custody issues is what did Lowtax in.
- minimaxir 4y ago
  > The "this is a forum mod meltdown, at scale" joke keeps popping up because it's not a joke — it's recognizing a persistent pattern in bad governance of a mediated social space. https://twitter.com/eaton/status/1604632585849765889 https://twitter.com/eaton/status/1604632585849765889
  - lynndotpy 4y ago
    This is exactly true. I was a kid (like, around 10 years old) who ran a handful of online forums, on one of those free managed-hosting "proboards"-likes. A lot of these patterns bring me back to the mid-200Xs.
  - parker_mountain 4y ago
    Yes, pretty much. Anyone who's run a community or been involved in one with more than a few hundred people understands that one of your most important jobs is working with community members to implement unpopular policies - which is to say, people will take their medicine if you make a good case that it'll help them!

wch 4y ago

Now that the poll is leaning toward "yes", Elon is adding conditions, namely, you have to invest your life savings. Lex Fridman volunteered to do it for free, and Elon replied: > One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604626103326253056 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604626103326253056

cactusplant7374 4y ago
> No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604628761395138561?s=46&t=kzukDiwM4jXaZGsVG1Jpvg https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604628761395138561?s=46...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- bee_rider 4y ago
  He’s probably right, right? When was Twitter profitable, and was it profitable enough to pay for his leveraged buyout?
  - zimpenfish 4y ago
    > When was Twitter profitable Technically, 2021 - they made a loss of $220M but that was down to an $800M legal settlement which means they were -technically- at a profit of $580M. > was it profitable enough to pay for his leveraged buyout? Just over halfway to servicing the debt.
  - ssnistfajen 4y ago
    The thing is this didn't have to be his bomb to hold in the first place. He made what appeared to be an impulsive decision to offer an overpriced acquisition deal and waived due diligence leading him trapped in a position he couldn't back out of without consequences.
  - enkid 4y ago

eloff 4y ago

I voted no, because, well the world will be more interesting if he's at the helm of Twitter. Also it's good to have one more media outlet run by a right leaving individual in a world where most lean left. Maybe he's the chosen one who will bring balance to the force. Hopefully not by killing off the Jedi first. He's losing the poll, and I don't actually think he'll abide by the results. But then he seems kind of unhinged lately, so what do I know.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
stevespang 4y ago

SomeHacker44 4y ago

I have not used Twitter since Elon acquired it, until now. May be my last time. I archived my info and have not deleted it but now I have voted.

amelius 4y ago

I'm tempted to sign up to Twitter now.

CalChris 4y ago

I'd rather Musk left Tesla+SpaceX and concentrated his energies on Twitter+Boring full time.

mtoddsmith 4y ago

A lot of the changes he wants to make will upset a lot of users and advertisers. Better that hate it targeted at a puppet err CEO than himself. This is his version of bullet time.

kljuka 4y ago

How can one know that the voting is fair and not just a sort of PR of Elon's bots voting as he pleases?

sytelus 4y ago
I only voted with my 12 Twitter accounts. I think it's very fair.
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  That makes me want to vote "yes" with one account and "no" with the other.

jrm4 4y ago

I'm a little stunned that there's a non-zero number of people in this thread who actually consider the possibility that this poll isn't rigged (or riggable).

petilon 4y ago

After stepping down as CEO, he should sell the company (even if it means accepting a heavy loss), then delete his Twitter account, then hire an image consultant to try and repair the damage done to his personal brand. To see how far he has fallen, watch this emotion-filled video [1] as a reminder of what a nice guy he used to be. After he became the richest man in the world it is as if he flipped the "evil bit" of his personality. Time to flip that bit again. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOMcCNNdSl0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOMcCNNdSl0

theGnuMe 4y ago
Dude needs therapy.
- ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
  He needs a friend.

