Elviscat posted:

What does this mean, for those of us that don't code or whatever?

Concerned Citizen posted:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1588538640401018880

funny tweet or transparent attempt to evade the warn act? you decide!

Concerned Citizen posted:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1588538640401018880

funny tweet or transparent attempt to evade the warn act? you decide!

kazil posted:

lmao just keep posting through it

it hasn't worked at all but maybe if you keep at it

Captain Hygiene posted:

An entertaining turn towards Trumpian phrasing

bobjr posted:

It’s kind of funny because I think it’s way less activist pressure and more advertisers seeing what an idiot he’s being and trying to post through it, and realizing it’s not worth the money

Elviscat posted:

What does this mean, for those of us that don't code or whatever?

bobjr posted:

It’s kind of funny because I think it’s way less activist pressure and more advertisers seeing what an idiot he’s being and trying to post through it, and realizing it’s not worth the money

davecrazy posted:

The Jenga tower wont fully collapse till a big name celebrity deletes their account. Ariana Grande peaced out last year and was barley a ripple.

Kim Kardashian or some one like that needs to publicly #quittwitter and the whole house of cards will collapse.

Entorwellian posted:

Time_pants posted:

I have no idea what this is from but I absolutely have to know.

Convex posted:

quote:

Elon Musk has positioned himself as an unconventional businessman. When he agreed to buy Twitter this year, he declared he would make the social media service a place for unfettered free speech, reversing many of its rules and allowing banned users like former President Donald J. Trump to return.

But since closing his $44 billion buyout of Twitter last week, Mr. Musk has followed a surprisingly conventional social media playbook.

The world’s richest man met with more than six civil rights groups — including the N.A.A.C.P. and the Anti-Defamation League — on Tuesday to assure them that he will not make changes to Twitter’s content rules before the results of next week’s midterm elections are certified. He also met with advertising executives to discuss their concerns about their brands appearing alongside toxic online content. Last week, Mr. Musk said he would form a council to advise Twitter on what kinds of content to remove from the platform and would not immediately reinstate banned accounts.

If these decisions and outreach seem familiar, that’s because they are. Other leaders of social media companies have taken similar steps. After Facebook was criticized for being misused in the 2016 presidential election, Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s chief executive, also met with civil rights groups to calm them and worked to mollify irate advertisers. He later said he would establish an independent board to advise his company on content decisions.

Mr. Musk is in his early days of owning Twitter and is expected to make big changes to the service and business, including laying off some of the company’s 7,500 employees. But for now, he is engaging with many of the same constituents that Mr. Zuckerberg has had to over many years, social media experts and heads of civil society groups said.

Mr. Musk “has discovered what Mark Zuckerberg discovered several years ago: Being the face of controversial big calls isn’t fun,” said Evelyn Douek, an assistant professor at Stanford Law School. Social media companies “all face the same pressures of users, advertisers and governments, and there’s always this convergence around this common set of norms and processes that you’re forced toward.”

Mr. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, declined to comment.

Elon Musk’s Acquisition of Twitter
Card 1 of 8
A blockbuster deal. In April, Elon Musk made an unsolicited bid worth $44 billion for the social media platform, saying he wanted to turn Twitter into a private company and allow people to speak more freely on the service. Here’s how the monthslong battle that followed played out:

The response. Twitter’s board countered Mr. Musk’s offer with a defense mechanism known as a “poison pill.” This well-worn corporate tactic makes a company less palatable to a potential acquirer by making it more expensive to buy shares above a certain threshold.

Securing financing. Though his original offer had scant details and was received skeptically by Wall Street, Mr. Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, moved swiftly to secure commitments to finance his bid, putting pressure on Twitter’s board to take his advances seriously.

Striking a deal. With the financing in place, Twitter’s board met with Mr. Musk in April to discuss his offer. The two sides soon reached a deal, with the company agreeing to sell itself for $54.20 a share — roughly $44 billion in total.

Tensions arise. Not long after Mr. Musk and Twitter reached their agreement, problems began. Mr. Musk threatened to pull out of the deal if Twitter did not provide more information on how it calculates the number of fake accounts. In June, the company announced that it planned to give him access to a large swath of its data.

Musk backs out. In July, Mr. Musk announced that he was terminating the deal, citing the continuing disagreement over the number of spam accounts. Twitter then sued the billionaire to force him to go through with the deal. But Mr. Musk fired back in a legal filing, arguing that the company concealed the true number of fake accounts on its platform, accusing Twitter of fraud.

