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

[MeerkatBong 115]

1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

What are his motives for jumping into the culture wars and dividing us?

I think briskettexan nailed it (broken clock right twice a day etc.); sociopathic narcissistic tendencies fueled by awesome resources and wealth that has broken his brain, potentially. He’s what would happen if you gave an average 4chan troll a hot hand and billions of dollars.

Edited November 29, 2022 by MeerkatBong

[Brisketexan 105077]

3 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

Bingo.  Any of you seeing this other than an exercise in peak narcissism by a sociopath are reading way too much into it.

Elmo thinks he's god.  And he needs the adulation and slavish, cultish devotion that gods deserve.  That's it.  That's what's happening here.  And he'll get it (he's already getting it).  There is a segment of the population that is all-in on the cognitive dissonance necessary to praise each and every move he makes as god-level brilliant.

The problem is, that group is dedicated and fanatical....but they remain a minority.

And the second problem is that neither 1) other users nor 2) mainstream advertisers want to spend time with the fanatical group.  

So, Elmo is successfully building a platform dedicated to the worship of Elmo.  That's what he wants, and that's what he's achieving.  It's just that his dream is not compatible with a successful large-scale business.

One of the most dangerous things any "leader" can do is "believe your own bullshit."  Elmo has transcended merely believing his own bullshit; he's elevated it to being gospel that must be believed by his followers, who will praise his name.  Great for the ego.  Not a great long-term plan for the bottom line of this type of business, where the most important foundation for economic success is "broad reach."

Edited November 29, 2022 by Brisketexan

[Loch Ness Monster 3533]

Not a Elon fanboy but I do respect his ability to create buzz and controversy around his companies. Twitters probably never been more talked about than right now. 

Pissing off advertisers the real downfall so far. Maybe they'll come back eventually though tbd.

[MeerkatBong 115]

9 minutes ago, Loch Ness Monster said:

Not a Elon fanboy but I do respect his ability to create buzz and controversy around his companies. Twitters probably never been more talked about than right now. 

Pissing off advertisers the real downfall so far. Maybe they'll come back eventually though tbd.

As we've seen with Qatar, corporations are whores who follow the viewers/users/money. Except B-corps and Patagonia type companies, but you know what I meant. Typical F500 stuff.

[MeerkatBong 115]

20 hours ago, MeerkatBong said:

What might be an interesting, unintended effect of this brouhaha (still TBD) is what this mummer's farce will mean for putting more visibility on Apple's 30% cut. A lot has been made in the last 12 months of if it should be legal and it has regulator's attention. I think it all started with the Fortnite guys firing the first shot years ago, but Elmo could put some gas on that fire. Apple might not want that smoke or they might not care at all and brush Elon away like a gadfly.

This is why Elmo's Twitter is more entertaining than a soap opera, every week there is some new dramatic story arc.

I said this yesterday and today I was reading where some business news analysts ( @wildcat09, the objective Ben Thompson) agrees that Apple might not want the attention Elmo is bringing, which is why Elmo is doing this:

From WSJ (bold emphasis my own):

Quote

In a string of tweets accusing Apple of stanching free speech and claiming that the tech giant had threatened to kick the Twitter app off the iPhone, Mr. Musk introduced a new wrinkle in Apple’s efforts to maintain control over software distribution, acting as a megaphone for critics who say the company holds too much power through its App Store. By calling attention to Apple’s role as a gatekeeper for the App ecosystem, Mr. Musk is picking up the mantle in the yearslong fight developers have waged against Apple and its fees. Mr. Musk could bring new focus to the company from lawmakers and regulators around the world, including politicians who have expressed concern that Silicon Valley is silencing conservative voices.

From Ben Thompson (bold emphasis my own):

Quote

 

Indeed, that ban reinforces my assumption that Apple is not kicking Twitter out of the store anytime soon: Apple has much larger concerns than Twitter’s moderation policies, specifically bills currently in Congress that are targeted squarely at the App Store and Apple’s integrated business model. Those bills have been massively watered down and may never come to the floor for a vote in the current lame duck session; Apple would very much like said bills to die a quiet death and I suspect would be reticent to do anything to raise the issue’s visibility.

Still, the 30% issue is almost certainly going to be a flashpoint between Musk and Apple: 30% of $8 is $2.40, money that Twitter can scarce afford to give up when (checks notes) Twitter just lost around $200 million annually from Apple alone (i.e. around 3 million annual subscribers worth of revenue). It’s not clear what Musk can do about this directly, but he does have one of the largest megaphones around, and the risk to Apple from that megaphone being used to highlight the company’s App Store policies is significant. Indeed, this is another example of why Musk’s ownership of Twitter, as exhausting as it can seem, may end up being extremely impactful for not just Twitter but the industry broadly.

