Social Media Discussion

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Oct 28, 2022 12:31 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Oct 28, 2022 12:21 pmReally, what's changed between these two?

https://nypost.com/2022/04/14/saudi-pri ... eover-bid/

It's global politics. Look at who the Saudis are aligning with/against and what Musk has been doing lately and it becomes clearer.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Oct 28, 2022 12:59 pm

gilraen wrote: ↑Fri Oct 28, 2022 11:29 am Welcome to hell, Elon.

I came in here to post that one. Nilay nails it. I see no path where this ends well for anyone involved. (Well, aside from the Twitter execs who just got canned--they get to avoid dealing with the aftermath while pocketing many tens of millions of bucks.)

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sat Oct 29, 2022 11:58 pm

Apparently Musk wants to cut the ropes on the golden parachutes. I'll give you a preview of what will happen. He'll pay the severances and their legal fees. What. A. Fucking, Moron.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 1:17 am

Hard to feel sorry for the executives who were going to get $20 to $60 million dollar golden parachutes.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 8:13 am

Oh I don't feel sorry for them. It's just dumb and they'll probably win. They got him to pay multiples of the real value for the company - they did a great job from a shareholder's point of view. This is pretty clearly about Musk being a sore "winner". I am assuming a bit here that 'thin skin' probably isn't a determining factor into whatever aligns with 'for cause' in the pertinent agreements.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:42 am

I'm sure this is all fine.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:48 am

A large number of people should just start posting disgusting things about Musk on twitter. Just keep hammering him with them. See what happens.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 11:26 am

"There is a tiny possibility that @elonmusk rapes farm animals"

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 11:41 am

hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:48 am A large number of people should just start posting disgusting things about Musk on twitter. Just keep hammering him with them. See what happens.

There's a guy that is posting a photo of Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell every day to see how long it takes him to get banned.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 11:53 am

malchior wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 8:13 am Oh I don't feel sorry for them. It's just dumb and they'll probably win. They got him to pay multiples of the real value for the company - they did a great job from a shareholder's point of view. This is pretty clearly about Musk being a sore "winner". I am assuming a bit here that 'thin skin' probably isn't a determining factor into whatever aligns with 'for cause' in the pertinent agreements.

And ironically their parachutes were paid for by Musk's inflated purchase money.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 1:01 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 11:41 am
hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:48 am A large number of people should just start posting disgusting things about Musk on twitter. Just keep hammering him with them. See what happens.
There's a guy that is posting a photo of Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell every day to see how long it takes him to get banned.

His first two tweets have already been taken down.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 1:15 pm

Much respect to whichever Tweep had the balls to take Musk’s tweets down.

Edit: may have misunderstood previous post and whose tweets were taken down.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 1:19 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 11:41 am
hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:48 am A large number of people should just start posting disgusting things about Musk on twitter. Just keep hammering him with them. See what happens.
There's a guy that is posting a photo of Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell every day to see how long it takes him to get banned.

This has happened on every post of Musk's for many months.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 1:21 pm

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:42 am I'm sure this is all fine.

I thought my red line for deleting my account was Trump's return to Twitter but this might just be it for me.

For me Twitter is the perfect "I have a few minutes to kill so let's see what's going on in the world" service. I'm not sure I can replace that with Reddit or some other social media site but it may be time to find out.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 2:05 pm

Twitter is my 'There is no other way to contact this company' tool. I doubt I'm logged in more than a few days per year.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:18 pm

Twitter has been an invaluable source of information for me - even before the pandemic - as I'm following all kinds of accounts and people that share things I'm interested in or need to know about. The problem now is that many of them are contemplating leaving Twitter because of what is going on and I'm not sure there's a consensus on where they're going to share info, if anywhere. So much of social media is trash but for me (someone that uses FB and Twitter mainly to get information related to hobbies/work) it's definitely going to be an issue if noise takes over. I know people hate FB but as someone that's just using it for hobby info (and using a pseudonym) it's been great. I made the mistake of using it as it was designed (to keep in touch with people you know) once a few months ago and I can totally see how it can distort reality.

I guess I don't really know what to say about all this other than losing sources of good information when bad actors take over or manipulate platforms is...not great.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 4:53 pm

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:42 am I'm sure this is all fine.

This has been referenced a bunch here. What did it say?

