Social Media Discussion

[LordMortis]

I know I come off as an apologist for the Max name change, but at least there's some logic behind that move beyond "Elon loves the letter X!" You may not agree with the logic, but there was more thought than just a bong rip.

To be fair he wanted to use “Z” but that was taken, and would be too on the nose even for him.

By Zorro?

I think he meant Putin's Russia.

[Unagi]

The best take I've seen on the rebranding is that they've changed their logo to that thing you click on to close your browser. Such meta, very wow.

I was Just about to make this point.

The X icon is what we all see as ‘Close this App’
It’s quite fitting.

[Unagi]

I know I come off as an apologist for the Max name change, but at least there's some logic behind that move beyond "Elon loves the letter X!" You may not agree with the logic, but there was more thought than just a bong rip.

To be fair he wanted to use “Z” but that was taken, and would be too on the nose even for him.

By Zorro?

By Putin

[Unagi]

Oops. LM said it on this page.

[YellowKing]

Musk reminds me of the guy who finds himself hilarious while everyone around him can't stand his "jokes." He's just trolling everyone at this point and I for one am sick of his shit. I moved over to Threads on launch day and haven't looked back.

[Max Peck]

Another hot take that I appreciate: "The letter X is just a sans-serif swastika."

[Rumpy]

Maybe he's wanted to become one of the X-Men. Or to have people call him Mr X.

"Mr X has sent rockets into space, owns the roads with autonomous vehicles. He's also destroyed your social media." It's like he rides on being unpopular.

I'm guessing Musk has never taken a marketing class, because taking a well-established brand name and changing it the way he is sounds like a very bad idea. I doubt it will stick.

[Isgrimnur]

Another hot take that I appreciate: "The letter X is just a sans-serif swastika."

[Max Peck]

Another hot take that I appreciate: "The letter X is just a sans-serif swastika."

It's funny because Musk is a right-wing white-supremacist piece of shit. Allegedly.

[Zaxxon]

Everyone: summarize this escapade for us.
Elon: https://twitter.com/waynesutton/status/ ... 0_i6Q&s=19

[Alefroth]

First off the new logo is...really bad. But this story he is spinning? It's batshit. "Half of the global financial system". Ok. "Everything real-time". Drug cartels, terrorists, billionaires, and ransomware gangs rejoice!

He's delusional if he thinks anyone will trust him with banking.

[Jaymann]

IF?????

[The Meal]

I’ve stopped engaging in Twitter stories in the news (other than headlines), but are we sure his goal *isn’t* to just shut down Twitter-as-is and instead incorporate its tech into whatever his “X” everything app is? Makes sense to me to really turn the screws on the current burn rate while biding his time for that other project.

I suppose this guy was right.

[Zaxxon]

I finally wormed my way onto BlueSky. We'll see how that goes.

[Blackhawk]

Hey, X is a great name, something tied to popular culture and the youth that are driving new tech. It should really appeal to the young people and draw them in.

I would have said in 1996.

[Max Peck]

Or perhaps in 2002...

[Carpet_pissr]

[Carpet_pissr]

I moved over to Threads on launch day and haven't looked back.

And?

[Rumpy]

Hey, X is a great name, something tied to popular culture and the youth that are driving new tech. It should really appeal to the young people and draw them in.

I would have said in 1996.

It's also something people hit to exit out of something

[Blackhawk]

Thinking about it, I think X works. You add an X when you want bad things to go away.

Have a cheating husband. Add an X. Gone.
Have an abusive friend. Add an X. Gone.
Have an incompetent boss. Add an X. Gone.

And just like your X husband, your X friend, and your X boss, X Twitter will soon be gone.

[LordMortis]

Hey, X is a great name, something tied to popular culture and the youth that are driving new tech. It should really appeal to the young people and draw them in.

I would have said in 1996.

Or 1987? I think that's about when "alternative" culture and 'mainstream" culture started to blur lines with X being themed (memed?) and Gen X started briefly being a thing.

[LawBeefaroni]

The best take I've seen on the rebranding is that they've changed their logo to that thing you click on to close your browser. Such meta, very wow.

I was Just about to make this point.

