Octopus Overlords

The fact that 52% of Twits want TFG back tells me all I need to know. Not that I was ever on Twitter in the first place, but now I hope it dies.

I was surprised that it was that close.

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Kraken wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 1:12 am The fact that 52% of Twits want TFG back tells me all I need to know. Not that I was ever on Twitter in the first place, but now I hope it dies.

Musk spent the whole year yelling that Twitter was all bots. I guess he fired the bots too in his rampage? Or is this actually the vox roboti?

CBS News has suspended activity on Twitter.

CBS News is halting its activity on Twitter over Elon Musk’s turbulent and potentially devastating moves following his takeover of the company.

“In light of the uncertainty around Twitter and out of an abundance of caution, CBS News is pausing its activity on the social media site as it continues to monitor the platform,” Jonathan Vigliotti, CBS News national correspondent, said in a report about the latest chaos at the company on the “CBS Evening News” Friday.

malchior wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 8:20 am Musk spent the whole year yelling that Twitter was all bots. I guess he fired the bots too in his rampage? Or is this actually the vox roboti?

The bots were all scared of Musk's grandiose intellect and fled the platform in terror the moment he took over. Hadn't you heard?

Sure, some people want to watch the world burn, but other people just want to watch pirated movies for the lulz.

Twitter’s Broken Its Copyright Strike System, Users Are Uploading Full Movies

While Twitter, the website, remains online and has not simply collapsed after the vast majority of workers were fired or resigned under Elon Musk, we are already starting to see the cracks spreading through the walls.

Last night, it became apparent that Twitter’s automated copyright strike/takedown system was no longer functional. A user went viral for uploading the entirety of The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift in two minute chunks over a 50 tweet thread. While it’s offline this morning, here’s where things get weirder still:

• The media itself was never taken down. Usually, you used to see a “this media cannot be displayed” message when a takedown happens. The tweet and account will be up, but the media is stripped. In this case, it appears someone at Twitter had to manually suspend the entire account.
• And as evidence of a further bug, right now, on mobile, I can still see the tweets from the suspended account. As in, the movie is literally playing in a tweet I am watching on my phone right now, some lingering artifact of account suspension. I can’t see it on desktop, but the tweets I favorited last night to write this article this morning are still actively viewable.

I'm fascinated how the derp brigade has firmly convinced themselves that the vast majority of Twitter employees served no function at all, with their only job to sit around and be some sort of "woke police".

Sudy wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 1:36 am Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Yeah and I'm convinced there are many that are blind to the risk.

It's being pointed out here and there that Musk bought an international corporation and is treating it fast and loose by boss-friendly U.S. rules, but that those rules don't apply globally.

For example, all of the employees he casually fired in Europe are, according to most European laws, not actually fired at all. Musk *can't* end their contracts without sufficient notice, review, contest, and etc. (It turns out that modern enlightened Welfare States are actually a decent hedge against capricious manchild oligarchs.)

His behavior in the last week or ten days has set himself up for action in numerous European courts.

Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case. I think he's setting himself for some serious litigation.

You can't sue Twitter if it doesn't exist...which almostseems like the logical step.

Apparently he is not done making it a non-viable business so he is going to gut...spins wheel...sales and partnership next.

I'm really questioning reality. The simulation is breaking down.

I still can't decide. This either:

A) he's batshit insane, bought Twitter for gazillions of bucks, jumped in, and started going all Homer Simpson on it

or

B) he actually has some purpose for what he's doing, some 'big picture' or long term goal that hasn't become clear yet

It's either pure idiocy or pure genius. Nothing in between makes sense.

Sure, but I don't think anyone's ever seen a buyout happen where the purchaser has thrown chairs around with wild abandon, because this kind of feels like what's happening. Whether it has a clear purpose or not, there's some behavior going on that doesn't seem to be the norm. It's like the guy is having a midlife crisis. He has all the cars he wants, so instead he buys a company and proceeds to disassemble it.

Have we considered that he bought it to torch it? Someone wanted Twitter dead for X reasons (maybe Musk himself), he has the $$ to buy...anything, so why not?

He doesn't seem like a "pure incompetence" guy, so.....??

If so, it's a little odd seeing he likes his soapbox so much. He loves his attention. So, why would he willingly destroy something that allows him that soapbox? It could be said that he wouldn't be the public figure that he is without twitter. He'd just be the CEO of a car company and Space company that you hear about from time to time.

Carpet_pissr wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 12:45 am Have we considered that he bought it to torch it? Someone wanted Twitter dead for X reasons (maybe Musk himself), he has the $$ to buy...anything, so why not?

He doesn't seem like a "pure incompetence" guy, so.....??

