Elon Musk's epic bacon adventures

ZIDANE

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I never realised how much Elon Musk polarised the general public especially with the all the exaggerated information on both sides.

I still think he will buy Twitter, he is probably negotiating price to reduce his margin (against Tesla shares) and the bank loans (high interest rates I read). That’s probably a good idea with the market volatility and possible recession.

I personally believe it will be a good thing for Twitter depending on the CEO that is eventually put in place. They haven’t developed the platform and the other social networks have progressed. Jack, the founder, has apparently spoken to Elon and share ideas.
 

maniak

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I personally believe it will be a good thing for Twitter depending on the CEO that is eventually put in place. They haven’t developed the platform and the other social networks have progressed. Jack, the founder, has apparently spoken to Elon and share ideas.
The fact that the far-right seems to be the group most excited about this tells you everything about how much of a good thing it will be.
 

ZIDANE

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The fact that the far-right seems to be the group most excited about this tells you everything about how much of a good thing it will be.
I’m not sure if they are the most excited, it’s quite split. Trump said he won’t come back and they are on Truth Social now. A lot of employees want to leave Twitter now but they also had record applications apparently.

The key is a transparent algorithm so neither side can argue what’s promoted and better features to reduce bots, spam, and reacting to news/posts in how society deems appropriate (law or otherwise).

Twitter has become well known for it’s toxicity and opposing views within the platform, it needs to develop to handle it or it will become non-existent and the same problems will crop up elsewhere.

That’s why I think it will be good, the current board don’t do anything to deal with the problems.
 

SirAF

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I’m not sure if they are the most excited, it’s quite split. Trump said he won’t come back and they are on Truth Social now. A lot of employees want to leave Twitter now but they also had record applications apparently.

The key is a transparent algorithm so neither side can argue what’s promoted and better features to reduce bots, spam, and reacting to news/posts in how society deems appropriate (law or otherwise).

Twitter has become well known for it’s toxicity and opposing views within the platform, it needs to develop to handle it or it will become non-existent and the same problems will crop up elsewhere.

That’s why I think it will be good, the current board don’t do anything to deal with the problems.
Hardly. Have you seen any «liberals» being happy about Musk buying Twitter?
 

maniak

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I’m not sure if they are the most excited, it’s quite split. Trump said he won’t come back and they are on Truth Social now. A lot of employees want to leave Twitter now but they also had record applications apparently.

The key is a transparent algorithm so neither side can argue what’s promoted and better features to reduce bots, spam, and reacting to news/posts in how society deems appropriate (law or otherwise).

Twitter has become well known for it’s toxicity and opposing views within the platform, it needs to develop to handle it or it will become non-existent and the same problems will crop up elsewhere.

That’s why I think it will be good, the current board don’t do anything to deal with the problems.
We'll disagree on this. Right wing twitter is over the moon, left wing twitter is very concerned about all the dodgy characters who will have the platform back.

As you said, twitter is known for it's toxicity, so how can allow more toxic participants in be better?
 

ZIDANE

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Hardly. Have you seen any «liberals» being happy about Musk buying Twitter?
Elon has a lot of fans… and especially in the tech space - they don’t seem far left to me but I don’t really track or pay attention to political views so I wouldn’t know.

Everyone likes to complain on Twitter and it’s a more ‘left’ aligned platform so it probably seems that way.

We'll disagree on this. Right wing twitter is over the moon, left wing twitter is very concerned about all the dodgy characters who will have the platform back.

As you said, twitter is known for it's toxicity, so how can allow more toxic participants in be better?
I understand that. I don’t have the answer but does ‘banning’ them or suppressing their opinion from public help the platform as has been alleged? The key is moderating it through a transparent algorithm and any of the manual steps they have.

What I’m saying is they aren’t doing it properly right now at scale. I believe Elon will employ a CEO who will try to and partly believe that for the comments that Jack has made about the problems with the board.

Facebook didn’t get it right and it’s a dead platform. Twitter is going that way.
 

maniak

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Elon has a lot of fans… and especially in the tech space - they don’t seem far left to me but I don’t really track or pay attention to political views so I wouldn’t know.

Everyone likes to complain on Twitter and it’s a more ‘left’ aligned platform so it probably seems that way.



I understand that. I don’t have the answer but does ‘banning’ them or suppressing their opinion from public help the platform as has been alleged? The key is moderating it through a transparent algorithm and any of the manual steps they have.

What I’m saying is they aren’t doing it properly right now at scale. I believe Elon will employ a CEO who will try to and partly believe that for the comments that Jack has made about the problems with the board.

Facebook didn’t get it right and it’s a dead platform. Twitter is going that way.
Banning toxic agents obviously helps. I mean, that's kinda obvious, no?

Elon can promise whatever he wants, but judging by his posts, he seems to play (or actually agree) for the more militant people on the right while making "jokes" about liberals and the left all the time. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his neutrality.
 

Redlambs

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Elon has a lot of fans… and especially in the tech space - they don’t seem far left to me but I don’t really track or pay attention to political views so I wouldn’t know.

Everyone likes to complain on Twitter and it’s a more ‘left’ aligned platform so it probably seems that way.



I understand that. I don’t have the answer but does ‘banning’ them or suppressing their opinion from public help the platform as has been alleged? The key is moderating it through a transparent algorithm and any of the manual steps they have.

What I’m saying is they aren’t doing it properly right now at scale. I believe Elon will employ a CEO who will try to and partly believe that for the comments that Jack has made about the problems with the board.

