Yes change the name and iconic logo of a huge corporation, that will go over great.
If he hadn't demonstrated his incompetence earlier I'd think it was intentional.
I still think there's a bit of intent to destroy the company but it's kinda hard to tell.
There’s a woman over on Mastodon making the argument that he’s trying to destroy it so it can’t be used to organize left-leaning political action (fundraising, activism, issue messaging, etc) any longer. She makes a compelling argument.
I don't buy that. He tried to cancel the purchase. He's also losing money, and so it's definitely not a 3D chess.
Didn't Twitter almost take him to court if he didn't follow through with the purchase? I think he got caught in his over investment in Twitter last year, and rather than go through a trial with discovery (I think he NEEDED to follow through to avoid this specifically), he decided to go through with the purchase. I wonder what the hell they would have found during a trial discovery that made him sink $44B.
But what he's doing now? I don't think it's related to that. I think it might be to help manipulate stocks, as we have seen him do several months back. Maybe he thinks that destroying left-leaning political action saves him in taxes? He destroyed public transportation in California just so people would theoretically purchase more Tesla cars. Nothing is beyond being trampled by Musk if he thinks he can benefit by stumbling over the other side of the corpse.
Didn’t Twitter almost take him to court if he didn’t follow through with the purchase?
Yeah, he was way too cavalier with the documents he signed while negotiation with Twitter. It would have cost him $1Billion to back out. But that is a bargain compared to what he had to do to come up with the $44B he paid for Twitter.
Not only that, it would have been easier and cheaper to just shut the whole thing down after taking ownership. His very public (mainly by his own tweeting) stewardship of Twitter is damaging to his reputation, and the reputation of his other businesses. The reality is, he just is that dumb.
Narcissism
His net worth has only gone up since he bought it, iirc. Tesla will continue to print money at least for a little while until other automakers catch up on EVs. SpaceX doesn't seem to have any viable competitors, and both sides of the aisle agree on privatizing space, so that's a big growth industry. This is the unfortunate fact of capitalism in general and late-stage capitalism in particular.
His net worth has only gone up since he bought it, iirc
It absolutely didn't. His net worth dropped over 50% in the months following the purchase. It's back up above $200b at this point according to Forbes, but he's still down from his pre-purchase state.
If he'd just shut it down, he probably would have been personally liable for Twitter's debt, because he didn't even try.
I mean it can be all of the above. Musk isn't very coherent.
He's the consummate failson. Rich enough that he'll never actually experience any tangible negativity from his various ventures, if he has a skill, it's in self-publicity and (historically) throwing money at ventures that are already on an upward trajectory.
But I feel that all the cocaine and being surrounded by Yes Men have led to him tipping over the edge.
I'd believe it if I hadn't already heard of Musk being the type to fire workers in his line of sight at pure random simply to fire someone. It apparently got so bad that aids would plan the route he would take to the meetings around having as few victims as possible out in the open.
It would be a smart move for anyone, and he is succeeding to a good extent (they'll just go elsewhere?), but I think that's just a happy accident of his. I feel like he's really just using it as a chew toy so he can feel all big and important with the headlines. If he were being journalistically gray rocked, I wonder what he'd do.
What the fuck.
The issue with that argument is... Why? He is a business man, activism generally doesn't effect him, tesla cars are generally liked by left leaning middle class, why would he spend so much money to destroy something?
One factor is his obsession with crypto and Blockchain shit. Left-wing activism generally stands against that stuff because of the environmental impact. Additionally, right-wing political movements recently have been lowering safety standards in business. Bad for the worker, but great for the bottom line.
"Can you buy Twitter and then delete it, please!? xx" Riley allegedly texted Musk on March 24. "America is going INSANE."
🤷
Is Tallulah Riley right wing? Wow.
he bought it pretty soon after a meeting with Putin, while the Ukraine invasion was fresh and international support was rallying on Twitter. So, blackmail, bribery, buy up Twitter and immediately gut it.
I unironically believe this conspiracy theory
I've been saying the same thing in multiple Lemmy posts and on Mastodon. Twitter and Reddit were both used by progressives to organize.
I saw this article posted in another thread and it seems to explain a lot. Not sure how close it is to reality, but it looks like nostalgia is at least a partial reason for this change.
Yep. Fucking nostalgia.
It makes a lot of sense!
