Welcome to the Lounge

fgs19633-Jul-23 3:02

3-Jul-23 3:02

Interesting. Normally I’d ask for contextual examples of racist and fascist posts from Musk but I fear we’ve strayed beyond the limits of discussion here in the Lounge. It would have been a great discussion for the Soapbox.

I’ll leave you with this to consider. You obviously prefer the old Twitter… the Twitter where a group of elitists (often guided by government) tightly controlled the allowed subject matter and discourse and censored or outright banned anyone who dared to voice a different opinion or even speak against the gatekeepers. That sounds like fascism to me…

jschell3-Jul-23 5:47

jschell

3-Jul-23 5:47

fgs1963 wrote:
the Twitter where a group of elitists (often guided by government) tightly controlled the allowed subject matter and discourse

It is a company. And companies, in the United States, are allowed to do exactly that.

If you want free speech then go stand on a public (government owned) sidewalk and wave your sign. That is what the constitution specifically allows.

But for many other people twitter had nothing to do with what you said. It was for entertainment (news about music, movies, etc), fashion, business, etc. They didn't go there for politics.

But since the owner of the company changed then now that new owner can run it the way he wants.

Vikram A Punathambekar4-Jul-23 6:22

Vikram A Punathambekar

4-Jul-23 6:22

jschell wrote:
But since the owner of the company changed then now that new owner can run it the way he wants.

I misread that as below and like it better Big Grin | :-D

But since the owner of the company changed then now that new owner can ruin it the way he wants.

Cheers,
Vikram.

jschell5-Jul-23 5:16

jschell

5-Jul-23 5:16

Vikram A Punathambekar wrote:
that new owner can ruin it the way he wants.

Seems like he is doing a bang up job then!

Our Forgotten Astronomy | Object Oriented Programming with C++ | Wordle solver

David O'Neil3-Jul-23 16:26

David O'Neil

3-Jul-23 16:26

fgs1963 wrote:
Normally I’d ask for contextual examples of racist and fascist posts from Musk

Why not just google for yourself? It isn't that hard: "Elon Musk racist rhetoric" or "Elon Musk fascist post" bring up things like Did Elon Musk Unleash Racist Dog Whistles to Woo Tucker Carlson? – Mother Jones and https://nickcohen.substack.com/p/the-proto-fasicsm-of-elon-musk. I doubt it will make a dent in your beliefs, but items like those are worth being aware of.

fgs19634-Jul-23 4:58

4-Jul-23 4:58

I’m well aware of the few actual quotes referenced. None are even remotely racist or fascist. If they had been you might have quoted them directly instead of linking to them where the reader is required to sort through the authors rhetoric.

Which was my point in asking for the quotes in the first place. When people “separate the wheat from the chaff” and form their own opinions instead of relying on others - sometimes opinions evolve.

Our Forgotten Astronomy | Object Oriented Programming with C++ | Wordle solver

David O'Neil4-Jul-23 8:22

David O'Neil

4-Jul-23 8:22

Unfortunately I haven't seen a whole lot of evolution lately. People like hating more it seems.

Vikram A Punathambekar4-Jul-23 6:25

Vikram A Punathambekar

4-Jul-23 6:25

Without even getting into the political aspects that you are ranting about, it just... doesn't... work.

I load a tweet from my timeline, I can't view any replies, I get a "Failed to load tweet" error.
I try to see who I'm following so I can follow them on other platforms, when I click on my "264 following", it says "You are not following anybody".
And of course, people are leaving in huge numbers.

It's objectively worse, without even getting into your woke vs. alt-right argument, which I couldn't care less about as I am not American.

Cheers,
Vikram.

jmaida1-Jul-23 18:28

jmaida

1-Jul-23 18:28

Solution. No more twitter. Get out while you can!

"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger

dandy722-Jul-23 3:58

dandy72

2-Jul-23 3:58

jmaida wrote:
Solution. No more twitter. Get out while you can!

This is the advice Elon should've followed before taking over.

megaadam1-Jul-23 22:21

megaadam

1-Jul-23 22:21

honey the codewitch wrote:
just bit it

That must've been a first, right?