 

 and

Quote

I suspect that Apple won’t take the step of actually kicking Twitter out of the App Store: the blowback would, needless to say, be a lot larger than Parler, given that a critical mass of people actually use Twitter. What is likely happening, though, is an ongoing delay in approval of app updates because of content moderation issues — and that may impact the impending re-launch of Twitter Blue.

and from NYT:

Apple is already being investigated for its App Store policies, including by the Justice Department. Meanwhile, Spotify sued Apple for rejecting its audiobooks app three times, accusing it of anticompetitive behavior. And Epic Games is still locked in a legal fight with Apple over forced use of the company’s in-app payment system. (Epic’s C.E.O., Tim Sweeney, backed Musk’s fight yesterday, tweeting, “Apple is a menace to freedom worldwide.”)

Edited November 29, 2022 by MeerkatBong

[wildcat09 29347]

 

I'm sure the advertisers are going to come running back to market to this crowd.

[Humble Beast 258]

10 hours ago, Chopper said:

This chart published today by Wa Po shows it's either white supremacists or bots, or both, that are overtaking twitter.

One perplexing thing is why the article focused on politicians...I don't think any real people on twitter really give a fuck about hearing from politicians - with a very few exceptions.

Or could it be that right wing accounts are no longer suppressed and left wing no longer boosted? 

[Chopper 17230]

2 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

Because he's recently divorced.

 

1 hour ago, MeerkatBong said:

I think briskettexan nailed it (broken clock right twice a day etc.); sociopathic narcissistic tendencies fueled by awesome resources and wealth that has broken his brain, potentially. He’s what would happen if you gave an average 4chan troll a hot hand and billions of dollars.

 

All valid explanations but you left out micro-dick energy and overcompesation.

 

32 minutes ago, MeerkatBong said:

I said this yesterday and today I was reading where some business news analysts ( @wildcat09, the objective Ben Thompson) agrees that Apple might not want the attention Elmo is bringing, which is why Elmo is doing this:

From WSJ (bold emphasis my own):

From Ben Thompson (bold emphasis my own):

 and

and from NYT:

Apple is already being investigated for its App Store policies, including by the Justice Department. Meanwhile, Spotify sued Apple for rejecting its audiobooks app three times, accusing it of anticompetitive behavior. And Epic Games is still locked in a legal fight with Apple over forced use of the company’s in-app payment system. (Epic’s C.E.O., Tim Sweeney, backed Musk’s fight yesterday, tweeting, “Apple is a menace to freedom worldwide.”)

Call me more than skeptical that Elon Musk is going to be the tipping point over the app store, which has been through many wars with european and US regulators already, and won many, many legal battles.

 

 

[Chopper 17230]

2 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

Or could it be that right wing accounts are no longer suppressed and left wing no longer boosted? 

It's a reasonal possibility but you'd have a difficult argument to make to persuade that hundreds of thousands of people came crawling out of the woodwork to hear the deep thoughts of Gym Jordan. Coincidentally right at the time twitter staff was decimated and bot activity came rushing back.

OOPS! Someone's not paying attention to their core business. What a goddamn shock.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-29/tesla-tsla-lithium-mine-strategy-tested-by-ford-gm

[MeerkatBong 115]

1 minute ago, Chopper said:

 

 

All valid explanations but you left out micro-dick energy and overcompesation.

 

Call me more than skeptical that Elon Musk is going to be the tipping point over the app store, which has been through many wars with european and US regulators already, and won many, many legal battles.

 

 

I am guessing you are right, but I think eventually, Apple will be forced to concede something at least due to a build-up of complaints and legal issues over their 30% vig. I'm not against Apple there, I think they created the ecosystem and platform and it's their value-add, but I also see the other side as well. 

As for me with an Android phone? I could never. Halloween season is over so let's dispense with the spooky stories and haunting visions.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

1 hour ago, MeerkatBong said:

I think briskettexan nailed it (broken clock right twice a day etc.); sociopathic narcissistic tendencies fueled by awesome resources and wealth that has broken his brain, potentially. He’s what would happen if you gave an average 4chan troll a hot hand and billions of dollars.

I tend to agree...my line of questioning was assuming there was a rational thought process occurring, which I don't think there is. My guess is he's manic with untreated bipolar 1.

[atomheartbevo 89629]

 

 

[MeerkatBong 115]

5 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

 

 

Not to defend Elmo here, but more the English language and reading comprehension, but I don't think Phillips O gets it, which is weird because it looks like he's an editor. Elmo is clearly saying that his anti-dictator stance is an obvious (non-controversial) one and is so common and obvious as to be the opposite of a risky stance, thus needing no bravery either.

Edited November 29, 2022 by MeerkatBong

[Neonmoon 38129]

Many people are terrible at English. He was talking shit about their anti-dictator stance being "brave", stating it is not brave to be anti-dictator (at least in the USA I'm assuming, because being anti-dictator in Russia is brave as fuck). 

Is he insinuating their money comes from nefarious sources? 

[MeerkatBong 115]

7 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Many people are terrible at English. He was talking shit about their anti-dictator stance being "brave", stating it is not brave to be anti-dictator (at least in the USA I'm assuming, because being anti-dictator in Russia is brave as fuck). 

