Twitter Employees Resigning

[Pellice]

Those of you who were in IT can relive your nightmares with "Mosquito Capital's" writeup of 'How could this screw the company (Twitter) - Let me count the ways':

Mosquito Capital
@MosquitoCapital
I've seen a lot of people asking "why does everyone think Twitter is doomed?"

As an SRE and sysadmin with 10+ years of industry experience, I wanted to write up a few scenarios that are real threats to the integrity of the bird site over the coming weeks.

I'm up to #24 and still counting. I had no idea. Would love to see whether you IT experts can relate to this. (It's a twitter thread with heart-thumping tension laced scenarios that may trigger bad memories ..." One starts out:

"Mystery SEV. Suddenly, the site goes dark. The dashboard is red. Everything seems ****ed. There's no indication why. You need to call in the big guns." I have no idea what this means, but you probably do!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593541177965678592

 

[aja8888]

Without BIG advertisers, it has no meaningful revenue. And even with them, it never made a profit. It's a cash suck right now and no chance of government subsidies like his other businesses.

This "New" Twitter will be a hard thing to do and make money with. It has no product to sell.

 

[aja8888]

Those of you who were in IT can relive your nightmares with "Mosquito Capital's" writeup of 'How could this screw the company (Twitter) - Let me count the ways':



I'm up to #24 and still counting. I had no idea. Would love to see whether you IT experts can relate to this. (It's a twitter thread with heart-thumping tension laced scenarios that may trigger bad memories ..." One starts out:

"Mystery SEV. Suddenly, the site goes dark. The dashboard is red. Everything seems ****ed. There's no indication why. You need to call in the big guns." I have no idea what this means, but you probably do!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593541177965678592

Haha...that page above is down already.

 

[eboats]

Those of you who were in IT can relive your nightmares with "Mosquito Capital's" writeup of 'How could this screw the company (Twitter) - Let me count the ways':



I'm up to #24 and still counting. I had no idea. Would love to see whether you IT experts can relate to this. (It's a twitter thread with heart-thumping tension laced scenarios that may trigger bad memories ..." One starts out:

"Mystery SEV. Suddenly, the site goes dark. The dashboard is red. Everything seems ****ed. There's no indication why. You need to call in the big guns." I have no idea what this means, but you probably do!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593541177965678592

Yep, been there, sounds all too familiar. In this case, am rooting for every one of those scenarios - the world will be better off!

 

[cathy63]

Those of you who were in IT can relive your nightmares with "Mosquito Capital's" writeup of 'How could this screw the company (Twitter) - Let me count the ways':

I'm up to #24 and still counting. I had no idea. Would love to see whether you IT experts can relate to this. (It's a twitter thread with heart-thumping tension laced scenarios that may trigger bad memories ..." One starts out:

"Mystery SEV. Suddenly, the site goes dark. The dashboard is red. Everything seems ****ed. There's no indication why. You need to call in the big guns." I have no idea what this means, but you probably do!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593541177965678592

Argh! Now I'm having flashbacks to way too many work days. Sooo glad to be FI and retired.

One thing all these ex-Twitter folks have in their favor as they job hunt, they don't have to work very hard to come up with an answer to "why did you leave your last job?"

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Yep, been there, sounds all too familiar. In this case, am rooting for every one of those scenarios - the world will be better off!

In my working years, I've been called in off hours to fix several of those issues on the list!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Argh! Now I'm having flashbacks to way too many work days. Sooo glad to be FI and retired.

One thing all these ex-Twitter folks have in their favor as they job hunt, they don't have to work very hard to come up with an answer to "why did you leave your last job?"

One of our kids in tech said where they work getting a candidate with Twitter on the resume would be a big plus.

 

[jimbee]

I guess nobody wants to work anymore.











(This post is meant to be sarcasm, in case it isn't clear)

 

[Fermion]

I guess nobody wants to work anymore.

Well, not hard work anyway. Stroll in at 9am with a latte, play a few games on the foosball table, sit in a few meetings, then pop out at 4pm to catch the latest batman film.

Well that was pre Covid. It is easier now.