To err is human, repeat the mistake is foolish
Thx for sharing the article!
MAX
That is a stupid name
It'll be a nightmare to search
Gonna name my company "😃"
I'm opening up a rival called "social media." Already, we're on everyone's lips, set to have a userbase spanning half the web.
There’s a band I heard of called “:(“ and I’ve never been able to find it since
Wow, thanks! I’m not sure this is even them but it’s a band called :( so I’ll take it!
There's a Japanese youtube channel that makes music under a blank name with blank titles. Thankfully you can google "blank japanese youtube channel" and it shows up lol
Heh, there’s also a Japanese band that used to be called…X
Was not expecting Peep Show when clicking that link. Great show!
If your goal is to reduce cost why would you waste money doing a rebrand.. so dumb
I believe his main goal is turning Twitter into something of an "everything" site where he's looking to combine the likes of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Discord, and Venmo/Paypal into a single service. I don't know if it was his goal when he bought it or if it has any chance in hell of working, but that's something he at least said (while probably drunk) fairly recently.
He has had this dream of an everything app for a very long time. I feel like he is trying to realize it now.
so Twitter was vi then he turned it into edlin and now he wants it to be emacs.
My first thought was an all-in-one "life subscription," kinda like how you can buy those iPhone + Apple One packages, but with Tesla (I don't know if Tesla has subscriptions to them -- but I'm sure they do), Twitter Blue, and Starlink. It's pretty dystopian and hecka freaky.
He should take a page of LINE app if he wants an everything app
This reminds me of when snapchat tried to entire the mobile cash industry with they snapchat pay service.
He also did $20k payouts to some of the worst Twitter users.
Yeah I saw that and cringed. Why would you give Andrew Tate money. It removes all plausible deniablity and proves that you want people like him posting on your platform.
Exactly. That is quite specifically what he wants.
"Arr, this ❌ marks where I buried 44 billion doubloons!"
Was Twitter ever really a left leaning platform in the first place? It pretty much always felt like it was filled with Russian bots and maga shit.
So I guess good job Musk for burning down a shit website? Lol
As a side note, Mastodon is legitimately fantastic. The community there is genuinely nice.
It was left leaning until about 2014. Then it slowly crept farther and farther right wing. Slowly bleeding users who didn't want to deal with the fascist jerks. Slowly converting fence sitters into fascist jerks by normalizing fascism by pretending it was just asking questions, just making edgy jokes, you know the drill. Next, 2016 came. That for me was when the bottom fell out of twitter. The Russian twitter bots were everywhere. And it took twitter way too long to deal with it. I think by that point, the platform was ruined. It was never going to grow meaningfully by attracting new people. It was just going to slowly decay as people looked for their friends and favorite creators on Reddit, Discord, Youtube, or wherever else they went. But that decay would have been slow until Elon tanked it. His efforts have chased off users in droves
Most new platforms are left leaning from the start, because left leaning people are more likely to try out new platforms. Once platforms get mainstream they will be picked up by right leaning media.
Sounds about right. oh well.
This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
Shh, shh, let it happen, let it happen. Meanwhile, want some popcorn? I made like 3 tubs worth of it
I'll take the popcorn but I'd rather watch another show. This one is getting so predictable.
It hasn't been too slow 🍿
alright now we're gonna have quite a big discussion as to what "x server" means. x11? twitter?
"guys x servers are down!"
"have you checked your .xinitrc? did you start x?"
"whats an x innit racecar? the x servers are down!"
"how do you use x without knowing what an .xinitrc is... oh"
meanwhile reddit gonna rename themselves to "wayland"
I mean, Debian setup setting up .xinitrc for me on my computer has made me not need to know what it is. I think I should.
I forgot too. I use Wayland now anyway
Before merging with Yutani?
STOP CLICKING ON THIS SHIT
Yea I'm just blocking this community. I'm tired of seeing this shit on my feed.
Just so you know, you don’t have to announce if you’re leaving a community. Just go. Nobody cares
I don't know i think it would be kind of cool to have a herald yell out when we come and go, like the medieval times.
Alright I’m sold, I take back what I said.
Do we have Lemmy bots? Sounds like a cool idea for a really annoying bot haha.
