The train wreck that is Twitter

[Raz0rEdge]

I hope you'll have been watching the absolute chaos going on with Twitter with its acquisition. I'm not a big proponent of social networks (small tirade: they make us more anti-social and in some cases actually cause harm), but use them just to get a pulse of whats happening. I do my own research and learning about topics that are of interest to me.

With the trolls parodying everything and the debacle that is now the verified accounts, it's just comical.

Makes you wonder the mental state of an individual who convinces a number of banks and other investors to give him many billions of dollars only to ensure that the acquired thing explodes quickly.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I find the whole thing utterly hilarious, yet sad for Twitter's staff whose lives have been upended and ruined in many cases over this chaos. Even Tesla is taking a hit since he had to cash out some stock. It really makes me question just how much of a "genius" Musk ever really was. He's certainly a sociopath.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Agreed LiB, I really feel for the 50% of the staff that went through the layoff and now the people left who are working with crazy changes around them. A lot of leadership seems to have bailed, so I imagine not long before the rest start looking, but a lot of places have hiring freezes, so they might not have many options.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Agreed LiB, I really feel for the 50% of the staff that went through the layoff and now the people left who are working with crazy changes around them. A lot of leadership seems to have bailed, so I imagine not long before the rest start looking, but a lot of places have hiring freezes, so they might not have many options.

Anyone with half a brain should be bailing. Easier said than done, of course, but this ship is sinking fast. I don't know if anyone could have predicted just how badly this has gone and there's no righting the ship. Musk clearly not only has no plan, but no real clue and too much of a sociopath to defer to people who do. I'd bet on Twitter being sold off in the next 6 months in a fire sale, and further gutted from there as any real talent that know the system will be long gone.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

There's already been talk of bankruptcy to do something with the company, which isn't reassuring for sure. Gotta wonder if there's some play here at making money through these sorts of "deals".

The issue isn't that people don't want to bail, there's nowhere to bail to. Being in the same hi-tech industry, every employer right now has a hiring freeze or layoff (Meta laid off 11k people) and folks from Twitter will want to go to other public companies that will pay their expected salaries which isn't going to happen right now.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

There's already been talk of bankruptcy to do something with the company, which isn't reassuring for sure. Gotta wonder if there's some play here at making money through these sorts of "deals".

The issue isn't that people don't want to bail, there's nowhere to bail to. Being in the same hi-tech industry, every employer right now has a hiring freeze or layoff (Meta laid off 11k people) and folks from Twitter will want to go to other public companies that will pay their expected salaries which isn't going to happen right now.

Nah, I don't think there's any hidden deal. Musk made a knee-jerk reaction with his bid to buy Twitter and had no pots when reality set in, as the saying goes. And yeah, like I said, jumping ship is easier said than done, but Twitter is done. There's no way it will survive in its current form. Sucks for these employees, but I think we're in a tech-bubble-burst much like what happened back around 2000. These things are cyclical... unlimited growth simply isn't a thing and sometimes venture capitalists invest in the wrong things (will Uber ever be profitable to make up for years of steep losses? Nah). I think Apple will eventually get a reality check also. Just look at how they are now exploring upping their ad game for more revenue. I for one am NOT happy about how this bodes for the future.

 

[pigoo3]

Musk is both a dictator & a media-attention drama-queen. Twitter would probably be fine if Musk had never gotten involved.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I just came across this timeline of events since Musk took over Twitter. There is a lot of detail glossed over in most else I've read. WOW!

Inside the Twitter meltdown

Elon is speaking. VPs are resigning. Is bankruptcy next?

www.platformer.news

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I may have been overly optimistic about Twitter lasting 6 months.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1593425305464541186

Sooo I’m told by two people that the entirety of Twitters payroll department has resigned/not elected to sign up for Elons Twitter 2.0

Is there an example of a company burning down to the ground as quickly as Twitter is? Anything remotely comparable? This is just nuts.

 

[krs]

So in a short while all these Twitter conversations are just going to vanish.

Where do people go then to do their "twittering"?

 

[techiesteve]

Due to a whim Musk brought utter chaos and likely economic collapse to Twitter. Unfortunately these things do happen, much as the last UK Prime Minister Truss and her total economic mismanagement of our economy. It's always a mystery to me how the instigator's of these chaotic events don't seem to grasp what they are getting into when bystanders can. I feel for the people who are now struggling economically from the fallout.

 

[MadAboutMacs]

One of my kids has set up a Mastodon account as an alternative to Twitter. Whether Mastodon is a viable alternative I don’t know yet. As for Musk …….

