Elon Musk: Officially a fraud and piece of shit. Official or unofficial war criminal?

[Brisketexan 105154]

 
It's ok.  I know that you ended up on the wrong side of a lot of disinformation from the twitter universe. Things will get better and they will get worse, but the end game is the same.  

Your ability to let your unjustified arrogance repeatedly pants yourself is certainly impressive.
I am not much of a Twitter consumer at all. I follow a couple of legal accounts most folks would find boring, and Super70sports, which is awesome.
I’m not a material Twitter consumer. Just like I’m not a fentanyl consumer. I’m just perceptive enough to see that both are poisoning us, one to the point of being a medium to literally incite a violent attempt to decapitate the government. “Both sides” my ass.

[Captainant 27680]

Funny thing is, he could just tweet that he's landed on Mars and there would be probably at least a million people that would believe it. Maybe @Poe It Upis right and objective reality doesn't matter, and it's only perception that defines truth 

[Anastasis 23475]

38 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

I am not much of a Twitter consumer at all. I follow a couple of legal accounts most folks would find boring, and Super70sports, which is awesome.

Show us on the doll where Elon has touched you.

Vladek is a good follow though. 

[Brisketexan 105154]

Show us on the doll where Elon has touched you.
Vladek is a good follow though. 

Funny thing is, I never really gave him much thought. He was an odd guy who managed to make an interesting business out of electric cars and rockets. Cool enough.
But he let his toxic, arrogant narcissism overload his ass, he attracts the worst kind of slobbering fanbois who worship him, and he has started sticking his ego into shit that can actually cause harm. So, he’s given me plenty to loathe in short order. Come to think of it, I’ve really come to hate fucking narcissists these last few years. I didn’t realize there were that many of them. But more than that, I truly had no idea there were so many people just dying to worship one. That’s on me.

[Anastasis 23475]

1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

Funny thing is, I never really gave him much thought. He was an odd guy who managed to make an interesting business out of electric cars and rockets. Cool enough.
But he let his toxic, arrogant narcissism overload his ass, he attracts the worst kind of slobbering fanbois who worship him, and he has started sticking his ego into shit that can actually cause harm. So, he’s given me plenty to loathe in short order. Come to think of it, I’ve really come to hate fucking narcissists these last few years. I didn’t realize there were that many of them. But more than that, I truly had no idea there were so many people just dying to worship one. That’s on me.

If we can come away from anything here in agreement, I think it is that social media has provided the perfect environment for the amplification of narcissism.  Not just narcissism, but the most societally malignant forms of narcissistic behaviors and the associated impacts. I use to discount personality disorders.   Not so anymore.  And particularly not in the context of social media amplification. The death spiral only tightens from here on out.  

[Brisketexan 105154]

If we can come away from anything here in agreement, I think it is that social media has provided the perfect environment for the amplification of narcissism.  Not just narcissism, but the most societally malignant forms of narcissistic behaviors and the associated impacts. I use to discount personality disorders.   Not so anymore.  And particularly not in the context of social media amplification. The death spiral only tightens from here on out.  

We have an accord.
But I’ll follow up on it: the number of people dying to slobber all over the narcissists’ knobs has truly blown me away. Truly amazing.

[fattyflattie 4639]

3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Funny thing is, I never really gave him much thought. He was an odd guy who managed to make an interesting business out of electric cars and rockets. Cool enough.
But he let his toxic, arrogant narcissism overload his ass, he attracts the worst kind of slobbering fanbois who worship him, and he has started sticking his ego into shit that can actually cause harm. So, he’s given me plenty to loathe in short order. Come to think of it, I’ve really come to hate fucking narcissists these last few years. I didn’t realize there were that many of them. But more than that, I truly had no idea there were so many people just dying to worship one. That’s on me.

This is a lot of words to say: he switched his politics to the team I don’t like.  

[TwiceHorn 31495]

5 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Funny thing is, I never really gave him much thought. He was an odd guy who managed to make an interesting business out of electric cars and rockets. Cool enough.
But he let his toxic, arrogant narcissism overload his ass, he attracts the worst kind of slobbering fanbois who worship him, and he has started sticking his ego into shit that can actually cause harm. So, he’s given me plenty to loathe in short order. Come to think of it, I’ve really come to hate fucking narcissists these last few years. I didn’t realize there were that many of them. But more than that, I truly had no idea there were so many people just dying to worship one. That’s on me.