Right. Which is why the guy's post in response makes no sense. Which I guess raises the question, why was it posted here? I'm possibly missing something that makes an obvious point so I'll just ask: What were you @atomheartbevotrying to illustrate? Simply making fun of the editor? Making fun that Elmo is wasting his time in foolish tweet troll wars instead of tending to his multiple business responsibilities?

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by MeerkatBong

[atomheartbevo 89629]

15 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

s he insinuating their money comes from nefarious sources? 

Yes. He’s  tangled with Gary Kasparov and Alexander Vindman in the past, and this weekend Vindman pointed out that he gets to control how half a billion people are communicating while at the same time he’s acting erratic about content moderation (which Mark Cuban is goading him to open up about it).

Some of it goes back to Musk trying to claim that Crimea belongs to Russia, which is the kind of false/misleading information that is a problem for social media.  Musk repeats Russian propaganda talking points (Russia had no problem with Crimea being a part of a Ukraine when the Soviet Union collapsed).

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by atomheartbevo

[SydneyCarton 48063]

58 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

Or could it be that right wing accounts are no longer suppressed and left wing no longer boosted? 

I believe that chart references number of followers, not the reach of posts by a particular individual. That's not something that gets "boosted." It's followers. My understand, which I admit is quite limited since I don't actually USE twitter except to mock Geoff Ketchum, is that when accounts were "shadowbanned" their posts just didn't get seen by anyone. Not that their accounts themselves actually disappeared. 

So unless I'm completely off base here, which is possible, that chart only indicates and influx of new legitimate users, or bots, and who they follow and/or a vast reduction of followers from said politicians. 

[atomheartbevo 89629]

9 minutes ago, MeerkatBong said:

Right. Which is why the guy's post in response makes no sense. Which I guess raises the question, why was it posted here? I'm possibly missing something that makes an obvious point so I'll just ask: What were you @atomheartbevotrying to illustrate? Simply making fun of the editor? Making fun that Elmo is wasting his time in foolish tweet troll wars instead of tending to his multiple business responsibilities?

He’s throwing rocks in a glasshouse - he relies on the Chinese as suppliers for his other businesses, as well as the Saudis helping with Twitter, while trying to cast doubt on the funding of other organizations. 

[Cody2422 270]

I have no dog in this hunt, I don't use Twitter, never have and never will, but my hot sports opinion is that this thread will die a slow death like the vax thread in about 6 months.  All of the I'm leaving Twitter people (coincidentally the same as the get your vax or die people) will still be on Twitter.  If it turns into a profitable business and doesn't become an "alt-right, racist, xenophobic, islamophobic, insert-your-phobic" medium, all of the shit spewing will slowly dwindle away as there will be another topic of outrage to bicker and bitch about.  

[Neonmoon 38129]

13 minutes ago, MeerkatBong said:

Right. Which is why the guy's post in response makes no sense. Which I guess raises the question, why was it posted here? I'm possibly missing something that makes an obvious point so I'll just ask: What were you @atomheartbevotrying to illustrate? Simply making fun of the editor? Making fun that Elmo is wasting his time in foolish tweet troll wars instead of tending to his multiple business responsibilities?

 

He posted it because it’s another example of Elon hurting his own company with his instability. Attacking anti-dictator groups? Why? because he’s a narcissist with zero control

[atomheartbevo 89629]

 

c’mon Elmo, you dropped $44 billion to read Grimes’ DMs, drop a few billion more on your own phone and app store 

 

[atomheartbevo 89629]

1 minute ago, longhornmatt said:

Apple and Google effectively control access to the internet via their app stores?  Do people not even know how to use an internet browser now?  WTF?

You have to remember it’s projection with him - Musk thinks that because he accesses the internet through…I guess some apps he got through the app stores, that everybody else in the world does the same.

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

See, he's so fucking stupid.

"Apple and Google effectively control access to most of the internet via their app stores."

No, they do not.  Currently, I'm accessing the internet on a Dell PC running Windows.  Apple nor Google have any control, at this moment, over how I access the internet.  I could go to twitter.com, sign in, and interact with good ole' Elon...and Apple nor Google would have had any control over that.

Now, if Elon wanted to say something like "control mobile access to most of the internet" I wouldn't argue against that.   However, you do not need to access most of the internet via an app.  Sure, it makes it easier, but you could take your damned iPhone, open Safari, go to twitter.com and sign in...without using an app store.  

However, the rubes will eat this shit up and point and say "Elon is right!  Apple and Google control access to the Internet! They must be destroyed!"

Edited November 29, 2022 by Francisco 2.0

[atomheartbevo 89629]

1 minute ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

See, he's so fucking stupid.

"Apple and Google effectively control access to most of the internet via their app stores."

No, they do not.  Currently, I'm accessing the internet on a Dell PC running Windows.  Apple nor Google have any control, at this moment, over how I access the internet.  I could go to twitter.com, sign in, and interact with good ole' Elon...and Apple nor Google would have had any control over that.

It’s a case of him buying into his own bullshit - like I said, projection - he only uses the internet through mobile systems apparently, so he thinks everybody else does.

