4 ms·

I'd love to see the exact date author_is_elon was added. Too bad they didn't publish the commit history

nijave 4y ago
I think around mid February https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets-algorithm-changes-twitter https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets...
qbasic_forever 4y ago
IIRC it was very recent, there was a Twitter engineer that was fired after explaining to Elon that the algorithm was not biased against him: https://www.salon.com/2023/02/10/petulant-elon-musk-fired-twitter-engineer-for-explaining-why-fewer-people-are-reading-his-tweets/ https://www.salon.com/2023/02/10/petulant-elon-musk-fired-tw... Almost certainly after that event Elon had them explicitly bump his tweets in their reach.
- nonethewiser 4y ago
  This speculation seems mostly informed by a negative opinion of Elon. Is there any real indication he gave this instruction?
  - qbasic_forever 4y ago
    Yes that weekend everyone started seeing Elon's tweets in their timelines: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets-algorithm-changes-twitter https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets... You seem weirdly protective of Elon fyi
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - nonethewiser 4y ago
      I’m pretty neutral on musk. His fanboys are crazy but by and large they aren’t here so there isn’t much opportunity to challenge them. So much has been concluded about him here without any evidence, instead grounding it in the premise that he’s rotten.
      - amykyta 4y ago
        Premise? The guy spews the most vile stuff and russian propaganda. There is more than premise to say he’s a piece of shit.
    - mlindner 4y ago
      And Elon later explained that that had nothing to do from him making any specific request that his tweets be valued. This is largely a false creation without evidence to back it up. People are assuming intention behind something that's much more easily explained as a bug, one that was quickly fixed. If it wasn't a bug, why would it disappear if people assume Elon is narcissistic as people claim? It'd still be prioritizing his tweets if it wasn't a bug.
      - oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
        It's an incredible coincidence that, out of hundreds of millions of accounts, this bug happened to elevate the account of the person who owns twitter. I'm not saying it was 100% intentional, but it does suggest Musk's account is 'special' in some way.
        mlindner 4y ago
        Did anyone look to see if anyone else was also elevated? Surely there's an extreme measurement bias if the highest followed account gets boosted. There's no evidence to support the idea that only Elon Musk was elevated.
  - kaba0 4y ago
    I goddamn hope there is not much positive opinion of that scammer anywhere, but unfortunately there is still too many..
- slim 4y ago
  Musk expressed his disappointment with engineers' work and *told them to track* how many times his tweets get recommended, one worker told the outlet. so we know exactly when and why "author_is_elon" was added to the code
  - oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
    That's one possible explanation. If you were implementing that change, would you do it by embedding an "elon" variable in the codebase, or would you make the specific account a parameter?

I think around mid February https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets-algorithm-changes-twitter https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets...

qbasic_forever 4y ago

IIRC it was very recent, there was a Twitter engineer that was fired after explaining to Elon that the algorithm was not biased against him: https://www.salon.com/2023/02/10/petulant-elon-musk-fired-twitter-engineer-for-explaining-why-fewer-people-are-reading-his-tweets/ https://www.salon.com/2023/02/10/petulant-elon-musk-fired-tw... Almost certainly after that event Elon had them explicitly bump his tweets in their reach.

nonethewiser 4y ago
This speculation seems mostly informed by a negative opinion of Elon. Is there any real indication he gave this instruction?
- qbasic_forever 4y ago
  Yes that weekend everyone started seeing Elon's tweets in their timelines: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets-algorithm-changes-twitter https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets... You seem weirdly protective of Elon fyi
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - nonethewiser 4y ago
    I’m pretty neutral on musk. His fanboys are crazy but by and large they aren’t here so there isn’t much opportunity to challenge them. So much has been concluded about him here without any evidence, instead grounding it in the premise that he’s rotten.
    - amykyta 4y ago
      Premise? The guy spews the most vile stuff and russian propaganda. There is more than premise to say he’s a piece of shit.
  - mlindner 4y ago
    And Elon later explained that that had nothing to do from him making any specific request that his tweets be valued. This is largely a false creation without evidence to back it up. People are assuming intention behind something that's much more easily explained as a bug, one that was quickly fixed. If it wasn't a bug, why would it disappear if people assume Elon is narcissistic as people claim? It'd still be prioritizing his tweets if it wasn't a bug.
    - oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
      It's an incredible coincidence that, out of hundreds of millions of accounts, this bug happened to elevate the account of the person who owns twitter. I'm not saying it was 100% intentional, but it does suggest Musk's account is 'special' in some way.
      - mlindner 4y ago
        Did anyone look to see if anyone else was also elevated? Surely there's an extreme measurement bias if the highest followed account gets boosted. There's no evidence to support the idea that only Elon Musk was elevated.
- kaba0 4y ago
  I goddamn hope there is not much positive opinion of that scammer anywhere, but unfortunately there is still too many..
slim 4y ago
Musk expressed his disappointment with engineers' work and *told them to track* how many times his tweets get recommended, one worker told the outlet. so we know exactly when and why "author_is_elon" was added to the code
- oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
  That's one possible explanation. If you were implementing that change, would you do it by embedding an "elon" variable in the codebase, or would you make the specific account a parameter?