Yeah, I have never really thought well of Musk.  He's got a lot of money and throws it around on things that people think are cool, like SpaceX and Tesla.  And those companies seem to have done some good/interesting stuff.  But he's always received too much idolatry for my taste.  He's a weirdo.

Some of this is some form of schadenfreude on my part.  I'm skeptical of people that receive a lot of positive attention, even if some of it may be deserved.  I've felt the same way about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Bezos, and many others to one degree or another and long before their "side" in toxic politics became known or an issue.

And you can go back in this thread long before he became political or made his move on twitter and find my skepticism.  Now that he's doing things I disagree with and think are bad for society, it is that much worse.

Edited November 3, 2022 by TwiceHorn

[Buzzrock 14922]

If it makes y’all feel better: only about 1 in 5 American adults even has a Twitter account, and a small minority generates almost all of the content. It’s not a real place and doesn’t represent the majority of Americans, just a bunch of vocal Internet Americans which are often awful. 

[Homercles 10206]

6 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

This is a lot of words to say: he switched his politics to the team I don’t like.  

The fact that this is your takeaway, after all this discussion and Brisket’s post about narcissism says a lot more about you than it does about him.  

1 hour ago, Buzzrock said:

If it makes y’all feel better: only about 1 in 5 American adults even has a Twitter account, and a small minority generates almost all of the content. It’s not a real place and doesn’t represent the majority of Americans, just a bunch of vocal Internet Americans which are often awful. 

My take is that most of us aren’t really talking about Twitter itself, but its influence on people who have proven over and over again to be exceptionally gullible in reinforcing their worldview that some nameless, shapeless force is out to get them.  Twitter is the largest, most accessible of avenues for short form statements that fits their mold perfectly…the lack of ‘room’ to provide nuance keys perfectly on their lack of knowledge/motivation to apply critical thinking.  
 

It doesn’t need to represent the bulk of Americans or be a real place…it just needs a wide enough breadth that it reaches people who will enact Jan 6, “where’s Nancy”, kidnap a governor, etc.  

[fattyflattie 4639]

13 minutes ago, Homercles said:

The fact that this is your takeaway, after all this discussion and Brisket’s post about narcissism says a lot more about you than it does about him.

Yeah, I can make posts about how I was on the right side of things over the last 5 years too.  I’m not digging up old posts, but the boards most notorious fence sitter, who’s right about every move in history, obv carries a lot more weight with you. 
 

Before he inserted himself into politics, he was going to be the one who’d saved the planet from ourselves. Had don’t more to curb ICE usage than anyone in history, solar, rah rah planets savior.  Then, he started to trend right on a few things, and now he’s nothing but daddy’s money who may or may not have any business acumen.  

Edited November 3, 2022 by fattyflattie

[Captainant 27680]

14 minutes ago, Homercles said:

It doesn’t need to represent the bulk of Americans or be a real place…it just needs a wide enough breadth that it reaches people who will enact Jan 6, “where’s Nancy”, kidnap a governor, etc.  

And for emphasis, there have been multiple attacks in the last week. All by people deep down the conspiracy hole spouting all the strangely same talking points that I've seen get laundered through the disinformation loop. Fatty is playing in the world of what if, and we are talking about what is actively happening and literally bashing heads in with hammers

[Brian Fantana 6689]

9 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Yeah, I can make posts about how I was on the right side of things over the last 5 years too.  I’m not digging up old posts, but the boards most notorious fence sitter, who’s right about every move in history, obv carries a lot more weight with you. 
 

Before he inserted himself into politics, he was going to be the one who’d saved the planet from ourselves. Had don’t more to curb ICE usage than anyone in history, solar, rah rah planets savior.  Then, he started to trend right on a few things, and now he’s nothing but daddy’s money who may or may not have any business acumen.  

This is a lot of words to say "I'm butthurt about people being mean to conservative demigods".

[aggie08 21505]

7 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

This is a lot of words to say: he switched his politics to the team I don’t like.  

Why does always becoming a conservative influencer always have to include being a shit-posting troll and amplifying conspiracy theories? 

I have already said the Elon is still a huge net positive on the world...but him dedicating so much time to trolling for lib tears is a little disappointing for a man of his intellect.

