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

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974900#Comment_118974900

Do you have a facebook?

A microsoft windows PC?

have you ever purchased anything from Amazon?

Do you boycott websites that use Amazon Web Services?

Also actually, are you aware that one of the board members of twitter up to now has been the crown prince of saudi arabia?

If none of the above megalomaniac billionaires bother you, then why Elon Musk buying twitter?

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974909#Comment_118974909

Maybe I am a shareholder. Maybe I’m not. Maybe you’re a musk super fan. Maybe you are not. Maybe it just bothers you musk made a fool of himself arguing tunnels don’t experience weather, idgaf, just happy to point out the man is a fool. Cape for him if ya want.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974921#Comment_118974921

“Despite videos you’re seeing and despite three inches of rain in two hours, the system actually performed quite well,” she said. “Drains cleared flooding in most places efficiently; service was not terribly impacted in many places.”

Also that event coincided with severe street level flooding, so in that case the subway tunnels fared similarly to streets above. You clearly have a hatred of the man which you are entitled to, but this whataboutery about tunnels is bizarre

sam t smith

Should the CEO of Twitter be expected to have a ‘PhD in Tunnel Engineering’?

Does the current CEO have one?

Does Overhear have one?

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974922#Comment_118974922

I think we know who is bothered here.

seamus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974900#Comment_118974900

Fair. Though it's not like the leadership up to now have been Mahatma Ghandi to be fair. They've allowed disinformation and hate to propagate across the platform as far as the law will allow. Because it's a good money maker. They only banned Trump when there was a possibility they'd be held accountable for sedition against the US government.

Any road, I'm sure there'll be plenty of copycats along soon enough. There's nothing technically difficult in these platforms. The hard part is funding the infrastructure to make it run quickly and stop it collapsing under the weight of nazis and criminals by moderating content.

Twitter's a very hateful ranty place at the best of times. With any luck it'll just atrophy and go away like Facebook has.

sam t smith

Thread has taken a strange turn.

Regardless, looks like a deal is close.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974934#Comment_118974934

I'm not a fan of Musk myself and I detest his army of fans (I think the hero worship/real life iron man bollocks that surrounds him is absolutely pathetic) but he is free to buy twitter if they will sell it to him. And if he buys it he will be free to run it in the manner he sees fit.

I really can't see the problem with that tbh. But it looks like you have a problem with that. Are you afraid he will change the platform to elevate views on the right? Is that it? The obvious answer would be to take your clicks somewhere else if you don't like it.

His intelligence or knowledge of anything or lack thereof is completely irrelevant.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974955#Comment_118974955

There are already 101 clones out there, but none of them really competed with twitter.

We might see a further fragmentation of the internet and social media, with everyone going on to their own platform that aligns with their ideals, more echo chambers and so on. Which while it wouldnt be a great thing, it would be terrible either. More decentralization is always a good thing.

That said if twitter does go private realistically not much will change, moderation will change slightly - more consistent with threats/incitement to hatred, less censorship for the very weak "hate speech" (trans women are no- BANNED).

People will give out stink about musk buying twitter and its dangerous and then end of the world but most people are lazy and will stay on the platform complaining about it while not doing the slightest thing to migrate elsewhere

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974943#Comment_118974943

Do you need to be a civil engineer now to know that tunnels flood? Jesus the education standards have gone downhill. Like all that water into the subway.

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975003#Comment_118975003

And as has been pointed out a few times in this thread, flooding can be handled and is one of considerations of tunnel design.

nullzero

Twitter has been de-platforming people it's owners dislike for years now.

To everyone who shares their worldview this has been wonderful, they are a private company, we should accept that they have the right to ban anyone they like from their platform, these particular stars have aligned for those who agree with this way of dealing with opinions they don't agree with.

Now there's potential for someone who doesn't share this ideology to possibly take over ownership of Twitter the same people who were happy to be the beneficiaries of the de-platforming Twitter has imposed on those they disagree with are now horrified by the potential of their own tactics being used against them.

Well boo hoo.

In the end Twitter and platforms like it are difficult to run in an egalitarian manner, but private companies can change ownership and this situation is a timely reminder that stringent measures that target certain groups of people can end up going from something you see as a positive to a total negative.

