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Twitter was stuck in a local maxima. Having lots of "important metrics" trending downward isn't news. The fact that someone took the helm and made the difficult

Twitter was stuck in a local maxima. Having lots of "important metrics" trending downward isn't news. The fact that someone took the helm and made the difficult decisions that nobody was willing to do (including the founder!) is pretty big news.

hobs 3y ago
What acquisition with a poorly thought out strategy couldn't be defended in this way?
drakenot 3y ago
Ah, yes. The difficult decisions to brashly say you will buy a company at an inflated price, attempt to weasel out of the sale after later regretting it, only to be forced by a judge to go through with it. To push Russian propaganda, to threaten to blackmail advertisers by removing their verified status if they don't spend more money, to utterly destroy tens of billions of dollars in valuation in mere months. Not to mention the renaming of a company that had achieved a household name status that many marketers could only dream of, etc. I'm sure glad someone had to step in and make all these tough decisions.
- wlesieutre 3y ago
  Not just the company name, “tweet” was a household verb and noun. What do you do now on X? Post? I can post anywhere, I’ve been posting in other places for decades. There was just one place to tweet, it boggles my mind that they tossed that aside.
  - enos_feedler 3y ago
    When the shape of the hole changes, people still try to fit the same peg inside of it. I'm not sure why. People resist change I guess. Twitter is dead. Elon bought the scraps to short cut early network effective that is impossible to do otherwise. This was the price of admission to a game he is playing against zuck and friends. In 5 years, people won't be asking what do you call a tweet now? Tweets won't even matter. Most people tweet into a black hole. This purchase was about a starting point for a new platform that has more in common with chinese super apps than it does with anything else in the US mobile app market, including the former twitter.
    - wlesieutre 3y ago
      > Twitter is dead. Elon bought the scraps to short cut early network effective that is impossible to do otherwise. He didn’t buy the scraps, he bought a whole ass company. Scrapping it happened afterward. If he were smart he would’ve kept the twitter name going and launched the X “everything platform” alongside using the same accounts like Instagram/Threads. But maybe even put it inside the current twitter app, since they still don’t have any new features to make a separate “everything” app out of. Things disconnected from “tweets” like direct messaging could’ve been immediately reshuffled into being X features. Repurposing the blue checkmark with preferential tweet promotion could’ve been launched as paid bonus for “X Pro” or something, maybe causing less kerfuffle about charging for twitter. But that’s just my opinion as someone who bailed on social networks years ago, who knows if it would’ve gone better.
- enos_feedler 3y ago
  what a weasel!
einpoklum 3y ago
Latin nitpicking: it's either one _maximum_ or several _maxima_.

hobs 3y ago

What acquisition with a poorly thought out strategy couldn't be defended in this way?

drakenot 3y ago

Ah, yes. The difficult decisions to brashly say you will buy a company at an inflated price, attempt to weasel out of the sale after later regretting it, only to be forced by a judge to go through with it. To push Russian propaganda, to threaten to blackmail advertisers by removing their verified status if they don't spend more money, to utterly destroy tens of billions of dollars in valuation in mere months. Not to mention the renaming of a company that had achieved a household name status that many marketers could only dream of, etc. I'm sure glad someone had to step in and make all these tough decisions.

wlesieutre 3y ago
Not just the company name, “tweet” was a household verb and noun. What do you do now on X? Post? I can post anywhere, I’ve been posting in other places for decades. There was just one place to tweet, it boggles my mind that they tossed that aside.
- enos_feedler 3y ago
  When the shape of the hole changes, people still try to fit the same peg inside of it. I'm not sure why. People resist change I guess. Twitter is dead. Elon bought the scraps to short cut early network effective that is impossible to do otherwise. This was the price of admission to a game he is playing against zuck and friends. In 5 years, people won't be asking what do you call a tweet now? Tweets won't even matter. Most people tweet into a black hole. This purchase was about a starting point for a new platform that has more in common with chinese super apps than it does with anything else in the US mobile app market, including the former twitter.
  - wlesieutre 3y ago
    > Twitter is dead. Elon bought the scraps to short cut early network effective that is impossible to do otherwise. He didn’t buy the scraps, he bought a whole ass company. Scrapping it happened afterward. If he were smart he would’ve kept the twitter name going and launched the X “everything platform” alongside using the same accounts like Instagram/Threads. But maybe even put it inside the current twitter app, since they still don’t have any new features to make a separate “everything” app out of. Things disconnected from “tweets” like direct messaging could’ve been immediately reshuffled into being X features. Repurposing the blue checkmark with preferential tweet promotion could’ve been launched as paid bonus for “X Pro” or something, maybe causing less kerfuffle about charging for twitter. But that’s just my opinion as someone who bailed on social networks years ago, who knows if it would’ve gone better.
enos_feedler 3y ago
what a weasel!

einpoklum 3y ago

Latin nitpicking: it's either one _maximum_ or several _maxima_.