[AUS-97HORN 11809]

i've heard about the "new boss" philosophy that was popular in the wild early 80's.  walk into work the very first day and fire the first person that pisses you off or doesnt do their job correct to show everyone who is the new boss and to get immediate attention (and by the crazy 80s definition of it, respect)

 

This is a whole other thing... firing half the fucking employees after 1 week on the job is a total dick move.  The company wasnt falling apart when he took over.  It wasnt doing well, but damn, publishing everyone who is getting fired is some ridic straight-from-the-80s management playbook shit ON MEGA Steroids.

Edited November 3, 2022 by AUS-97HORN

[Homercles 10206]

50 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Yeah, I can make posts about how I was on the right side of things over the last 5 years too.  I’m not digging up old posts, but the boards most notorious fence sitter, who’s right about every move in history, obv carries a lot more weight with you. 
 

Before he inserted himself into politics, he was going to be the one who’d saved the planet from ourselves. Had don’t more to curb ICE usage than anyone in history, solar, rah rah planets savior.  Then, he started to trend right on a few things, and now he’s nothing but daddy’s money who may or may not have any business acumen.  

It’s not that he’s ‘trending right on a few things’.  It’s that he is using his outsized voice to perpetuate and amplify right-leaning conspiracy theories that have proven, repeatedly, to bring real-world consequences to people…under the banner of ‘free speech’.  When people show you who they are, believe them.  
 

And brisket is nothing at all like a fence sitter, he’s very clear on his view from the ledge.  

[texasdago 7575]

15 hours ago, Humble Beast said:

 

A petulant child with nothing better to do.  Seriously... its grouplove for a dude like this that is killing this country.

[atomheartbevo 89729]

13 hours ago, Celery Man said:

it would be a feat of remarkable stupidity if he actually manages to turn twitter into myspace or dunder mifflin infinity

He’s not an marketing guy, and thinks he can force people into paying for stuff they aren’t currently paying for.  He’s also not a advertising guy and doesn’t understand that the people he is hoping will pay Twitter are generating the very content that brings so many people and advertisers to Twitter, so I absolutely believe he can take it down.  

Granted, his letter to advertisers that he wouldn’t turn Twitter into a free-for-all showed some awareness that big companies/advertisers were getting skittish about his plans, but I still question whether he truly understands how quickly he could crater the major advertising revenue stream, and then he’s forced into either walking back his policy changes, or trying to get the users to pay more and more.

Edited November 3, 2022 by atomheartbevo

['stache 21819]

5 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

He’s not an marketing guy, and thinks he can force people into paying for stuff they aren’t currently paying for.  He’s also not a advertising guy and doesn’t understand that the people he is hoping will pay Twitter are generating the very content that brings so many people and advertisers to Twitter, so I absolutely believe he can take it down.  

Granted, his letter to advertisers that he wouldn’t turn Twitter into a free-for-all showed some awareness that big companies/advertisers were getting skittish about his plans, but I still question whether he truly understands how quickly he could crater the major advertising revenue stream, and then he’s forced into either walking about his policy changes, or trying to get the users to pay more and more.

I seriously don't think it was ever about that to him. It's a right-wing hissy fit, nothing more, nothing less. He knows the dumbasses will pay cause "free speech" mission and whatnot and their deep need to be contrarians about everything with lies and disinformation, with a healthy dose of n-words. He also knew that libs would not like it and it's about the lib tears. Look at his response to AOC. He paid $44B for that type of stuff. It'll be the complete opposite type of echo chamber they accused the old twitter of being, every accusation, etc., etc. He'll make plenty of money with cars that can't see people and sending dick rockets to space.

Edited November 3, 2022 by 'stache

[wildcat09 29355]

1 hour ago, aggie08 said:

Why does always becoming a conservative influencer always have to include being a shit-posting troll and amplifying conspiracy theories? 

I have already said the Elon is still a huge net positive on the world...but him dedicating so much time to trolling for lib tears is a little disappointing for a man of his intellect.

I'm not sure that's true. I'm not sure how it nets out, but his pumping of crypto and the increased power consumption that generated might have created more environmental damage than he's ever prevented by selling Teslas.

[Js1 85410]

33 minutes ago, texasdago said:

A petulant child with nothing better to do.  Seriously... its grouplove for a dude like this that is killing this country.

