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I imagine Musk wants higher engagement metrics to brag about, and removing barriers to liking content is one way to achieve that - which applies to many people

by Ukv 2y ago

I imagine Musk wants higher engagement metrics to brag about, and removing barriers to liking content is one way to achieve that - which applies to many people and not just Nazis.

Teever 2y ago
Why are you making the assumption that Musk is thinking about this in rational business terms? Have you not been paying attention to the things he's been saying and doing for the past few years?
- Ukv 2y ago
  I've seen him boast plenty about various engagement stats, and seen the site make superficial changes to try to boost them. It seems probable to me that "find ways to increase these numbers" is a pressure he's putting on managers/engineers, and that "remove potential reservations to liking content" came largely from that. I'm not assuming any high-level rationality.
  - Teever 2y ago
    Yeah and we've all seen him boast about a bunch of stuff, you can't take it at face value. I reject your assertion that Elon Musk made the employees at his platform because it would increase engagement or whatever and that he significantly factored in the impact that it would have on LGBTQ people.
    - Ukv 2y ago
      > Yeah and we've all seen him boast about a bunch of stuff, you can't take it at face value. I don't take it as face value in terms of believing the site is becoming more popular. > I reject your assertion that Elon Musk made the employees at his platform because it would increase engagement or whatever It's pretty standard for sites to track and push for improving KPIs - "increase engagement or whatever" isn't an obscure aim. It's totally plausible for Musk to deviate from the norm, but everything I've seen so far suggests the direction he deviates from the norm is placing too much weight in certain figures resulting in some short-sighted decisions, as opposed to not valuing them. > and that he significantly factored in the impact that it would have on LGBTQ people. I don't claim he was thinking specifically of LGBTQ people.
      - Teever 2y ago
        You're looking for faces in the clouds. It's definitely possible that there is rational intention behind what Musk is doing, but it's also possible that your mind is just seeing rational intention where there is none. After all his bullshit he does not get the benefit of the doubt about being rational and cogent. If he wants that he has to earn it, and I'm skeptical that he ever can.
        Ukv 2y ago
        > After all his bullshit he does not get the benefit of the doubt about being rational I'm not claiming his placing of so much weight in certain figures is rational - just that it's consistent with how these kind of sites operate and what he appears to be pushing for.
  - mrguyorama 2y ago
    Is that why he told advertisers to "Go fuck yourselves"? Business motivations?
    - Ukv 2y ago
      I don't mean to claim that Musk is some genius playing 4D chess - just that it seems like there's an internal push on various KPIs (often leading to some short-sighted decisions) and this change would fit in with encouraging interactions, so I suspect that was probably a large part of the decision.
      - ruszki 2y ago
        It encouraged my interactions to drop to zero. I closed the site just after 5 minutes, instead of the usual 15-30 minutes per occasions (1x-2x per week). And I’m not sure that I’ll ever open it again, if not just for when somebody links something there. I used the site solely to check three people what they thought, what’s important and what the good arguments were on given topics. But this is after my usage was already dropped considerably, because most of the interesting people, who I cared, stopped using such public channels as Twitter.

by Ukv 2y ago

I imagine Musk wants higher engagement metrics to brag about, and removing barriers to liking content is one way to achieve that - which applies to many people and not just Nazis.

Teever 2y ago

Why are you making the assumption that Musk is thinking about this in rational business terms? Have you not been paying attention to the things he's been saying and doing for the past few years?

Ukv 2y ago
I've seen him boast plenty about various engagement stats, and seen the site make superficial changes to try to boost them. It seems probable to me that "find ways to increase these numbers" is a pressure he's putting on managers/engineers, and that "remove potential reservations to liking content" came largely from that. I'm not assuming any high-level rationality.
- Teever 2y ago
  Yeah and we've all seen him boast about a bunch of stuff, you can't take it at face value. I reject your assertion that Elon Musk made the employees at his platform because it would increase engagement or whatever and that he significantly factored in the impact that it would have on LGBTQ people.
  - Ukv 2y ago
    > Yeah and we've all seen him boast about a bunch of stuff, you can't take it at face value. I don't take it as face value in terms of believing the site is becoming more popular. > I reject your assertion that Elon Musk made the employees at his platform because it would increase engagement or whatever It's pretty standard for sites to track and push for improving KPIs - "increase engagement or whatever" isn't an obscure aim. It's totally plausible for Musk to deviate from the norm, but everything I've seen so far suggests the direction he deviates from the norm is placing too much weight in certain figures resulting in some short-sighted decisions, as opposed to not valuing them. > and that he significantly factored in the impact that it would have on LGBTQ people. I don't claim he was thinking specifically of LGBTQ people.
    - Teever 2y ago
      You're looking for faces in the clouds. It's definitely possible that there is rational intention behind what Musk is doing, but it's also possible that your mind is just seeing rational intention where there is none. After all his bullshit he does not get the benefit of the doubt about being rational and cogent. If he wants that he has to earn it, and I'm skeptical that he ever can.
      - Ukv 2y ago
        > After all his bullshit he does not get the benefit of the doubt about being rational I'm not claiming his placing of so much weight in certain figures is rational - just that it's consistent with how these kind of sites operate and what he appears to be pushing for.
- mrguyorama 2y ago
  Is that why he told advertisers to "Go fuck yourselves"? Business motivations?
  - Ukv 2y ago
    I don't mean to claim that Musk is some genius playing 4D chess - just that it seems like there's an internal push on various KPIs (often leading to some short-sighted decisions) and this change would fit in with encouraging interactions, so I suspect that was probably a large part of the decision.
    - ruszki 2y ago
      It encouraged my interactions to drop to zero. I closed the site just after 5 minutes, instead of the usual 15-30 minutes per occasions (1x-2x per week). And I’m not sure that I’ll ever open it again, if not just for when somebody links something there. I used the site solely to check three people what they thought, what’s important and what the good arguments were on given topics. But this is after my usage was already dropped considerably, because most of the interesting people, who I cared, stopped using such public channels as Twitter.