This is going to be fun….he had the COVID misinformation policies removed.

https://transparency.twitter.com/en/reports/covid19.html#2021-jul-dec

Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.

So on top of my dipshit sis-in-law probably getting one (or all) of her Twitter accounts back, she can go back to pointing to quacks and sending it to relatives.

Oh, and I’m sure the major pharmaceutical and medical companies and organizations are going to love trying to keep their ads away from that shit, given what’s broken.  Oh, wait, they just won’t advertise.

[NoName 16351]

18 minutes ago, Cody2422 said:

I have no dog in this hunt, I don't use Twitter, never have and never will, but my hot sports opinion is that this thread will die a slow death like the vax thread in about 6 months.  All of the I'm leaving Twitter people (coincidentally the same as the get your vax or die people) will still be on Twitter.  If it turns into a profitable business and doesn't become an "alt-right, racist, xenophobic, islamophobic, insert-your-phobic" medium, all of the shit spewing will slowly dwindle away as there will be another topic of outrage to bicker and bitch about.  

the thread is 4+ years old, i doubt it dies. slow down? sure. it has become the home for Musk discussion and Tesla, Space X, Boring Company (lol) and TWTR aren't going away any time soon.

if Twitter turns into a profitable business? i don't think you understand jack shit about the business or how it turns a profit in the first place. how does it make money? advertising. not subscriptions. not by cutting costs - from advertisers. what is he doing? going to war with advertisers including the largest one on their site in Q1. this isn't a situation where they can cut their way to freedom, and that was the case before he saddled them with a billion a year in debt service.

what's funny is that every single social media network out there (and yes there have been a lot of attempts) that focuses on "FREE EXPRESSION" almost instantly turns into a racist, xenophobic, islamophobic (funny you bring this up because this is where groups like ISIS-K, Boko Haram, AQIM, AQAP, etc all then go to post videos/recruit/etc because it is all about free speech) shitbox which drives users away and scares away anyone who would advertise and ends up with them getting booted from iOS, Google Play store, Amazon store, etc - look into what happened with Parler in Jan 2021 due to violation of app store terms. they all say they want no moderation, then have to reel it back in because people take it way too far.

it's very clear you don't post on Twitter because if you did you would see all sorts of people fired up about the direction of the app/company. tech people, sports people, writers, normal people, history accounts, etc. people are concerned that the app is going to go from what it is now and has been, to a shitbox.

editing to add some things: was twitter perfect? no. but was it a decent place where you could go to follow things in real time and follow people you liked? sure. was it well moderated? well, no. but was it unmoderated/shittily moderated? not really. were there bots? yes!!! but is solving the bot issue something that every social media company in the world is working on and hasn't solved yet? yup.

could he have spent $44b, cut the staff, kept his mouth shut, removed more bots, focused on things that matter and be seen in a positive light? sure. but what did he do? effectively light $44b on fire, shit all over the place, fire people in the worst possible way, contradict himself a bunch of times, hack off the only revenue stream that has any hope of getting the company out of the red, break laws (what happens in the US != what can happen in the EU with labor laws), fire people in the shittiest possible way, not lay out any direction/future for the app, make it much harder to employ talent across the board, tangle with the FCC and a bunch of EU groups, treat his employees like shit, not communicate well with exec staff, front line staff, or anyone in between, piss off a senator because a media company made a fake twitter account with his permission, blow the deadline to respond, piss off a bunch of other companies when they blew the twitter blue launch, have the 2 most important people in the company on a twitter spaces call to calm everyone down only to see one of them leave like 3 days later and fire the other one? get in public spats with employees (who were right btw) because he made wrong comments in his hurry to shit all over everyone involved with the app, pick a fight with Apple and Alphabet of all companies...all while Tesla Stock keeps crashing down, "real" car companies (remember he considers TSLA a tech company that happens to make cars) are entering the EV market left and right, ignores his fiduciary duties to TSLA, ignores the company during one of the most important strategic times the company has ever had... but it's going to be ok because he keep shitposting away and thinks all press is good press because he has the mental age of a 14 year old who thinks this is deep.

Edited November 29, 2022 by NoName

[Brisketexan 105077]

16 minutes ago, Cody2422 said:

If it turns into a profitable business and doesn't become an "alt-right, racist, xenophobic, islamophobic, insert-your-phobic" medium, all of the shit spewing will slowly dwindle away as there will be another topic of outrage to bicker and bitch about.  

Way to post a hot take.

"If Twitter ends up being.....essentially what it was BEFORE Elmo did all his stupid shit, then user engagement will likely be about the same as it was before."

No shit, Sherlock.  If Twitter ends up being a reasonably moderated social media site, then both the bulk of users and advertisers will be comfortable with it.  Which is exactly the point that most of us have been making from the get-go.  Social media sites aren't their software, or graphics -- they ARE their content curation and moderation policies.  That's what they have to offer.  Just like any other media site/outlet: Field & Stream magazine's identity is the subject matter of its articles (advertisers place ads in the magazine based on the demographics of the eyes reading those articles, and do so with an eye on associating their brand with a particular viewpoint).  Discovery Channel -- same thing.  KLBJ -- same thing.  FOX news -- same thing (that's why you see different advertisers on FOX news than you do on the Discovery Channel).