 

[Groovetube]

I’ve heard about mastodon as well. I suspect that either it, or similar may take over perhaps in future. It will take time perhaps, but people are tired of the zucks, Musks, etc. and decentralized social networks may at some point become more popular. Someone will try to monetize it of course.

I’ve never been a fan of Musk, and while I’d like to declare him stupid given the recent antics, I somehow feel like there’s more to this story. It also could be that he’s a total dimwit and we’re finally seeing this manifest itself

 

[toMACsh]

Well, maybe someone will finally get around to properly naming the posts one makes on Twitter. How did anyone get "Tweets" out of that? Shouldn't it be twits instead? Well, in some cases, with a capital-T, it would describe the individuals making the posts.

 

[krs]

Things are heating up

Musk feuds with Apple over Twitter advertising

Elon Musk says Apple has cut Twitter advertising and has threatened to remove it from the app store.

www.bbc.com

 

[MacInWin]

Seems to me that Apple could well be on the losing side of this one. They already have a black eye over caving in to Chinese government demands to restrict functions on iPhone in China (AirDrop, for example). And for recent disclosures that their definition of "privacy" is slightly skewed. And, they are under pressure in Europe because of the monopoly of the Apple Stores, adding to the bad press. And at home for using Chinese labor to make the phones in the first place.

Musk could decide to have his own mobile phone company, one that promises no restrictions and high privacy, and as long as it is sufficiently capable, take a lot of Apple's customers away on their flagship product. They need to tread very softly in this one.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Seems to me that Apple could well be on the losing side of this one. They already have a black eye over caving in to Chinese government demands to restrict functions on iPhone in China (AirDrop, for example). And for recent disclosures that their definition of "privacy" is slightly skewed. And, they are under pressure in Europe because of the monopoly of the Apple Stores, adding to the bad press. And at home for using Chinese labor to make the phones in the first place.

Musk could decide to have his own mobile phone company, one that promises no restrictions and high privacy, and as long as it is sufficiently capable, take a lot of Apple's customers away on their flagship product. They need to tread very softly in this one.

The only way Musk could/would create a viable phone that would have any traction is to create an Android based phone. But he'd have to avoid using the official version and use AOSP to be able to do whatever he wants. That also means that he'd have to setup his own app store and source it from other places to get it going.

It's a lot of hot air speaking, there's not much backing up that bark.

 

[Groovetube]

I agree. The likelihood of Musk creating a new phone platform that will have any effect of apple's numbers is pretty low in my opinion.

I think Musk is going to end up walking away from twitter and hand it off before it completely devolves into a complete collapse.

 

[Rod]

I've never been a big Twitter user although there are a few people I do follow eg. the Dalai Lama but honestly, social media is so full of opinionated users and trolls these days that apart from a few useful features like Facebook Birthday notifications and FB Messenger, WhatsApp which is the primary means of mobile communication here in Indonesia and Signal which I use for a few close friends I've pretty much stopped using social media. I cancelled my Instagram and SnapChat accounts.
I do use Reddit but I prefer forums like this one, MacRumors Forums and a few others where like minded people actually try to inform and assist others rather than polish their inflated egos at the expense of genuine users attempting to share their personal experiences and ideas.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Seems to me that Apple could well be on the losing side of this one. They already have a black eye over caving in to Chinese government demands to restrict functions on iPhone in China (AirDrop, for example). And for recent disclosures that their definition of "privacy" is slightly skewed. And, they are under pressure in Europe because of the monopoly of the Apple Stores, adding to the bad press. And at home for using Chinese labor to make the phones in the first place.

Musk could decide to have his own mobile phone company, one that promises no restrictions and high privacy, and as long as it is sufficiently capable, take a lot of Apple's customers away on their flagship product. They need to tread very softly in this one.

The flack Apple gets about "caving in" to demands by China are really unfair. Laws are laws, like them or not. Don't cave? Not only will you not be able to sell there, but possibly not even make them there. They aren't special... no one else can flout those laws and restrictions. And there are no practical alternatives to make them anywhere else. I read an interview with Tim Cook where he said the problem isn't "cheap labor". It's the lack of technical expertise needed in the workforce. China invested heavily in technical schools that provide the training for their people to be able to do the kind of technical work needed for assembly. The workforce simply doesn't exist anywhere else for the volumes needed.

And I very seriously doubt Musk is about to make an iPhone killer. His personal credibility is already damaged as it's becoming increasingly clear he's just a spoiled brat with a lot of money and not qutie the business genius he's been made out to be. I suspect he's been fortunate and smart enough in investing in what were nascent industries, but unless he can actually reinvent the smartphone, the existing players will eat his lunch.