Preparing for trial. Lawyers for both sides have issued more than 100 subpoenas ahead of a trial that was expected to start in October, mostly targeting tech VIPs. In September, a judge ruled that Mr. Musk could amend his suit to include accusations from a former Twitter security chief who claimed that the company misled the public about its security practices.

A surprise move. On Oct. 4, Mr. Musk proposed a deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, the price he agreed to pay for the company in April. On Oct. 27, the purchase was completed. Mr. Musk quickly began cleaning house, with at least four top Twitter executives — including the chief executive and chief financial officer — getting fired.

At Tuesday’s meeting with civil rights groups, which Mr. Musk held over a videoconferencing service, the discussions centered on next week’s midterm elections and his approach to content moderation, said Derrick Johnson, the president of the N.A.A.C.P.; Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change; and Yael Eisenstat, who heads the Center for Technology & Society at the Anti-Defamation League. All three attended the call.

During the 45-minute discussion, the group asked Mr. Musk for a multimonth moratorium on changes to Twitter’s policies and enforcement processes related to elections, hate speech and harassment — at least until the midterm election results were final and “he has his house in order,” Ms. Eisenstat said.
They also asked that Mr. Musk block the return of anyone who had been removed from Twitter for violating rules or inciting violence until he created a transparent process for doing so, she said.

Mr. Musk “appeared to be actively engaged and actively listening throughout the entire meeting,” Ms. Eisenstat said. She added that Mr. Musk had told the group that he did not want Twitter to be a “hate-amplifier” and invited the participants on the call to join his proposed content moderation council.

“He made it seem as if he wants to continue this dialogue,” she said.

Mr. Musk also told the group that he would not make changes to Twitter’s policies or reinstate banned accounts before the final results of the vote, the attendees said.

The billionaire was receptive to the concerns raised by the civil rights organizations, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Robinson said. But they added that their groups were waiting to see what actions Mr. Musk might take.

“We were pleasantly surprised with his verbal receptiveness with the things that we raised, and now we want to see the outcome,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Musk, who has been working with a group of advisers as he takes over Twitter, has also had discussions with advertisers in recent days. Twitter makes about 90 percent of its revenue from digital advertising. While Mr. Musk has said he wants to reduce how much the company relies on advertising, he is under pressure to improve Twitter’s finances quickly because of debt repayments he must make for the buyout.

“We’re having a very productive day meeting with the marketing and advertising community here in New York,” Jason Calacanis, an investor who is advising Mr. Musk on Twitter, said in a tweet on Monday.

Understand Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover
A Familiar Playbook: In his first days at Twitter, Elon Musk has been emulating some of the actions of Mark Zuckerberg, who leads Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
A Different Kind of Deal: Silicon Valley moguls used to buy yachts and islands. Now they are rich enough to acquire companies they fancy.
Hard Fork: The Times’s new tech podcast looks into Twitter’s weird new future with the tech reporter Kate Conger.
Those Who Are Celebrating: Elon Musk’s six-month path to buying Twitter was a waking nightmare for many people involved. But the deal elicited excitement from various groups.
Some advertisers have been wary of Mr. Musk’s Twitter if it takes an anything-goes approach to speech. IPG, one of the world’s largest advertising companies, recommended this week that clients temporarily pause their spending on Twitter as Mr. Musk takes over. General Motors said last week that it was temporarily suspending advertising on Twitter.

Other social media firms have previously grappled with advertiser backlash over harmful content on their platforms. Last year, more than 1,000 advertisers boycotted Facebook after civil rights groups organized a #StopHateForProfit campaign to protest the platform’s handling of hate speech and misinformation.

Even Mr. Musk’s move to create a council to advise on content moderation decisions echoed that of other social media companies. In 2020, Facebook established an oversight board made up of former political leaders and human rights activists to deliberate the company’s content decisions. At the time, Mr. Zuckerberg said that he did not want to have final say over what speech would be allowed on the social network and that the company’s moderation decisions could be appealed to the oversight board.

The oversight board has since issued rulings on decisions such as Facebook’s barring of Mr. Trump’s account after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Mr. Musk is poised to take a similar approach. “Twitter’s content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence,” he said in a tweet on Tuesday evening.

