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

francois

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119931967#Comment_119931967

Interesting, went to check this and there's a massive amount of bot accounts retweeting 4/5 tweets with the same message

In theory, shouldn’t be that difficult to remove…

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119931880#Comment_119931880

Twitter is now saddled with the debt of the buyout. If you mean Musk's personal wealth that's another matter and open to debate, though this and Tesla's current fortunes can't be helping. Twitter though, has become a big monetary black hole and will take financial sorcery on another level to generate profit now.

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932646#Comment_119932646

Maybe that was the whole point dumping debt into it make it bankrupt and get it written off ?

Timberrrrrrrr

And he doubles down.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1597302404239659008?t=v1ok9jpFVgi5FTV_XTkfjw&s=09

kowloon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119931880#Comment_119931880

Paid $44Bn for the company and Musk himself said Twitter is losing $4Mil a day. When something costs a lot of money to buy and doesn't generate a profit it's not making him any money. Less delusional and more fact. This is before you factor in the hit to the Tesla share price when he had to sell some of them to pay for Twitter.

If anyone has a plausible theory about how he can make money out of this I want to hear it. I wouldn't put it past Musk to have some sort of money-making scheme behind all of this if it's possible, I just can't see how he could make anything out of this absolute disaster.

Interesting story about how a man also considered a genius industrialist got into a business he didn't understand and how it was a disaster: https://imgur.com/gallery/hgMnCej

I think wealthy businessmen let their wealth go to their heads and assume they're smarter than everyone else and that they can succeed at anything, even if they haven't a clue about it.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932739#Comment_119932739

I'm guessing he's just discovered the Epic V Apple case, unfortunately for him Epic can survive without mobile devices in the short term, Twitter cannot, although maybe he is honestly delusional enough to think he can design, build and ship a device before everything comes cashing down. Also didn't Apple just start increasing their US market share again?

ForestFire

Okay so I presume this genius just realised...

- Charge everyone $8pm for a blue emoji!

(Or a grey one or a gold one or whatever colour we are on now)

- anyone using Twitter on an iPhone, with said emoji, 30% goes to Apple.(not hard to spot)

- Musk pissed off that he is making easy money for Apple , for free.

- refuses to pay 30%

- Apple threatens to remove app from store....like that other app previously in dispute (some game the kids are into?)

- makes last min decision to go to war, with apple? ( Obviously after a quick check with his legal teams...... probably sent an email saying, if you dont click on link in this email by 4.30, I'm going after apple......meanwhile what's left of the legal dept. Is locked out on the he street with no account access) and dose not respond)

Disclaimer....some of the above is not based on facts and purely from my imagination!!!

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932811#Comment_119932811

This is a man who boasted he could solve World Hunger if given €2 billion (wasn't it?); the man who spitballed a submarine to rescue children trapped in a cave; a man who had a flamethrower designed and built for the lols; and who spent millions on a stupid car tunnel.

I'd 100% believe Musk would think he could ram through a new "revolutionary" phone to compete with Apple.

No question mind you: Apple charging 30% commission has always been a total piece of shít tactic, by a company that goes out of its way to ring-fence customers and business partners alike; witness the whole USB debacle. All to be expected, given the lineage spawns from another famous ásshole Steve Jobs. Asking me to pick a side in Apple vs. Elon Musk is like picking a leg I'd prefer to be broken. Can't we just have neither?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932659#Comment_119932659

Perhaps. Though I'd be slow to speak with too much certainty when it comes to the finances and accounting of American Corporations, I doubt it'd be as easy as Musk burning the company and walking away in the clear. Or indeed, in the black as the other user seemed to be implying.

ForestFire

Totally agree, and I never liked Apple and it's restrictive eco system myself and an android user myself.

Also agree that the 30% is a piss take, but it's there a long time and established at this stage, and if you want to change do it the right way.

Out of interest, why is 30% a piss take?

30% is standard commission for a bricks and mortar store selling art from an artist. Not unheard of to hear talent agents charge 30%. I think the best football agents are somewhere around that figure too.

