Interesting stuff
Some good news this morning - despite an exodus of advertisers, Twitter picked up a new client for a major campaign (in Australia too!).
SpaceX/Starlink.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/14/spacex-just-bought-a-big-ad-campaign-on-...
Some more grist for the mill.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-15/profit-crisis-the-inflation-drivi...
I agree 100% with your last few comments gsco
You see it here and elsewhere.
I find in very interesting though how people (especially progressives) turned on him so quickly, maybe i was viewing how others viewed him wrong but i always felt despite his wealth most progressives saw him in a positive light as was doing positive things in helping push EV's and battery tech which as we know is a key aspect to reducing global emissions.
Why do you think many have turned on him so quickly?
I think much of it is media driven, they like to blow up and divide for clicks & $$$ and i think they have a lot of power in shaping public narratives.
Okay some of it has to do with Elons persona, but he has always had that.
I always thought him wanting to ensure Twitter was more of a place where ideas could be debated more freely without political/social influence would also be viewed by most around the centre as a positive too (although knew the fringe left would be opposed to the idea)
But I think i was wrong, i think we have now got to a kind of scary point where people only want to have their thoughts and ideas reconfirmed and dont want to debate things.
Thats a scary point I'm a conservative but i have zero interest in echo chambers like right wing social media i dont even venture from YouTube or Vimeo.
Debate is good idea's should be challenged if your idea and beliefs can't hold up to healthy debate how can you belief in the things you believe in?
Along with the possibility of things like allowing Trump back on twitter, Musk’s friendship with China and that a major equity investor in twitter is a Saudi prince may also be factors. He seems to be doing things that are a bit on the nose of the Western psyche.
Right wing free speech. From the top down-"Nancy Pelosi said please don't call them animals, they're human beings,' he said, as he talked about crimes committed by the MS-13 gang. 'I said no, they're animals. Of course, I think she's an animal, too, if you want to know the truth."
The price we pay for freedom.
C'mon gsco, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal invested $300 million into Twitter almost eleven years ago. Why wasn't this an issue prior to Elon coming on board? (he only began investing in Twitter in January this year).
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2471759/arab-prince-buys-twitter-s...
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/timeline-elon-musks-tumultuous-twitter-a...
Who cares if Trump is allowed back on Twitter? He's got his own social media network anyway (and it's the best one around, apparently!). If he came back to Twitter, surely that'd be a risk that Truth may fade into obscurity? Surely Trump wouldn't want the legacy of a failed product with his name on it.
And re: China, surely Musk has more to lose (with Tesla and Starlink) by owning Twitter, than not owning it?
Some people see a global conspiracy, others see what they think is justified reportage. I dont recall hearing many complaints about some of the reporting on "Dictator Dan" from the free speech crew currently bemoaning the jump-on on Musk. Its crap but it aint one-sided. Beware your confirmation bias.
Good comment Blackers, and I just want to clarify one thing.
I'm not pushing for the idea of some major global conspiracy against Musk. It seems much simpler than that.
His wealth and actions just have political implications - he's kind of stepping into the realm of US politics - and so he's just feeling the brunt of the US political scene.
(Ben I'd love to address some of your comments but I need to get some work done. I appreciate you taking the time to debate with me and I hope the shingles isn't driving you crazy.)
gsco wrote:Good comment Blackers, and I just want to clarify one thing.
I'm not pushing for the idea of some major global conspiracy against Musk. It seems much simpler than that.
His wealth and actions just have political implications - he's kind of stepping into the realm of US politics - and so he's just feeling the brunt of the US political scene.
(Ben I'd love to address some of your comments but I need to get some work done. I appreciate you taking the time to debate with me and I hope the shingles isn't driving you crazy.)
Strangely enough, there is no similar brunt of the US political scene when it comes to Tik Tok. Some have spoken about it but nothing like this. But it's owned by the Chinese who then obviously control all the algorithms and data storage. How is everyone so outraged about Musk but not about Tik Tok?
No worries for the corporate world then...
"The broadening of inflation beyond commodity prices is more profit margin expansion than wage cost pressures," chief economist of UBS Global Wealth Management.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-15/profit-crisis-the-inflation-drivi...
I look forward to one of the usual Swellnet spruikers justifying this
Has anyone else noticed a trend by major retailers to dramatically increase prices of all goods other than their home brand product lines? For example, my local Coles got a lot more expensive across the board but their home-brand items haven't increased as much at all. I'm talking basic items like eggs, bread...I feel like they are using inflation as a tool to penetrate the market with their product lines (which got much bigger lately).
I find the notion that free speech is under attack very odd. Today, more so than any other time, there are seemingly 100s of avenues to express yourself. Of course, in politics it’s a weaponised notion as are terms like cancel culture and woke.