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 5:09 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 4:53 pm
Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:42 am I'm sure this is all fine.

This has been referenced a bunch here. What did it say?

He posted a conspiracy theory about the Paul Pelosi attacker.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:20 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 5:09 pm
LordMortis wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 4:53 pm
Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 10:42 am I'm sure this is all fine.

This has been referenced a bunch here. What did it say?
He posted a conspiracy theory about the Paul Pelosi attacker.

More specifically, he elevated and spread to his millions of followers the crank theory that Mr. Pelosi was attacked by male prostitute with whom he had had a dispute.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:24 pm

Sourced from an outfit which once ran a story in the 2016 election that Clinton died and the debate featured a "body double".

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:53 pm

And he was Musk who posted and then deleted, I'd guess?

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:55 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:53 pm And he was Musk who posted and then deleted, I'd guess?

Correct.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:57 pm

Wow. One would hope that post would be a 44 Billion dollar mistake but as we all know, none of it matters when you are one of the important people.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 7:21 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:57 pm Wow. One would hope that post would be a 44 Billion dollar mistake but as we all know, none of it matters when you are one of the important people.

Well, he was Just Asking Questions.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Sun Oct 30, 2022 7:30 pm

He probably had every intention of deleting it. Just more of his games.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:29 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 2:05 pm Twitter is my 'There is no other way to contact this company' tool. I doubt I'm logged in more than a few days per year.

That's a few days more than me! Twitter whore.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 12:05 am

Jeff V wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:29 pm
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 2:05 pm Twitter is my 'There is no other way to contact this company' tool. I doubt I'm logged in more than a few days per year.
That's a few days more than me! Twitter whore.

I signed up for Twitter and Facebook in the olden days, in order to market Curio City. I had some success with FB until they squelched small businesses' ability to reach customers for free. I soon learned that Twitter success required active human interaction. I gave up on it in the mid-aughts and never went back. Stuck with FB even after I deleted my business page.

Speaking of FB, a stranger sent me a friend request last week. She was friends with another FB friend that I just barely know. This woman already has nearly 800 FB friends so I would've just been another scalp for her belt. Why on earth would anybody want 800 FB friends? I have 85 and I feel like that's a lot, but I can at least identify all of them.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 2:47 am

Could be the sign of a cloned account. Those will try to pick up as many friends as they can and a high number is quite sketchy. Just a few weeks ago I got a friend request from a cloned account of someone I'm already friends with. I'm also leery of accounts that belong to over 100 groups, as nobody in their right mind would have time for so many.

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:02 am

FB says that I currently have a little over 600 friends and I don't think that's unusual at all. Between family, friends and working in an environment with a high number of people that frequently turn over, I've met and friended a lot of people during the 14 years that I've been on FB. Do I have consistently contact with all of them? No, but I bet I can still recognize every one if I look through the list.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:30 am

That’s a pretty bold claim.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:45 am

I finally deactivated my twitter acct after Elon "Twatter" Musk bought it. I never used it anyhow.

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:56 am

Unagi wrote:That’s a pretty bold claim.

When you consider that at least a couple hundred are people that I work closely with on a regular basis (or did for a number of years before they moved on), many are friends from school/college, and I have a very large family, I don't think it's that's bold at all. I've never been one to accept friends requests from people I don't actually know, and I have a generally very good memory. Are these people really "friends?" I may not see them all frequently, but that doesn't mean that I don't know who they are and something about their lives.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:01 am

Yeah I’m not challenging that they are true friends or anything like that.

I just think 600 is a lot of people to recall. I bet I would top out at around 100-200.

Certainly family and close friends and long time colleagues - but I’m impressed by that number - not doubting you.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:23 am

I have 125 FB friends, and I do periodic purges. With four or five exceptions, every one is somebody I know in real life, a relative, an old friend or coworker from the Elden Days, or someone I otherwise have an actual connection with. A handful are dead accounts from real life friends that I'd actually like to get in contact with again someday, so I keep them around as a reminder and on the off chance that they reactivate them.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:41 am

Mike Masnick has a great post at TechDirt summarizing in speedrun form the learning curve that Musk is going through right now.

