Musk offers to buy Twitter

[lizkat]

I suspect Trump is much amused at Musk's problems

Maybe, but that's likely quite temporary.

Right about now I figure Jack Smith's wife is who's not at all amused. Wonder if she insisted that Smith carve out time for Thanksgiving dinner.... before he starts carving up that other turkey that just landed on his plate thanks to AG Garland.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Maybe, but that's likely quite temporary.

Right about now I figure Jack Smith's wife is who's not at all amused. Wonder if she insisted that Smith carve out time for Thanksgiving dinner.... before he starts carving up that other turkey that just landed on his plate thanks to AG Garland.

yup, Musk isn't the only billionaire with a lot of worry on his plate this Thanksgiving

 

[Huntn]

If a server gets defederated, there’s a pretty good chance that there’s a good reason for it (like when a server full of nazis gets defederated).

If you stick to one of the bigger servers, chances are good that you’ll always be connected to the vast majority of non-garbage servers).

But who is overseeing this if anyone?

 

[lizkat]

But who is overseeing this if anyone?

The admin of each server gets to defederate other servers as he sees fit. Each instance has guidelines and rules... and users tend to report stuff that doesn't fit their expectations when they joined up. So if the admin notices (or sees reports of) a lot of stuff that would be violations of his rules, coming from some other particular instance, he may just deny that server access.

 

[Cmaier]

But who is overseeing this if anyone?

Whoever runs a particular server gets to decide on its own membership, moderation, and incoming federation rules. So you can have one server that contains all nazis and allows only hate speech, and another server that bans all hate speech and won’t allow nazis, and each can decide whether to federate with the other.

 

[Huntn]

Whoever runs a particular server gets to decide on its own membership, moderation, and incoming federation rules. So you can have one server that contains all nazis and allows only hate speech, and another server that bans all hate speech and won’t allow nazis, and each can decide whether to federate with the other.

Hmm so misinfo is allowed to flourish where the Nazis takeover. This does not sound appealing to me.

 

[Cmaier]

Hmm so misinfo is allowed to flourish where the Nazis takeover. This does not sound appealing to me.

But you would have no exposure to it. Your posts wouldn’t appear there. Their posts wouldn’t appear to anyone on whatever server you are on. Each server is it’s its own service.

 

[Eric]

But you would have no exposure to it. Your posts wouldn’t appear there. Their posts wouldn’t appear to anyone on whatever server you are on. Each server is it’s its own service.

This is how I see it as well, it's not truly a unified (federated) network that way. Each server is it's own platform running the same software, just like a bunch of owners run Xenforo (this board software), we each require our own server, hardware, etc. The only difference is users can follow each other across platforms which is still wonky and a bit confusing.

IMO this is not nearly as ready for prime time or as streamlined as Twitter is but it is the current fad/alternative.

 

[lizkat]

IMO this is not nearly as ready for prime time or as streamlined as Twitter is but it is the current fad/alternative.

It starts to get funky if you follow (and interact with) a number of accounts on even a few different instances. You only see the first few replies to a post by someone not local, and then you have to click into that site to pursue the rest of it if interested. In short order you can end up with a bunch of tabs open for that reason, which is annoying.

And where your own posts get seen is also kinda flaky. They explain it in an umbrella guide about Mastodon and even have a graphical layout, but in practice it does feel sorta hit-or-miss. At least they made it so you can follow hashtags, not just individual accounts, although I don't know if you can add a hashtag to your follows from a phone. possibly only when you're using a browser on a desktop/laptop where there's a columnar layout. i didn't see a way to do it from the Metatext app.

It's a novelty but not very efficient so far, and kinda makes me wish someone would take Twitter off Musk's hands, although that platform must be damaged goods by now with all those staff cuts.

 

[dada_dave]

Some are saying Post might be an alternative, but it’s still in beta and the devs appear to be scrambling to get it up to scratch. In their own words, they thought had more time but things moved faster than they anticipated.

 

[Cmaier]

Some are saying Post might be an alternative, but it’s still in beta and the devs appear to be scrambling to get it up to scratch. In their own words, they thought had more time but things moved faster than they anticipated.

I set up my post account today. Played around with it for a bit, but there isn’t really anyone I’m interested in following yet.

 

[Eric]

So, exactly the same as it was only with different colors?



It's only painful because it's unnecessarily self inflicted.

 

[lizkat]

Some are saying Post might be an alternative, but it’s still in beta and the devs appear to be scrambling to get it up to scratch. In their own words, they thought had more time but things moved faster than they anticipated.

There must be a couple thousand software engineers at liberty to lend a hand to Post if asked....

 

[fischersd]

There must be a couple thousand software engineers at liberty to lend a hand to Post if asked....