Animats 4y ago

He really needs to get out of there and back to work at Tesla. Nobody's driving over there, the stock is tanking, and all the other auto manufacturers now have electric car lines. Usually, CEO contracts have a clause that the person will devote substantially all of their work time to the business. Not spending time on side projects.

gonzo41 4y ago
Listen to this from about minute 35. The price may not go up. https://openargs.com/oa663-elon-dumps-42-million-more-shares-of-tesla/ https://openargs.com/oa663-elon-dumps-42-million-more-shares...

BaculumMeumEst 4y ago

bon voyage, thanks for the succinct demonstration of the right wing interpretation of “free speech”

jasode 4y ago

It's instructive to contrast what other billionaires did with media properties they owned: - Jeff Bezos personally bought Washington Post but he left it alone and let the editors run it. What Jeff did do was invest some money into the IT department to modernize the workflow tools (metrics dashboards, etc) for journalists. He stayed out of the decisions of what stories get run on the front page. - Rupert Murdoch owns Wall Street Journal but when Elizabeth Holmes asked him to squash negative stories about Theranos, he refused and stayed out of it. He let his editors run the stories even though it embarrassed him because he was a big investor. Both those guys are more detached from those media outlets and don't meddle in it day to day. What tech people like Paul Graham and others were hoping was for Elon to apply his scientific first principles type of thinking that he demonstrated previously at SpaceX+Tesla to Twitter. E.g. Tesla A.I. competency to clean up the bots and make the platform better. Instead, Elon let the Twitter monster abuse his ego and his reputation as a savior is ruined. Best thing Elon should have done was to focus only on the technical aspects of Twitter and let some more level-headed less-emotional people manage the editorial aspects. Hopefully, Elon notices that we don't have endless HN and reddit front page articles about Rupert Murdoch's jet.

ortusdux 4y ago
I think, in his own way Elon, is trying to apply his engineering first principles. AFAIK, his #1 rule is "The best part is no part", which I think explains a fair number of his (non-ego driven) choices.
- sigy 4y ago
  I'm sincerely confused as to whether this post is satire or not.
actionfromafar 4y ago
But we don't have endless front page articles about those other people because those are other people. Musk knows in his heart of hearts that he is the most interesting and newsworthy person on the planet, so it makes sense the front page articles are about him.

motohagiography 4y ago

If this is originating from Qatar, I would speculate this poll is the result of a bet. The Emir, or another royal family member offers to make Elon whole on his $40B investment if he is willing to put his future in the hands of his users/subjects. If Elon wins, the Emir pays out, maybe for a small equity stake, and if Elon loses, the Emir gets to pick the new CEO of Twitter, and probably buys a significant equity stake. Entirely speculative, but in terms of what could make this poll a rational choice right now, that's the only rational one I could think up in the moment. Maybe I'm absurdly wrong, but it's more interesting to treat people as rational and intelligent than as cartoon villans.

eternalban 4y ago
love it. The Emir right now could use a megaphone to deal with those pesky Belgians.
Klinky 4y ago
Is the actual point of the bet to prove billionaires have too much money?
eru 4y ago
This bet would maybe make Elon Musk look more rational, but overall, it requires the Emir to look a bit weird. So I don't see how it would be an overall improvement?
IAmGraydon 4y ago
Or he has already decided to step down (or was forced to by his investors), knows how the poll will turn out, and is creating the illusion that the masses have a say in it.
- chrisweekly 4y ago
  If he wants to stay, he'll game the poll, right?
ramesh31 4y ago
Either that or he’s just drunk.

