• onlooker
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      2 years ago

      No kidding. You think Twitter’s bad now? Just you wait. Consider that Musk is a thin-skinned egomaniac. Now consider that Twitter has one of the most vocal toxic people on the internet. This can only end well.

      • poVoq@slrpnk.net
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        2 years ago

        It can go both ways. Musk also managed to hire competent managers for SpaceX and does not seem to interfere too much in the day to day business of it (only the grand vision I guess).

    • Soviet Snake@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 years ago

      Came here to comment the same. A lot of left liberals and various kinds of anticapitalists will probably move and Mastodon luckily is the most thriving project in the fediverse.

        • Soviet Snake@lemmygrad.ml
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          2 years ago

          I don’t think it will die, or something, but probably there will be a moderate exodus, a big one if we are successful and the libre software activists know to take advantage of this opportunity and propagandize Mastodon.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      2 years ago

      Same, every time there is twitter drama fediverse gets an influx of users. And the more fediverse grows the more attractive it becomes to new users since there’s more content available. Mastodon has millions of users on it now, and it’s pretty vibrant. I think a lot of people leaving twitter will be pleasantly surprised by it.

  • Zerush
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    2 years ago

    The problem is that sometimes it is not avoidable to read a post on Twitter. Luckily there is Nitter redirect to do it. Too bad there is no equivalent front-end for Facebook (AFAIK), where you have to continue accessing with TOR, VPN, covered webcam, disinfectant spray, mask and rubber gloves.

  • mickie@jeremmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    He doesn’t buy a social network, he really bought was the best training engine for his artificial intelligence division (especially the one related to robots, which curiously seek to be “as human” as possible.

  • pingveno
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    2 years ago

    So on second thought, I think Elon is going to be forced to sell Twitter soon. Hear me out.

    While Elon is wealthy af, very little of that is liquid assets. The largest portion of his assets are tied up in Tesla stock. So if he’s doing a purchase like this, he either is selling Tesla stock or doing a leveraged buyout using the Tesla stock as backing. Problem is, Tesla’s value has dropped significantly year-over-year. Banks are reluctant to loan and Tesla stocks will be sold at a discount. And considering that Twitter is not a great investment to begin with, it eventually may be more advantageous to just get out of his little vanity social experiment.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      2 years ago

      It’s all going to depend on whether he figures out a way to monetize Twitter. One way that was floated before was to create a paid tier and use that as a source of revenue instead of ads and analytics. Cutting down 75% of employees and moving to this model could actually make Twitter profitable.

      • pingveno
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        2 years ago

        I’m curious where that 75% of employees would even come from. I have my doubts that they can just slice off 3/4 of their workforce and not jeopardize the long term viability of the company. Not to mention I assume tasks like reviewing reported tweets must be highly labor intensive.

        It looks like they have monetized their API. I can’t see how they monetize the actual UI itself.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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          2 years ago

          My experience is that SV companies tend to hire people as part of demonstrating growth to investors. Layoffs starting with the data engineering team is suggestive that they may deprioritize analytics going forward. Twitter having less moderation going forward is also highly likely. At the end of the day these companies just care that enough users stay on the platform to monetize. Remains to be seen where this goes, but it’s certainly possible for twitter to be profitable if they focus on direct monetization. For example, if they charge a fee for blue check accounts that could create a significant revenue.

          • pingveno
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            2 years ago

            The irony is that Twitter isn’t even really that big of a platform as Internet giants go. It has outsized influence because it’s the platform of choice for media outlets, journalists, celebrities, etc.

              • Daryl76679
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                2 years ago

                In fact, Techlore got banned from there and created their own update system complete with an RSS feed.

  • Zerush
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    2 years ago

    In any case, I would only worry if Musk buys Lemmy. I don’t think there are that many here who participate in Twitter or other Big Brother networks.

  • Bean
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    2 years ago

    it’s ridiculous to believe that musk will bring freedom back to twitter,it will be a disaster for freedom in our country

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      2 years ago

      The real disaster is that public forums like Twitter are owned by oligarchs in the first place. Which particular oligarchs happens to own Twitter is a far lesser concern.

      • Bean
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        2 years ago

        can’t agree anymore,just from one abyss to another

  • pingveno
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    2 years ago

    Elon: Okay, let’s poke some holes in this ship!