That's one of the conspiracy theories around this. His backers are extremely wealthy individuals and authoritarian regimes. And some think he bought it to burn it down to take a dissent platform off the board.

Though I still think his history is more about being a good investor and his willingness for taking big risks. He clearly doesnt understand this product with his focus on "code" and firing people who don't do valuable work. Sales, compliance, and marketing folks for instance. I think the growing body of evidence indicates he shot his mouth off about something he thought he understood and has now blundered one time after another until he lost control.

Yes, it has been considered.

The Meal wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:20 am 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.

Carpet_pissr wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 12:45 am Have we considered that he bought it to torch it? Someone wanted Twitter dead for X reasons (maybe Musk himself), he has the $$ to buy...anything, so why not?

He doesn't seem like a "pure incompetence" guy, so.....??

He does seem like the mentally unbalanced and impetuous, must always be the smartest and most clever guy in the room type, though. He also seems like the guy who got his way though government and legal system works 100% of the time until about a month ago.

The Meal wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 7:57 am Yes, it has been considered.

The Meal wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:20 am 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.

The only special thing about Twitter was the size of its user base. The technical aspect wasn't worth buying the whole company for. If that was his sole purpose, he wasted at least $25B.

That’s the part that confuses me. As Lawbeef notes, the massive user base is the real asset in the purchase, I would think. Musk is doing everything he can to destroy that though. At least at first glance.

The Meal wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 7:57 am Yes, it has been considered.

The Meal wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:20 am 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.

Ah, sorry. I deleted my Twitter app after Musk's antics, but before that like you, stopped engaging as it has become yet another victim to the sensationalism of so many other social media platforms. It's lousy with click bait garbage headers. REALLY started noticing it about a year ago, and it just seems to have gotten worse for whatever reason.

Carpet_pissr wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:57 amAh, sorry. I deleted my Twitter app after Musk's antics, but before that like you, stopped engaging as it has become yet another victim to the sensationalism of so many other social media platforms. It's lousy with click bait garbage headers. REALLY started noticing it about a year ago, and it just seems to have gotten worse for whatever reason.

FWIW IMO everything is click bait garbage now. It has infected all media including the top institutions. You really have to develop a filter for yourself now. Which isn't the end of the world but it's annoying. There is just so much competition for eyeballs.

The trouble for me at Twitter though has gotten that even the filter isn't enough. As an example, last night someone from the NYT broke the Iger returns to Disney story WAY BEFORE everyone else. And it was so out of left field that I didn't know if it was some joke or not because it was littered with comments about the return of "woke" to Disney. I ended up doing about 10 minutes of looking around before I stopped and started asking myself real questions about how bad the situation was. In the end, because it was not being reported anywhere else I couldn't figure out if it was real. The problem for me was that the reporter from NYT has a checkmark but also has a relatively low follower count. And didn't post very often. I wasn't sure it wasn't someone who snuck through the madness a few weeks ago.

In any case, it was that moment where I concluded that for my purposes Elon has made the platform unreliable enough that it's hard to know what's true that's actually true. Maybe it'll get better but as we see in a lot of other things restoring trust is very difficult. And I think we'll find that he has broken trust or will lose trust with many folks. Worse for him, he has no good way to restore it without stepping away and giving it to an honest shepherd.

I have always been an entirely casual Twitter user. I have an account and follow a grand total of 25 people. I have never once tweeted anything, nor have I ever liked, commented on, retweeted, or shared anything. I have one follower, an friend of mine who convinced me a few years ago I should get an account. I access it through my browser, not the app. I've never intentionally clicked on an ad. While I look at the platform every day (some days far more than I should), there's no interaction with it from my end at all. I'm sure I'm probably considered a "bot" from Twitter's perspective.

I assume that the algorithm curates my feed based on the limited number of folks that I follow and the posts I read. I have noticed a significant increase in the number of MAGA and alt-right jerkoffs that have suddenly started appearing in my feed since Musk took over. I was going to mute them all, but am somewhat interested to see how that progresses. I'm should just ditch Twitter entirely, but admit that it's been difficult to look away from the slow motion train wreck (and/or morph into Gab or 4chan).

Also, watching Musk begging Trump to post after making a big show of restating him is hilarious.

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:17 am I have always been an entirely casual Twitter user. I have an account and follow a grand total of 25 people. I have never once tweeted anything, nor have I ever liked, commented on, retweeted, or shared anything. I have one follower, an friend of mine who convinced me a few years ago I should get an account. I access it through my browser, not the app. I've never intentionally clicked on an ad. While I look at the platform every day (some days far more than I should), there's no interaction with it from my end at all. I'm sure I'm probably considered a "bot" from Twitter's perspective.