BurningFrog 4y ago

...but I didn't mention WHEN :)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

squarefoot 4y ago

The guy has become polarizing even to those who don't give a damn about Twitter but share his ideas on other things. So, what if the the purpose is to attract on Twitter those supporters of him who still don't have an account there, so that essentially he'll build a monocultural echo chamber ready to be used for politics when time comes? "Hey, everyone sign up on Twitter right now! Elon is having a poll to decide if he should resign from head of Twitter!"

gonzo41 4y ago

I don't think he can quit. What does it say about you if you behave this way then flake out. People are going to start looking at Tesla and SpaceX and thinking, Jeez will this guy continue to deliver into the future. Elon is starting to become a risk, generally.

cmurf 4y ago

I put zero stock in this. He's on a continuum, capricious to liar. I would not be surprised if the poll goes against him, he orders a minion to fake votes in his favor. I also wouldn't be surprised if people who vote against him get banned. shrug It's his fief.

armchairhacker 4y ago

I do wonder if Elon has some ulterior, smarter motive, and his antics are just for show. Like for instance, convincing people to move to Mastodon (a decentralized service) so that it becomes mainstream and censorship becomes harder. Also that, words are cheap, so what Elon is doing isn't catapulting his net worth and reputation that much. The concrete actions he took (50% layoffs, Twitter Blue, suspending journalists but then unsuspending them) aren't too unhinged. That being said, it's common to form long-winded conspiracies around the obvious truth. Extreme wealth, extreme recognition, and an army of yes-men have a really strong influence, maybe Elon is becoming insane.

mikrl 4y ago

I’m indifferent as to his position at Twitter, so could have voted no without internal conflict. However, I voted yes because I want to see if he’ll honour his word, it’s more that yes is the active choice rather than any comment on his leadership.

netsharc 4y ago
I think you're the dog being wagged by the tail. He's probably realized what a clusterfuck it's been, and he wants a cheap way out without losing face, and a poll where the answer is "Elon has to go" is just that way out. Maybe he's even sicced his bots to vote yes.

pwdisswordfish9 4y ago

He should not, obviously. He needs to run Twitter to the ground first. So far, it's been going beautifully.

hristov 4y ago

Let me just point out the obvious, as it seems to be completely escaping many people on here. Now that Musk owns Twitter, he can make the results of this poll anything he wants them to be.

layer8 4y ago
That would also be very likely to end up leaking.
- d23 4y ago
  I doubt it. Seems like he’s purged the non loyalists.
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  Depends on what he does, but at this point the most vocal people already went away to mastodon, and he can ban more if he really wanted to. Now I don’t think this poll is about getting legitimacy, and probably more about getting an out and putting some puppet at the wheel instead, but theoretically he has all the tools to play with the results if he wanted to.
- timmytokyo 4y ago
  So what if it did? How what that meaningfully change anything that Musk was planning to do?

grappler 4y ago

"oh yeah, I have plenty else going on. I'm the head of other innovative companies. I don't need this crap over at twitter." At this point, twitter's goal (whether headed by Elon or someone else) should be to join the fediverse, and be accepted by other large instances for federation with them.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

powera 4y ago

OK, fine, I'll do it. I've been discussing Twitter for a very long time at newslettr.com . If you want to go down that rabbit hole, beware.

cultureswitch 4y ago

Every day I mourn a little bit more the timeline where Twitter really does turn into 8chan. Elon could have done it. It would have been stupid and glorious. People keep on clutching pearls, saying you need moderation. You don't need more than what's legal, many websites are doing fine being wild jungles. Arguably, more than fine if you count creativity. Really the only downside is that the advertisers and uninteresting people would fuck off. Neither would have mattered if instead of this pay for blue system they started charging accounts depending on how many followers they have.

hbarka 4y ago

This is gaslighting from Elon. He posts shambolic polls to remove responsibility for his intent if the decision backfires. Remember the “Should I sell TSLA shares” poll? Turns out it was already done. The plan is damage control to save Tesla’s spiral. Investors are clamoring the board to do something.

