So "X" - nothing to see here. Elon's in control - Part XXX **Threadbans in OP**

kerplun k

Had me fooled too.

TBF he had an air of mystique around him which was also propped up by social media influencers, not to mention his involvement in SpaceX and Tesla. He’s no dumb, dumb by any stretch, but….

The whole thing reminds me of a Simpsons episode, Last Exit to Springfield. Ending with Burns finally releasing that Homer wasn’t the "brilliant tactician" he thought he was.

It’s pretty funny actually.

kerplun k

There’s a fine line with these ‘Visionaries’ I mean look at Elizabeth Holmes, imagine if she stumbled on an ambitious idea that actually worked. We’d be taking about her as if she was the new Einstein.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120346065#Comment_120346065

Indeed its fake it till you make it, Elon forgot that he already made it due to being born to a father who owned an emerald mine. Now he just keeps faking it because he doesnt have any actually personality outside of the false one hes locked himself into. He is a man of no substance, a black hole of pure unfiltered narcissism.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120343675#Comment_120343675

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120346038#Comment_120346038

I've said it repeatedly I used to admire him greatly - and there was cause to, for me anyway given my interests, cos Musk seemed to be a catalyst towards change in both the automotive and space industries. There's no question, his tenure at Tesla dragged the EV into the mainstream, while SpaceX revitalised an industry struggling to remain relevant, and cost effective. But he has píssed that reputation against the wall as he showed him to be an empty, narcissistic bullshítter.

I also compared him with Howard Hughes and still think it apt enough; a similar visionary in aviation who also slowly lost his marbles (albeit in this case buying Twitter and courting notoriety, instead of developing crippling hypochondria and OCD).

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120346088#Comment_120346088

It's ... noteworthy how many billionaires and apparently successful businessmen had their starts thanks to mammy or daddy's money. Maybe that was the only difference with Holmes; I see her dad was a VP at Enron, but nothing like Musk or Trump's background.

Penn

Twitter has announced they're going to remove "Legacy" blue-tick verifications, so only people who pay for Twitter Blue will have a blue tick.

However, it seems they're also going to announce that they're going to enable Twitter Blue subscribers to hide their blue tick, probably because it would then be a definite sign that you've paid for Twitter Blue.

Absolutely genius. Dilute genuine verification by offering Twitter Blue, then remove geniune verification, then remove the reason why many did buy Twitter Blue (to have a blue tick and make themselves appear to be important).

pixelburp

I'm so confused. Why would you enable the ability to hide the Subscription badge? What possible business benefit would it bring, except to devalue the one aspect of verification and trust that exists in the first place?

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120396501#Comment_120396501

Because soon after it was announced they'd be removing legacy blue-ticks, there were a lot of tweets from people saying it would make it easier to know who to mute/block.

So Twitter Blue I guess will still allow people to post longer tweets, see fewer ads, boost their tweets on the For You and trending side of things, but you can hide your blue tick so people don't know you've paid to boost your tweets.

The blue tick will no longer have the same weight it did once they remove legacy blue ticks, as it'll no longer mean it's an account that is notable for whatever reason, but just that the d*ckhead pays $8/month to Twitter to make themselves look important.

silliussoddius

I recently started watching youtube videos on Musk, what a clown. This is how he should be thought of, his presentation of a Tesla robot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsNc4nEX3c4

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120346065#Comment_120346065

But there's a gaping chasm between visionary ideas and wishing upon a star.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120397070#Comment_120397070

If things like the Car Tunnel, solar tiles and that stupid Cybertruck are anything to go by - not to mention all the shít that doesn't get publicly announced - the AI robot has probably already been shelved along with all the other failures.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120398850#Comment_120398850

But its still undoubtedly viewed as amazing by his worshippers.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120398880#Comment_120398880

Presumably the mantra is that better to try and fail, to be "visionary", than be actually successful at what one does?

And by all accounts SpaceX and Tesla were success stories - but seems increasingly like a stopped clock being twice right than resting genius.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120398850#Comment_120398850

But Lyle Langley didn’t propose a car tunnel, it was the ultra fast hyperloop and he delivered tunnel with snazzier lights. One million robo taxis were meant to be here years ago and didn’t he promise trips to Mars in 2024?

Seems like a pumper and dumper to me. Maybe the Silicon Valley Bank might be the sign that the crappy start up veneration days are over, and he will go down with it.

kerplun k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120399624#Comment_120399624

Didn’t he build hyperloops in Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook?

and by gum, it put them on the map!