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure they're all saying "fuck my non-compete and NDA that I signed at Twitter". . There will be companies in the Bay Area that benefit greatly from Musk's recklessness.

 

[lizkat]

As for the bird site, only verification I'd care about now is that the chief homewrecker just up and left.

So, exactly the same as it was only with different colors?



It's only painful because it's unnecessarily self inflicted.

Yeah and because there's nothing to keep proud extremists from gettin' their blue check...

Is the new verification system going to be how Musk monetizes the platform? Good luck w that. Not sure the average extremist feels like shelling out for the privilege of slinging stuff on new Twitter that he could sling on Trump's platform for free as long as can put up with the deluge of solicitations to donate.

More brand advertisers have left Twitter. More corporations would leave if they could figure out where to land. Elon knows that so figures he can take his sweet time experimenting with what might bring in some dough if he doesn't mind shelling out meanwhile to keep the lights on, but he does mind that...


So he'll keep trying to jam something together that looks to corporations like they could live with it (an erroneous decision for so many reasons).

I could still be surprised if he doesn't get shut down pretty soon by regulators over data privacy and illegal content (not "decency" or copyright infringement) issues, unless he's smart enough to beef up security and moderation, or at least put in some chiefs of those functions and a communications office.

 

[SuperMatt]

Is the new verification system going to be how Musk monetizes the platform? Good luck w that. Not sure the average extremist feels like shelling out for the privilege of slinging stuff on new Twitter that he could sling on Trump's platform for free as long as can put up with the deluge of solicitations to donate.

I read an analysis on this. The ~150,000 users who bought blue checkmarks were some of the top 1% of users. The company was making about $40-$50 a month on ads per user targeted at these users. So $8 is a big step down, as we see advertisers are fleeing the platform. Even if advertisers stayed, Musk said he’d cut your ads in half if you buy the checkmark. So he’d throw away $25 a month to make $8 a month.

He’s not a genius. He inherited mega-bucks and has been “managed” away from danger by the real experts in the companies he bought. In this case, he’s told all the experts to F off, and the result is a $44 billion dumpster fire.

 

[SuperMatt]

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure they're all saying "fuck my non-compete and NDA that I signed at Twitter". . There will be companies in the Bay Area that benefit greatly from Musk's recklessness.

Does Twitter still have a legal team? I’m guessing they might not have the resources to pursue thousands of non-compete clauses.

 

[Huntn]

Is Musky in over his head?

 

[lizkat]

Is Musky in over his head?

Really he should just flip Twitter ASAP to some idiotic vulture capital outfiti and move on unless there's some advantage (I can't really see it) to going chapter 11 and ending up not managing it personally in receivership anyway.

He puts Tesla shareholders at increased risk by how he has behaved with Twitter, and given that some of his own Tesla shares are pledged as collateral for his loans to buy Twitter. And... he has had to sell off some more to keep Twitter running. Tesla has had to note this risk in its own SEC filings. If the banks make a margin call then Musk is in big trouble, although he's often used Tesla holdings as collateral in the past and got by with it all right.

The WaPo ran a piece back in the spring about some of his machinations and plans at the time on how to use Tesla holdings to underwrite his eventual Twitter buy. Worth the read even now just for the reactions of some bankers and investment firms.

Elon Musk is worth $270 billion. He’d buy Twitter with an IOU. (paywall removed)

At times, half of Musk’s Tesla stake has been collateral for his loans. His Twitter bid would add to the percentage.

Musk first revealed he had purchased a more than 9 percent stake in Twitter earlier this month. He flirted with the idea of a board seat before launching a hostile takeover bid a week ago.

“This is all so unorthodox,” said Benjamin Black, the New York-based co-head of Internet research at Deutsche Bank. “It fits the character — we just don’t know what to make of it.”

“If there’s one thing that Elon doesn’t want to do it’s sort of mess up investor confidence in Tesla, which is the crown jewel of all of his holdings,” he added.

This Twitter purchase though --as finally consummated-- is not working out for the bank lenders as they thought it would, and who knows what's in the loan covenants regarding their expectations or Musk's obligations. All the lenders see is that they can't get the debt off their balance sheets yet, and they would have hoped to have securitized it and sold it off by now. But hey, it's only around 13 billion dollars...

How any of the lending banks with consumer arms will deal with their own Musk-related risk is probably jack up interest rates on mortgages and consumer credit cards past what's needed to keep up with Fed rate hikes. Pretty soon Joe Sixpack can borrow money on the street at a less usurious rate as long as he has sturdy kneecaps or some connected friends.

Edit: to provide more context via link to a WaPo piece back in the spring.

 

[Pumbaa]

Can’t imagine why advertisers are dropping Twitter or why Tesla shareholders are worrying. Not at all.


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