Yishan Wong, a one-time CEO of Reddit, weighing in on Elon Musk possible running Twitter. Long thread, with an interesting and unique perspective. Lots of insight in between those two tweets.
I think if Elon takes over Twitter, he is in for a world of pain. He has no idea.
Let me be clear: if you run a large social network, you will be forced by inexorable circumstance to censor certain things, you will be forced to "arbitrate" on topics you have an (inevitably) limited understanding of, and it will all be really really shitty. <...> The process through which all of that will happen is painful, which is why I don't think Elon should do it. It is not a good use of his time, and I think his time is uniquely valuable and limited.
Interesting tangent that is also true for Google where it's often difficult to talk to a human.
Mostly, it's really because enforcement is hard, and there are LOTS of errors. There's a separate emerging problem (more FB than Twitter) where AI models make inhumane/dystopian judgments that can't be appealed, but that's a separate issue.
Interesting tangent that is also true for Google where it's often difficult to talk to a human.
If this goes through I think that becomes the day when I abandon my account, which I've mulled over and over about for quite a while now. I am on a mastodon instance and prefer it there anyway....
If this goes through I think that becomes the day when I abandon my account, which I've mulled over and over about for quite a while now. I am on a mastodon instance and prefer it there anyway.
I've been strongly curating my timeline and blocking/muting/etc to make my timeline and experience enjoyable. For the most part, it has worked. But I do not want to support the type of platform that someone like Musk envisions.
I have sort-of a twisted hope that if acquired by Musk, it negatively affects Twitter's popularity because I am already not a fan of how big Twitter is. Any significant shakeup in the current main players of social media is a welcome change
I didn't think this was going to happen, so color me surprised that it looks like it's going to happen. I guess no one around Musk was brave enough to tell him what a stupid idea this will turn...
I didn't think this was going to happen, so color me surprised that it looks like it's going to happen. I guess no one around Musk was brave enough to tell him what a stupid idea this will turn out to be. Not only for Twitter, because Twitter is almost irrelevant, but for his other ventures.
At least it will be fun to watch a billionaire fail so spectacularly and out in the open. I'll be following it all on Twitter.
I think the more likely and more insidious danger in all this is that twitter will largely operate the exact same way as before, and begin quietly suppressing certain news and trending topics in...
I think the more likely and more insidious danger in all this is that twitter will largely operate the exact same way as before, and begin quietly suppressing certain news and trending topics in the algorithm.
This could be self-correcting because it would make Twitter unusable and prompt an exodus to other platforms. Twitter itself is only propped up because journalists and media personalities feel...
The way I see this playing out is Musk removes any of the Trust and Safety features of the site (which are truly top notch especially in comparison to places like Reddit), brings back Donald Trump to the site, and unbans swarms of trolls to engage in mass harassment on the site.
This could be self-correcting because it would make Twitter unusable and prompt an exodus to other platforms. Twitter itself is only propped up because journalists and media personalities feel boxed into needing to maintain a presence on it. Many of them don't even particularly like it and their relationship to it ranges from that of an addict needing a fix to begrudgingly feeling forced into it because it's what is socially expected (sort of like why I went to clubs in my 20s even though they suck).
Yishan Wong, a one-time CEO of Reddit, weighing in on Elon Musk possible running Twitter. Long thread, with an interesting and unique perspective.
Lots of insight in between those two tweets.
Interesting tangent that is also true for Google where it's often difficult to talk to a human.
If this goes through I think that becomes the day when I abandon my account, which I've mulled over and over about for quite a while now. I am on a mastodon instance and prefer it there anyway.
I've been strongly curating my timeline and blocking/muting/etc to make my timeline and experience enjoyable. For the most part, it has worked. But I do not want to support the type of platform that someone like Musk envisions.
I have sort-of a twisted hope that if acquired by Musk, it negatively affects Twitter's popularity because I am already not a fan of how big Twitter is. Any significant shakeup in the current main players of social media is a welcome change
I didn't think this was going to happen, so color me surprised that it looks like it's going to happen. I guess no one around Musk was brave enough to tell him what a stupid idea this will turn out to be. Not only for Twitter, because Twitter is almost irrelevant, but for his other ventures.
At least it will be fun to watch a billionaire fail so spectacularly and out in the open. I'll be following it all on Twitter.
We're Probably Living in a Simulation, Elon Musk Says...
You know, the more I read about Musk, the more I start to believe this....
I think the more likely and more insidious danger in all this is that twitter will largely operate the exact same way as before, and begin quietly suppressing certain news and trending topics in the algorithm.
This could be self-correcting because it would make Twitter unusable and prompt an exodus to other platforms. Twitter itself is only propped up because journalists and media personalities feel boxed into needing to maintain a presence on it. Many of them don't even particularly like it and their relationship to it ranges from that of an addict needing a fix to begrudgingly feeling forced into it because it's what is socially expected (sort of like why I went to clubs in my 20s even though they suck).