HEAR YE HEAR YE, THE RIGHT AND HONORABLE SIR LORD JEMORGAN of LEMM.EE HAS DECLARED, ON THIS DAY THE 24TH OF JULY, THAT THEY ARE SOLD, AND TAKES BACK WHAT THEY SAID. LET US ALL APPLAUD THEIR OPEN MINDEDNESS.
THE LORD ALSO CARES TO INQUIRE ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTATIONS OF LEMMY BOTS AND THAT IT SOUNDS LIKE A COOL IDEA.
ALL HAIL JEMORGAN, MAY THEY LIVE LONG AND PROSPER
Well doesn’t that just make my pants a little tighter in a way that I’m 100% down for
How is anyone going to beg them to stay if they don’t announce it?
I didn't have to, but I did. You seem to care enough to write a reply?
Yeah, because sadly I can’t just silently unsubscribe from all the whiners who have to make sure to let everybody know that they’re not going to stay subscribed to a community lol.
And also, I just care about you buddy I don’t need to justify that. You have an awesome rest of your day.
Guys, I’m starting to think this Elon guy isn’t as smart as he claims…
No rich person is actually smart, they are all addicted to money and can't get help over it. But their moves in the business world are all calculated, this guy is doing exactly what he wants to do and their goal is to make money not to lose them.
this guy is doing exactly what he wants to do and their goal is to make money not to lose them.
How does this make him money exactly? lol
He is literally just killing off his website.
My guess: the same way the now called Meta benefited from stalling facebook and moving people to their other platforms like instagram.
These marketers perceive everything in market terms, twitter is old and they need to release a brand new product to hook people up
I'm waiting for the next step when he tries to add features to make X whatever he envisions. Oh, those devs I fired. Hey, why can't we hire anyone? No one wants to work.
No rich person is actually smart
Counterpoint: Warren Buffet.
Money are an addiction just like smoke, sex or drugs. If you can't cope with being addicted to gold at the end of the day you are dumber than some kids
If he thinks Twitter is irreperably dying, this may be a way, in which he can get out of repaying the loans he used to (partially) fund the buyout of twitter.
If you're thinking this an "artist formerly known as Prince" sort of thing where Prince got out of a contract, I'm sure all the debt holders have the proper legal verbiage to have agreements remain valid in the event of a name change.
How does that get him out of the loans?
The lenders lawyer arrives at the Twitter office:
Lawyer: This is Twitter, is it?
Musk: (with a fake mustache) No, it's X.
The bonesaw Saudi lenders :)
That makes me think of the theory about Saudi Arabia and probably other countries have had it in for Twitter since Arab Spring.
So this is just Elon doing as instructed: "Make Twitter disappear, but make it look like an accident"
Absolutely
depends how the loans worked.
I was assuming his majority shares of X (ex Twitter) collateral.
And that that he could just go "yeah, go on, collect on your collateral, I don't mind", because it's not worth anything anymore.
But admittedly I have no Idea how the contracts were drawn up, if this is possible and if his other money would be available to collect on.
At some point some creditor should be desperate enough to do a margin call, since the loan collateral is next to worthless.
An insight that's coming a couple of years too late though.
It's a joke.
I should've added a smiley face myself, sorry. I thought you were joking.
No worries. I'm genuinely relieved you were joking too!!
He got a company and a social media that is remarkable, and recognizable, and even has an action verb related to it, "tweet, to tweet, tweeting".
And he decided to piss on it and create the X app. Adding insult to injury is that it's again, another techy black and white logo. Of course, because that's the silicon valley trend isn't it, black and white clean minimalist corporate logo, no soul, no community, just corporate all along.
Who wants to tell him about Xorg and their product X11?
He will release X18
You mean the outdated piece of software that everyone (on Linux) used, which is slowly being replaced by multiple different implementations all based on the same standard? Seems to me like an apt (no pun intended) metaphor.
I think they should go with 💩Shitter - it’s where most people use it anyway.
Shitter is an app for Mastodon on F-Droid. Dont know why they decided that. Back handed compliment of a name. Work on an app then call it Shitter ! ? IDK
@chiz X is so easy to search in internet. So many results; it gets never boring! Very unique name and brand.
Spez: Write it down, write it down! Let's rename Reddit to Z! Employee: Why Z? Spez: What do you mean why? Does X make any sense to you too? Employee: All right, I should have never questioned you.