I assume that the algorithm curates my feed based on the limited number of folks that I follow and the posts I read. I have noticed a significant increase in the number of MAGA and alt-right jerkoffs that have suddenly started appearing in my feed since Musk took over. I was going to mute them all, but am somewhat interested to see how that progresses. I'm should just ditch Twitter entirely, but admit that it's been difficult to look away from the slow motion train wreck (and/or morph into Gab or 4chan).

Also, watching Musk begging Trump to post after making a big show of restating him is hilarious.

If you click the button at the top right of your feed that looks like a star, you can change your timeline view from "Home" to "Latest Tweets". "Latest Tweets" only shows me tweets from people I follow; "Home" shows a bunch of other stuff I simply don't want to see. It's still annoying when people retweet things from people I look to avoid, but it's easy enough to either scroll past those tweets quickly or mute the people that constantly keep getting retweeted.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:01 am

The Meal wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 7:57 am Yes, it has been considered.

The Meal wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:20 am 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.

The only special thing about Twitter was the size of its user base.

Part of it is trust, which is a valuable commodity. It's been a trusted and widely used platform used by many companies. Having a big company like CBS pause its activities on Twitter for instance, means that because of Musks' shenanigans, it's no longer a trusted platform like it once was. It could be said that one aspect of the buyout was motivated by the trust it had, but that he's surely sinking that trust with his actions. That who thing with the blue checkmark had eroded much of the trust, and it's not something that's easy to build back up as it had been built up over at least a decade.

Rumpy wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 2:40 pmPart of it is trust, which is a valuable commodity. It's been a trusted and widely used platform used by many companies. Having a big company like CBS pause its activities on Twitter for instance, means that because of Musks' shenanigans, it's no longer a trusted platform like it once was. It could be said that one aspect of the buyout was motivated by the trust it had, but that he's surely sinking that trust with his actions. That who thing with the blue checkmark had eroded much of the trust, and it's not something that's easy to build back up as it had been built up over at least a decade.

The CBS thing was BIZARRE considering they announce it late Friday and by Sunday it was gone. I'm posting in R&P about it because it just reinforces that trust is evaporating all around now.

malchior wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 2:52 pm

Rumpy wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 2:40 pmPart of it is trust, which is a valuable commodity. It's been a trusted and widely used platform used by many companies. Having a big company like CBS pause its activities on Twitter for instance, means that because of Musks' shenanigans, it's no longer a trusted platform like it once was. It could be said that one aspect of the buyout was motivated by the trust it had, but that he's surely sinking that trust with his actions. That who thing with the blue checkmark had eroded much of the trust, and it's not something that's easy to build back up as it had been built up over at least a decade.

The CBS thing was BIZARRE considering they announce it late Friday and by Sunday it was gone. I'm posting in R&P about it because it just reinforces that trust is evaporating all around now.

You mean the announcement itself was gone by Sunday?

Rumpy wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 3:06 pm

malchior wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 2:52 pm

Rumpy wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 2:40 pmPart of it is trust, which is a valuable commodity. It's been a trusted and widely used platform used by many companies. Having a big company like CBS pause its activities on Twitter for instance, means that because of Musks' shenanigans, it's no longer a trusted platform like it once was. It could be said that one aspect of the buyout was motivated by the trust it had, but that he's surely sinking that trust with his actions. That who thing with the blue checkmark had eroded much of the trust, and it's not something that's easy to build back up as it had been built up over at least a decade.

The CBS thing was BIZARRE considering they announce it late Friday and by Sunday it was gone. I'm posting in R&P about it because it just reinforces that trust is evaporating all around now.

You mean the announcement itself was gone by Sunday?

Edit: I don't know if the original was removed but more I mean then they announced they had "unpaused". Whoever made the call on Friday was clearly overridden by Sunday. There are other political aspects I dropped in the other thread but strange things are happening at CBS News.

Yeah, very strange indeed. Almost like they were pressured.

https://twitter.com/KelseyTuoc/status/1 ... 2538108929

That sounds rather awkward.

Musk proving himself to be a more detestable human by the day at this point.

https://twitter.com/mmasnick/status/1595337555612168192

When you're rich enough to afford the biggest megaphone...

Not only that, he seems to want to be on the news everyday. Honestly, I wish concerned investors would force him out as CEO and put someone else in place. He can still own it without being such a man-child. There has to be a point where the board stands up and says enough is enough. Then again, he's dissolved them... But in an ordinary situation, I think that's what would happen.

His every action at this point is dictated by spite.

You got that right. Like a cartoon villain. Only most cartoon villains have more depth and integrity than he does.

And have a plan that would work if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

This plan lets those kids kick back in the van and worry about their munchies while it self-meddles.

hepcat wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 9:48 pm His every action at this point is dictated by spite.

Missed this nugget yesterday

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1596268804413476864

If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk
should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?

I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone