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Musk made a lot of mistakes with twitter Now call me crazy but I disagree. I think - or rather I feel - he's doing an excelent job somehow. He's doing what oth

Musk made a lot of mistakes with twitter Now call me crazy but I disagree. I think - or rather I feel - he's doing an excelent job somehow. He's doing what other executives are afraid to do: he's building and building requires some walls to be hammered down ; and yeah this makes some noise and smoke. He's moving fast and breaking things (if you'd excuse the easy punt). To me, what he's doing is exciting and I think twitter is gonna thrive once the big work is done.

faefox 3y ago
What is it that you think he's building?
- sen 3y ago
  Debt.
berberous 3y ago
I take no view on whether Elon will be successful on making Twitter more profitable. But as a user -- and someone that typically supports Elon -- I have to say he's made the app subjectively worse IMO. I find the "For You" page and algorithm to boost more "junk" content than before. I used to find it interesting, now it feels like scrolling through Instagram meme pages. I'm at the point where I am thinking of uninstalling it.
- d3nj4l 3y ago
  Sorry your For You page sucks, but that's a you problem. My For You page is excellent - I see mostly the kind of tweets I like, and when I see a tweet I don't like I tap the not interested button. I actually love the new FYP way more than the old home feed, and the option to switch to the chronological "Followed" feed is more visible than before.
  - lapcat 3y ago
    > Sorry your For You page sucks, but that's a you problem. How so? You're blaming the user for a feature that the user didn't design. If the commenter complained about their own chronological Followed feed, that would be a "you problem".
  - omni 3y ago
    This is complete bullshit. I have the exact same experience Parent has, my feed used to be full of interesting people from tech, science, and journalism. Now it's ~80% meme feeds sprinkled with a small helping of what I actually care about. How is that my fault, as a user that had a perfectly good curated feed prior to For You existing?
  - astrange 3y ago
    The only reason my FYP is good is because I blocked all the different meme accounts they added. A good algorithmic feed for a power user is one that 1. shows people you follow but 2. in relevance order not chronological order. The current one is half trying to be the new Reddit account experience and half trying to show you politics news you'll get mad about for engagement.
  - publius_0xf3 3y ago
    My "For You" page is filled with my own Tweets. Why would I ever want to see my own Tweets?
  - madeofpalk 3y ago
    Why are you apoligising for Twitter? What are you sorry for?
danShumway 3y ago
I don't like to use insults around mental health, or I totally would ;) Musk wants to build an "everything app" where people conduct business and accept payments. And he's shown over the past weekend that he is fully willing on impulse to literally just stop everyone from using the website. So who on earth would be irresponsible enough to trust Twitter with anything essential or important after this? Who is going to build a storefront on a platform where they might wake up one day and find out that all of their customers are rate-limited from using the platform? And then the CEO jokes that he's doing people a favor by making them touch grass? A bunch of artists who had (shortsightedly) built their business models around using Twitter as an art platform woke up one day to find out that their artwork can no longer be embedded in other websites. A bunch of government agencies and public services just found out that "check our Twitter for updates" no longer works. With no warning and with no announcement, all because Elon is mad that OpenAI hasn't cut him a check. That is a business-destroying decision. Other executives are afraid of doing this because it's the kind of thing that permanently hinders your platform from ever being treated like a reliable place to do business or build on top of. It puts a mark on your businesses reputation that will never go away. And it's not a tech issue, it's a trust issue. Finish the big work and make something exciting, sure, but nobody with an ounce of sense would ever trust Elon not to pull the rug out from under them now. You're going to build a business on a platform that might randomly decide to effectively shut itself down on a whim? Imagine if you had an Amazon shop and Amazon decided tomorrow with no warning that every customer on the platform is limited to buying at most one item per day, and also external links to Amazon no longer work for guest checkout unless your customer makes an account. How are people defending this? It makes no sense.
- astrange 3y ago
  > Musk wants to build an "everything app" where people conduct business and accept payments. Which is a bad idea. China has everything apps like WeChat because monopolies are easier to regulate, but customers don't actually like them, which is why we don't have them elsewhere.
  - Sai_ 3y ago
    India has payment apps which are going the way of super apps by allowing you to 1. Make p2p payments 2. Pay utility bills 3. Pay credit card charges 4. Buy insurance 5. Get loans 6. Make charitable donations 7. Book travel tickets 8. Find nearby stores, store timings, get directions, and see their ratings 9. Send and receive short messages Unless “we” and “elsewhere” doesn’t include India, I’d say superapps are more common than you think.
imustbeevil 3y ago
As someone who wants all of the other things he's supposed to be building, I can't imagine how you would not see Twitter as an objective step back. Every single change he has made to Twitter is exclusively to claw back income from users because he made all of the advertisers leave. Anyone competent would have just added the features they wanted without burning 80% of the company's income and staff.
- Cyph0n 3y ago
  The cherry (or turd?) on top is that the platform is manned by a skeleton crew. I kid you not: I recently saw a screenshot of a post by an engineer asking ex-Twitter engineers for help debugging an issue.. on Blind. Mind you, I don’t blame the engineer at all: it just gives you an idea of the mess Musk has made for himself. I think the fact that the platform is still running is a testament to those who built & documented the infra. It’s also a feather on the cap for those who remain to man the ship, particularly if there was no other choice. One catastrophic outage is all it really takes at this point.
  - darth_avocado 3y ago
    I can confirm this is true. Both that Twitter is running on a skeleton crew and that engineers are asking ex-engineers for help.
- abledon 3y ago
  Elon has said he's ok losing money on Twitter. Its about providing a free speech platform where people with opposing views are allowed to express them.
  - nharada 3y ago
    Please, his actions make it clear that it’s his views he cares about and anyone opposing them is not welcome.
    - abledon 3y ago
partiallypro 3y ago
Elon has chased off all the biggest advertisers, turned into an abrasive online personality that elevates insane conspiracy theories, and now you can only view 800 tweets a day. That doesn't sound like an "excellent job." I had some hope for when he took over Twitter, because Twitter was not well run...but he's made the previous CEO (who was not a good CEO) look like a genius. He even failed to lure Donald Trump back...I mean. The only reason people are still on Twitter is because there is no alternative, and there are still very valuable voices on Twitter. Once or if they leave, it's all over.
- astrange 3y ago
  Parag was a great CEO because he got Elon to buy out all the shareholders at above market price. Jack was a bad CEO because he's even more gullible than Elon and fried his brain with psychedelics, but he's not as bad as the current one.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
djur 3y ago
I can't think of a single improvement to Twitter in the past 9 months. What changes I have noticed have ranged from annoying (extra-long tweets, a lot more white supremacist content to block) to destructive (boosting paid users, recent usage restrictions).
- hersko 3y ago
  Community Notes?
dartharva 3y ago
What is he "building" exactly according to you?