If Twitter turns into an alt-right safe space, decent humans (particularly in the western world) won't engage, and mainstream advertisers won't place ads on it.  You can't have BOTH 1) an alt-right safe space, and 2) broad-based users and mainstream ad placement.  General Mills doesn't advertise its cereal on Parler.

[atomheartbevo 89629]

10 minutes ago, NoName said:

what's funny is that every single social media network out there

And Twitter is not even in the top 15

https://www.semrush.com/blog/most-popular-social-media-platforms/

And one thing the top networks all have in common is some kind of content moderation (or segregation of adult content), even if it sucks or people disagree with it, because most need the advertising revenue.

11 minutes ago, NoName said:

how does it make money? advertising. not subscriptions. not by cutting costs - from advertisers. what is he doing? going to war with advertisers including the largest one on their site in Q1. this isn't a situation where they can cut their way to freedom, and that was the case before he saddled them with a billion a year in debt service.

Twitter has been profitable two years out of 16, before Musk just saddled it with an additional billion in debt.

Hell, maybe Musk is willing to pay billions out of his own pocket every year so that Twitter can be the Wild West, and he has that right, but it’s been very useful to a lot of people, and they are going to bitch.

[NoName 16351]

Just now, atomheartbevo said:

Twitter has been profitable two years out of 16, before Musk just saddled it with an additional billion in debt.

Hell, maybe Musk is willing to pay billions out of his own pocket every year so that Twitter can be the Wild West, and he has that right, but it’s been very useful to a lot of people, and they are going to bitch.

i think it was fine to go in and cut it back. but there was no strategy in how it was done - it wasn't a "let's prune the bottom 20% of our engineers" it was let's take a machete to every group we have and hope nothing breaks. the cuts were the same for the teams developing new stuff as they were for the core infrastructure team as they were for the advertising group as they were for the moderation teams as they were for the app specific teams as they were for the trust and safety teams...it was done in the most hamfisted way possible.

[MeerkatBong 115]

27 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Apple and Google effectively control access to the internet via their app stores?  Do people not even know how to use an internet browser now?  WTF?

You are generally well-versed in market economics which makes this post even more disappointing. Or maybe you haven't heard the argument for how these two app stores on smart devices are a duopoly?

An aside: Thanks for replies @Neonmoonand @atomheartbevo;makes more sense now.

 

[MeerkatBong 115]

2 minutes ago, NoName said:

i think it was fine to go in and cut it back. but there was no strategy in how it was done - it wasn't a "let's prune the bottom 20% of our engineers" it was let's take a machete to every group we have and hope nothing breaks. the cuts were the same for the teams developing new stuff as they were for the core infrastructure team as they were for the advertising group as they were for the moderation teams as they were for the app specific teams as they were for the trust and safety teams...it was done in the most hamfisted way possible.

What is interesting about Elmo's machete cuts, as a precedent or lighthouse, is that other Big Tech (and most importantly Activist Investors!) are watching and waiting to see how this plays out. From the website The Information:

Quote

 

Alphabet has doubled the headcount in its Google Cloud unit since early 2019, according to data obtained by The Information, outstripping Alphabet’s overall hiring growth. The rapid growth helps explain why Google Cloud’s losses continue to widen even as its revenue grows rapidly. Google’s hardware unit and YouTube also each roughly doubled headcount between the first quarter of 2019 and this fall. And the number of employees working in marketing and finance roles across Google roughly doubled to 4,500 and 5,500, respectively. In comparison, Alphabet’s total employee count grew roughly 80% to 187,000 at the end of September, the company has said…

Google Cloud now accounts for just over a quarter of the company’s workforce but only 10% of total revenues. Losses at the unit widened 12.6% in the first nine months of this year, to $2.5 billion, even as revenue grew 39%, a faster rate of growth than that of its much bigger rival, Amazon Web Services.

The Information includes a chart of Google’s employee distribution in 2019 and 2022; what is striking is that Google Search and Ads are, even after the last three years’ crazy growth, only around 22,500 employees (up from around 16,000 employees in 2019). Those are the two units driving the majority of Google’s revenue and the vast majority of its profits. This reality — along with Meta, which despite its recent layoffs, is still massively larger than its pre-pandemic size — are probably the two biggest examples of companies that could start to feel significant investor pressure if Musk survives with a drastically reduced Twitter workforce. Still, both are large enough and profitable enough that investors may have limited means to have much of an impact; the pressure will be that much more intense on smaller companies.

 

 

[Hefeweizen 5310]

He’s got a private toy which doesn’t have to report earnings.  They can’t operate that way.  If they think they can RIF and continue to grow they’ll do it, in a heartbeat.   No one is going to emulate Elmo’s practices except dipshit bosses who think “hardcore” mode is going to make them look good.

