Elon Musk now owns 9.2% of twitter...update.. will soon be the sole owner as Board of Directors accepts his purchase offer

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Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,284
10,882
136
I'm shocked I see so much discussion about the cost factor and free speech and little about why verification became needed so badly in the first place. What harms were being done that necessitated it's implementation.
People present as real people on Twitter so at least for some people it's important to know they are who they claim to be. If you had 100% verification people may also have a bit more modesty and self regulation before spewing hate speech.

I personally prefer forums anonymous but with a pseudo identity.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,156
21,281
136
Odds of this going well/working out are vanishingly small.


View attachment 70376

Different numbers are floating around but the consensus is Musk is going to be laying off a lot of employees, not to mention the talent drain that happened between him announcing the purchase but before completing it, because enough people see that ultimately the guy is full of shit and a POS, and some key talent that left just after he purchased.

Some feature updates to Twitter could work out well, but not without enough talent and definitely not in the haphazard half-assed way Musk is doing it. Should be a spectacular dumpster fire most likely.
 

Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
20,971
5,593
136
LOL. We may have found our common ground. Am I brining the popcorn or are you?
Kettle corn? I know it's out of fashion, but I like it.
The reality is that someone will start up a competing service that leans left. With any luck all of them will fail, and the world will be a better place because of it.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,246
37,666
136
Different numbers are floating around but the consensus is Musk is going to be laying off a lot of employees, not to mention the talent drain that happened between him announcing the purchase but before completing it, because enough people see that ultimately the guy is full of shit and a POS, and some key talent that left just after he purchased.

Some feature updates to Twitter could work out well, but not without enough talent and definitely not in the haphazard half-assed way Musk is doing it. Should be a spectacular dumpster fire most likely.

About half it looks like. Many people are reportedly hoping to be laid off so they get severance and don't have to work for him.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,675
8,579
136
I'm shocked I see so much discussion about the cost factor and free speech and little about why verification became needed so badly in the first place. What harms were being done that necessitated it's implementation.

I thought it was just that people were pretending to be various celebrities and attracting followers on that basis?

(Not that I've ever used Twitter, apart from occasionally clicking on embeds on here)

What happens when there are multiple celebrities with the same name, incidentally? Like, how is Brian Cox the physics populariser distinguished from Brian Cox the actor, given they'd both presumably qualify for 'blue ticks'?
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,675
8,579
136
If anyone is interested in this guy’s idea of free speech and how it will end up this is a good thread. He thought he was invincible and decided to buy his favorite media platform at enormous cost and never thought about the consequences.

Yup, that description is _exactly_ how I would have imagined these things go, when people start off claiming to be 'free speech absolutists'. (Well, almost exactly, I imagined stage one would be a site drowning in spam-bots, but I guess I'm underestimating how much vile behaviour is out there)
 

akugami

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2005
6,009
2,344
136
I'm no genius investor but Facebook's core products are losing popularity rapidly and the 'metaverse' seems pretty half-baked. They have all the money in the world so maybe they can turn it around but ugh... I don't know.

Although maybe my view is biased by the fact that Facebook and Instagram are terrible products that make the world a worse place so I would be happy if they went away.

Facebook: Look, I know the metaverse is half-baked, but I promise we'll get legs in there soon! Then we'll be fully cooked!
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
17,132
14,509
146
Facebook: Look, I know the metaverse is half-baked, but I promise we'll get legs in there soon! Then we'll be fully cooked!
Until I can have a sword fight with Katanas in the Metaverse ala Snow Crash I ain’t joining.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,359
8,456
126
Yup, that description is _exactly_ how I would have imagined these things go, when people start off claiming to be 'free speech absolutists'. (Well, almost exactly, I imagined stage one would be a site drowning in spam-bots, but I guess I'm underestimating how much vile behaviour is out there)
i was on a board where the owner lost a lawsuit about whether the board constituted software he had developed while under an employment contract (somehow his lawyer did a real bad job of explaining that installing a message board is pretty much the same as installing word, not developing word). so he announced he and the other mods were going to stop moderating. 30 minutes later every thread was full of scat porn.

it really does not take long for even a small part of a userbase to turn everything to shit, literally.
 
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Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
12,768
2,544
126
Odds of this going well/working out are vanishingly small.


View attachment 70376

So this required payment to get or retain a blue check, which is being sold as required for verification, isn't going to have verification? This continues to get even more bizarre. Sounds like a way to have Russian bot farms financially support Twitter.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,710
51,001
136
So this required payment to get or retain a blue check, which is being sold as required for verification, isn't going to have verification? This continues to get even more bizarre. Sounds like a way to have Russian bot farms financially support Twitter.
This seems like a case where people in a bubble have convinced themselves that these blue checks are a lot more valuable than they really are. I think they will be shocked at how few people take them up on this offer.
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,736
126
It's a $44B experiment that I find interesting to watch. I've always considered twitter to be little more than monkeys throwing shit at each other, so I don't much care how to pans out.
It seems like someone along the way would have penciled this out and questioned the viability of spending $44B on a used septic tank.
Can't believe musk's financial advisors thought $44B was a great price to buy.
 
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Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
20,971
5,593
136
Can't believe musk's financial advisors thought $44B was a great price to buy.
Hard to say how that played out. Back when google bought youtube for over a billion dollars I thought it was the stupidest acquisition in the history of ever, but it ended up working out.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,246
37,666
136
Hard to say how that played out. Back when google bought youtube for over a billion dollars I thought it was the stupidest acquisition in the history of ever, but it ended up working out.

Now do Tumblr.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,246
37,666
136
One thing is for sure when this goes tits up Musk is going to blame everybody but himself even if it doesn’t make any sense.
 
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Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
20,971
5,593
136
I get the distinct sense this was done against all advice. For example no lawyer would ever recommend waiving due diligence.
When your net worth fly's past two hundred billion it's probably pretty easy to start thinking you're the smartest guy on the planet. While it's pretty tough for me to see a return on that investment, that doesn't mean there won't be one.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
97,032
16,250
126
When your net worth fly's past two hundred billion it's probably pretty easy to start thinking you're the smartest guy on the planet. While it's pretty tough for me to see a return on that investment, that doesn't mean there won't be one.

err, 44B is a big chunk of change.
 

Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
20,971
5,593
136
err, 44B is a big chunk of change.
To you and I it's unimaginable wealth, to someone looking at their portfolio and seeing the bottom line, it's reality. That has to have an effect on your world view. Pissing away $44B is annoying, but not life changing. Musk could do it five times and still be fabulously wealthy.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
97,032
16,250
126
To you and I it's unimaginable wealth, to someone looking at their portfolio and seeing the bottom line, it's reality. That has to have an effect on your world view. Pissing away $44B is annoying, but not life changing. Musk could do it five times and still be fabulously wealthy.

It's 20% of his networth. Not exactly pocket change. And I don't see how he can recoup that.