Personally I don't have much of an opinion on Musk, switch one mega rich person out for another, some people seem to be really delighted or upset about it which puzzles me.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975012#Comment_118975012

Works great when you have a tunnel 1000s of feet above sea level, on the blue ridge parkway or something, not the subway, below sea level, the example musk mentioned specifically.

magicbastarder

https://twitter.com/asymmetricinfo/status/1518588383303503873

there's a short thread under that

Overheal, he was having a conversation about Hyperloop, a closed system with a vacuum. There is no water getting into it because that would mean it failed catastrophically. The weather won't be the cause of it.

You are as usual reading biased sources like Gizmodo which try to make him out to be an idiot, but it is absolutely a fact that the weather won't be dripping into vacuumed tunnels with trains moving at 700mph.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974922#Comment_118974922

Because he's a gimp? He's the billionaire version of Paddy Cosgrave

seamus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975031#Comment_118975031

Everything in this points to Musk dragging the stock price up as far as he think it'll go on the markets. It's up nearly 10% over the weekend and up 25% overall since he bought it. Drag it up to about $52/share, sell as much of his stake as he can get away with without having to tell anyone and then formally withdraw his offer.

He walks away with nearly $1bn in profit in just a month, the share price collapses and the management of Twitter potentially find themselves on the chopping block. Win-win for Musk tbh.

Or, maybe he is insanely petty and vindictive and will buy Twitter just to prove he can.

magicbastarder

Personally I don't have much of an opinion on Musk, switch one mega rich person out for another, some people seem to be really delighted or upset about it which puzzles me.

ah, he's the proud erect figurehead of an obnoxious billionaire. someone bleating about free speech and taking over twitter, with a history like his (calling someone a paedo, punishing people who criticise his products) is not exactly welcome news.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975034#Comment_118975034

That's a solid attempt at Revisionism there but here is the tweet again,

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1518359943967121408?s=20&t=vmCbzLJdvOoFWFozxXDJbw

"(subways are a good example)" ... "if a hurricane was raging on the surface. You wouldn't even notice."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHl2C8NA6Eg

Where did I link to, or mention Gizmodo? Huh?!

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975031#Comment_118975031

The author there completely misses the point. Owning news media is often an unprofitable endeavour, but you still have the wealthy owning and retaining these loss making institutions. That's because, by controlling the narrative, they can make their other businesses more successful.

If musk managed to use Twitter to get federal changes to EV policy in his favour for example, the 40bn + he'll pay will look like chump change.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975057#Comment_118975057

No, you didn't. Elon did. Big tunnel guy that guy.

And what a success it was...

https://thenextweb.com/news/the-boring-company-fails-to-excite-with-cars-in-tunnels

Tunnel CEO thinks he knows how to run a successful social media company after a 'successful' tunnel company.

magicbastarder

twitter won't be twitter if he's 'controlling the narrative' though; unlike say rupert murdoch setting editorial policy in a newspaper he owns, the content on twitter is created by the customers, not just consumed by them. so i don't think the analogy is too apt.

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975093#Comment_118975093

What has this post got to do with this thread?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975079#Comment_118975079

Yes, it's called a mistake. I said he was talking Hyperloop, which he was. It wasn't revisionism.

If you want to use that as your basis for calling him stupid, go ahead. It is exactly the sort of spectacle I was expecting.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975096#Comment_118975096

This. And it's why it doesn't matter if the execs of Twitter aren't tweeting very often if at all, Twitter doesn't exist to listen to these people talk, it's to listen to regular people talk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975097#Comment_118975097

Elon Musk, the CEO of the Boring Company, wants to buy Twitter, a platform he ran off to to declare subways were a great example of tunnels that were immune to surface weather conditions. He is confidently incorrect about that, and it surely makes one wonder if Elon really has any idea (or, honest motivation) of how to run a successful social media platform, or if it's all just Pump and Dump. I figure the latter, and he will say dumb things like subways are immune to the elements just to attract Engagement (that or he really has no business in that industry).

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975093#Comment_118975093

Who hurt you?