Penn

A leaked memo from Musk to staff indicates that Twitter is now worth approx. 20bn. Compared to the 44bn Musk paid for it about 6 months ago, that's an incredible increase in value of a whopping -55%. Or a decrease in value of 55%, whatever way you want to look at it.

This has been revealed because he's now offering staff stock in the company as an incentive, while claiming he sees a clear but difficult path forward which would raise the value of Twitter to approx. 250bn, which I'm sure will definitely, absolutely happen.

Penn

.<double post>.

pixelburp

A $250 billion valuation eh? Huh, well it's possible, there's always a chance but I really don't see the path towards that, not one that currently seems to be alienating revenue generators.

Unless. Set the bar impossibly high then Musk creates a path towards jettisoning his stake with a "well I guess I tried but <excuses> just got in my way" rationale that lets him walk with a sense of pride intact.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120403041#Comment_120403041

20 billion is probably an optimistic value. You could probably shave 50+% of that. Remember the company is ladden with debt

Quantum Erasure

don't like this, i pretty much only use the 'for you' tab, don't follow too many people and like to see a diversity of opinions, I suppose i should follow everyone and anyone and learn how to optimise my timeline...

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409388#Comment_120409388

Wow, already that 20bn valuation seems like it's going to drop further...

blackwave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409388#Comment_120409388

I think a big part of the issue here is that musk thinks everyone loves Twitter as much as him and will pay money for it. However, its a social media company and people can switch to other platforms easily enough or just choose not to log in any longer. Also telling is that he is admitting that the bots are a problem... Yet he can solve the issue for paid subscribers but not the plebs.

Penn

A bigger issue which is going to come from this is only subscribers being able to vote on polls, which will no doubt lead to enormously skewed polls and results based on only the views of people dumb enough to pay to use Twitter.

Musk already ran polls asking if he should step down as CEO of Twitter and the result was a resounding yes because everyone could vote on it. Now he'll be able to just use polls to have his supporters validate his own opinions. Which let's face it, is pretty much what he wanted to begin with anyway.

archermoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409488#Comment_120409488

I think more to the point he is trying to push everyone that uses Twitter to be a paid subscriber. I expect that at some point in the not too distant future he is going to try and phase out free accounts entirely. Probably touting it as the only way to deal with the bot problem.

Penn

The 'For You' tab will essentially become an ad timeline, where people are literally paying to have you see their tweets, even if it's not a product they're advertising but just their own opinions etc.

If he gets rid of the 'Following' tab, where you see tweets and retweets from the accounts you follow in the order they were posted in, that's me gone. However big a problem he thinks 'bots' may have been, for the vast majority of users they don't warrant the destruction of the site and paywalls to make it in any way functional. Nor will he ever make his money back that way.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409488#Comment_120409488

Part of the issue is probably he thinks people love him on Twitter. Hopefully we get a twoofer here, the digital latrine that is Twitter is no more and Musk is exposed as a vapor ware huckster.

joseywhales

I got an email from Twitter telling me my account is locked for security reasons, haven't used it in about five years. No I'm trying to figure out whether to just ignore or log in change password, just to delete it. I suspect it's an invented security issue to see if my dormant account(and all the others) has any life left in it.

francois

Some info on the "Gab tab"

https://twitter.com/MattBinder/status/1640783422435065857?t=tBaH0Xyr9fa9ql1lBBEzSQ&s=19

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409488#Comment_120409488

The big problem is that Musk thinks people want to be seen. So they'll pay to be on the for you tab. Musk goes on twitter because he loves the attention. So he thinks others are like that. I have no incentive to pay. I don't want to appear on the for you tab. I don't care at all where my tweets appear. But I do care about what's shown to me.

If I refresh my feed now, it automatically switches to the for you tab. And when I go to the for you tab, it's filled with paid for blue ticks now. There's maga heads I've never heard of spewing random crap. If it was factual stuff that I would learn from, that's one thing, but it's just random people shouting about stuff.

Penn

It really is one of the most ill-conceived series of announcements.

Only people who pay for Twitter Blue can have checkmark, thereby greatly affecting actual verification which can lead to false info, impersonation, spam etc.

People who pay for Twitter Blue will have their posts show up in everyone's For You tab, but accounts you follow will also show up in the For You tab, meaning the main difference between the For You and Following tabs is that the For You tab has tweets from Twitter Blue users (so why use the For You tab at all then?).

People who pay for Twitter Blue can hide their checkmark to remove any negative connotations or reveal that they pay for Twitter Blue, though it'll become obvious since they show up in For You tabs of people who don't follow them.

And only Twitter Blue users can vote on polls, making the entire polls system redundant.

Absolute genius.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120414160#Comment_120414160

He'll probably get rid of the following tab soon.