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Most tech companies don’t run lean. They run bloated because they are trying to chase a dozen different things at once in the hopes of finding the thing that le

Most tech companies don’t run lean. They run bloated because they are trying to chase a dozen different things at once in the hopes of finding the thing that lets them 10x to please investors. A lot of companies can do what Twitter just did and come out relatively fine, perhaps better in some ways. I’m surprised people here ever thought Twitter would collapse. So many of us have worked at these companies. We know how bloated they are. You can spend a decade at Google, Facebook, Twitter or Amazon and make an amazing salary but never work on a single thing that makes it to market.

dragonwriter 3y ago
> I’m surprised people here ever thought Twitter would collapse. I'm surprised people think Twitter hasn’t been in a state of continuous functional degradation with a particular bad period around each significant feature rollout. I’m kind of jealous and wish I had access to the Twitter they are using.
- anonporridge 3y ago
  I don't know what version of Twitter you're using, but mine (web and android) has been reasonably fine. Sure, there have been periods of buggy behavior, but that's always going to happen when the system is changing, and they get resolved reasonably quickly. My "For You" feed has only been getting better and better recently. I don't even bother with my "Following" feed anymore because it tends to get drowned out by addicts who tweet hundreds of times a day.
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    > Sure, there have been periods of buggy behavior, but that's always going to happen when the system is changing, and they get resolved reasonably quickly. I also use web and android, and the periods of buggy behavior have been more frequent, more severe, and taken longer to get resolved (some of them appear to be serious unresolved but intermittent, though maybe they are resolved and re-caused, though in some ways that would be more worrying.) But, if you’re happy with what you’re getting, good for you.
    - anonporridge 3y ago
      I was more annoyed a several months ago with buggy behavior blocking content. I haven't seen anything as bad in recent months.
      - joshuamorton 3y ago
        I mean there's the whole thing recently pictures of tweets getting removed because they show bluecheck users behaving badly[1]. It's "moderation", but it just makes it look like the site is broken because there isn't any message about the tweet having been moderated. [1]: https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1652085164783091712 https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1652085164783091712 as an example, I think there were other similar ones but I can't remember which accounts.
- themagician 3y ago
  Works fine for me. It’s a simple website with a lot of traffic. It’s mostly just a forum for shitposting. That’s all it has ever been. It doesn’t need thousands of employees or any “significant features”. The site today is much the same as it was 10 years ago and even earlier. When I think I’d truly major “features” I think of Summize and Twitpic and maybe TweetDeck.
  - kevviiinn 3y ago
    I suppose all of those journalists, politicians, and corporations are just shitposters
    - themagician 3y ago
      A mostly correct supposition, just not “all”, obviously. The journalists went there for the shitposting politicians and the corporations went there to “be part of the [shitposting] conversation.” That’s not to say it’s without value. It’s highly entertaining, which is very valuable. But it is what it is. How long have you been on Twitter? Be honest. The site has always been nonsense. What else would it be? You literally just scream into the aether. It’s an unstructured message board. It’s a public chat room. It’s a radio frequency where everyone transmits at the same time. It’s designed for shitposting. Back in the old days you had to “raid” other forums to create controversy. It took coordination and effort. Posting was a skill. If you posted something and the thread got no replies it was kind of embarrassing. Now you just create a Twitter account in 30 seconds and you’re good to go. You just post over and over again and there’s no shame at all. It lowered the barrier for shitposting so low that even people who were borderline computer illiterate could participate. It was able to normalize the activity so much that people do it under their real name with no shame.
      - kevviiinn 3y ago
        I have never had a Twitter account, so I have never "been on Twitter"
        3y ago
cornholio 3y ago
Especially when Twitter was slowly falling apart before Musk too. Small bugs everywhere, glacial update rate, had completely externalized and lost control of moderation etc. The idea that the site would just implode because of a change of leadership and aggressive restructuring was just delusional.
- themagician 3y ago
  As if Twitter ever had it “together”. It didn’t. And it didn’t need to because it doesn’t matter. IMO their biggest mistake was getting rid of the Fail Whale.

dragonwriter 3y ago

> I’m surprised people here ever thought Twitter would collapse. I'm surprised people think Twitter hasn’t been in a state of continuous functional degradation with a particular bad period around each significant feature rollout. I’m kind of jealous and wish I had access to the Twitter they are using.

anonporridge 3y ago
I don't know what version of Twitter you're using, but mine (web and android) has been reasonably fine. Sure, there have been periods of buggy behavior, but that's always going to happen when the system is changing, and they get resolved reasonably quickly. My "For You" feed has only been getting better and better recently. I don't even bother with my "Following" feed anymore because it tends to get drowned out by addicts who tweet hundreds of times a day.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  > Sure, there have been periods of buggy behavior, but that's always going to happen when the system is changing, and they get resolved reasonably quickly. I also use web and android, and the periods of buggy behavior have been more frequent, more severe, and taken longer to get resolved (some of them appear to be serious unresolved but intermittent, though maybe they are resolved and re-caused, though in some ways that would be more worrying.) But, if you’re happy with what you’re getting, good for you.
  - anonporridge 3y ago
    I was more annoyed a several months ago with buggy behavior blocking content. I haven't seen anything as bad in recent months.
    - joshuamorton 3y ago
      I mean there's the whole thing recently pictures of tweets getting removed because they show bluecheck users behaving badly[1]. It's "moderation", but it just makes it look like the site is broken because there isn't any message about the tweet having been moderated. [1]: https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1652085164783091712 https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1652085164783091712 as an example, I think there were other similar ones but I can't remember which accounts.
themagician 3y ago
Works fine for me. It’s a simple website with a lot of traffic. It’s mostly just a forum for shitposting. That’s all it has ever been. It doesn’t need thousands of employees or any “significant features”. The site today is much the same as it was 10 years ago and even earlier. When I think I’d truly major “features” I think of Summize and Twitpic and maybe TweetDeck.
- kevviiinn 3y ago
  I suppose all of those journalists, politicians, and corporations are just shitposters
  - themagician 3y ago
    A mostly correct supposition, just not “all”, obviously. The journalists went there for the shitposting politicians and the corporations went there to “be part of the [shitposting] conversation.” That’s not to say it’s without value. It’s highly entertaining, which is very valuable. But it is what it is. How long have you been on Twitter? Be honest. The site has always been nonsense. What else would it be? You literally just scream into the aether. It’s an unstructured message board. It’s a public chat room. It’s a radio frequency where everyone transmits at the same time. It’s designed for shitposting. Back in the old days you had to “raid” other forums to create controversy. It took coordination and effort. Posting was a skill. If you posted something and the thread got no replies it was kind of embarrassing. Now you just create a Twitter account in 30 seconds and you’re good to go. You just post over and over again and there’s no shame at all. It lowered the barrier for shitposting so low that even people who were borderline computer illiterate could participate. It was able to normalize the activity so much that people do it under their real name with no shame.
    - kevviiinn 3y ago
      I have never had a Twitter account, so I have never "been on Twitter"
      - 3y ago

cornholio 3y ago

Especially when Twitter was slowly falling apart before Musk too. Small bugs everywhere, glacial update rate, had completely externalized and lost control of moderation etc. The idea that the site would just implode because of a change of leadership and aggressive restructuring was just delusional.

themagician 3y ago
As if Twitter ever had it “together”. It didn’t. And it didn’t need to because it doesn’t matter. IMO their biggest mistake was getting rid of the Fail Whale.