Facebook didn’t get it right and it’s a dead platform. Twitter is going that way.
"Facebook is a dead platform"

"Musk will be transparent"

I mean, come on. I honestly don't understand how people can look at any of these guys and think they are on your side or are going to do right by you.
 

ZIDANE

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Banning toxic agents obviously helps. I mean, that's kinda obvious, no?

Elon can promise whatever he wants, but judging by his posts, he seems to play (or actually agree) for the more militant people on the right while making "jokes" about liberals and the left all the time. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his neutrality.
Depends what you mean by toxic but if they are breaking the law or being racist then they will be banned or whatever the punishment is. That’s what he said. Racism has been a problem on social media, it doesn’t deal with it currently.

Elon has also said that if it’s a grey area they need to come up with some guidelines (he doesn’t have an answer for that right now) but you can ensure the algorithm doesn’t promote those posts or they have low visibility (like only viewable if you visit the profile). This [algorithm] actually happens and is a criticism of the platform because we don’t know what is being done or why a decision is being made.

He is a troll and looking for reactions to support his agenda but I look at his serious posts and intentions. I wouldn’t have said Elon is aligned to the right or left but I wouldn’t know. I don’t believe he will police everything as it wouldn’t scale so it doesn’t matter.

Obviously could be wrong and it will fall apart.
 

ZIDANE

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"Facebook is a dead platform"

"Musk will be transparent"

I mean, come on. I honestly don't understand how people can look at any of these guys and think they are on your side or are going to do right by you.
Not Musk being transparent, the algorithm being open source and the decisions made around posts being transparent - that’s what he said in his interview. They can do that if not worried about being gamed or anti-competitiveness? Tesla release their patents and he said he wouldn’t stop anyone using them so until the future happens. With a new CEO and Jack seemingly supportive then there’s hope but we will see, he might fall at the first hurdle.
 

unchanged_lineup

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Not Musk being transparent, the algorithm being open source and the decisions made around posts being transparent - that’s what he said in his interview. They can do that if not worried about being gamed or anti-competitiveness? Tesla release their patents and he said he wouldn’t stop anyone using them so until the future happens. With a new CEO and Jack seemingly supportive then there’s hope but we will see, he might fall at the first hurdle.
Search engines don't make their algorithms public for exactly the reason you're saying here. People would game it to the ground.
 

frostbite

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I never realised how much Elon Musk polarised the general public
I don't think that "Musk polarizes the general public". In my opinion, it is a very very small (but vocal) minority. The same happened in the past with Bill Gates, with Jobs, with Ellison, with Bezos ... basically with everyone in tech who made billions.

If you were reading bulletin boards in the 1990s, you'd think that Bill Gates is the Supreme Evil. And also that Gates is irrelevant anyway, because in a couple of years nobody would use Windows any more, Linux on the desktop was just around the corner. At the same time, almost everyone would *love* to get a job at Microsoft! And today, Windows actually contains a Microsoft version of Linux! But I digress...

The only difference with Elon Musk is that he seems to enjoy using social media. And that he is having fun with controversies.
 

berbatrick

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musk and bezos (who btw agrees with him on many things, check his twitter) would sweep an election if they deigned to stand - oligarchs are generally loved by the public.
 

Pexbo

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musk and bezos (who btw agrees with him on many things) would sweep an election if they thought it was worth their while to stand - oligarchs are generally loved by the public.
They both also know they’re far more powerful if they’re not holding a political role.
 

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One of my decidely liberal mates who is also, weirdly, a massive Musk fan is currently in a hilarious mental limbo about his supreme overlord. He wants to defend him so badly, but lately is failing to do so.

Tech and IT people in The Netherlands still mostly seem to gravitate towards him. Mostly the ones that ignore the whole Twitter / Facebook / internet shitpile.
 

VorZakone

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He really is an obnoxious fella, ain't he. Hard to fathom at times how such a manchild gets so wealthy but here we are.
 

ZIDANE

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More trolling in his first response but interesting thread from Parag on spam and bots. I'm sure they can do more though, I used to think they couldn't but Google got pretty good at detecting spam to manipulate search algorithms.

I personally hope Elon walks away because it's a drag on Tesla stock and a distraction for him in general. I don't think it will be easy to 'sort out' social media.



 

berbatrick

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I used to think they couldn't but Google got pretty good at detecting spam to manipulate search algorithms.
google search results suck! pages of seo-optimised, often ai-generated non-answers for technical questions, mostly repeating your own words back at you. it doesn't even respect boolean language anymore (putting a - or quotes sometimes doesn't work), and dates have been totally manipulated to constantly make old articles appear new, so date searches don't work either. the whole thing is a mess.
 

Moby

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google search results suck! pages of seo-optimised, often ai-generated non-answers for technical questions, mostly repeating your own words back at you. it doesn't even respect boolean language anymore (putting a - or quotes sometimes doesn't work), and dates have been totally manipulated to constantly make old articles appear new, so date searches don't work either. the whole thing is a mess.
Your thesis must be completely stuck. :lol:
 

SinNombre

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Bezos, as was Gate, is obviously a smart guy.

Elon is not, unless you count his snake oil salesman abilities.
 

BD

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'Smart' is too general a term. You can be a genius in maths or physics but a complete idiot when it comes to languages or business. Feels like this is an obvious point, but seemingly people get into debates about who is or isn't smart all the time.

I presume Elon is smart in certain fields, but in general he's a gobshite.