The X icon is what we all see as ‘Close this App’
It’s quite fitting.

https://twitter.com/McJesse/status/1683579071882723328

[YellowKing]

YellowKing wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2023 1:08 pm
I moved over to Threads on launch day and haven't looked back.
And?

From a usability perspective it's fine, similar enough to Twitter that I had no problems posting similar content. And the good news is a large number of our followers moved over as well, so while we still only have a fraction that we had on Twitter, it's not like we're starting completely from scratch. The algorithm (at least so far) consists of stuff posted by people we follow or similar, not a bunch of politics, so in that way it feels much more like original Twitter.

I think the biggest downside so far is that it doesn't feel as interactive. It hasn't reached the maturity level yet where there is a lot of tagging and replying, so it feels mostly like everyone individually posting their static content without a lot of conversation going on. I think that will improve over time, but for now it's just too new and it's taking time for people to get used to it (and rebuild their following).

[Carpet_pissr]

YellowKing wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2023 1:08 pm
I moved over to Threads on launch day and haven't looked back.
And?

From a usability perspective it's fine, similar enough to Twitter that I had no problems posting similar content. And the good news is a large number of our followers moved over as well, so while we still only have a fraction that we had on Twitter, it's not like we're starting completely from scratch. The algorithm (at least so far) consists of stuff posted by people we follow or similar, not a bunch of politics, so in that way it feels much more like original Twitter.

I think the biggest downside so far is that it doesn't feel as interactive. It hasn't reached the maturity level yet where there is a lot of tagging and replying, so it feels mostly like everyone individually posting their static content without a lot of conversation going on. I think that will improve over time, but for now it's just too new and it's taking time for people to get used to it (and rebuild their following).

Interesting, thanks.

[Carpet_pissr]

Hey, X is a great name, something tied to popular culture and the youth that are driving new tech. It should really appeal to the young people and draw them in.

I would have said in 1996.

Yeah, very much a marketing trend in the mid-90's. The X Games might have been the most on the nose, marketed directly to Gen X, but I am sure there are more examples. X Files? X-Wings, the X-Men, oh my!

[malchior]

That illustrates why Twitter has been so sticky. It isn't just the user base size - it is the connectedness. Without an easy way to re-create the networks you can get a massive user base and not necessary achieve "ignition". For someone like a BlueSky or other small players you have to do both (bring in users/scale and hope the network establishes) which is daunting. If anyone has the best chance to upend Twitter it is Threads but even that isn't certain. Meanwhile, we have an utter dipshit breaking the de facto public square via bong rips. It'd be far better if a foundation or something else ended up becoming the curator but that's communism...

[Blackhawk]

Hey, X is a great name, something tied to popular culture and the youth that are driving new tech. It should really appeal to the young people and draw them in.

I would have said in 1996.

Yeah, very much a marketing trend in the mid-90's. The X Games might have been the most on the nose, marketed directly to Gen X, but I am sure there are more examples. X Files? X-Wings, the X-Men, oh my!

X-Men are 1960s, and X-wings are 1970s. You'd know that if you were more eXtreme!

Eventually, X gave way to K. I'm glad that one died off.

[Isgrimnur]

[dbt1949]

Isn't that Special.

[Carpet_pissr]

Hey, X is a great name, something tied to popular culture and the youth that are driving new tech. It should really appeal to the young people and draw them in.

I would have said in 1996.

Yeah, very much a marketing trend in the mid-90's. The X Games might have been the most on the nose, marketed directly to Gen X, but I am sure there are more examples. X Files? X-Wings, the X-Men, oh my!

X-Men are 1960s, and X-wings are 1970s. You'd know that if you were more eXtreme!

Eventually, X gave way to K. I'm glad that one died off.

Yeah, I just threw those in, knowing they were not relevant because I could only think of the X Games as being specifically targeted to Gen X. Tongue in cheek fail (again).

[Carpet_pissr]

How in the world did I not know this was a thing:

"X.com was an online bank co-founded by Elon Musk, Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho in 1999 in Palo Alto, California. In 2000, X.com merged with competitor Confinity Inc., a software company also based in Palo Alto."

XCOM!!!

