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Honestly, it was partly my faith in money that made me comfortable with Twitter as a public company. They (gradually and often reluctantly) learned that if they

Honestly, it was partly my faith in money that made me comfortable with Twitter as a public company. They (gradually and often reluctantly) learned that if they wanted to be a viable business, they had to provide a reasonably safe place for a lot of people. For purely pecuniary reasons, they also thought they needed to be a good partner to people building things related to Twitter. All that has gone by the wayside, of course. Part of the problem here is that Musk had so much money he could afford to burn tens of billions of dollars on a weird personal fixation. [1] A problem that the market has happily started to correct, [2] but perhaps not soon enough to save Twitter. [1] One possible explanation is here: https://defector.com/i-was-almost-elon-musks-twitter-voice https://defector.com/i-was-almost-elon-musks-twitter-voice [2] He even set a record! https://www.npr.org/2023/01/12/1148634966/elon-musk-guinness-world-records https://www.npr.org/2023/01/12/1148634966/elon-musk-guinness...

smoldesu 4y ago
They didn't learn much of anything, though. Twitter lost money when they played nice, and they lose less money when they play mean and lean. Either way Twitter was bloated and overvalued, but anything bought with wealth leveraged against Tesla shares can't be worth much in the first place.
- wpietri 4y ago
  No, they really did learn things. For example, consider the racist mobbing of Leslie Jones in 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/18/leslie-jones-racist-tweets-ghostbusters https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/18/leslie-jones... Twitter learned that they really had to take harm reduction more seriously if they didn't want to be known for things like that. I believe that their improvements there were part of what set them on the path to their later profits: https://www.netcials.com/financial-net-profit-year-quarter-usa/1418091-TWITTER-INC/#secondlist https://www.netcials.com/financial-net-profit-year-quarter-u... And as far as losing money goes, their "lean and mean" approach isn't doing so well. Ad revenues are reportedly down ~40% as the same time Musk is going to have to come up with billion-dollar interest payments.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    Ad revenue can be down 40% if your overall paid workforce was reduced by ~85%. It wasn't working out for Twitter either way, if they wanted to be profitable then something had to change. As an impartial non-Twitter user, I think it's safe to say that neither version of Twitter was healthy for it's platform or users.
    - wpietri 4y ago
      Twitter has been profitable in the recent past and could be again. Drama was not necessary. I think your claim on profitability is flat out wrong. If you think that's the case, what are the exact numbers you are imagining that would make Twitter profitable?
    - ceejayoz 4y ago
      Twitter was profitable in 2018 and 2019. Down in 2020, and 2021 is hard to fairly assess.

smoldesu 4y ago

They didn't learn much of anything, though. Twitter lost money when they played nice, and they lose less money when they play mean and lean. Either way Twitter was bloated and overvalued, but anything bought with wealth leveraged against Tesla shares can't be worth much in the first place.

wpietri 4y ago
No, they really did learn things. For example, consider the racist mobbing of Leslie Jones in 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/18/leslie-jones-racist-tweets-ghostbusters https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/18/leslie-jones... Twitter learned that they really had to take harm reduction more seriously if they didn't want to be known for things like that. I believe that their improvements there were part of what set them on the path to their later profits: https://www.netcials.com/financial-net-profit-year-quarter-usa/1418091-TWITTER-INC/#secondlist https://www.netcials.com/financial-net-profit-year-quarter-u... And as far as losing money goes, their "lean and mean" approach isn't doing so well. Ad revenues are reportedly down ~40% as the same time Musk is going to have to come up with billion-dollar interest payments.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Ad revenue can be down 40% if your overall paid workforce was reduced by ~85%. It wasn't working out for Twitter either way, if they wanted to be profitable then something had to change. As an impartial non-Twitter user, I think it's safe to say that neither version of Twitter was healthy for it's platform or users.
  - wpietri 4y ago
    Twitter has been profitable in the recent past and could be again. Drama was not necessary. I think your claim on profitability is flat out wrong. If you think that's the case, what are the exact numbers you are imagining that would make Twitter profitable?
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    Twitter was profitable in 2018 and 2019. Down in 2020, and 2021 is hard to fairly assess.