I feel bad for 52-80 that he has to get in line now to slob the knob 

[Pescado_Rojo 19423]

2 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

Before he inserted himself into politics, he was going to be the one who’d saved the planet from ourselves. Had don’t more to curb ICE usage than anyone in history, solar, rah rah planets savior.  Then, he started to trend right on a few things, and now he’s nothing but daddy’s money who may or may not have any business acumen.  

The flip side of this is all the O&G guys who claim to vote republican because it's best for their career suddenly staning this guy...who has done more to advance alternative energy than probably anyone...just because he pwned a few libs. 

[NoName 16354]

9 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

He’s not an marketing guy, and thinks he can force people into paying for stuff they aren’t currently paying for.  He’s also not a advertising guy and doesn’t understand that the people he is hoping will pay Twitter are generating the very content that brings so many people and advertisers to Twitter, so I absolutely believe he can take it down.  

Granted, his letter to advertisers that he wouldn’t turn Twitter into a free-for-all showed some awareness that big companies/advertisers were getting skittish about his plans, but I still question whether he truly understands how quickly he could crater the major advertising revenue stream, and then he’s forced into either walking back his policy changes, or trying to get the users to pay more and more.

in the last weekish twitter has lost their chief customer officer who was head of ads. i am sure more people left the dept as well. i have not seen anyone say who is replacing her. it was reported something about losing #2 person in the ad dept but can't find that now so maybe it was not correct. elon has offered to meet directly with clients evidently. which is a *terrible* idea.

they are adding a paid tier that will serve "half as many ads"

89% of twitter's revenue is from ads. he acts like 11% of the revenue is ads and he can just replace it.

doing things like this can't help:

 

Quote

 

Even as Musk took meetings with major agencies and advertisers this week, he took to Twitter on Wednesday night with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or "political correctness." Of more than one million votes, 80% answered "freedom of speech."

"Those type of provocations are not helping to calm the waters," the media buyer said.

More marketers also took to LinkedIn to voice their concerns about Musk's takeover of the platform.

"Unless Elon hires new leaders committed to keeping this 'free' platform safe from hate speech, it's not a platform brands can/should advertise on," said Allie Wassum, global director of social and integrated media for Jordan shoe brand, which is owned by Nike, in a post on Linkedin.

 

[Storm the Field 5295]

Lol, "nerd tax"

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Storm the Field

[NoName 16354]

i thought this was an interesting thread:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1588115310124539904.html

Text:

 

Spoiler

One of the things I occasionally get paid to do by companies/execs is to tell them why everything seemed to SUDDENLY go wrong, and subs/readers dropped like a stone.

So, with everything going on at Twitter rn, time for a thread about the Trust Thermocline /1

So: what's a thermocline?

Well large bodies of water are made of layers of differing temperatures. Like a layer cake. The top bit is where all the the waves happen and has a gradually decreasing temperature. Then SUDDENLY there's a point where it gets super-cold.

 

That suddenly is important. There's reasons for it (Science!) but it's just a good metaphor. Indeed you may also be interested in the "Thermocline of Truth" which a project management term for how things on a RAG board all suddenly go from amber to red.

But I digress.

 

The Trust Thermocline is something that, over (many) years of digital, I have seen both digital and regular content publishers hit time and time again. Despite warnings (at least when I've worked there). And it has a similar effect. You have lots of users then suddenly... nope.

 

And this does effect print publications as much as trendy digital media companies. They'll be flying along making loads of money, with lots of users/readers, rolling out new products that get bought. Or events. Or Sub-brands.

And then SUDDENLY those people just abandon them.

 

Often it's not even to "new" competitor products, but stuff they thought were already not a threat. Nor is there lots of obvious dissatisfaction reported from sales and marketing (other than general grumbling). Nor is it a general drift away, it's just a sudden big slide.

 

So why does this happen? As I explain to these people and places, it's because they breached the Trust Thermocline.

I ask them if they'd been increasing prices. Changed service offerings. Modified the product.

The answer is normally: "yes, but not much. And everyone still paid"

Then I ask if they did that the year before. Did they increase prices last year? Change the offering? Modify the product?

Again: "yes, but not much."

The answer is normally: "yes, but not much. And everyone still paid."

"And the year before?"

"Yes but not much. And everyone still paid."

Well, you get the idea.

And here is where the Trust Thermocline kicks in. Because too many people see service use as always following an arc. They think that as long as usage is ticking up, they can do what they like to cost and product.

And (critically) that they can just react when the curve flattens

But with a lot of CONTENT products (inc social media) that's not actually how it works. Because it doesn't account for sunk-cost lock-in.