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975096#Comment_118975096

The narrative on twitter can be steered though through the voices you allow and the voices the algorithm promote.

And because traditional media is so lazy these days, they will pick it up, becoming their talking points.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975031#Comment_118975031

Just on one point in that thread:

He can certainly order people to take the heavy hands off the ban-hammer, but day in and day out, it is still lower level employees who will be making the ban decisions, because no one wants an actually unmoderated platform full of spam and child porn.

I’m wondering how the author may not have heard of 8chan, an unmoderated platform full of spam and child porn.

Personally, I figure Musk couldn’t give a fiddlers about free speech, but he is fully aware of the type of individual who does, and attracting them to a platform full of advertising for Tesla products, isn’t the worst marketing idea in the world…

Tesla butt wipes, anyone?

magicbastarder

The narrative on twitter can be steered though through the voices you allow

well, that puts paid to any notion that it's about free speech so, which is in theory a large part of his interest.

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975127#Comment_118975127

A rant about Subways?

Seriously?

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975162#Comment_118975162

Oh, stop it. You've already used the "he hurt you" card, without substantiation.

To @seamus you similarly wrote:

It's clear you have a massive chip on your shoulder regarding Elon Musk, but what has any of this got to do with his bid to buyout twitter? You are just harping on about how much of an idiot you think he is

And when @AndrewJRenko expressed not wanting to do business with Musk you challenged their virtue (eluding to CEOs and companies and products which have nothing to do with Elon Musk, or Twitter, or his bid to buy out the latter):

Do you have a facebook?

A microsoft windows PC?

have you ever purchased anything from Amazon?

Do you boycott websites that use Amazon Web Services?

Also actually, are you aware that one of the board members of twitter up to now has been the crown prince of saudi arabia?

If none of the above megalomaniac billionaires bother you, then why Elon Musk buying twitter?

Clearly, you feel the need to lash out at people personally who have misgivings about Elon Musk buying Twitter; as though you cannot process the fact that people are not as in love with Elon Musk as you might be. People are allowed to criticize him, you look kind of petty though for attacking them for the mere act of doing so however.

seamus

I’m wondering how the author may not have heard of 8chan, an unmoderated platform full of spam and child porn.

You mean 8chan, the platform that virtually nobody on earth has heard of and that nobody uses except a small army of incredibly damaged and antisocial misanthropes?

Yeah, there's a reason why nobody uses or wants to use it; because it's full of spam, hate speech and child porn.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975166#Comment_118975166

It seemed like as soon as Obama won by leveraging social media, yes, cable news became a twitter feed. CNN would parade that man with a beard on to talk in front of a wall and read out tweets. They leaned into "iReporting" outsourcing their journalism to every joe with a camera. It seemingly left no room in their schedule for substantive news, I guess people in the graphics department weren't as big on the Pentagon Papers as karen yelling at a man in the park. Twitter has been a focal point for that instant-upload instant consumption of 'news'

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974922#Comment_118974922

Facebook? No, deleted my account a couple of years back and deleted WhatsApp for similar reasons.

Windows PC - Yes, why? Who are you referring to here?

Amazon - I haven’t purchased for many years, for similar reasons.

AWS - I generally wouldn’t know where websites are hosted, so, no.

Crown Prince - shareholder, not board member

timmyntc

Musk is certainly doing this for his own gain and not some philanthropic gesture.

It absolutely will not turn into a wild west 100% free for all, what he has actually proposed is requirement to verify your ID to participate, thereby wiping out most of the bot accounts. Good thing he's planning on going private because the drop in userbase alone from a move like that would cause havoc on share prices if it was still publicly traded.

Likes and RTs and trends can all be manipulated by bot farms, so if you need a human ID to participate it may well cut down substantially on that kind of thing. Stick in some more ads and twitter+ or some such nonsense and he'll make it worth his while.

At the end of the day its done for influence, same as Jeff Bezos buying up the washington post a few years back. Ironic that the same washpo was running articles lamenting the twitter buyout as dangerous to have such media power owned by one billionaire 🤣

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975175#Comment_118975175

To be honest, I doubt he cares much for free speech - very few people really do. What they care about are the views they care about getting an airing.