 

[Ian S]

Going back in time, it seems he was major PO'd when Twitter banned the "Babylon Bee" in March 2022. For those who don't know, the "Babylon Bee" is a satire site, like the Onion.

I don't know, I think this is personal for Elon. As an immigrant who had to put forth some effort to become a US citizen, instead of being born into like most of us, he may take the Bill of Rights more seriously than others, and feels he is in a position to do something about it.

-ERD50

I'm also "an immigrant who had to put forth some effort to become a US citizen" and AFAIAA, Twitter banning someone for violating their rules has nothing to do with the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights restricts government actions - not so much private entities but it's a common fallacy that folks have a right to express their opinion on private websites otherwise their first amendment rights are being violated. If you want to utilize a privately owned social media site, you have to abide by their rules or suffer the consequences.

 

[martyp]

This might be a good time for some Twitter employees to renegotiate their contracts and ask for more money.

 

[RobbieB]

Everyone here should know that the bill of rights do not apply to privately owned websites and there is no such thing as free speech.

We have instead "moderated speech"

For free speech you need to put up your step stool in the government square and step up and address your topic.

 

[Ian S]

Everyone here should know that the bill of rights do not apply to privately owned websites and there is no such thing as free speech.

We have instead "moderated speech"

For free speech you need to put up your step stool in the government square and step up and address your topic.

+1

 

[ERD50]

I'm also "an immigrant who had to put forth some effort to become a US citizen" and AFAIAA, Twitter banning someone for violating their rules has nothing to do with the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights restricts government actions - not so much private entities but it's a common fallacy that folks have a right to express their opinion on private websites otherwise their first amendment rights are being violated. If you want to utilize a privately owned social media site, you have to abide by their rules or suffer the consequences.

Everyone here should know that the bill of rights do not apply to privately owned websites and there is no such thing as free speech.

We have instead "moderated speech"

For free speech you need to put up your step stool in the government square and step up and address your topic.

You are both correct of course. But I think that "free speech" concept applies, in as far as Musk didn't think Twitter was applying their moderation fairly, so they didn't provide "fair speech".

I think what set off Musk was the perceived unfair way that Twitter (and other large social media sites) was doing their moderation. Now you can say "but that is their (Twitter's) business", OK. But (and I don't fully understand this), there is some legality that Twitter is saying they aren't a content provider, and this frees them from some legal issues - but by (allegedly) selectively moderating content, they are manipulating the content, sort of as if they were a content provider. Something like that, I never did deep dive into that issue.

Again, you could say, let the courts decide that. Well, I can't go much further w/o getting into politics, so I'll just observe that I think that Musk feels that the moderation favors certain groups in power, so that's not going to happen.

So he's buying it, and will set his own rules. I think it's a tough task. I was just on another forum where someone was spouting non-sense disinformation against EVs. So I correct them, but who would know who is right w/o a lot of research? How would a moderation team handle this disinformation?

One way is to not handle it, only moderate for things like threats, or clear hate speech. But then we end up with the unsubstantiated garbage back-and-forth. But I think it really needs to be "buyer beware".

-ERD50

 

[RobbieB]

Now he can apply his own version of fairness.

 

[ERD50]

I just read that Craigslist has 50 employees. Now, maybe they have a lot of contractors, but I couldn't find any support for that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craigslist

The site serves more than 20 billion[12] page views per month, putting it in 72nd place overall among websites worldwide and 11th place overall among websites in the United States (per Alexa.com on June 28, 2016), with more than 49.4 million unique monthly visitors in the United States alone (per Compete.com on January 8, 2010). With more than 80 million new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium.

The site receives more than 2 million new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world.[13][14] The 23 largest U.S. cities listed on the Craigslist home page collectively receive more than 300,000 postings per day just in the "for sale" and "housing" sections as of October 2011.[15] The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements to personal ads.

In 2009, Craigslist operated with a staff of 28 people.[16]

50 as of 2017.

-ERD50

 

[NW-Bound]

I never have a Twitter account, but over the years have seen plenty of notorious or noteworthy Tweets shared on the Web.

Just saw this one allegedly from Musk (many accounts of celebrities have been created by imposters).