It seems that free speech is always run up the flagpole in the context of open and fair/reasonable discussion; the contest of ideas. Yet, those who often claim free speech is under threat can come to that debate with their own facts. Trump and his supporters for example.
Without shared facts where is the open or fair or reasonable debate?
So, what is the real problem? Threats to free speech or a fractious world where real facts /truth are disputed?
GuySmiley wrote:I find the notion that free speech is under attack very odd. Today, more so than any other time, there are seemingly 100s of avenues to express yourself. Of course, in politics it’s a weaponised notion as are terms like cancel culture and woke.
It seems that free speech is always run up the flagpole in the context of open and fair/reasonable discussion; the contest of ideas. Yet, those who often claim free speech is under threat can come to that debate with their own facts. Trump and his supporters for example.
Without shared facts where is the open or fair or reasonable debate?
So, what is the real problem? Threats to free speech or a fractious world where real facts /truth are disputed?
Good comment. I agree, the avenue to express oneself has never been greater. But that doesn't mean that cancel culture, woke mentality, and virtue signaling are not real. All these can happen simultaneously. I believe many are happy to speculate online but when they run the risk of being canceled they resort to free speech as their defense mechanism. The true problem is - many want to say whatever they want but don't like being canceled as it hurts their interests. But sadly for them, this is now part of the game whether we like it or not.
'Elon Musk Would Have Done Better With Twitter If He’d Read Noam Chomsky'
At the risk of sounding like a broken record...a broken record...a broken record, I feel like that headline has many applications. A lot of people could've done better with Chomsky.
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/12/elon-musk-twitter-media/
Please note: It's not a 'take' on Musk and Twitter. Treat it as a broader understanding of modern media with Musk as real time case study.
Then again, if culture war is your religion you'll interpret it as you will.
He coulda bought a bar for much less
Welcome back Patrick. Funny.
My only gripe with the man is that, having paid too much on a vanity project, he proceeds to sack half the staff coz he has over extended. Oh and that paedo comment and space x and Tesla....
It must be really her she’s got the blue tick . Donny will try and say it’s fake news .
HAHAHA 🤣 pic.twitter.com/iba9sKrYvO
— Bethany Williams 💙🇺🇦💛 (@BethanyinCBR) November 15, 2022
flollo wrote:GuySmiley wrote:I find the notion that free speech is under attack very odd. Today, more so than any other time, there are seemingly 100s of avenues to express yourself. Of course, in politics it’s a weaponised notion as are terms like cancel culture and woke.
It seems that free speech is always run up the flagpole in the context of open and fair/reasonable discussion; the contest of ideas. Yet, those who often claim free speech is under threat can come to that debate with their own facts. Trump and his supporters for example.
Without shared facts where is the open or fair or reasonable debate?
So, what is the real problem? Threats to free speech or a fractious world where real facts /truth are disputed?
Good comment. I agree, the avenue to express oneself has never been greater. But that doesn't mean that cancel culture, woke mentality, and virtue signaling are not real. All these can happen simultaneously. I believe many are happy to speculate online but when they run the risk of being canceled they resort to free speech as their defense mechanism. The true problem is - many want to say whatever they want but don't like being canceled as it hurts their interests. But sadly for them, this is now part of the game whether we like it or not.
In regard to twitter there is all kinds of clear free speech issues.
You can't tell me it's reasonable to ban people either short term or long term for saying things like
A man cant get pregnant?
There is no debate around this it's medically and scientifically not possible, just because a biological women then decides they want to be a man it doesn't mean they actually are a man the real world reality is men dont have the biology to conceive or grow or give birth to a baby.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/spanish-politician-suspended-by-twitter-af...
Or being banned for critiquing the founder of BLM for buying mansions with BLM money in a white neighbour hood, and there wasn't even a race aspect to it as the reporter was black himself.
https://nypost.com/2021/04/13/twitter-locks-out-jason-whitlock-over-post...
I dont care much for Trump, but the tweets he was kicked of twitter for supposably inciting violence are pretty questionable https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension
Id be really surprised if they looked over BLM account tweets around the time of riots with the same microscope you wouldn't find plenty of reasons to ban accounts for inciting violence and billions in destruction, id expect you wouldn't have to join so may imaginary dots either.
And then one of the most common reasons for banning short or long term for all kinds of well known personalities but generally conservatives and expect many lesser known people is misgendering.
You literally can get banned for not using the pronoun someone prefers or for addressing a trans person by their biological sex.
It's just ridiculous, if you think you are some other gender fine that's your business, but it shouldn't mean others should be forced to join your idea of reality that should be up to the individual, especially when using made up pronouns.
Anyway these are just a few examples im sure there is many more, well i know there is many more cause Joe Rogan is always banging on about different cases.
Pity it wasn’t “ rock solid “ when introduced, or was that part of the plan ? Regardless , he’s done some damage to his reputation and trust will be low for awhile.
Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
What a kook.
As reported on The Verge, Oct 31st:
"Now that he owns Twitter, Elon Musk has given employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave."
(the deadline was Nov 7th, i.e. one week)
https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/30/23431931/twitter-paid-verification-e...
And that right there was a clear indication that Elon doesn't posess the skills to be CEO of one of the biggest social media platforms in the world.
Everything that's happened since then has been of little surprise to me.
Terrible person to work for. But he always did these kinds of things, I've been following him for a long time and this was all expected. His whole mindset of sleeping in the Tesla factory, working nonstop 7 days a week...So many celebrated it and now it's some kind of a shock. Nonsense.
Musk does seem to demand a lot from his employees.
He likes to threaten and bully staff like a class A asshole. More and more people are starting to realise what a wanker he is.
I just don't understand the logic.
An iron clad guarantee that Blue Tick will be "Rock Solid" from Nov 29th?
Not sure what he achieves by making these statements.
He's got a lot bigger issues to deal with than that (Blue Tick revenue is modeled to be a small fraction of Twitter's ad revenue, so he needs to spend time/money building a way to keep advertisers happy... and I'm still not convinced that handing our blue ticks to anyone who pays for it is the right strategy).
did someone say tiktok?
even the dems are onto it... well, you know, even the dems are having a dig after you know who raised alarm bells...
https://www.vox.com/recode/23453786/tiktok-bytedance-cfius-data-trump-ban
Cant say I'm terribly surprised.
Twitter data suggests most of the people buying Twitter Blue are promoting three things: right wing politics, cryptocurrency, and porn. https://t.co/yiXnqX1gw8
— Adam Smith (@adamndsmith) November 16, 2022
Well this is going to throw credin into a spin https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-17/matthew-guy-mitch-catlin-referred...
udo wrote:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-17/andrew-forrest-rebuilding-ukraine...
And then there’s the trumpette ……… https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/11/17/gina-rinehart-trumpettes-donald-trump/
indo-dreaming wrote:Do you really think Elon wouldn't have known all the figures and financial risk and challenges ahead???
Do you really think the richest man in the world would not have a team of people crunching figures and looking at all kinds of different scenarios???
He has moved fast in important areas like cutting staff and id expect getting more productivity from those remaining and also implementing new ideas quickly, but it's way way way to early to judge if his vision will be successful both from a users view and a business income view, just because he launches some grey tick and then retracts it means little in the scheme of things, give him a few months maybe even six months or more then let's start judging things.
You can also bet he has surrounded himself with the very best people in all the fields needed and you would expect he has all kinds of plans to improve things and produce income.
Based on his past success its more likely he will turn it into a money making business in a year or two and create a much more user friendly platform in the next few months where people will be able to share and debate ideas in a much more free way.
Yet to be confirmed, but apparently 75% of the remaining 3,700-odd Twitter employees have not opted to stay after the “hardcore” email.
However, confirmed is that Twitter has closed employee access to all of its offices.
Plenty of gigs for competent tech staff. Why hang around under the given circumstances?
Some of the 'less' competent staff may have problems getting a new gig.
Haha. True that.
Some of Elon tweets lately show he’s treating the whole thing as a bit of a joke.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022.
.How do you make a small fortune in social media?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
Start out with a large one.
The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
The twitter train wreck. Musk really has made himself look like a fucking clown.
To watch this play out is fascinating stuff. Good fun.
Are you not entertained?
And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
Americans are superb showmen.
“ Space karen “ …….that’s pretty funny
I wonder what they really think of Elon. Don’t hold back next time. 😜 https://t.co/b3sYcXjdoE
— Rob Arnol (@RobertArnol) November 18, 2022
thermalben wrote:indo-dreaming wrote:Do you really think Elon wouldn't have known all the figures and financial risk and challenges ahead???
Do you really think the richest man in the world would not have a team of people crunching figures and looking at all kinds of different scenarios???
He has moved fast in important areas like cutting staff and id expect getting more productivity from those remaining and also implementing new ideas quickly, but it's way way way to early to judge if his vision will be successful both from a users view and a business income view, just because he launches some grey tick and then retracts it means little in the scheme of things, give him a few months maybe even six months or more then let's start judging things.
You can also bet he has surrounded himself with the very best people in all the fields needed and you would expect he has all kinds of plans to improve things and produce income.
Based on his past success its more likely he will turn it into a money making business in a year or two and create a much more user friendly platform in the next few months where people will be able to share and debate ideas in a much more free way.
Yet to be confirmed, but apparently 75% of the remaining 3,700-odd Twitter employees have not opted to stay after the “hardcore” email.
However, confirmed is that Twitter has closed employee access to all of its offices.