faefox 3y ago

What is it that you think he's building?

sen 3y ago
Debt.

berberous 3y ago

I take no view on whether Elon will be successful on making Twitter more profitable. But as a user -- and someone that typically supports Elon -- I have to say he's made the app subjectively worse IMO. I find the "For You" page and algorithm to boost more "junk" content than before. I used to find it interesting, now it feels like scrolling through Instagram meme pages. I'm at the point where I am thinking of uninstalling it.

d3nj4l 3y ago
Sorry your For You page sucks, but that's a you problem. My For You page is excellent - I see mostly the kind of tweets I like, and when I see a tweet I don't like I tap the not interested button. I actually love the new FYP way more than the old home feed, and the option to switch to the chronological "Followed" feed is more visible than before.
- lapcat 3y ago
  > Sorry your For You page sucks, but that's a you problem. How so? You're blaming the user for a feature that the user didn't design. If the commenter complained about their own chronological Followed feed, that would be a "you problem".
- omni 3y ago
  This is complete bullshit. I have the exact same experience Parent has, my feed used to be full of interesting people from tech, science, and journalism. Now it's ~80% meme feeds sprinkled with a small helping of what I actually care about. How is that my fault, as a user that had a perfectly good curated feed prior to For You existing?
- astrange 3y ago
  The only reason my FYP is good is because I blocked all the different meme accounts they added. A good algorithmic feed for a power user is one that 1. shows people you follow but 2. in relevance order not chronological order. The current one is half trying to be the new Reddit account experience and half trying to show you politics news you'll get mad about for engagement.
- publius_0xf3 3y ago
  My "For You" page is filled with my own Tweets. Why would I ever want to see my own Tweets?
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  Why are you apoligising for Twitter? What are you sorry for?