Musk's version of free speech will be about, I suspect, promoting his world view. Is that a problem? Not really, if you disagree, there are plenty of other Twitter like services out there.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975229#Comment_118975229

Does he really think that people are going to trust him and the company with a copy of their ID?

Overheal

That would wipe out most of the bot accounts, but also would wipe out most of the legitimate users, too, who are not going to go to the trouble (And definitely not the brand of user who people are fanfic'ing about restoring to the platform, they value their anonymity and evasion from law enforcement). The idea that people would pay a subscription fee to fart out their opinions is laughable, and the inundation of ads and 'sponsored content' is, in part, what drove people away from the facebook platform.

Mike Murdock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975031#Comment_118975031

I think that is a pretty good summary of the likely outcome of this purchase.

Unless Musk is going to fire the entire layer of upper management (such as Parag Agarwal, Sarah Berland and Vijaya Gadde) and middle management straight away, I can't see seismic changes to the platform in the short to medium term.

I could see a swathe of junior staff upping and leaving for other tech companies off of the back of this news. If they feel he's going to allow Trump and others back on the platform. Which we don't even know if he will.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975252#Comment_118975252

It will wipe out most of the accounts that post hatefully, engage in defamatory comments, conduct witch hunts and the like. It will have the effect of sanitising the platform and making it more moderate (and probably boring).

Taking the extreme out of it can only be good tbh.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975250#Comment_118975250

I wouldn't - but sure plenty of people on twitter already do, because you get a status symbol of a blue checkmark. ID verification is one of the ways to get the famed blue tick, and plenty of ordinary joe soaps have sent in ID to get it and get some digital clout.

We've come a long way from the days when advice was not to put any personal info online unfortunately

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975190#Comment_118975190

Nope, sorry to disappoint you but I'm far from a Musk "fanboy". He is the same as any other billionaire businessman, acting in his own interest. Even with his twitter musings, its all about PR for his enterprises.

But trying to use a tweet about how tunnels are protected from surface weather as proof that his purchase of twitter is a guaranteed train wreck or something... lol. Its barely relevant to the discussion and seems more like bitterness than something relevant at all to the fact that twitter may be going private in the coming days/weeks.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975272#Comment_118975272

No, I firmly disagree with the argument it can "only" be good.

Just like Truth Central, or Truth Social, or whatever, learned that it isn't only good to strip away all content moderation. Twitter with a verify-only platform would learn very quickly there is not only good in that hamfisted approach to nuking their bot problem along with the majority of their real userbase.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975250#Comment_118975250

When that database gets hacked people will be able to go to the dark web and get your home address for $15 and unmask your username.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975283#Comment_118975283

You believe allowing extremist posting hidden behind anonymity is a good thing?

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975252#Comment_118975252

The freedom lovers are not coming back at all. Majority of the twitter clones were spaces for freedom lovers, they already have their spaces, they are not a target demographic for twitter any longer.

As for who would pay to fart their opinions on an online soapbox, they length people will go to for validation online would surprise and depress you. Plenty of people would pay to either make their tweets more prominent (akin to an ad boosting) similar to how some pay 3rd parties for bot farms to farm retweets and likes. If they can clamp down on bot use, they could claw back some of that revenue by offering it in-house.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975272#Comment_118975272

No, it won’t,

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975301#Comment_118975301

Do you sincerely think I do? Enough bollox.

magicbastarder

what he has actually proposed is requirement to verify your ID to participate

am curious as to how much (human) overhead this will create; and what would they mean by verifying your ID? what details would they need?

and as mentioned above, how many users they'd lose if they implemented it.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975275#Comment_118975275

Ordinary joe soaps don’t get blue ticks though.

Lots of people have lots of reasons for remaining anonymous on Twitter. Lots of people don’t have freedom from their spouse or their employer or their community to speak freely.

Anonymity is not the problem, and handing over ID to an impetuous fool like Musk is not the solution.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975265#Comment_118975265

Did swathes of junior staff leave while Trump was on the platform? Meta is a fairly despicable company and it doesn't have issues with retention, because morals are tradable.

There may be a few martyrs but there will be no exodus. The renumeration will ensure that.