Musk offers to buy Twitter

[Nycturne]

That’s been my experience too. I had to actually block Kevin Sorbo for Twitter to stop recommending me his turds. Still get lots of other US far-right extremist tweets recommended. No idea why.

Engagement!

 

[Pumbaa]

Engagement!

Not sure clicking “see less often” is the kind of engagement they’re after.

 

[Eric]

Not sure clicking “see less often” is the kind of engagement they’re after.

This happened to me all the time, even with users I've never engaged in any way, think their algorithms believe you want to see them and could not be more wrong. Regardless the "see less tweets" or whatever never worked so you're forced to block them.

 

[Nycturne]

That was meant to be a bit tounge in cheek, but the algorithm does reward engagement by bubbling those tweets up to others. It’s not looking for positive engagement, just engagement. So people screaming at each other is just as valid as people fawning over some piece of artwork that got shared. And this does seem to create a noticeable right-wing bias in results as well as amplification of political content in general.

Examining algorithmic amplification of political content on Twitter

As we shared earlier this year, we believe it’s critical to study the effects of machine learning (ML) on the public conversation and share our findings publicly.

blog.twitter.com

 

[lizkat]

Sometimes Twitter offers to unclutter your feed a little. You to have to poke around and see what works. I've managed a few times to ditch posts relayed via "Jody follows" or "Jody liked" just by indicating on the relayed post that I'm "not interested in this tweet" and then it puts up some options about it to refine what your concern was At that point and at least once, I then got an offer along lines of "show fewer tweets from people Jody follows".

It would be SO much simpler if these platforms would 1) just go ahead sticking promo tweets in, we all know there's no free lunch... and 2) otherwise make everything opt-in except whatever you already follow past accounts (like topics, or categories etc).

They could still let you opt to follow more stuff. Great if they would just not apply a ton of algos to try to derive what to stick ya with, if you happen not to be following anything but individual accounts.

Business-wise: When I run into enough stuff in a short time that I did not opt to have in my feed, I just bail. I'm not talking about promos / ads. I don't care about those, but I don't hang out on the net on a coffee break just to be aggravated by other tweets not the result of my own curation. How does annoying me enough to ditch a session in 3 minutes help Twitter monetize what we do see?

 

[Alli]

And now Musk’s backers don’t want to back him anymore to buy Twitter. So the whole thing could be off again by the end of the day, and Twitter’s lawsuit will continue, leaving Elon very poor. I’m good with that.

 

[lizkat]

The moment he came up with the idea for the app and decided to tweet it, basically.

View attachment 18220

And now Musk’s backers don’t want to back him anymore to buy Twitter. So the whole thing could be off again by the end of the day, and Twitter’s lawsuit will continue, leaving Elon very poor. I’m good with that.

Yep. So much has been revealed about the flighty approach Musk took even coming up to "deciding" to make an offer.. and then all his "maybe-maybeNot" process, and meanwhile the Fed has jacked up rates like three times, and the seven big banks who wanted in on it are like uh, uh.... and some hedge funds already stopped talking with Musk.

Elon Musk’s Revived Twitter Deal Could Saddle Banks With Big Losses

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter would be paid for in part with $13 billion of debt seven banks including Morgan Stanley and Barclays agreed to provide. They could now face $500 million in losses if they tried to unload all the debt.

www.wsj.com

The banks that signed up to provide a ton of the financing are still flush with all those capital reserves the post recession regulations made them stack up. But that doesn't mean they signed up meaning to lose money. They meant to unload the debt, not hold it, but the market for that is bad now: they would lose hundreds of millions if they had to sell it, and it's still unclear what Musk even means to do with the platform.

It's not simple to develop the equivalent of an "everything" app like China has in WeChat, off a platform like Twitter with a much smaller base and only a social media aspect at present. Also, some of the other financing for the Twitter deal involves a few billion in unsecured bonds, and the appetite for those is fading fast in the current environment.