Users and readers will stick to what they know, and use, well beyond the point where they START to lose trust in it. And you won't see that.

 

But they'll only MOVE when they hit the Trust Thermocline. The point where their lack of trust in the product to meet their needs, and the emotional investment they'd made in it, have finally been outweighed by the physical and emotional effort required to abandon it.

 

At this point, I normally get asked something like:

"So if we undo the last few changes and drop the price, we get them back?"

And then I have to break the news that nope: that's not how it works.

Because you're past the Thermocline now. You can't make them trust you again.

 

Classic examples of this behaviour are digital subscription services, where the product gets squeezed over time, or print magazines (particularly in B2B) that constantly ramp up their prices a little bit each year until it's too late.

 

Virtually the only way to avoid catastrophic drop-off from breaching the Trust Thermocline is NOT TO BREACH IT.

I can count on one hand the times I've witnessed a company come back from it. And even they never reached previous heights.

So what's the lesson for businesses here?

- Watch for grumbling and LISTEN to it.
- Don't assume that because people have swallowed a price or service change that'll swallow another one.
- Treat user trust as a finite asset. Because it is.

 

And I will admit this is one of the reasons I am (with sadness, because I've got a lot of value out of this place) watching Elon's current actions wrt Twitter with curious horror.

Because I've NEVER seen someone make such a deep dive for the Trust Thermocline, so quickly.

It's why I've got about 20 big accounts I'm watching on here to see when they personally feel he crosses that Thermocline and begin shifting their main effort and presence elsewhere.

Because that'll be the moment I suspect things will start changing very quickly. /END

 

[Neonmoon 38129]

That is a very good article. 

It reminds me of streaming services. I've stuck with some way longer than I wanted to, but there's just nothing that much better out there, but finally when I've had enough or there is something else that comes along, I bail, and I ain't coming back. 

[Pig Bellmont 8719]

Musk follow up to his claim that there was more to the Pelosi story? No? Ok cool. I’m sure that speculation with no consequence is completely unrelated to the Twitter “fact check” on Senator Murphy calling for an investigation into Saudi ownership of the platform.  Elon couldn’t possibly be using the platform and his position to advance his own political/economic interests while betraying his commitment to neutrality. 

Let’s be honest. Elon’s cheerleaders don’t care about “free speech” but rather the amplification of shit they agree with. 

[Skipper 6136]

17 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

That is a very good article. 

It reminds me of streaming services. I've stuck with some way longer than I wanted to, but there's just nothing that much better out there, but finally when I've had enough or there is something else that comes along, I bail, and I ain't coming back. 

It's a good example of how I feel about Sinclair/Bally's Sports.  Do I miss getting to watch the Mavs/Stars/Rangers if I feel like it and they aren't on a national broadcast?  Absolutely.  Can I afford the new Bally's sports app?  Yeah, not an issue.  But it's the principle of watching that company operate in bad faith for 2 years with every stream provider while they tried to build their app with the goal of leaving them as the sole option (while screwing over fans and franchises in the process).    If they would have just now started playing hardball with streaming providers now (once their app was ready) I would have chalked it up to "that's business" and probably bought in.  But their completely misguided approach without any concern for their future consumers means I'm out.

[texasdago 7575]

15 minutes ago, Skipper said:

It's a good example of how I feel about Sinclair/Bally's Sports.  Do I miss getting to watch the Mavs/Stars/Rangers if I feel like it and they aren't on a national broadcast?  Absolutely.  Can I afford the new Bally's sports app?  Yeah, not an issue.  But it's the principle of watching that company operate in bad faith for 2 years with every stream provider while they tried to build their app with the goal of leaving them as the sole option (while screwing over fans and franchises in the process).    If they would have just now started playing hardball with streaming providers now (once their app was ready) I would have chalked it up to "that's business" and probably bought in.  But their completely misguided approach without any concern for their future consumers means I'm out.

Am I the only one who reads this and thinks of the Oilers?  Houston loved the Oilers.  Bum Phillips. Dan Pastorini.  Earl.  etc. etc. AND YET everyone was done with Bud Adams.  Once that trust was lost, Oiler fans were ready to pack Bud's bags for him.  

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

16 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Elon running it into the ground is going to be the best possible short term outcome. 

Can he buy Tik Tok from China too?