Still, Mr. Musk left open the possibility of eventually reinstating banned accounts. “Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks,” he said.


He also expressed support for some existing Twitter features, including Birdwatch, a community-based initiative that lets people identify information in tweets they believe is misleading and write notes with more context. The initiative is still undergoing testing but is being rolled out to some high-profile tweets.

“Our goal is to make Twitter the most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation,” Mr. Musk tweeted on Wednesday.

MasterSitsu posted:

You're not allowed to pull out until I've ruined it.

Concerned Citizen posted:

funny tweet or transparent attempt to evade the warn act? you decide!

Elviscat posted:

What does this mean, for those of us that don't code or whatever?

Alice's code posted:

X=6

Bob's code posted:

X=0
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1

Carl's commit posted:

X=0
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=6

Concerned Citizen posted:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1588538640401018880

funny tweet or transparent attempt to evade the warn act? you decide!

JAMOOOL posted:

not to turn this into coder's chat but I personally think more lines is sometimes better, some of our devs try to fit incredibly complex loops into a single lambda expression and while yeah it does work it's also impossible to debug. verbose code is at least easy to fix

JAMOOOL posted:

not to turn this into coder's chat but I personally think more lines is sometimes better, some of our devs try to fit incredibly complex loops into a single lambda expression and while yeah it does work it's also impossible to debug. verbose code is at least easy to fix

Dan's commit posted:

X=0
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=X+1
X=0; X=X+1; X=X+1; X=X+1; X=X+1; X=X+1; X=X+1;

MiracleFlare posted:

You know, I'm reminded of the "hero" from Ready Player Two, a multibillionaire who runs a VR world that most of humanity is constantly plugged into. Things he does throughout the book:

* Build a spaceship so that he and his billionaire friends can escape the Earth when it inevitably goes to poo poo, does not understand why his girlfriend is pissed and publicly calling him a selfish rear end in a top hat
* Hears some musicians mocking him in song, sues every one of them into bankruptcy
* Uses his admin powers to kill his other critics' VR avatars, an act that will leave them in VR poverty
* Uses his admin powers to cyberstalk his now-ex girlfriend
* Also cyberstalks a teenage girl, finds out she's trans, then declares himself an ally because he played as a female avatar once and has had "straight, gay, and nonbinary sex" in VR. Continues spying on the girl through her webcam (a thing he can do to all of his customers because admin powers)
* Solves world hunger not by doing anything to materially improve the real world, but rather by letting the poors eat whatever luxury food they want in VR so they can fantasize about having a full meal before going back to whatever gruel they have irl
* After a long journey in which he condemns someone violating a woman's personal autonomy by making an AI copy of her without her knowledge or consent, decides to violate every human's personal autonomy by making AI copies of them without their knowledge or consent and sending them off into the spaceship to colonize another planet. Still has not done anything to improve Earth even though it's on the brink of agricultural and climate collapse.

Personally I am excited to see if Twitter will follow this roadmap

JAMOOOL posted:

not to turn this into coder's chat but I personally think more lines is sometimes better, some of our devs try to fit incredibly complex loops into a single lambda expression and while yeah it does work it's also impossible to debug. verbose code is at least easy to fix

pretty soft girl posted:

This is the worst

Like yes good job you managed to do a cute trick in one line. Now please rewrite it so a human can interpret it and make changes without spending an entire day trying to figure out what your function does. here in the real world we're not here to jerk ourselves off over how clever we are

smoobles posted:

The craziest part to me is ALMOST NOBODY uses Twitter.

There are 200 million active users. 20 million of them are responsible for 90% of activity. This is all well researched and 100% known to be true.

Elon Musk became so online and broke brained that he *actually believed* Twitter was the loving "town square of the Internet" whatever the hell that even means. He *actually believed* (until he got buyer's remorse) that it was worth 44 billion and he could fix it by pandering to right wing trolls, half of whom are bots/troll farms.

I can't prove this (nobody will ever know for sure) but I believe Elon looked at the Elon Musk reply bots and thought they were real people. We know for a fact that he 1) scrolls his replies 2) has an outsized perception of Twitter vs reality and 3) immediately pulled the "bots" card when he regretted the deal. This dumb fucker read bot replies and convinced himself he was the tech messiah who could save Twitter (a website with 20 million active users) and thereby save the world (population 7 billion).

What an absolute loving clown of a human.