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I expect his reversal of the working from home policy and putting in at least 40 hours in the office isn’t going to help either. Anyone working for Twitter at the moment not job hunting will be in a world of pain.
Seems a great way of getting rid of your best talent.
Although all the staff should be considering their options, who'd want to work for someone this incompetent?
Even a moment's thought could have predicted the major issues arising from changing the verified user system.
A salutory lesson in the risks of mistaking money for talent.
And also in the risks of private ownership of major tech companies. Imagine if Bill Gates had also turned into a hare-brained lunatic after all the world's governments were fully committed to running their countries on windows.
I have just looked at the 'Blue' offer with our comms team at work.
Currently you can only sign up as an iPhone Twitter App user - you cannot even do it from a desktop.
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I have just looked at the ‘Blue’ offer with our comms team at work.
Currently you can only sign up as an iPhone Twitter App user – you cannot even do it from a desktop.
Don't just tell us, Tweet Elon about it.
He seems to be handling the CS now.
Steven fry has left the building it appears.
Don’t know if this has been linked but awesome thread.
https://twitter.com/joshuaphilll/status/1590696859869536256?s=46&t=iQep7HRLXJ-R0epQHIEiWw
'NFT Profile Pictures'
Tells you everything you need to know about the direction of travel.
To steal an old joke, I think Elon's going to make a small fortune off Twitter.
Thanks colp... great thread.
This one tickled me:
https://twitter.com/JoshuaPHilll/status/1590532150792974336?s=20&t=U8Qla2YAbMNnxA4TFdeRAw
Especially as Musk once claimed that Grimes was an invention of his own imagination (don't quote me, that was from this week's Frankie Boyle's New World Order).... a reminder that even his imaginary partner saw sense and left him.
I’m loving the Rudi Giuliani ones!
Whilst it's a bin fire, at least plenty of Twitter wags have seen fit to make is quite an amusing one.
Parody Tesla account.
“Everyone’s talking about Twitter going up in flames but our cars did that before it was cool."
This a high quality dumpster fire. Best description if it so far is $8chan. Shows just how difficult it is to keep a crowd under control when they basically just want mischief
And can we have tags back please? #VOLVOFORSALE
Just to be clear, Twitter senior secured bank loans- the top of the capital stack- at $0.60 implies that Twitter- for which @elonmusk paid $44 billion-
is nowwas always worth less than $8 billion.
Fixed that for whoever wrote it...
I don’t really G-a-S about Twitter but I’m enjoying this ‘harmless’ carnage.
It's nice that it's settled the religion question once and for all- surprised to find myself on the wrong side but now that twitter has verified Jesus Christ, I can hardly argue
Eli Lilly taking an online kicking over their insulin pricing after another great fake tweet. Trolling turned activism
https://twitter.com/LillyPad/status/1590813806275469333?s=20&t=qOqcoabToX1b90RxcsphCQ
I imagine corporate lawyers are have a clusterspaff over the possibilities
"Just to be clear, Twitter senior secured bank loans- the top of the capital stack- at $0.60 implies that Twitter- for which @elonmusk paid $44 billion- is now worth less than $8 billion."
Musk burning through the bucks quicker than Truss.
All pretty uncomfortable for anyone invested in Tesla either directly or indirectly - SMIT, for example - as musk will, I think, be selling off more shares which will drag down the share price.
"All pretty uncomfortable for anyone invested in Tesla either directly or indirectly"
Yep. That tweet about Paul Pelosi wasn't too clever either, Musk relies on a fair few government contracts and Biden has flagged up potential technological security issues relating to Misk's dealings with China, the Saudi's etc.
I'm guessing Musk was betting on the red wave that never materialised. Twitter's predicament could soon be the least of his problems.
After all this chaos perhaps Twitter needs a re-brand. Something like 'Truth Twitter' should do the job, either that or one of the platforms could buy the other out, I hear they're both going pretty cheap right now.
Perhaps now would be a good time to give Trump his account back, with the Georgia run off in the pipeline it would send the Republican party nuts (I mean even more nuts) if the covfefe man was given his phone back.
Looks like shit just got real with the blue tick crazy.
https://twitter.com/rafaelshimunov/status/1591133819918114816?t=Sxu4rkYVs45R_Hees4J4dw&s=19
I'm by no means an expert on these things, but I think Elon might be out of his depth here. Blue ticks are going crazy:
<h1><span class="emoji">😆</span></h1>
A salutory lesson in the risks of mistaking money for talent.
Happens all the time - this country has long mistaken an Eton/Oxbridge education for an ability to run a Government!
EM isn't that different; somehow imagines himself to be far more clever than he actually is.
Spending $44bn and then sitting there responding directly to tweets seems like he's just bought himself an incredibly expensive customer service job. One that he's really bad at!
Oops. Sounds alot like Twitter may die soon unless something really changes. No bad thing tbh.
EM isn’t that different; somehow imagines himself to be far more clever than he actually is.
Quite a common trait in pot head fantasists I find.