[Pods 7585]

1 hour ago, NoName said:

i thought this was an interesting thread:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1588115310124539904.html

Text:

 

  Hide contents

One of the things I occasionally get paid to do by companies/execs is to tell them why everything seemed to SUDDENLY go wrong, and subs/readers dropped like a stone.

So, with everything going on at Twitter rn, time for a thread about the Trust Thermocline /1

So: what's a thermocline?

Well large bodies of water are made of layers of differing temperatures. Like a layer cake. The top bit is where all the the waves happen and has a gradually decreasing temperature. Then SUDDENLY there's a point where it gets super-cold.

 

That suddenly is important. There's reasons for it (Science!) but it's just a good metaphor. Indeed you may also be interested in the "Thermocline of Truth" which a project management term for how things on a RAG board all suddenly go from amber to red.

But I digress.

 

The Trust Thermocline is something that, over (many) years of digital, I have seen both digital and regular content publishers hit time and time again. Despite warnings (at least when I've worked there). And it has a similar effect. You have lots of users then suddenly... nope.

 

And this does effect print publications as much as trendy digital media companies. They'll be flying along making loads of money, with lots of users/readers, rolling out new products that get bought. Or events. Or Sub-brands.

And then SUDDENLY those people just abandon them.

 

Often it's not even to "new" competitor products, but stuff they thought were already not a threat. Nor is there lots of obvious dissatisfaction reported from sales and marketing (other than general grumbling). Nor is it a general drift away, it's just a sudden big slide.

 

So why does this happen? As I explain to these people and places, it's because they breached the Trust Thermocline.

I ask them if they'd been increasing prices. Changed service offerings. Modified the product.

The answer is normally: "yes, but not much. And everyone still paid"

Then I ask if they did that the year before. Did they increase prices last year? Change the offering? Modify the product?

Again: "yes, but not much."

The answer is normally: "yes, but not much. And everyone still paid."

"And the year before?"

"Yes but not much. And everyone still paid."

Well, you get the idea.

And here is where the Trust Thermocline kicks in. Because too many people see service use as always following an arc. They think that as long as usage is ticking up, they can do what they like to cost and product.

And (critically) that they can just react when the curve flattens

But with a lot of CONTENT products (inc social media) that's not actually how it works. Because it doesn't account for sunk-cost lock-in.

Users and readers will stick to what they know, and use, well beyond the point where they START to lose trust in it. And you won't see that.

 

But they'll only MOVE when they hit the Trust Thermocline. The point where their lack of trust in the product to meet their needs, and the emotional investment they'd made in it, have finally been outweighed by the physical and emotional effort required to abandon it.

 

At this point, I normally get asked something like:

"So if we undo the last few changes and drop the price, we get them back?"

And then I have to break the news that nope: that's not how it works.

Because you're past the Thermocline now. You can't make them trust you again.

 

Classic examples of this behaviour are digital subscription services, where the product gets squeezed over time, or print magazines (particularly in B2B) that constantly ramp up their prices a little bit each year until it's too late.

 

Virtually the only way to avoid catastrophic drop-off from breaching the Trust Thermocline is NOT TO BREACH IT.

I can count on one hand the times I've witnessed a company come back from it. And even they never reached previous heights.

So what's the lesson for businesses here?

- Watch for grumbling and LISTEN to it.
- Don't assume that because people have swallowed a price or service change that'll swallow another one.
- Treat user trust as a finite asset. Because it is.

 

And I will admit this is one of the reasons I am (with sadness, because I've got a lot of value out of this place) watching Elon's current actions wrt Twitter with curious horror.

Because I've NEVER seen someone make such a deep dive for the Trust Thermocline, so quickly.

It's why I've got about 20 big accounts I'm watching on here to see when they personally feel he crosses that Thermocline and begin shifting their main effort and presence elsewhere.

Because that'll be the moment I suspect things will start changing very quickly. /END

 

Great read. This describes the demise of Hornfans very well. The blinking envelopes and open owner contempt for the user base alienated a huge section of the site and an even larger portion of the most active users. As soon as there was a viable alternative, a huge chunk of the best posters left and the site became a shell in a few months.

Cycle repeated itself with shaggy and we're currently watching the same thing with Elon.

If anyone can see this train wreck coming, it should be us.  