[malchior]

The whole thing feels like high school level drama. It's not hard to link this back to the XCom (lol) stuff. Musk got kicked out by the Paypal board and replaced by Peter Thiel after he tried to do what he just did with Twitter. Sober adults sent this idiot packing and paid out the seed money that became his further endeavors. Perhaps he has been stewing about when they laughed in his face when he talked about X.com. In midst of a bong hit came the great idea. He could turn Twitter into what he needed to prove them *all wrong*!

[Carpet_pissr]

I’ll say it again, from someone who doesn’t and didn’t really use Twitter at all: he REALLY seems to be trying to just kill it rather than turn it into something else.

[Zaxxon]

The whole thing feels like high school level drama. It's not hard to link this back to the XCom (lol) stuff. Musk got kicked out by the Paypal board and replaced by Peter Thiel after he tried to do what he just did with Twitter. Sober adults sent this idiot packing and paid out the seed money that became his further endeavors. Perhaps he has been stewing about when they laughed in his face when he talked about X.com. In midst of a bong hit came the great idea. He could turn Twitter into what he needed to prove them *all wrong*!

Ironically, that 1999 dumb-ness and its associated to-the-curb-kicking made SpaceX and Tesla happen. Something tells me that round 2 won't be as productive.

[GreenGoo]

I’ll say it again, from someone who doesn’t and didn’t really use Twitter at all: he REALLY seems to be trying to just kill it rather than turn it into something else.

This is how I see it too, although now that I hear about his "X" vision, it wouldn't surprise me if this is his weird way of rebranding and re-inventing into something else.

It feels poorly thought out.

[Pyperkub]

I moved over to Threads on launch day and haven't looked back.

And?

He will. Threads will be just like Facebook and enshittification will set in over time.

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

[YellowKing]

I have no doubt Threads will eventually get worse, but that doesn't mean I'll go back to Twitter or X or whatever the hell that lunatic wants to call it.

I'm still on Facebook, if you're very diligent about blocking content you don't want to see, it's fine. I don't have any content in my FB feed anymore that's not relevant to either friends, family, or the groups I participate in.

[Kraken]

I have no doubt Threads will eventually get worse, but that doesn't mean I'll go back to Twitter or X or whatever the hell that lunatic wants to call it.

I'm still on Facebook, if you're very diligent about blocking content you don't want to see, it's fine. I don't have any content in my FB feed anymore that's not relevant to either friends, family, or the groups I participate in.

+1. I'm in a lot of space and science FB groups, and for a few weeks I got into the habit of blocking flat earthers and moon landing deniers. They are drawn like flies to these groups and they dominate the comments. (You can spot flerfers by the laughing emoticon that they apply to every scientific topic.) Most of them are just bots and trolls, of course, but a few are genuinely stupid conspiracy mongers and religious nuts.

Blocking them doesn't do any good. I blocked >200 without making a dent. There are always more, and FB's algorithm seems to treat blocking like any other page interaction, serving me such pages more and more often. So I reluctantly dropped out of the worst-afflicted groups and stopped opening the comments in all but a couple of moderated groups. The jackaloons were really getting under my skin, but only because I let them.

[Rumpy]

I’ll say it again, from someone who doesn’t and didn’t really use Twitter at all: he REALLY seems to be trying to just kill it rather than turn it into something else.

Yeah, he never really wanted it. He'd made a move to purchase it as a joke but was caught then was forced to put his money where his mouth is. His tactic seems to be in wearing the company down and making some of the worst decisions, and it just feels so childish. He's also changing the workplace culture in opposites to trends. My guess is that he's doing all this to make the stock price fall low enough to where he'd be forced out, as investors and stockholders must want to avoid getting it delisted from the stock market. And he's doing it because he can. But then, he's also taking quite a hit to his integrity, because who'd want to work with him or even invest with him after he's walked away from this? I guess when you're a rich kid, you can afford to take a dump on someone's porch, to be a righteous A-hole.

[malchior]

My guess is that he's doing all this to make the stock price fall low enough to where he'd be forced out, as investors and stockholders must want to avoid getting it delisted from the stock market.

He took it private in his buyout. There are a lot of unknowns there around how it was financed but it is known he was backed by authoritarian sovereign funds (e.g. the Saudis) which has fueled the 'he bought it to break it' storylines.