 

Fwiw:  looks like his wastewater permit on the Colorado river is for SpaceX near Bastropo.  He’s going to be challenged on regionalization because the city could serve him.

Edited November 29, 2022 by Hefeweizen

[NoName 16351]

20 minutes ago, MeerkatBong said:

What is interesting about Elmo's machete cuts, as a precedent or lighthouse, is that other Big Tech (and most importantly Activist Investors!) are watching and waiting to see how this plays out. From the website The Information:

 

yeah they all are going to do cuts - but guess how many of them are going to make them blanket machete cuts across the entire company, ignoring importance to the org or business unit, quality of employee (top 10% or bottom 10%), dept size with FTE counts, where they work location wise, institutional knowledge, etc?

 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

The use of Latin and old English is pretty on-brand for someone that sees themselves as en emperor/king.

The new hero to the alt right is another insane person. Who’d a thunk?

[Brisketexan 105077]

Oh, and back to Elmo shitting all over Apple, one of his largest advertisers.

Imagine this scenario: Brisketexan is one of the most frequent customers of Boudreaux's Boudin Palace.  I eat a lot of boudin.  So much so, that my boudin purchases are 4% of Boudreaux's annual revenue.

But one day, it is brought to may attention that Boudreaux has changed its boudin recipe in a way that makes it taste not so great to Brisketexan, and also fired a bunch of its employees so that its QC on batches of boudin is inconsistent.  Brisketexan stops buying his boudin from Boudreaux's, sharing his concerns with Boudreaux's management in hopes that Boudreaux's will fix things so that it will again be among Brisket's favorite dining establishments.

Instead of acknowledging ANY of my concerns, Boudreaux's management attacks me, mocks me for my choice, and says that I am clearly anti-small business and anti-Cajun.  In fact, Boudreaux's posts a Yelp review of me, calling into question how I provide legal services to my clients.

How many of you think Brisket will be going back to Boudreaux's for his boudin needs?

How many of you think that Boudreaux's approach to customer relations is likely to have positive revenue results?

 

What Elmo is doing re: Apple is juvenile and stupid.  If you praise it, you are juvenile and stupid.  And no, it doesn't even matter if he has a point about Apple and its app store or not.  Threats, blackmail, and attacks are not ever a means of recovering/retaining a customer.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

How happy is Zuck that Elmo lost his marbles and took the spotlight off of his Meta disaster?

[MeerkatBong 115]

15 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

We’re about to be in a recession if we aren’t already.  Tech stock prices are down like 30-40% this year.  Nobody needed inspiration from Elon or activist investors to start trimming costs and commencing layoffs.  

The difference is the other companies will only fire the people they want to fire (and will actually have given thought to identifying who they want to fire and who they want to keep), they won’t aggressively piss off their key customers, and they won’t haphazardly invent and reverse critical corporate policies at the whim of a manchild based on how his Twitter interactions with random weirdos are going that day.

I agree except for your first sentence which I would say the jury is still out.

The thrust of my point (and the quoted piece) is NOT that other companies will be ham-handed, send out a mailchimp survey monkey "will you be hardxcore 80 hour employees with me, yes or no?" and sloppily halve their companies overnight.

Elmo's very public torching of twitter could have a few unintended consequences (we've already touched on more pressure for apple's 30% mob cut, love it or hate it), and in the HR/RIF perspective, if Twitter wriggles their way out of this and can limp along more or less solvent, you could see a lot of activist investors and monied PE's start harassing businesses, from small to large, with the idea that "Hey, Twitter can survive with 1 of [these type employees], 3 of those types, only 6 of these, etc, why are you using 200, 300 and 1000 respectively." Or what have you.

Edited November 29, 2022 by MeerkatBong

[MeerkatBong 115]

10 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Oh, and back to Elmo shitting all over Apple, one of his largest advertisers.

Imagine this scenario: Brisketexan is one of the most frequent customers of Boudreaux's Boudin Palace.  I eat a lot of boudin.  So much so, that my boudin purchases are 4% of Boudreaux's annual revenue.

But one day, it is brought to may attention that Boudreaux has changed its boudin recipe in a way that makes it taste not so great to Brisketexan, and also fired a bunch of its employees so that its QC on batches of boudin is inconsistent.  Brisketexan stops buying his boudin from Boudreaux's, sharing his concerns with Boudreaux's management in hopes that Boudreaux's will fix things so that it will again be among Brisket's favorite dining establishments.

Instead of acknowledging ANY of my concerns, Boudreaux's management attacks me, mocks me for my choice, and says that I am clearly anti-small business and anti-Cajun.  In fact, Boudreaux's posts a Yelp review of me, calling into question how I provide legal services to my clients.

How many of you think Brisket will be going back to Boudreaux's for his boudin needs?

How many of you think that Boudreaux's approach to customer relations is likely to have positive revenue results?