Why do you think apple shouldn't charge 30% for their marketplace? Presumably companies are still making a profit from selling on the apple store?

Timberrrrrrrr

Is this really what potential advertisers want to see?

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1597120381986680832?t=bqK6o0kGRji5DTDjlGKvSA&s=19

kowloon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932946#Comment_119932946

He said he could solve world hunger for $6 Billion. I guess he was too focused on saving mankind to save mankind. Or it was bullshit.

The flamethrower wasn't really a flamethrower. Flamethrowers project liquid fuel which burns whatever it lands on. The Boring Company "flamethrower" uses gas and is basically a roofing torch with a plastic cover that makes it look like a weapon.

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119933231#Comment_119933231

I would not want to be near the guy firing that thing off in the wind. Why flame throwers throw not blow.

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119933231#Comment_119933231

Money can't solve world hunger, certainly not in an acceptable way.

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119933616#Comment_119933616

OFC it can the more money that was thrown at cancer research the faster were beating most forms. World hunger is not really a hunger Issue there is plenty of food. It's a money problem and people living in areas that cant grow said food. Deforestation is a major driver in places for desertification.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119933130#Comment_119933130

Of course not.

He's gone bonkers from stress.

Completely batshit.

Meanwhile at Apple: “There’s some app developer called Musk demanding to speak the manager?” “Tell them to visit Apple .com / support !”

When you start seeing articles like this in publications like the FT, you can assume that the corporate and news Twitter exodus has begun.

https://www.ft.com/content/6a4c5f6b-ace1-49fa-850e-e5bf1dac65e3

McFly85

This kind of reminds me of watching Graham Linehan’s twitter downfall, except on a bigger scale.

The same increasingly hostile tweets to resonate with his followers, the same ignorance of reality and his other responsibilities.

Hes too rich to ever be completely destroyed in the way Linehan was so I can really only see it going one way as long as he’s in charge and sees fit to publicly admonish his customers: they will continue to leave, Twitter will continue to shrink until it’s eventually gone, or is like a MySpace that is there but not really relevant.

pixelburp

So has anyone actually used Mastodon then? I was curious and according to news they've jumped from 300k to 2.6 million users of late; still a way to go before Twitter might start looking around its shoulder. Also seems Mastodon relies on donations and has one named employee - its owner. I'd expect both those to change if the service ever truly took off.

Nothing lasts forever within the digital landscape and if Musk had an ounce of self-awareness he'd recognise a need to be careful lest Twitter become the new Bebo. Indeed, fortunes can also whiplash in a positive direction: look at Zoom. External factors influenced of course, but while our company used it prior to MArch 2020, who'd have predicted it would become an immediate household name?

Timberrrrrrrr

This one had to hurt a little 🤣

Edit: Some saying it's fake so not sure if true sonic mods want to delete then please do.

Mastodon isn’t a single entity. It’s basically a protocol and software that allows anyone to setup a server - very much in the same way as anyone can spin up an email server or a web server and they all communicate.

The big Irish ‘instance’ is Mastodon.ie, which seems to be growing fast and has seen most of “Irish Twitter” (at least the talkative part) appearing on it in the last couple of weeks. It has that vibe you tend to get on Irish social media, including here at its peak, and in general it’s been pretty decent and very easy going.

You’re also starting to see public bodies, organisations and institutions setting up their own instances, which means that all their users are verified, much like having a corporate email address. The EU for example has already spun one up and the various institutions are on it.

There are various tools out there that can plug into your Twitter account and find your followers too, which is quite useful.

A lot of people have one foot in both worlds at the moment.

The moderation is done locally, and rogue servers can be ignored / blocked or defederated, if the particular instance wants to do that.

The upside is it’s totally decentralised and you’ll never get a Musk situation. The downside is it’s totally decentralised and a bit more chaotic. The quality of the experience very much depends on the ‘instance’ you’re using. There’s literally nothing to stop any crackpot setting up an instance, but nobody has to connect to it.

The main Irish instance is relying on people chipping in a few Euro here and there to keep the lights on, but it’s been running very smoothly.

The other side of is that you can look at your local feeds or “federated” feeds or more often a mix of both when your followers start to be from everywhere.