"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"

obermd2-Jul-23 4:06

obermd

2-Jul-23 4:06

I'm not a twit (twitter user), but this sounds like an attempt to reduce bot activity that went wrong. When Musk bought Twitter the best non-Twitter party line estimates for bot activity were anywhere from 70 to 95% of all tweets. These estimates were made by third party cyber security researchers, both in and out of the US government.

honey the codewitch2-Jul-23 4:09

2-Jul-23 4:09

A lot of those automated accounts, like those from the National Weather Service, were legitimate information sources. I'm not saying most of them. I wouldn't know, because they didn't account for that when they looked, which is my point.

This lockdown does not appear to prevent bots. Its purpose AFAICT was to try to entice people to join twitter.

It blew up. Not only did it cause massive outages as they made the dramatic change to the software pretty much over night, but it's questionable whether it will even pay off.

A lot of casual twitter viewers I talk to are abandoning twitter altogether because of this. They lurked so they didn't have accounts, and don't want to create them.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch/gfx

fgs19632-Jul-23 4:59

2-Jul-23 4:59

Wait! So people who didn’t have accounts are “leaving” without creating accounts?

The horror! D'Oh! | :doh:

I think I agree with Slacker.

honey the codewitch2-Jul-23 5:01

2-Jul-23 5:01

The way it was rolled out is comical. I'm laughing at the piss poor planning and execution of it.

And the eventual failure of the decision as he drives traffic away (again)

Nobody seems to have a problem crapping on Microsoft here. Elon and Twitter are fair game.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch/gfx

fgs19632-Jul-23 5:30

2-Jul-23 5:30

Of course Twitter / Musk are fair game. Just like Microsoft. The difference is people here typically crap on Microsoft the corporation not Nadella (CEO) or Vanguard (largest shareholder) because it’s not personal for them. When it is, they don’t hide it.

Your problem with Musk is clearly personal. Not sure why you won’t admit it.

I fully admit my personal dislike of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg (arrogant, hypocrites who got lucky - not the sage visionaries they claim to be).

Embrace your bias… its very freeing! Poke tongue | ;-P

honey the codewitch2-Jul-23 5:33

2-Jul-23 5:33

It's not personal. He's a public figure, and the reason I bring him up is he keeps making very stupid decisions very publicly. Who was behind the last Microsoft update that blew up the network stack? Do you even know? Was it the CEO's decision to roll out that update without it being ready? Probably not.

Elon Musk is not particularly bright. He's particularly rich. There's a difference and people often forget that.

I think you think this is a liberal/conservative thing.

It's not. It's an "idiotic public figure" thing.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch/gfx

fgs19632-Jul-23 5:36

2-Jul-23 5:36

Methinks thou dost protest too much… Laugh | :laugh:

honey the codewitch2-Jul-23 5:38

2-Jul-23 5:38

Or I'm simply explaining my position and intent because you made up a story about what it was. Could be that.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch/gfx

fgs19632-Jul-23 6:49

2-Jul-23 6:49

Could be. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

honey the codewitch2-Jul-23 6:49

2-Jul-23 6:49

Things tend to look like what people want them to look like.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch/gfx

jschell3-Jul-23 5:53

jschell

3-Jul-23 5:53

The difference of course is that Musk is personally driving these decisions. To be fair not sure anyone else is left that could drive them and would certainly not do it unless Musk approved.

fgs1963 wrote:
The difference is people here typically crap on Microsoft the corporation

The difference however is that at Microsoft other people, not just the CEO, made bad decisions. Matter of fact not sure lately CEOs at Microsoft have been making any specific functional decisions.

For example the CEO was probably involved in the decision to purchase Activision Blizzard but I doubt it was his idea.

Probably isn't even possible for the MS CEO to be involved in most of the company. There are just too many products/services.

theoldfool2-Jul-23 7:48

theoldfool

2-Jul-23 7:48

Well, if it is a mess, just stop paying for it.
Never signed up for it myself. I figured twitter was for twits. Smile | :)

>64
Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.

When a great project gets neglected

Daniel Pfeffer2-Jul-23 10:07

Daniel Pfeffer

2-Jul-23 10:07

theoldfool wrote:
twitter was for twits.

Amen.

The only "social media" that I use are Signal (required for work), and WhatsApp (required to keep up-to-date with the extended family, and a few organizations). Anything else - fuggedaboutit!

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.

honey the codewitch1-Jul-23 1:19