It's like B, C, D, V, R in programming.... If Reddit took X++ and someone else took X#, the unsearchable name trifecta would be complete!
.net is even worse.
Crying in former COM programming hell
What's V? I don't see it on the list. X++ is already taken, though... but I see a huge potential in Y*.
V. There is also Vale, which was originally named VLang.
I don't remember exactly what it is, all i remember is there's a unix-like operating system written in it
Z, because the "Spe" was just an afterthought this whole time....
pardon me... I have been laughing so hard reading this thread, it was the best I could come up with! 😂
Pay $44 billion for a brand
Literally destroy the brand
This is more baffling than accidentally destroying the brand, like he's been doing.
It's like he can't destroy his company fast enough😂
Yeah this really makes sure Twitter will be x'ed.
He really put afterburner on that dumpster fire.
Space-X, X AE A-12, trying to create a company named X since the 90's...
guys, I think elon musk is obsessed with Speed Racers Racer X. Why else would X be such a prominent motivator for this creature?
Any theories? Deal with the devil made at a crossroads? Or maybe he just was really used to railroad crossing signs as a kid and wants to relive those memories?
You know I had something typed up debating this, but being obsessed with Racer X does explain his family abandonment.
X is the naughty letter (rated X) in S3XY which is also the four tesla car model letter. 12 year old humor.
Wants to relive the 90s.
In a few years the only thing of value remaining of twitter will be the x.com domain
lol I clicked on the x.com link, then tried to close the "you should log in" shit by tapping the logo.
if a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow
Christ, imagine being on the dev team that has to make this happen in a day.
good enough, musk?
edit: wait the actual logo looks basically the same as this but without the orange ring
Way too much effort. Just take this
𝕏
Take Twitter, change the logo.svg file, change the main color from blue to black, Ctrl+F all instances of Twitter, replace with X. Done
I mean, I bet it would just be impressive enough for Musk. The biggest hurdle would probably be getting the update through the AppStore in just one day.
edit: apparently they've already change the logo file on the website (at least in the login screen, I don't have an account)
Man, imagine having to ctrl+F X when the name changes again
idk about you, but when I think of my X, I think of a toxic place filled with hate, that I never want to go to or hear about again. Branding on point.
'Cos it marks the spot where he buried all his treasure, amirite?
I don't know about ALL his treasure, but he definitely buried 35 billion dollars in there. Never to be seen again.
I went and deactivated my twitter accounts today. I got Lemmy and when I do my own servers via my own app, I'll enjoy a twitter alternative again.
Edit: Im saying this because my mind went to action not bitching. I think the X rebrand is like a sign of the times and the official "okay twitters dead" moment.
Last week I deactivated both my Twitter account and my Facebook/Instagram/Threads account, and it was truly a joyous experience. Just the sheer "screw you all" glee of it all. 10/10 would recommend.
I want to know, what are "tweets" and "tweeting" going to be relabeled as?
I can just see conversations like:
"Dude, did you see the latest X from Eminem?"
"Yeah, I re-X'd it to all my buds!"
X gonna X it to ya.
Did you watch Eminem's latest X video? ~Strawberry
The brand is probably not going to be rebranded. Its either gonna be associated with X directly, or the verb will die.
This is not what most users signed up for when they signed up on Twitter.
Its because they signed up for Twitter
EnXittification happening. Let's hope the rest of the users finds their way to fediverse.
Some of them are just too far invested to see the light. It's actually pretty sad to see twitter addicts fail to migrate to any of the plethora of alternatives.
Hell no. If there is one thing I learned from moving over to fediverse, it's that people are what make the site enjoyable or frustrating. As it is now, I enjoy the userbase here and on Mastodon, and the last thing I would want is for the most insufferable of Twitter users to come and ruin it. I'm happy most people who are quitting Twitter are joining the other alternatives. I would rather people join the fediverse as a more deliberate choice based on what we offer.
RIP his SEO. I know it's part of his goal for an "everything" app. But, this name is just terrible and is going to be a nightmare to look up. Not to mention how much history will refer to Twitter and not a single letter.
Y?
As much as I think that the Reddit and twitter soap operas are nothing but a time sink over what is a relatively simple cautionary tale, I can't look away from this train wreck. "Y, elon?" is the new "fuck u/spez".
What a fucking stupid move. And that's saying something at this point.