Functionally it’s similar to Twitter, but only at a superficial level. It’s quite different.

My only concern is that as the volumes grow so do the overheads. The main Irish instance for example went from about 500 users to something like 16,000+ in the space of a couple of weeks. The issue then is infrastructure and moderation becomes a lot more than a hobbyist’s pastime and that’s where I think mastodon instances might need to go somewhat more professional, but that being said they’re running a lot more smoothly than Twitter is at the moment, so I guess it’s just different.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934060#Comment_119934060

Of course its fake. Tim Cook is not a child.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934086#Comment_119934086

Yeah as much as I'd love for it to be real, there's no way Tim Cook would throw petrol on the fire like that. So long as Apple can show they're treating Musk & Twitter the same as every other app on their store, Musk has very little to legitimately complain about (hence why he's shouting about "free speech" rather than "less profits").

Apple simply won’t engage in something like this. Elmo will inevitably get very upset as he just won’t get any response. You can expect a lot of toys being thrown out of the pram.

Apple has an enormous and very carefully protected brand, and it’s a much, much older tech company than any of these internet entities. It’s easy to forget it’s been around for 46 years.

They’ll just be sitting back and ordering extra popcorn 🍿

Agent Coulson

It has to be Tim Cook as he has a verified tick ☑️ providing he is who he say he is.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119933082#Comment_119933082

The issue with 30%, and it's a broader issue than just Twitter, is that pre installed app stores are anti-competitive. This is particularly the case with Apple as it's very difficult to run apps on iOS outside of the app store. If you could easily install apps on iOS devices from other sources, then there would be less of an issue.

It's somewhere similar to the anti competitive behaviour Microsoft was engaged in over internet explorer.

It's effectively a ransom you have to pay Apple for users to be able to run code on their own hardware.

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934082#Comment_119934082

Awful, awful name for a social media thing, and it doesn't scale well.

Essentially people just want another Twitter, albeit one run by sane people, not some 40-something year old memelord.

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934086#Comment_119934086

It makes it even more hilarious, underscoring how out of control Twitter presently is.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934619#Comment_119934619

Then the sane people sell out to a forty something memelord. Mastodon is the opportunity to change the game, so we won't have forty something memelords becoming billionaires by exploiting our information.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934716#Comment_119934716

Problem is, decentralisation hasn't really shown itself especially popular with the mainstream; I went to join Mastodon and immediately hit the wall being asked what server I wanted to join. Even knowing that that's how it's run, and being tech-savvy, I chaffed and left the site 'cos I just didn't have the inclination to pick a server. God knows how the chronically technology-allergic would handle that.

People want simple: say what you will about Twitter but it's pretty straightforward in comparison. Mastodon obfuscates its own value, and that's always going to put up a barrier to its success. The great conundrum of tech is how do you maintain and run extremely expensive server space once you hit a certain volume of traffic? Either you monetise it like Twitter, or you try to decentralise it in some libertarian-style approach ala Mastodon. There has to be a 3rd way.

Cordell

Mastodon is IRC channels reborn, same crap same gatekeeping, you can't even have a peek before deciding to share your personal details so a mod will grant you access if and when their holiness decides. Yes I'm sure it will replace twitter any day now.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934785#Comment_119934785

Truth Social runs on Mastodon so whilst that is a crap implementation it is possible for the Mastodon core to be used to create a single instance with a wider audience.

There is potential for there to be a significant consolidation around a few Mastodon instances , but who knows if/when that might happen.

The reality is that the "new Twitter" should it happen, will probably look/act nothing like the old Twitter.

The world moving to something completely different is a far more likely outcome than them shifting to a clone.

Cordell

will probably look/act nothing like the old Twitter

But it have to, how else will it attract the existing users? It needs to offer at least a similar user experience, not to be something completely foreign where you don't have any idea what to do.

Christy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934039#Comment_119934039

Didn't seem to be what I wanted. However neither is twitter anymore so I just end up on neither.