After all this chaos perhaps Twitter needs a re-brand. Something like ‘Truth Twitter’ should do the job,
I think the platform should just be re-branded as 'Musk' and user's posts would become 'Secretions'
Some one pretending lockheed Martin on Twitter saying they where suspending sales to Saudi looks like it took millions off the stock trading revenue.
Shame if someone did it too Tesla.
Not supporting lockheed btw
Shame if someone did it too Tesla.
I think Musk is way ahead of you on that front
I’m by no means an expert on these things, but I think Elon might be out of his depth here.
He's been out of his depth for a long, long time. He proclaimed himself to be a tech visionary genius engineer, but he has always been much more about hype than actual engineering. The cave diver episode should have been a warning that he was just an idiot with a big mouth and poor judgement. He's a lot like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin - they proclaim themselves to be strategic geniuses playing multi-dimensional chess, but are really just cheap bullies who bulldoze their way to the top and then crumble when reality finally catches up with them.
think the platform should just be re-branded as ‘Musk’ and user’s posts would become ‘Secretions’
Nice.
Some one pretending lockheed Martin on Twitter saying they where suspending sales to Saudi looks like it took millions off the stock trading revenue.
Its going well across the board.
Thread of "companies" dubious tweets
I'm actually enjoying the parody that Musk has unleashed, although I do block anything that is likely to link to the toxic wasteland side of things. I do have a feeling that in 10 years time, we will just remember Twitter as one of those bizarre episodes in the history of the internet that are impossible to explain to young people. (I once tried to explain to some teenagers about the Microsoft Paperclip assistant, and the blank disbelief on their faces was priceless.)
<div>from Imgflip Meme Generator</div>
He’s a lot like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin – they proclaim themselves to be strategic geniuses playing multi-dimensional chess, but are really just cheap bullies who bulldoze their way to the top and then crumble when reality finally catches up with them.
The more I see of the absolute mess he's got himself into, the more I think that's entirely correct.
https://twitter.com/JimMFelton/status/1591703938159775745?t=E-yNzCdUXUX-7MOjYyVmBg&s=19
He's like a kid begging for a Meccano set cos the pictures make it look cool but when he finally gets it, he's got no idea of how any of it works so breaks all the bits.
TBH, I'm not certain that the fake accounts on some of those companies wasn't coordinated action by a group. I mean, not only are they funny, but any campaign that manages to wipe millions of the value of such esteemed corporations as Eli Lilly, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Coco Cola is alright by me.
…………..as long as your pension fund isn’t invested in them……..
...or Tesla or Twitter...
No ones pension is in twitter thank God. Not directly anyway via musk's iffy bank deals maybe?
There was a funny bit in Matt Levine's newsletter yesterday explaining how the banks lent Musk 13bn for the Twitter deal, with the intention of selling (some of) the debt on to investors.
Unfortunately, Musk then spent 6 months going on about how Twitter was a massive fraud full of bots, and since taking ownership, he now keeps saying it's barely 5 minutes away from bankruptcy and he needs to fire everyone.
So obviously, no one's touching the debt with a bargepole and the banks are stuck with it!
So obviously, no one’s touching the debt with a bargepole and the banks are stuck with it!
To be fair to Musk the reason he spent the six months badmouthing twitter was because he overpaid just before the markets crashed and so was desperately trying to get out of it/negotiate a lower price. So the banks would have been taking a major hit anyway.
Admittedly he has changed it from a major hit to a steamroller.
Following on from more layoffs amongst moderators.. Twitter engineer calls out Elon Musk for technical BS in unusual career move (and subsequently gets sacked by the big chunk of spam Elon).
Starting to think he isn't bothered about the $44bnand just wants to burn it down out of spite / dented ego.
(and subsequently gets sacked by the big chunk of spam Elon).
Good to see free speech absolutism in action.
Starting to think he isn’t bothered about the $44bnand just wants to burn it down out of spite / dented ego.
He doesnt seem to handle criticism well and I think he confused his echo chamber of fans on twitter with the actual entire twitter userbase.
Imagine working for this clown.
https://twitter.com/donie/status/1592859900941852674?t=hnoQjeDzx04yfePKMjyCZA
Test your knowledge!!
75%
I bet some of you can beat that.
Imagine working for this clown.
What a ****.
83%
It's actually harder than i thought 😂
92%
It did occur to me while I was doing it that it could be a trick, and they were all Musk quotes.
92%
The man is on a mission to kill twitter
I'd like to point out that design is very much part of engineering.
I’d like to point out that design is very much part of engineering.
Not really. It needs to be in close contact with the engineers, but at the same time considering aesthetics, usability, marketing,... There's a reason architecture is separate to civil engineering.
Mind you, I'm pretty sure Musk was only talking about the arty bit, and hadn't really stopped to consider how design actually fits in to a successfull software product.
Product design, software design, graphic design, UX design.
The word can cover a lot of bases.
I may not as smart, rich or extremely hardcore as Musk, but I wouldn't be surprised if I had a better grasp of digital products.
Tbf my company US global affair has just said the same as that email.
Just worded legally.