Well I guess twitter really is dead now.
I am pronouncing it "ex" as in ex-wife.
I thought that was already the name of Musk's child?!?
It's just the trump style of marketing. Do stupid shit constantly and the media will never shut up about you and people will never stop talking about whatever bullshit it is you're selling.
I'll believe it once the Twitter name and the birdie are both removed off the face of the site and gone for good. And even then I'm not entirely sure I'm going to care all that much.
@sab He is really dedicated into killing Twitter. This is basically a new service with the user data he purchased.
Wasn’t X the first name of paypal or something like that? He already owned x.com for a long time, i guess wanted to make use of that
Kinda.
Thiel backstabbed Musk before X became a thing, because he's a fucking weasel and Musk is a moron government contractor. It's also really funny he took the company while Musk was on honeymoon.
Paypal’s board brought Thiel in and ousted Musk. Thiel didn’t do that on his own, he was begged to come back.
The one upside of this is that Tucker Carlson spent so much money rebranding to Tucker on Twitter and now it's wasted
I doubt anyone will want to see Tucker on X past the first couple minutes of hilarity.
But I'm old and I think they call that Molly now
Lmao I hope in a couple of years someone just takes the twitter branding and rebuilds it.
Not that I am a fan of twitter, may that plattform burn in hell, but just to shove it into Musks face.
If the domain lapses, and I doubt it will, someone should make Twitter.com a Mastodon instance.
If a domain squatter gets it... my money is on Twitter.com becoming either a porn site, or a casino.
As ancient internet tradition demands.
Twitter is Twitter. Facebook is Facebook too for that matter.
It's funny because Facebooks rebranding to Meta spouted the exact same BS about the metaverse being a platform for everything, something something AI, etc etc and it failed publicly and hard
I just don't understand
There is 0% chance this man is neither on drugs nor having a severe mental breakdown.
What if he's always been like this but just had the money to hide it?
He seems to have had some lucky moves, and the whole "Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, Boring" still look like a decent combo.
Everything else, looks like what someone with DGAF money would do to pass the time. At least he's not going on a safari collecting trophies, or something.
There are speculations he is under a very severe mid-life crisis.
Ah yes, an X for the company known for their ✓. I'm sure that won't be confusing at any point.
@Chozo@chiz Who cares? The company's dead, it's just the skeleton rattling thru the halls till every bone falls off.
Except that their business model of "bUt EvErYoNe Is HeRe" or "Mastodon/Bluesky is too complicated" seems to be keeping them afloat.
@Roundcat@chiz@Chozo They've lost MOST of their advertisers, and their paid subscribers are down to the folks who need their service and haven't yet figured out an exit. I don't think they have much time left, darlz.
I don't know about "MOST" as there are still a good amount of mainstream companies that advertise on the site. At least you wouldn't know it if you are still on the site constantly. And I'm mostly going on about the users there who don't like the changes there and constantly complain about them in articles or youtube, yet it is the only way they insist on engaging with their followers still.
The thing about Mastodon and Lemmy to users who exclusively use those sites is they are themselves a bubble. There are weeks I spend most of my web activity on kbin, and would believe reddit is on its death spiral. Yet I peak over there, and it's about as active as when I left it. I even see articles about reddit or twitters activity recovering that I never see get shared here, because at the end of the day, the narrative we want to hear is "Corporate site is dying, we are the future!"
I think Reddit will still be around, but when it comes to Twitter, the acquisition saddled the company with billions in debt amounting to around a billion in yearly interest repayment. Twitter already was barely making ends meet before that, and it only lost revenue for all the stupid decisions being made. Even if it was exactly as profitable as before, it wouldn't be enough anymore.
One day Twitter is simply going to stop working, or close off so much it becomes unusable, unless Musk personally tries to keep it afloat at expense of his own fortune, or someone is dumb enough to buy it off of him and do the same.
I also see a lot of wishful thinking in the Fediverse, but this is not the case here. People there may not want to move on, but it's not gonna keep it afloat. I already see a lot of people making their escape plans and linking alternative platforms every day.
@Roundcat@chiz@Chozo I know! And I mostly agree. I don't go to Reddit, unless I get a link from there but I do sometimes go to Twitter bc I had 30K+ folks I knew there, and I miss them. It rly is dying tho. Nothing but Nazis screaming bile, and stuff doesn't work half the time. The bile is acceptable, but not working? Nobody pays for stuff that don't work. Not for long.