This thing could still land in court and the judge seems to realize that. And you know there's still Musk having to sell down Tesla to make the bulk of the financing, what does that say about prospects for his having to unload other stuff. Markets down on other issues too. This guy, gee, would you even want to be in any part of his org chart?!

 

[Alli]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1578109375637602306/

Just gets better and better.

 

[Runs For Fun]

12ft

 

[lizkat]

12ft

Welp... he's got more time than a week. The judge just said until Oct 28th, and if he doesn't have a deal wrapped up by then the trial will be sometime in November...

Judge delays Twitter trial, gives Musk time to seal buyout

A judge has delayed a looming trial between Twitter and Elon Musk, giving the Tesla CEO more time to close his $44 billion deal to buy the company after months spent fighting to get out of it.

apnews.com

 

[Eric]

12ft

I think it's partially right that it will turn into a Conservative cesspool but I don't think it will hand Trump a win. Nothing Twitter can do to move those the middle and that's what it will take for Trump to win again, nobody outside of his nutjob base is going to vote for him again, especially now.

 

[Runs For Fun]

I think it's partially right that it will turn into a Conservative cesspool but I don't think it will hand Trump a win. Nothing Twitter can do to move those the middle and that's what it will take for Trump to win again, nobody outside of his nutjob base is going to vote for him again, especially now.

Yeah I don't think it's going to give Trump a win. Sounds a bit hyperbolic to me. But I could definitely see it turning into a RW cesspool.

 

[Pumbaa]

Yeah I don't think it's going to give Trump a win. Sounds a bit hyperbolic to me. But I could definitely see it turning into a RW cesspool.

My notifications in the app today…

 

[Eric]

My notifications in the app today…

View attachment 18269

Total dumpster fire, they can have it.

 

[Pumbaa]

Total dumpster fire, they can have it.

Yeah. For multiple reasons…

On my home screen (or whatever they call it), I checked the 20 first posts.

12 completely unsolicited tweets
4 ads
4 tweets posted or liked by people I follow

I’m not even seeing most of the tweets by the few people I actually follow. Whats the frigging point?!

 

[Yoused]

Whats the frigging point?

if the service is free you are the product

 

[lizkat]

I work off a browser when using Twitter so when I log in, I then head straight to a list that is nothing but the Twitter accounts for home page of each of the online newspapers to which I subscribe. From there I launch into the websites of the papers themselves depending on tweets about stories I might find compelling.

The Twitter tab sits there patiently waiting for me to remember that I also follow some birdwatchers and so to return and check out my Home feed.

Sometimes I can delay getting annoyed by twitter-algo crap in my own feed for awhile by clicking on the owner of a bird photo tweet by someone I follow, and scrolling through that person's tweets and retweets for awhile.

But yeah, it doesn't take long before I run into one of Twitters blasted algo-inserted tweets

by someone who liked a tweet posted by someone who follows a WSJ reporter...​

​

and the first time I see one of those humdingers, I'm outta there and Twitter is lucky if I don't go back and find that reporter and unfollow him or her...

 

[Eric]

This sleazebag needs to keep his bipolar ass out of politics.

Elon Musk Spoke to Putin Before Tweeting Ukraine Peace Plan: Report

The world’s richest man spoke directly with Vladimir Putin, Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer reported. Musk denied the report in a tweet.

www.vice.com

Elon Musk Spoke to Putin Before Tweeting Ukraine Peace Plan: Report​

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1576969255031296000/

 

[Herdfan]

This sleazebag needs to keep his bipolar ass out of politics.

Elon Musk Spoke to Putin Before Tweeting Ukraine Peace Plan: Report

The world’s richest man spoke directly with Vladimir Putin, Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer reported. Musk denied the report in a tweet.

www.vice.com

Elon Musk Spoke to Putin Before Tweeting Ukraine Peace Plan: Report​

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1576969255031296000/

Musk denies it.

Elon Musk denies report that he talked to Putin recently about Ukraine war

Ian Bremmer reported that the Tesla CEO had spoken to the Russian leader before tweeting about the war in Ukraine, but Musk denied it.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Yoused]

Musk denies it.

It was some damn good weed, man.