danShumway 3y ago

I don't like to use insults around mental health, or I totally would ;) Musk wants to build an "everything app" where people conduct business and accept payments. And he's shown over the past weekend that he is fully willing on impulse to literally just stop everyone from using the website. So who on earth would be irresponsible enough to trust Twitter with anything essential or important after this? Who is going to build a storefront on a platform where they might wake up one day and find out that all of their customers are rate-limited from using the platform? And then the CEO jokes that he's doing people a favor by making them touch grass? A bunch of artists who had (shortsightedly) built their business models around using Twitter as an art platform woke up one day to find out that their artwork can no longer be embedded in other websites. A bunch of government agencies and public services just found out that "check our Twitter for updates" no longer works. With no warning and with no announcement, all because Elon is mad that OpenAI hasn't cut him a check. That is a business-destroying decision. Other executives are afraid of doing this because it's the kind of thing that permanently hinders your platform from ever being treated like a reliable place to do business or build on top of. It puts a mark on your businesses reputation that will never go away. And it's not a tech issue, it's a trust issue. Finish the big work and make something exciting, sure, but nobody with an ounce of sense would ever trust Elon not to pull the rug out from under them now. You're going to build a business on a platform that might randomly decide to effectively shut itself down on a whim? Imagine if you had an Amazon shop and Amazon decided tomorrow with no warning that every customer on the platform is limited to buying at most one item per day, and also external links to Amazon no longer work for guest checkout unless your customer makes an account. How are people defending this? It makes no sense.

astrange 3y ago
> Musk wants to build an "everything app" where people conduct business and accept payments. Which is a bad idea. China has everything apps like WeChat because monopolies are easier to regulate, but customers don't actually like them, which is why we don't have them elsewhere.
- Sai_ 3y ago
  India has payment apps which are going the way of super apps by allowing you to 1. Make p2p payments 2. Pay utility bills 3. Pay credit card charges 4. Buy insurance 5. Get loans 6. Make charitable donations 7. Book travel tickets 8. Find nearby stores, store timings, get directions, and see their ratings 9. Send and receive short messages Unless “we” and “elsewhere” doesn’t include India, I’d say superapps are more common than you think.

imustbeevil 3y ago

As someone who wants all of the other things he's supposed to be building, I can't imagine how you would not see Twitter as an objective step back. Every single change he has made to Twitter is exclusively to claw back income from users because he made all of the advertisers leave. Anyone competent would have just added the features they wanted without burning 80% of the company's income and staff.

Cyph0n 3y ago
The cherry (or turd?) on top is that the platform is manned by a skeleton crew. I kid you not: I recently saw a screenshot of a post by an engineer asking ex-Twitter engineers for help debugging an issue.. on Blind. Mind you, I don’t blame the engineer at all: it just gives you an idea of the mess Musk has made for himself. I think the fact that the platform is still running is a testament to those who built & documented the infra. It’s also a feather on the cap for those who remain to man the ship, particularly if there was no other choice. One catastrophic outage is all it really takes at this point.
- darth_avocado 3y ago
  I can confirm this is true. Both that Twitter is running on a skeleton crew and that engineers are asking ex-engineers for help.
abledon 3y ago
Elon has said he's ok losing money on Twitter. Its about providing a free speech platform where people with opposing views are allowed to express them.
- nharada 3y ago
  Please, his actions make it clear that it’s his views he cares about and anyone opposing them is not welcome.
  - abledon 3y ago

partiallypro 3y ago

Elon has chased off all the biggest advertisers, turned into an abrasive online personality that elevates insane conspiracy theories, and now you can only view 800 tweets a day. That doesn't sound like an "excellent job." I had some hope for when he took over Twitter, because Twitter was not well run...but he's made the previous CEO (who was not a good CEO) look like a genius. He even failed to lure Donald Trump back...I mean. The only reason people are still on Twitter is because there is no alternative, and there are still very valuable voices on Twitter. Once or if they leave, it's all over.

astrange 3y ago
Parag was a great CEO because he got Elon to buy out all the shareholders at above market price. Jack was a bad CEO because he's even more gullible than Elon and fried his brain with psychedelics, but he's not as bad as the current one.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

djur 3y ago

I can't think of a single improvement to Twitter in the past 9 months. What changes I have noticed have ranged from annoying (extra-long tweets, a lot more white supremacist content to block) to destructive (boosting paid users, recent usage restrictions).

hersko 3y ago
Community Notes?

dartharva 3y ago

What is he "building" exactly according to you?