That'll solve all the problems.
Same shit sandwich, new brand
With what staff? Rebranding is fucking expensive.
Elon thinks all you need to do is change the site CSS and maybe do a press release, and he's famous enough that the rest will just take care of itself.
He's not entirely wrong.
In business, a poor person doesn't get to try, a middle class person gets one shot after putting everything on the line and a rich person can afford to fail a dozen or more times until they hit a winner. Elon has enough money that he can basically try an infinite number of times and at least some of those are going to work.
Logo that was in the GIF Musk posted looks an awful lot like X11 logo.
You mean the logo of their new neighbor, https://x.org/ ?
So.... is this just like a really dumb cost-cutting measure to stop paying fees for the twitter domain/brand name or something, since he already owns the name "X"?
Nope, it's literally nothing more than the fact that Musk, like the cringey edgelord that he is, thinks the letter X is the coolest. He'll be painting go-faster stripes on Twitter next. Or the X logo will be on fire or something.
he literally named his kid Xæ
dude just loves throwing out Xs
like an illiterate narcissist handing out unsolicited autographs
A domain is like 10 bucks a year. This is just ego
I saw rumors of this a few weeks ago but didn't think anything of it. Is the domain changing too? Part of this the Comcast to Xfinity move, rebranding to drop association, I think. But Twitter's brand wasn't that bad so I don't know.
x.com already redirects to twitter. I suspect that will be changed to the other way around soon enough (twitter redirecting to x)
Knowing him, he'll forget to remove the first redirect
WTF did Elon even bring to PayPal when he merged with Confinity if he still has control over the x.com URL and name? It certainly wasn't competent leadership.
Myabe he managed to hire well or something?
He bought the domain back later, actually.
no.
if they change it i will leave the next day
Why are you even there still? Mastadon has been a solid alternative for me for a while now.
Absolutely nobody I know is on Mastodon, and despite my efforts, they won't move because it's "scary" or "bad" or some bizarre shit.
Yes, I'm frustrated.
I met a bunch of new people on mastodon. Sometimes you gotta. :(
im on mastodon too mabye i should put up a post of if i should leave twitter or not
Why tf are you still there lol. Were all the other terrible changes not enough?
No 😭😭😭
Also: American History X
Brilliant!
Ffs
Yes change the name and iconic logo of a huge corporation, that will go over great.
If he hadn't demonstrated his incompetence earlier I'd think it was intentional.
I still think there's a bit of intent to destroy the company but it's kinda hard to tell.
There’s a woman over on Mastodon making the argument that he’s trying to destroy it so it can’t be used to organize left-leaning political action (fundraising, activism, issue messaging, etc) any longer. She makes a compelling argument.
I don't buy that. He tried to cancel the purchase. He's also losing money, and so it's definitely not a 3D chess.
Didn't Twitter almost take him to court if he didn't follow through with the purchase? I think he got caught in his over investment in Twitter last year, and rather than go through a trial with discovery (I think he NEEDED to follow through to avoid this specifically), he decided to go through with the purchase. I wonder what the hell they would have found during a trial discovery that made him sink $44B.
But what he's doing now? I don't think it's related to that. I think it might be to help manipulate stocks, as we have seen him do several months back. Maybe he thinks that destroying left-leaning political action saves him in taxes? He destroyed public transportation in California just so people would theoretically purchase more Tesla cars. Nothing is beyond being trampled by Musk if he thinks he can benefit by stumbling over the other side of the corpse.
He is currently suing those lawyers.
On "behalf" of Twitter. What a fucking clown.
Yeah, he was way too cavalier with the documents he signed while negotiation with Twitter. It would have cost him $1Billion to back out. But that is a bargain compared to what he had to do to come up with the $44B he paid for Twitter.
Not only that, it would have been easier and cheaper to just shut the whole thing down after taking ownership. His very public (mainly by his own tweeting) stewardship of Twitter is damaging to his reputation, and the reputation of his other businesses. The reality is, he just is that dumb.
Narcissism
His net worth has only gone up since he bought it, iirc. Tesla will continue to print money at least for a little while until other automakers catch up on EVs. SpaceX doesn't seem to have any viable competitors, and both sides of the aisle agree on privatizing space, so that's a big growth industry. This is the unfortunate fact of capitalism in general and late-stage capitalism in particular.