It’s kind of a rite of passage for any new social media network. They show up, insist that they’re the “platform for free speech” without quite understanding what that actually means, and then they quickly discover a whole bunch of fairly fundamental ideas, institute a bunch of rapid (often sloppy) changes… and in the end, they basically all end up in the same general vicinity, with just a few small differences on the margin. Look, I went through it myself. In the early days I insisted that sites shouldn’t do any moderation at all, including my own. But I learned. As did Parler, Gettr, Truth Social and lots of others.

Anyway, Elon’s in a bit of a different position, because rather than starting something new, he’s taken over a large platform. I recognize that he, his buddies, and a whole lot of other people think that Twitter is especially bad at this, and that he’s got some special ideas for “bringing free speech back,” but the reality is that Twitter was, by far, the most successful platform at taking a “we support free speech” stance for content, and learned over time the many nuances and tradeoffs involved.

And because I do hope that Musk succeeds and Twitter remains viable, I wanted to see if we might help him (and anyone else) speed run the basics of the content moderation learning curve that most newbies run into. The order of the levels and the seriousness of each can change over time, and how it all fits together may be somewhat different, but, in the end, basically every major social media platform ends up in this same place eventually (the place Twitter was already at when Musk insisted he needed to tear things down and start again).

Level One: “We’re the free speech platform! Anything goes!”

Cool. Cool. The bird is free! Everyone rejoice.

“Excuse me, boss, we’re getting reports that there are child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSAM) images and videos on the site.”

Oh shit. I guess we should take that down.

...

Level Twenty: “Look, we’re just a freaking website. Can’t you people behave?”

Congratulations, you have completed the game…. Just kidding! It never ends. It only gets worse, and you will make mistakes, and people will get mad and personally blame you and insist that you are deliberately trying to “censor” their brilliant ideas, and advertisers will get mad, and politicians will pressure you into doing their bidding, and the media will criticize every mistake. You own a social network. Isn’t it fun?

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:56 am

I saw that yesterday and it was a fun read. It'll be interesting to see where Twitter ends up.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 1:56 pm

disarm wrote: ↑Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:56 am
Unagi wrote:That’s a pretty bold claim.
When you consider that at least a couple hundred are people that I work closely with on a regular basis (or did for a number of years before they moved on), many are friends from school/college, and I have a very large family, I don't think it's that's bold at all. I've never been one to accept friends requests from people I don't actually know, and I have a generally very good memory. Are these people really "friends?" I may not see them all frequently, but that doesn't mean that I don't know who they are and something about their lives.

Same here. Between people I know and hobby groups I have somewhere in this range too and I know each one of them. I don't talk to all of them regularly but I typically can remember the last time I saw them generally, etc. If I was to count across platforms it probably is a little higher. I don't think it's that unusual nowadays. We had a friend living with us who had a friends list with 2000+ people. That's where it gets into wacky/excessive to me.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 5:29 pm

Can anyone create a Twitter account with the name Elon Musk?

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 7:46 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Nov 03, 2022 12:05 am
Jeff V wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:29 pm
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 2:05 pm Twitter is my 'There is no other way to contact this company' tool. I doubt I'm logged in more than a few days per year.
That's a few days more than me! Twitter whore.
I signed up for Twitter and Facebook in the olden days, in order to market Curio City. I had some success with FB until they squelched small businesses' ability to reach customers for free. I soon learned that Twitter success required active human interaction. I gave up on it in the mid-aughts and never went back. Stuck with FB even after I deleted my business page.

Speaking of FB, a stranger sent me a friend request last week. She was friends with another FB friend that I just barely know. This woman already has nearly 800 FB friends so I would've just been another scalp for her belt. Why on earth would anybody want 800 FB friends? I have 85 and I feel like that's a lot, but I can at least identify all of them.

I seem to have 361 "friends." Many are Filipinos, who friend me and I only accept when they are connected to one of my wife's family members. Or are ridiculously cute. Not so much the latter anymore.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:16 pm

Looks like a 50% "haircut" at twitter on Friday. I've witnessed too many of these sorts of mass extinction events to be able to hold rational feelings about the process or how folks (survivors or those cut free) shall be affected. I do feel for the thousands of newly unemployed, and while it is fortunate that the job market is still relatively hot at the moment, this isn't what any of them wanted.

I have mixed feelings about media corporations and the need to drive profit, but I have even stronger feelings about government-sponsored media. I see no palatable solutions in the internet age without a rather significant paradigm shift. Maybe it will turn out that this is the first step towards that shift. I'm not particularly optimistic.