 

What Elmo is doing re: Apple is juvenile and stupid.  If you praise it, you are juvenile and stupid.  And no, it doesn't even matter if he has a point about Apple and its app store or not.  Threats, blackmail, and attacks are not ever a means of recovering/retaining a customer.

Now weave in the part where Briskettexan takes 30% of the house take on Boudin balls everyday whether Briskettexan wants to eat there or not. Because that's a not insignificant data point to the rigmarole and without it, the analogy fails.

[Brisketexan 105077]

Now weave in the part where Briskettexan takes 30% of the house take on Boudin balls everyday whether Briskettexan wants to eat there or not. Because that's a not insignificant data point to the rigmarole and without it, the analogy fails.

And if you want to go further, Boudreax’s needs me to distribute its product to half of its best customers.

Shitting on me remains incredibly stupid.

[NoName 16351]

15 minutes ago, MeerkatBong said:

I agree except for your first sentence which I would say the jury is still out.

The thrust of my point (and the quoted piece) is NOT that other companies will be ham-handed, send out a mailchimp survey monkey "will you be hardxcore 80 hour employees with me, yes or no?" and halve their companies in half overnight.

Elmo's very public torching of twitter could have a few unintended consequences (we've already touched on more pressure for apple's 30% mob cut, love it or hate it), and in the HR/RIF perspective, if Twitter wriggles their way out of this and can limp along more or less solvent, you could see a lot of activist investors and monied PE's start harassing businesses, from small to large, with the idea that "Hey, Twitter can survive with 1 of [these type employees], 3 of those types, only 6 of these, etc, why are you using 200, 300 and 1000 respectively." Or what have you.

you keep focusing on this. Twitter isn't going to be making money without advertisers. breaking even isn't good here.. Twitter isn't going to be some hugely positive case study for how businesses should do things. just keeping the lights on isn't enough for any company and at this rate that's all Twitter is going to be doing.

Twitter isn't going to be some shining gold beacon that anyone points to as they currently are. imaging offering $44b, waiving due diligence, firing 80% of the company, being an asshole and you think that's going to work out for him? this isn't space X or Tesla where people buy into the overall mission. hell, what is TWTR's actual mission/goal these days? do you think that's something that the best and brightest are going to flock towards?

12 minutes ago, MeerkatBong said:

Now weave in the part where Briskettexan takes 30% of the house take on Boudin balls everyday whether Briskettexan wants to eat there or not. Because that's a not insignificant data point to the rigmarole and without it, the analogy fails.

guy its a decade+ old rule that has been in place - it isn't his fault that everyone else was aware of it outside of Elon. he could have brought it up when he was having a shitpost fight with S King (but didn't) - so either it's convenient and he is trying to shitstir things with Apple (not great when they spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ on advertising btw) or he was unaware of it before.

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by NoName

[bolverk 29656]

2 hours ago, MeerkatBong said:

Not to defend Elmo here, but more the English language and reading comprehension, but I don't think Phillips O gets it, which is weird because it looks like he's an editor. Elmo is clearly saying that his anti-dictator stance is an obvious (non-controversial) one and is so common and obvious as to be the opposite of a risky stance, thus needing no bravery either.

If we're going to start casting aspersions on the understanding of the English language by one of Elon's critics, maybe we should also look at Musk's embarrassing failure of its usage with the superfluous coupling of "from" with "whence" in his original tweet. 

[Goredho 17397]

7 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

I had no idea so much was at stake in 280 characters or less.

[wildcat09 29347]

44 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Oh, and back to Elmo shitting all over Apple, one of his largest advertisers.

Imagine this scenario: Brisketexan is one of the most frequent customers of Boudreaux's Boudin Palace.  I eat a lot of boudin.  So much so, that my boudin purchases are 4% of Boudreaux's annual revenue.

But one day, it is brought to may attention that Boudreaux has changed its boudin recipe in a way that makes it taste not so great to Brisketexan, and also fired a bunch of its employees so that its QC on batches of boudin is inconsistent.  Brisketexan stops buying his boudin from Boudreaux's, sharing his concerns with Boudreaux's management in hopes that Boudreaux's will fix things so that it will again be among Brisket's favorite dining establishments.

Instead of acknowledging ANY of my concerns, Boudreaux's management attacks me, mocks me for my choice, and says that I am clearly anti-small business and anti-Cajun.  In fact, Boudreaux's posts a Yelp review of me, calling into question how I provide legal services to my clients.

How many of you think Brisket will be going back to Boudreaux's for his boudin needs?

How many of you think that Boudreaux's approach to customer relations is likely to have positive revenue results?

 

What Elmo is doing re: Apple is juvenile and stupid.  If you praise it, you are juvenile and stupid.  And no, it doesn't even matter if he has a point about Apple and its app store or not.  Threats, blackmail, and attacks are not ever a means of recovering/retaining a customer.

The funniest thing about his complaint about Apple collecting too much for access to its app store is that Tesla chargers don't work with other EVs. Elon thinks what Apple is doing is perfectly fine and good when it's him doing it, but not when it's being done to him.  

[NoName 16351]

this is a fake Cook account btw. still funny with Elon's prior $8 comments.

[JMFP 1120]

So the Apple 30% as it applies to Twitter... I'm assuming the Twitter app is a free download in the Apple store and it doesn't cost anything to use twitter (there's the $8 check mark fee but that got suspended right? Or you don't have to have it to use twitter). So then Apple is demanding 30% of what exactly from Twitter? How do they take a 30% cut of a free app? 

[956 Worldwide 34703]

Apple takes a 30 percent cut from all revenue earned via apps in the App Store and in-app purposes. Note well…Steve Jobs told everyone about this in 2008. And in response to criticism Apple launched a small business program to reduce fees for companies earning under 1 million per year and now also allows companies to redirect users to payment methods outside of the app or App Store. 
 

Now it’s of course legit to ask if this fee is justified (similar stuff in the Google store) given the massive amount of market share they have. But it’s also, in Elmo’s circumstance, a clear case of caveat FUCKING emptor.  You bought a social media network and didn’t bother to check what the Apple Store charges you? Sucks to be you, dipshit. 
 

He is either lying or dissembling about it as a “secret tax” and of course his fanboys eat it up. 

[NoName 16351]

5 minutes ago, JMFP said:

So the Apple 30% as it applies to Twitter... I'm assuming the Twitter app is a free download in the Apple store and it doesn't cost anything to use twitter (there's the $8 check mark fee but that got suspended right? Or you don't have to have it to use twitter). So then Apple is demanding 30% of what exactly from Twitter? How do they take a 30% cut of a free app? 

it comes out of subscriptions that are made from within the app.

if you go to twitter and sub for twitter blue, they don't get a cut. if you go and sub through the app (and the ios store) they get their 30%

[G650 14244]

1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

How happy is Zuck that Elmo lost his marbles and took the spotlight off of his Meta disaster?

[Goredho 17397]

42 minutes ago, MeerkatBong said:

Elmo's very public torching of twitter could have a few unintended consequences (we've already touched on more pressure for apple's 30% mob cut, love it or hate it), and in the HR/RIF perspective, if Twitter wriggles their way out of this and can limp along more or less solvent, you could see a lot of activist investors and monied PE's start harassing businesses, from small to large, with the idea that "Hey, Twitter can survive with 1 of [these type employees], 3 of those types, only 6 of these, etc, why are you using 200, 300 and 1000 respectively." Or what have you.

 

There was a huge tech over-hire during the pandemic.  For 3 years, consumers stayed at home.  They shopped online.  A huge percentage of what they bought had to be shipped to them.  They sought entertainment online, streaming movies, playing video games, etc...  Zoom and other online collaboration tools became indispensable.  Tech companies grew their workforce to serve them and these needs.

Now the pandemic is over.  Consumers are going out again.  They are taking vacations.  People are going back to the office.  They were cooped up for 3 years and are making up for lost time in the real world.  The workforce needed to serve their digital, online needs during the pandemic has shrunk by a lot, along with the profits of those companies.  What you are seeing across the industry is mostly a correction back to "normal" levels of online consumer engagement.  That is what is driving much of the tech layoff, and it has nothing to do with Twitter.

A lot of the industry follows practices established by the FAANG companies.  They essentially set the standard for practices and culture, and to compete for the best talent, you need to provide a similar environment.  This is where you started seeing a lot of tech campuses start looking like college campuses.  That's who is doing the bulk of the work at these companies -- really sharp, well educated 20 somethings not far removed from college.  Everything else is almost a support system around them, whether it is providing a workplace that feels like the West Mall, or having a handful of senior engineers to technically baby sit them, or whatever.

So it remains to be seen if Elon can eschew all that, alienate that 20-something tech worker demographic and make Twitter a profitable business.  I have a large network of really exceptional engineering peers at various stages of their career that I keep in regular contact with, and of the 50 or so I have talked to about Elon and Twitter, they have literally all categorically said there is no way they would ever work for Musk or under the conditions he's establishing at Twitter.

An emperors will only takes you so far, there have to be foot soldiers to carry it out.  Elon's twitter is going to be most vulnerable to competition at that level.  It would not be hard right now as a competitor to deny them the talent they need to be anything but Truth Social+.   For that reason, it wouldn't surprise me that within the next 6 months, the Twitter workplace normalizes to more or less match again that of the FAANG companies.

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

2 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

It seems a better solution would be encouraging or even making people subscribe directly through Twitter instead of through the iOS store app.  But to do that, you’d have to know it was possible to use the internet without an iOS store app.

World’s alleged foremost tech genius, who will solve the energy crisis, global warming, hyper speed mass transportation, space travel, and mass communications, but who does not actually know how to access the internet - that is not something I had on my bingo card. 

 

Once upon a time, a lot of people; smart people I may add, thought AOL = The Internet.

Elon apparently is of that mindset.

 

 

 

 

[Post Oak 20208]

1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

How happy is Zuck that Elmo lost his marbles and took the spotlight off of his Meta disaster?

So happy. Just look.