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934716#Comment_119934716

I dunno, I just think people are unlikely to flock in large numbers to a site with name like a dominatrix porn site. Yes some big entities will "reserve" something there "just in case", but it all seems a too bit chaotic in comparison.

As for the Twitter sale, the board ran out of options. Effectively they had to sell to someone who, in a u-turn, changed their mind on buying. The whole thing was a mess, but business acquisition is a juggernaut, once the process had started it was difficult for either party to get out of.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934901#Comment_119934901

I know what you mean , but history in Social Media would suggest otherwise.

Facebook is declining rapidly but its users haven't moved to something that looks like Facebook - They've moved to Tiktok and Snapchat etc.

Who knows what the "next big thing" will be , but it almost certainly won't be a thing that looks very similar to the current "big thing"

The name is a huge stumbling block and certainly wasn’t dreamt up by Silicon Valley marketing types. It’s nothing like IRC channels though. I don’t really think that comparison does it much justice.

The big, well run instances are very solid.

I noticed some of the open source community are living in terror that Google or Apple will just come along, say “We love mastodon so much that we’re going to make our own client.” and the next thing it’ll be dominated by Apple Ping or something like that.

It’s a very likely scenario. That’s how many open source projects ultimately get rolled into a commercial project.

I mean, take the macOS, iOS etc they’re built on Darwin, a fork of BSD Unix, which Apple maintained as an open thing until it didn’t. Safari originated in KHTML and has cousins like Konqueror.

Google has similar history in Android and Chrome etc etc

*His Holiness the Meme Lord is actually 50-something. It can be a difficult age for some.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934785#Comment_119934785

I am shocked and taken aback that you feel this way about one replacement of twitter

/end sarcasm.

I love Mastodon. My timeline has no ads, nobody is making me angry with quote retweets, the algorithm isn't posting awful anti-trans view on my timeline, oranti-refugee tweets, like twitter does.

My timeline is full of art, poetry, photography, jokes and most importantly, content wraps on anything that may be unsettling to some.

It's an absolute breath of fresh air.

Cordell

Well if stranger's words and views that don't agree with you can make you angry then maybe that's the place for you, fair play, I hope it all works out.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935680#Comment_119935680

That sounds incredibly inane.

The Irish version of Mastodon is all jazz hands tbh.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935733#Comment_119935733

Thats how twitter started.

Takes a while to build up a critical mass to drown out the w@nk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935711#Comment_119935711

I will. Boards used to be friendlier like that til it was sold. I don't come on here half as much as I used to.

I, and many other neuro-divergent people, are also susceptible to emotional dysregulation, so, yes you're right, it does seem to be the place for me.

I will never understand why people feel the need for antagonism in all aspects of their lives to be honest. Don't we all strive for a more enjoyable life? I know some people enjoy the misery, it's just an attitude I don't understand.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935733#Comment_119935733

What's inane about art, photography and poetry? Do you believe that culture itself lacks meaning? Or would you agree with Oscar Wilde that, "All art is quite useless"?

I'm beginning to think someone need to set up a Thumderdome instance for the argumentative types 😅

Cordell

Don't we all strive for a more enjoyable life?

Some people are arseholes. Some people just have opinions and they feel the need to air them no matter what. Neither former or later should be prevented from doing so, because when we start to regulate what people can say to such a degree we actually make life less enjoyable for pretty much everyone.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119936007#Comment_119936007

Isn't ironic that you feel that way, while twitter were banning people for being mean about Musk?

Everyone regulates their speech according to where you are. I'm sure you don't talk the same way, say in the pub as you would in a business meeting? It's the mature, responsible way to act.

I prefer Mastodon, because while you and I may be connected or not, I have far more tools at my disposal to choose how much of your presence I can see. Temporary muting someone is a game changer during something like Strictly, for example.

Am I asking people to stop posting about Strictly? No, they can toot to their hearts content, but I can filter it out .

I think that's a far better system than foisting posts on people.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935006#Comment_119935006

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934757#Comment_119934757

The transition is already happening in large numbers. You can get in now, or you can wait until your granny tells you about it.

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119936102#Comment_119936102

Not really. If that's the best alternative to Twitter then there's a serious market gap.