He is literally draining the swamp of woke self self entitled lazy millennials, to replace them with people who want to work, you can imagine how lazy they were before (even videos showing it) imagine how lazy they are now when they don't believe in Musk vision or like their boss, probably causing issues rather than fixing them.
I get that retraining staff is never a great scenario, but one new worker will probably do ten times the amount of work of the staff he lets go, you would expect these are low skilled jobs and not coders etc
I do worry he is pushing things a little hard, but i also have faith in him and i love his balls to the wall open to all approach and his sense of humour.
I get that it's not something everyone appreciates though, wish we could fast forward six months and see what happens.
indo-dreaming wrote:He is literally draining the swamp of woke self self entitled lazy millennials, to replace them with people who want to work, you can imagine how lazy they were before (even videos showing it) imagine how lazy they are now when they don't believe in Musk vision or like their boss, probably causing issues rather than fixing them.
I get that retraining staff is never a great scenario, but one new worker will probably do ten times the amount of work of the staff he lets go, you would expect these are low skilled jobs and not coders etc
I do worry he is pushing things a little hard, but i also have faith in him and i love his balls to the wall open to all approach and his sense of humour.
I get that it's not something everyone appreciates though, wish we could fast forward six months and see what happens.
Impressed that you managed to weave 'draining the swamp' and 'woke millennials' into the same sentence.
Anyway, irrespective of that (and sure, Twitter was likely way over-resourced, though I'm unsure which 'low skilled jobs' you're referring to), why did Elon buy the business then? Not only did he pay way too much, the evidence is mounting that there are major structural problems that were always going to be a nightmare to remediate.
(BTW, you're not allowed to respond with "MAGA").
"He is literally draining the swamp of woke self self entitled lazy millennials..."
Ah, Donny-dreaming
This is a great (though lengthy) list of many of the possibilities that could bring Twitter to a grinding halt under the current circumstances.
FWIW, apart from the political ones, Swellnet has experienced many of the rest (albeit as a miniscule version) at some point in the last twenty years.
I've seen a lot of people asking "why does everyone think Twitter is doomed?"
— Mosquito Capital (@MosquitoCapital) November 18, 2022
As an SRE and sysadmin with 10+ years of industry experience, I wanted to write up a few scenarios that are real threats to the integrity of the bird site over the coming weeks.
Know this guy by any chance info? :)
From the Age this morning
thermalben wrote:This is a great (though lengthy) list of many of the possibilities that could bring Twitter to a grinding halt under the current circumstances.
FWIW, apart from the political ones, Swellnet has experienced many of the rest (albeit as a miniscule version) at some point in the last twenty years.
https://twitter.com/MosquitoCapital/status/1593541177965678592
That’s a long list of things that can go wrong.
One of the ex engineers was describing how very small things will start to go wrong and as so many engineers that focused on one area have gone other engineers try to find a fix outside their area of expertise and then other areas will be impacted and also start to fail. (If that makes sense).
This is just really really sad. Bees all over the world have it really tough, when they are gone we are fucked.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/the-potential-devastatio...
indo-dreaming wrote:thermalben wrote:indo-dreaming wrote:Do you really think Elon wouldn't have known all the figures and financial risk and challenges ahead???
Do you really think the richest man in the world would not have a team of people crunching figures and looking at all kinds of different scenarios???
He has moved fast in important areas like cutting staff and id expect getting more productivity from those remaining and also implementing new ideas quickly, but it's way way way to early to judge if his vision will be successful both from a users view and a business income view, just because he launches some grey tick and then retracts it means little in the scheme of things, give him a few months maybe even six months or more then let's start judging things.
You can also bet he has surrounded himself with the very best people in all the fields needed and you would expect he has all kinds of plans to improve things and produce income.
Based on his past success its more likely he will turn it into a money making business in a year or two and create a much more user friendly platform in the next few months where people will be able to share and debate ideas in a much more free way.
Yet to be confirmed, but apparently 75% of the remaining 3,700-odd Twitter employees have not opted to stay after the “hardcore” email.
However, confirmed is that Twitter has closed employee access to all of its offices.
He is literally draining the swamp of woke self self entitled lazy millennials, to replace them with people who want to work, you can imagine how lazy they were before (even videos showing it) imagine how lazy they are now when they don't believe in Musk vision or like their boss, probably causing issues rather than fixing them.
I get that retraining staff is never a great scenario, but one new worker will probably do ten times the amount of work of the staff he lets go, you would expect these are low skilled jobs and not coders etc
I do worry he is pushing things a little hard, but i also have faith in him and i love his balls to the wall open to all approach and his sense of humour.
I get that it's not something everyone appreciates though, wish we could fast forward six months and see what happens.
So, he is killing off half his customers…they maybe woke but woke buy stuff, and advertisers like people that buy stuff.
Have it cunts