Elon Musk's Tweet: "How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start out with a large one. - 6:25 PM · Nov 17, 2022"

 

[NW-Bound]

A Fortune article has this title: " Ex-Twitter employees are left in limbo with thousands in expenses after Elon Musk layoffs and mass exodus".

It appeared that the managerial and financial functions at Twitter have been so disrupted that nobody knows what's going on and who's left to do what.

Payments and expenses at Twitter are submitted through a system called Concur, given pre-approval by an artificial intelligence, then sent to a manager for sign off. If the expense is approved by the manager, it’s then processed and paid out within a week or so.

The expenses some laid-off employees are owed were processed three weeks ago, before Musk took over the company. “Not only has it not [been paid out], but it’s disappeared from Concur,” the former UK employee says. “There are a lot of people in Signal channels very frightened about not getting between £400 to £8,000 of expenses back.”

See: https://fortune.com/2022/11/18/twitter-former-employee-expenses-not-paid-elon-musk-layoffs/

 

[SecondAttempt]

You are both correct of course. But I think that "free speech" concept applies, in as far as Musk didn't think Twitter was applying their moderation fairly, so they didn't provide "fair speech".

I think what set off Musk was the perceived unfair way that Twitter (and other large social media sites) was doing their moderation. Now you can say "but that is their (Twitter's) business", OK. But (and I don't fully understand this), there is some legality that Twitter is saying they aren't a content provider, and this frees them from some legal issues - but by (allegedly) selectively moderating content, they are manipulating the content, sort of as if they were a content provider. Something like that, I never did deep dive into that issue.

Again, you could say, let the courts decide that. Well, I can't go much further w/o getting into politics, so I'll just observe that I think that Musk feels that the moderation favors certain groups in power, so that's not going to happen.

So he's buying it, and will set his own rules. I think it's a tough task. I was just on another forum where someone was spouting non-sense disinformation against EVs. So I correct them, but who would know who is right w/o a lot of research? How would a moderation team handle this disinformation?

One way is to not handle it, only moderate for things like threats, or clear hate speech. But then we end up with the unsubstantiated garbage back-and-forth. But I think it really needs to be "buyer beware".

-ERD50

I have no opinion on Musk or Twitter. But I think he has realized he has bought himself a huge can of worms that are not going to help him catch advertising fish that won't bite.

 

[pb4uski]

Now he can apply his own version of fairness.

On that model based on paid advertising, it's the advertisers that apply their own version of fairness. And they are voting with their feet.

 

[ER Eddie]

Re. free speech, Bill of Rights, and "private entities," it was made public not too long ago -- part of the documents that came out around the time of the buyout -- that Twitter (as well as other major tech platforms) was meeting with US government representatives to hammer out guidelines for which type of speech to moderate/squelch. This was in regard to information about COVID, vaccines, and other politically charged issues. Naturally, most of the media ignored the information.

But let's not naively pretend that government and big tech platforms do not collude in choosing what speech to "moderate"/squash.

 

[Popeye]

Re. free speech, Bill of Rights, and "private entities," it was made public not too long ago -- part of the documents that came out around the time of the buyout -- that Twitter (as well as other major tech platforms) was meeting with US government representatives to hammer out guidelines for which type of speech to moderate/squelch. This was in regard to information about COVID, vaccines, and other politically charged issues. Naturally, most of the media ignored the information.

But let's not naively pretend that government and big tech platforms do not collude in choosing what speech to "moderate"/squash.

+1

Once the govt goes to them and “advises” or “warns” and they cooperate to censor or suppress, then it is a 1st amendment issue.

 

[njhowie]

I don't have Twitter stock,

Nobody has Twitter stock.

 

[Car-Guy]

But let's not naively pretend that government and big tech platforms do not collude in choosing what speech to "moderate"/squash.

Duh, you think!

 

[ERD50]

Nobody has Twitter stock.

Elon Musk, Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, probably Larry Ellison, and a few others do. Maybe one of them is on this forum?

Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said Friday that he and his Kingdom Holding Company rolled over a combined $1.89 billion in existing Twitter shares, making them the company’s largest shareholder after Musk. Another equity investor, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, confirmed Friday that it put in $500 million.

-ERD50