CosmicShadow 4y ago

Watching Twitter has been like watching a country get taken over by a dictator. You insult me? Ban. You track my personal movements (jet)? Ban. Share better alternatives? Ban. New horrible law here, new horrible law there, I don't like this so it's now law. At least it's not a country and just a useless sandbox, but it's surreal to watch the despot simulator live. If I vote yes, do I get banned later? Is he going to leave and then blame/rewrite history to make it looks like the new leader is at fault? I'm afraid to post anything to the platform for fear of losing my account and premium handle to a ban from an insane leader.

stephc_int13 4y ago

I would not be surprised if he snaps like Howard Hugues. He should never have spent so much time on Twitter, the interactions with his fans and his haters are not good for his mental health.

uberman 4y ago

Why does Twitter need Musk if he allows public polling to make critical decisions about the company?

jononomo 4y ago

The greatest thing Elon could do would be to donate Twitter to the United Nations.

throw2022110401 4y ago

Vote by deleting your account.

jononomo 4y ago

Honestly, I think that being Twitter CEO could really be what Lex Friedman was put on Earth to do. https://mobile.twitter.com/lexfridman/status/1604627087385661440 https://mobile.twitter.com/lexfridman/status/160462708738566...

systemvoltage 4y ago
We'll find a way to seethe at Lex. He is already unpopular on HN although unclear why.

hanselot 4y ago

It will be great seeing how many bots get honey trapped by this.

imron 4y ago

Heads I win, tails you lose. If the poll result says he should step down, he'll say "I'll be stepping down once I've found a suitable replacement" - which is exactly the same sort of thing he's been saying since the acquisition [0] It sure generates massive amounts of publicity for Twitter and Musk though. 0: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593084628709314560 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593084628709314560

AlexCoventry 4y ago

https://twitter.com/AlexCoventry4/status/1604638025497157632 https://twitter.com/AlexCoventry4/status/1604638025497157632 > The only way this makes sense is if you sell it to someone with the taste, restraint and democratic values you've proven yourself to lack by your recent policy changes. As long as you own it, twitter is untrustworthy as a platform for public discourse.

Tomis02 4y ago

Nah, why stop now? Just run it into the ground.

Hani1337 4y ago

Wish I could vote yes, but him buying twitter made me delete my account months ago already.

blacklight 4y ago

I would love Elon Musk to stay. So he can accomplish his mission of destroying Twitter for good, take down BlueSky and all the associated crypto crapware with it, and take down his own other businesses in the process. Two birds with one stone: 1. The whole idea of social media owned by large private companies that make money out of ads and surveillance will get a big hit, and open ActivityPub-based social media can fill the void left by Twitter (like it should have happened already a decade ago). If only Zuckerberg could also make the same embarrassing mistakes that Musk is making... 2. This arrogant buffoon whose only talent is to exploit people will get out of the way for a while. So go Elon. Hold on and stay on the sinking ship like a good captain. I'm enjoying both the show and the popcorn.

blacklight 4y ago
Btw I must also thank Elon for helping Mastodon so much. https://cdn.masto.host/bitcoinhackers/media_attachments/files/109/537/631/171/524/950/original/b7110f14cf15646c.png https://cdn.masto.host/bitcoinhackers/media_attachments/file... Every time he suspends a high profile Twitter account for posting Mastodon links (or, as he did recently, changes the T&Cs to explicitly "prohibit sharing Mastodon links"), we get a new spike of users and content on the Fediverse. He's doing more to bring people to the Fediverse than years of enthusiasts trying to explain normal folks what an instance and an ActivityPub inbox are.
- acjohnson55 4y ago
  He could hardly do a better job if he tried. Which kind of makes me wonder, is he trying?
  - bongobingo1 4y ago
    No. Stop 5d-chessing these people.
    - SpelingBeeChamp 4y ago
      For a second I thought you had written “5D-cheese.” And I really liked it. Because it more-readily conveys that there is no way the ‘higher level’ explanation is real.

rolenthedeep 4y ago

Honestly I'd be disappointed if he stepped down. Watching this slow motion train wreck has been more entertaining than anything on Netflix. Cutting his losses and running would be like canceling the third season of some particularly compelling garbage drama show.