Musk's still an arsehole
I can see twitter becoming even more of a data mining operation than it already is. And shortly after will be investigated and hit with massive fines by the EU and others.
Remove all the controls and things will not go well
I'm just hoping the cheaper insulin request from the many has been heard by the manufacturers and they do decide to reduce the price to a far smaller number.
I’m just hoping the cheaper insulin request from the many has been heard by the manufacturers and they do decide to reduce the price to a far smaller number.
After seeing how Eli Lilly's share dropped after announcing cheaper prices? Yeah, can sure see that happening...
I assumed it was the subsequent fallout rather than the fake account announcement.
However, I did also think it was fair game for share price to plummet, clearly there are many people making a lot of money out of this.
Lol, dunno. I assumed it was the other way round!
The thing that gets me is how they intend to measure "exceptional". If everyone is working 12 hours a day six days a week (illegal under EU rules and likely outside of "reasonable overtime" that most contracts I have ever had used) then time at the coalface becomes useless as a metric for measuring people. If your people do burn out, then it's possible the best ones will just cease to exist in a useful form.
Lines of code then?
Security, UX/Design, Testing and Infrastructure may not write as many lines as a developer, but will just as easily (or more so) kill a product if they do not exist.
So how to measure exceptional?
That one tweet cost Lilly 6% of their market cap in one day. That's about $18bn or 40% of what Elon paid for Twitter. Lilly's ad spending suspension is not an isolated case.
https://endpts.com/novo-nordisk-gsk-pause-some-twitter-ad-spending-after-musk-takeover/
Not really. It needs to be in close contact with the engineers, but at the same time considering aesthetics, usability, marketing,… There’s a reason architecture is separate to civil engineering.
Usability is the key word there. A perfectly implemented product is worthless if it doesn't do what people want how they want it done. As for marketing, just as important. You could spend a long time creating the perfect machine for cooking an individual pea and slicing it into segments that costs £999, but no-one would want it so you'd have completely wasted your time.
illegal under EU rules
Not if you sign a form saying you're opting out of the Working Time Directive.....all entirely voluntarily 🙄
Not if you sign a form saying you’re opting out of the Working Time Directive…..all entirely voluntarily
iirc the UK was the only country with the individual opt out.
Didn't know that
Weird headline, for a depressingly predictable story...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63626769
A perfectly implemented product is worthless if it doesn’t do what people want how they want it done.
Although then again thats not always what the design team provides as opposed to whatever is currently trendy/cribbed off Apple. It is a balancing act though between the different disciplines. Giving either the absolute final say is a bad idea.
As for marketing, just as important.
TBF that is something he has traditionally been very good at.
TBF that is something he has traditionally been very good at.
That BBC story says Twitter doesn't currently have a comms dept though.
I'm assuming they're waiting to hire that guy who worked for Prince Andrew then Liz Truss.
That BBC story says Twitter doesn’t currently have a comms dept though.
Tesla hasnt had a PR department for quite some time either. He just spaffs stuff out on twitter and ignores the inconvenient stuff.
Apparently Matt Hancock now has a hand in Elon's downfall:
https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/twitter_refugees_matt_hancock/
Maybe this should be labelled as mischievous satire...
This would fall outside of the opt-out for the EU time directive.
A Member State shall have the option not to apply Article 6 [maximum weekly working time], while respecting the general principles of the protection of the safety and health of workers, and provided it takes the necessary measures to ensure that:
– no employer requires a worker to work more than 48 hours over a seven-day period, calculated as an average for the reference period referred to in point 2 of Article 16(b), unless he has first obtained the worker's agreement to perform such work;
– no worker is subjected to any detriment by his employer because he is not willing to give his agreement to perform such work;
– the employer keeps up-to-date records of all workers who carry out such work;
– the records are placed at the disposal of the competent authorities, which may, for reasons connected with the safety and/or health of workers, prohibit or restrict the possibility of exceeding the maximum weekly working hours;
– the employer provides the competent authorities at their request with information on cases in which agreement has been given by workers to perform work exceeding 48 hours over a period of seven days, calculated as an average for the reference period referred to in Article 16(b).
Are there limits to the opt out?
• The Directive does not specify limits to the number of working hours the workers can may agree to work through the opt-out…
• However, there are 2 implicit limits:
• 78 hours per week (168 h – 90h of rest)
• Its application must respect the principles of safety and health of workers => even when workers agree, the competent authorities (labour inspectorate) can intervene preventing them from opting–out for reasons concerned with their safety and health.
• The Directive also does not specify the reference period over which the workers may agree to work in excess of the 48 hours.
There are many studies (several by Eurofound) showing the relationship between long working hours, in particular over long periods of time, and outcomes such as more accidents, more mistakes, decreased productivity, more difficulties in work life balance, stress and fatigue, negative impact on health of workers, etc.
Twitter offices all closed up till Monday, no reason given.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63672307
This’ll be to stop all those who didn’t say “yes” to be locked out and even those who did to be vetted and allocated to critical roles about to be vacated by those who chose to leave.