Edited November 3, 2022 by Pods

[fattyflattie 4639]

1 hour ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

The flip side of this is all the O&G guys who claim to vote republican because it's best for their career suddenly staning this guy...who has done more to advance alternative energy than probably anyone...just because he pwned a few libs. 

Exactly. Don’t know why @Brian Fantana thinks I gaf about Elon. He’s done more to kill ICE than anyone.  The only thing I even half like about him is he appears to enjoy his $$.  Other than that, he seems like a pretty big dickhead (and would probably fit in here, autistic and dickheadish). I’m not a fan of having shitloads of kids you don’t care for (other than financially).  I’m not a fan of his holier than thou climate stance. I’m not a fan of being the richest person on earth and associating with sub par trim.  
 

It appears to me that people are pissed their biggest megaphone got silenced a bit.  Twitter execs donated blue at something like a 98% clip.  I beg you to find me a single party megaphone that doesn’t  at a minimum bend the truth.  Twitter was elite at policing far right Q bullshit disinformation, while looking the other way at the dissemination of their preferred misinformation.  

[Pig Bellmont 8719]

4 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

It appears to me that people are pissed their biggest megaphone got silenced a bit.  Twitter execs donated blue at something like a 98% clip.  I beg you to find me a single party megaphone that doesn’t  at a minimum bend the truth.  Twitter was elite at policing far right Q bullshit disinformation, while looking the other way at the dissemination of their preferred misinformation.  

Thanks for the email forward from my Dad. Also great work equating QAnon with anything on the left. Should go in a #bothsides hall of fame

[Anastasis 23475]

32 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Can he buy Tik Tok from China too?

One of my personal favorites is the trend towards embedding tiktoks in a tweet wrapper.  

 

 

[Brian Fantana 6689]

I don't think you gaf about Elon, I think you're a big ass baby bitched baboon brained pigfucker who is crying like a 5 year old about right wingers being silenced on the internet.

[fattyflattie 4639]

4 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Thanks for the email forward from my Dad. Also great work equating QAnon with anything on the left. Should go in a #bothsides hall of fame

Yeah, pretty obvious they aren’t the same. But the right wingers use it to spread disinformation, Twitters OG groups mission was to use it to win elections.  It the grand scheme, it’s a much more important tool to gain and retain power.  When we start seeing select pols lose their access, as has happened to pols on the right, it’ll make more sense why there’s been so much bellyaching. 

Edited November 3, 2022 by fattyflattie

[Homercles 10206]

34 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

But the right wingers use it to spread disinformation, Twitters OG groups mission was to use it to win elections. 

Show your work.  I’m legit curious on this. 

[Brisketexan 105154]

2 hours ago, NoName said:

in the last weekish twitter has lost their chief customer officer who was head of ads. i am sure more people left the dept as well. i have not seen anyone say who is replacing her. it was reported something about losing #2 person in the ad dept but can't find that now so maybe it was not correct. elon has offered to meet directly with clients evidently. which is a *terrible* idea.

they are adding a paid tier that will serve "half as many ads"

89% of twitter's revenue is from ads. he acts like 11% of the revenue is ads and he can just replace it.

doing things like this can't help:

 

Yeah.....imagine being an advertiser, and the system offers users, side-by-side, a tweet about how jews are subhumans ruining the world and we should "get rid of them," right next to your "Nike, Just do it!" ad.  Or maybe it's right next to the tweet from the Dr. saying that demon semen causes all diseases, and people should instead buy her supplements/medication to cast out demons.  You really don't want to see that screen grab put up on the screen at the next shareholders or board meeting.  There's a very good reason that legit enterprises don't advertise on The Daily Stormer.

[HenryJames 66121]

8 minutes ago, Homercles said:

Show your work.  I’m legit curious on this. 

[956 Worldwide 34715]

17 hours ago, Anastasis said:

I never really appreciated how truly important twitter was to some of you people.

Seems to be particularly important to people that show no capability to actively curate their feed or people that want an echo chamber environment.  No surprise some of the cloak room regulars are very serious about recognizing disinformation and its damage to our society but can't find the splinter in their own eye. 

Elon running it into the ground is going to be the best possible short term outcome.  The cancer is still going to metastasize, but everybody knows that we are basically on a trajectory towards palliative care. 

This is almost the exact equivalent of “You are a pansy for being scared of COVID, it only kills the olds and fat people.” Or “why do you worry about HIV, if you’re not gay or a drug user.” 