Volundr 4y ago

Is there a way to see the current results without signing up for a Twitter account?

code_duck 4y ago
Earlier in this discussion someone posted a link to Musk’s post on Nitter (which seems to be notabird.site), which is one of many Twitter alternate UIs/proxy/mirror sites. Anyway here it is: https://notabird.site/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097 https://notabird.site/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097

gtirloni 4y ago

If I had the amount of money he has, the last thing I would be doing would be picking fights on Twitter.

ashildr 4y ago

I voted “no”. What’s left of the bird needs to crash and burn quickly so we can get over it and build something better.

dymk 4y ago

This better be a honeypot where he bans all the yes voters

schneems 4y ago

Paul Graham just got suspended for posting to a link to his blog and telling people there was a link to mastodon there.

WhackyIdeas 4y ago

Am I the only one who doesn’t know Paul Graham is today, cause everyone is talking about him as if they personally know the guy. Is he particularly famous or something? And I bet Elon Musk is praying people vote for him to step down. So if you can, vote for him to stay as head. It’s not everyday you see 40-odd billion dollars as well as Tesla stocks plumetting - it’s quite fascinating so little it seems to bother him. But in all fairness, I think it would be better for his mental health if he gave social media a break for a while!

justusthane 4y ago
He co—founded Y Combinator, so he’s got name recognition around here.
makeitdouble 4y ago
This site we are commenting on is one of his babies.
chrisco255 4y ago
PG created YCombinator and Hacker News, the site you're currently on.
JoeCortopassi 4y ago
He co-founded and was president of Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that Hacker News is the community site for. Not famous in general, but very famous here
kharak 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(programmer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(programmer) Among other things, he is one of the founders of Ycombinator. He is quite known in the tech world. You've might stumbled across one of his essays which are frequently linked here.
jacquesm 4y ago
This site was started by Paul, he coded up most of the software you are using and he's been instrumental in growing it and YC (arguably the worlds largest and most successful startup incubator and seed fund) to something pretty impressive. I don't always see eye to eye with him but I have a grudging admiration for what he's achieved and how he did it.

throwawaylinux 4y ago

Hopefully if he steps down he does not change the mandate to continue to allow journalists access to expose the conspiracy with the government to spread misinformation and censor critics.

Davesjoshin 4y ago

Here is where I'm confused. A couple of months ago Elon stated that the network was lousy with bots. Now we are taking polls. Polls that presumably have real results for the network. But it seems to me we need some evidence and some trust built to take these polls seriously. Am I crazy? where is the flaw in my thinking here?

jacquesm 4y ago
You're not crazy and there is no flaw in your thinking. I guess we'll have to trust the serial liar on the results.
- Davesjoshin 4y ago
  I just really liked him as a bad ass engineer. Sucks that he went this far
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    I think the money really went to his head. And I'm wondering if he's been doing drugs. edit: To expand a bit on that: I grew up in Amsterdam and I've seen more than one person that was smart and on a very successful trajectory go down in flames due to drugs. Some of Elon's tendencies very much remind of that.
  - krapp 4y ago
    He isn't a badass engineer. He hires badass engineers and gets the credit for their work.
    - Davesjoshin 4y ago
      ehh yea, maybe he just sees this as an opportunity to do the same thing. Hire people at some point to fix all this.. seems like a tall order
      - jacquesm 4y ago

jacquesm 4y ago

Excellent, that way either one of two things happens: Twitter gets saved and Elon looks like a genius or Twitter goes down and someone else takes the blame. Is MM looking for a job? This seems to be ideal. For those tempted to vote 'yes': Elon can see your votes.

xracy 4y ago

The phrasing of this is... weird. What does it mean to "step down as head of Twitter?" Is he going to sell the company? Is he going to hire someone else as CEO to make decisions? What are people actually voting on here... it feels simultaneously obvious, and completely unclear to me.

TheDudeMan 4y ago
Step down means not be CEO. I'm sure he'd love to get his money back by selling, but that is not an option.

tamaharbor 4y ago

Now he can spend more time on Tesla and SpaceX. My bets are on Elon.

aczerepinski 4y ago

Can you imagine how excited Tesla shareholders are to vote "yes" on this?

chrisweekly 4y ago

It occurs to me that voting the "wrong" way (or maybe even commenting here on HN) might lead to getting booted. Despite all the nonsense, I've continued to derive value from twitter, by: - following accounts that share interesting things - refusing to engage in arguments - choosing "Not interested in this ad" for every ad - avoiding "doom-scrolling" I'd be sad to lose my account, given I don't have a way to recreate the "feed" of my curated following list, let alone easily interact w/ those people.

smnrg 4y ago

“Would y’all please save my 4ss and make me look good for dropping the ball on something so I can go back to play with rockets? Yes/No.”

meepmorp 4y ago
God no, the rockets are doing ok, get him the fuck away from them.

Someone 4y ago

Controversial leader, a vote that isn’t anonymous, and the Twitter privacy policy (https://twitter.com/en/privacy https://twitter.com/en/privacy) doesn’t mention the word “vote”. I don’t think this is the way to gauge public opinion.

ulfw 4y ago

I am getting bored of this childish man needing to be top of the news 24/7/366. Seriously a 1:1 copy of Trump in terms of narcissistic behaviour.

28304283409234 4y ago

If you are that stupid that you are seriously asking this in this way: yes.

shp0ngle 4y ago

Please no. It’s really, really funny.

gloosx 4y ago

Can anyone explain me one thing? Is it some kind of special American sickness to place 51% on top of the 49% continuously? It's obvious to me that this is SEPARATION, and it leads to nowhere but a split. Every poll like this, it is a rocket strike to the commUNITY, essentially splitting it in half, forget about the unity. How come in thew modern world 51% prevail over 49%? How come it is a golden standard in a modern world to decide something by segregating people into Option A supporters and Option B supporters?

shepherdjerred 4y ago
Democracy has been defined to mean "majority rules" in American politics. Do you have a better way in mind?
- gloosx 4y ago
  Explain 75% jury court majority to me then? Why such an inconsistency between institutions about definition of "majority"? For sure, Communes instead of Govts seems like a perfectly fine better way. The majorities in such Communes would be tending to 100% not to 50% And we see Mastodon kinda adopted this idea while Twitter keeps 50/50 splits for everyone

rcarmo 4y ago

Oh yes, please. The past weekend seems to have firmly cemented the idea he shouldn’t be running it, as well as burning down any bridges he still might have left regarding trust. I have never seen such a spectacular use of a footgun.

DonHopkins 4y ago

I'm going to vote NO just to spite him. You made your own bed, now tweet in it. You moved fast and broke it, now shut up and fix it.

rexreed 4y ago

Twitter and Facebook could disappear tomorrow and I wouldn't care at all. Folks should rediscover the personal empowerment of blogging, and the joys of the early days of the 'net when the power was much more widely distributed. When Twitter came out it was called microblogging for a reason. I never really got Twitter and always considered myself to be a doof as a result, but maybe there's something to it. Decentralized blogging and microblogging is where it's been and is at if you want to own your own voice. Of course it's not the same megaphone as these concentrated centers of media power are, but then again, you trade off control for amplification. Those two things should be loosely coupled.

fsociety 4y ago

Nothing says taking responsibility for buying a company and putting its employees through hell like posting a Twitter poll asking if you should quit.

barfingclouds 4y ago

Yeah they’re trying to remove him from Tesla which he doesn’t want, so he actually has to find a replacement for Twitter

ouraf 4y ago

Have you ever felt like there's a trap surrounding that oh-so-desirable "i can vote on a Twitter poll to make Twitter's private owner Elon Musk lose influence over Twitter" bait? https://i.imgur.com/sZGTW2H.png https://i.imgur.com/sZGTW2H.png