Substitute disinformation for COVID and millions of cognitively weak (demonstrably, undeniably weak) fellow citizens. 
 

 

[Humble Beast 258]

A little something here for the haters. Hadn’t seen this one yet. 😂 

 

 

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13515]

If you listen to the All-In podcast, two of the hosts have been brought in to help Elon at Twitter. David Sacks and Jason Calacanis. Sacks is an ex-Paypal early employee/founder with Elon. Calacanis is a VC that hit it big with an early investment with Uber.

It's an interesting podcast but I guarantee both are running through the Twitter departments/employees effectively making the employees provide reasons why they shouldn't be fired. 

[Neonmoon 38129]

Define Irony

A man that believes a feel good story about everlasting life and derides others for being unable to discern their own sources of disinformation 

 

 

 

[NoName 16354]

21 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

If you listen to the All-In podcast, two of the hosts have been brought in to help Elon at Twitter. David Sacks and Jason Calacanis. Sacks is an ex-Paypal early employee/founder with Elon. Calacanis is a VC that hit it big with an early investment with Uber.

It's an interesting podcast but I guarantee both are running through the Twitter departments/employees effectively making the employees provide reasons why they shouldn't be fired. 

there is nothing about this comment that makes me think this guy understands subscriptions at all. it isn't like you are getting in now a $8 and locking in forever and in the future it will be great. this just says that i shouldn't pay them shit until they have a feature i care about.

this seems like the same way Tesla does the FSD stuff - "it will be good in the future so you should pay now for it to be better in the future........maybe"

on the list of priorities they should have, as a company, improving tweetdeck should be literally nowhere near the top. watch them roll that into twitter blue soon.

in fact, i fully expect them to neuter the shit out of any third party twitter apps in the next 12 months. which is a terrible move.

i am sure that as someone who has made a bunch of money from Elon he may actually believe this. but "the best CEO on the planet"? the man is literally CEO of SpaceX (12k employees), Tesla (110k) and Twitter (7k? not sure anymore). if anyone thinks he can be the "best CEO on the planet" and be divided between three companies of that size they are morons.

i imagine this is how the meetings go with Jason and Elon in them.

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by NoName

[South Austin 52519]

4 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Define Irony

It’s like 10,000 spoons on your wedding day.

[Humble Beast 258]

42 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

If you listen to the All-In podcast, two of the hosts have been brought in to help Elon at Twitter. David Sacks and Jason Calacanis. Sacks is an ex-Paypal early employee/founder with Elon. Calacanis is a VC that hit it big with an early investment with Uber.

It's an interesting podcast but I guarantee both are running through the Twitter departments/employees effectively making the employees provide reasons why they shouldn't be fired. 

This is good news if you’re rooting against dumpster fire. I hadn’t seen any official notification. 
 

Sacks was COO under Elon. Noted conservative. Calacanis is Elon buddy, angel investor. Liberal. Two different voices for him with regards to moderation. 
 

The podcast is a good listen. Rich Silicon Valley guys. Includes Chamath as billionaire megalomaniac, liberal. Friedberg is science VC guy. Analytical. 
 

All smart guys that are friends, but disagree quite a bit with each other. Views all over the place so you’re bound to be triggered by something. It’s an entertaining podcast. 
 

 

[Celery Man 20967]

they're taking the continuous delivery concept they've perfected with vehicles and are going to apply it to software for the very first time

[Nice Guy Eddie 13515]

Twitter is definitely missing out on better pay models that either give you something if you pay, or shut you out if you don't. As an example, users could set it up to prioritize tweets and comments from blue checks. Or even hide non-blue checks.  If you want to join the conversation, it helps to pay.

I would think they would be better off with less than $8/mo, at least in the beginning.

[atomheartbevo 89729]

4 hours ago, NoName said:

they are adding a paid tier that will serve "half as many ads"

89% of twitter's revenue is from ads. he acts like 11% of the revenue is ads and he can just replace it.

There are already billion-dollar companies pausing their advertising with Twitter.  That should freak out Musk a bit, because there’s no government contracts in the wings to even out the revenue stream.  That thermocline article was spot-on.  But I don’t think Elon understands how Twitter actually works in terms of advertising - if GM or L’Oréal bail on him, there’s nobody else to fill that loss of reliable revenue.

[gyroprotagonist 2594]

i would just kill for a filter to block people with zero followers from tagging my account with phishy spam