It absolutely didn't. His net worth dropped over 50% in the months following the purchase. It's back up above $200b at this point according to Forbes, but he's still down from his pre-purchase state.
If he'd just shut it down, he probably would have been personally liable for Twitter's debt, because he didn't even try.
I mean it can be all of the above. Musk isn't very coherent.
He's the consummate failson. Rich enough that he'll never actually experience any tangible negativity from his various ventures, if he has a skill, it's in self-publicity and (historically) throwing money at ventures that are already on an upward trajectory.
But I feel that all the cocaine and being surrounded by Yes Men have led to him tipping over the edge.
I'd believe it if I hadn't already heard of Musk being the type to fire workers in his line of sight at pure random simply to fire someone. It apparently got so bad that aids would plan the route he would take to the meetings around having as few victims as possible out in the open.
It would be a smart move for anyone, and he is succeeding to a good extent (they'll just go elsewhere?), but I think that's just a happy accident of his. I feel like he's really just using it as a chew toy so he can feel all big and important with the headlines. If he were being journalistically gray rocked, I wonder what he'd do.
What the fuck.
The issue with that argument is... Why? He is a business man, activism generally doesn't effect him, tesla cars are generally liked by left leaning middle class, why would he spend so much money to destroy something?
One factor is his obsession with crypto and Blockchain shit. Left-wing activism generally stands against that stuff because of the environmental impact. Additionally, right-wing political movements recently have been lowering safety standards in business. Bad for the worker, but great for the bottom line.
Perhaps capital wasn't scared of tesla-buyers.
His ex-wife did ask him to buy and kill Twitter:
🤷
Is Tallulah Riley right wing? Wow.
he bought it pretty soon after a meeting with Putin, while the Ukraine invasion was fresh and international support was rallying on Twitter. So, blackmail, bribery, buy up Twitter and immediately gut it.
I unironically believe this conspiracy theory
I've been saying the same thing in multiple Lemmy posts and on Mastodon. Twitter and Reddit were both used by progressives to organize.
where's the link
Sure, make me go look it up. @OutOnTheMoors@beige.party or @CrazyMyra@mastodon.social.
I saw this article posted in another thread and it seems to explain a lot. Not sure how close it is to reality, but it looks like nostalgia is at least a partial reason for this change.
Yep. Fucking nostalgia.
It makes a lot of sense!
To err is human, repeat the mistake is foolish
Thx for sharing the article!
MAX
That is a stupid name
It'll be a nightmare to search
Gonna name my company "😃"
I'm opening up a rival called "social media." Already, we're on everyone's lips, set to have a userbase spanning half the web.
There’s a band I heard of called “:(“ and I’ve never been able to find it since
Here you go.
Wow, thanks! I’m not sure this is even them but it’s a band called :( so I’ll take it!
There's a Japanese youtube channel that makes music under a blank name with blank titles. Thankfully you can google "blank japanese youtube channel" and it shows up lol
Heh, there’s also a Japanese band that used to be called…X
Ṯ̸̛̠͈̜̮̠͉̖̩͈̦̖̰̺̦̳̞̣͍̖̮̩̩͔̟̇̾̽̄̔̊͂̕͝w̶̘̖͓̮͓̉̀̀̿̈́̀͗͂̂̑̆̐̀͌́͗̑̑̊̈̅̇͒̊͋̚͘̕͘̕į̸͖̪̪̟̭͔͚̼̳̏̈͒́͑͒̈́̿̔͆̀̿̏̒͝t̶̡̘̟̣̀̾͛͂̒͆̆̂̇͘͠t̷̡̨̖̖̤͎̬̜̬͈̙̱͖̼͚͇͕̘͈̔̎́̅̈́̉͒́̚͜͝͝ͅę̴͕̥͎̙͉̗̜̟͔́̀̾͐̿̑̉̀͐̂̚r̵̢̢̦̰̰̣͖̯͎͚͙͇̯͈̙͔͇͉͈̩̖̝͉̅̏̿͗̆̀̀̈́̔̀͊̓
It’s Twitter but for thrash metal bands.
At least he didn't name it something that's a generic name for a concept that exists on almost all social media sites like.. I don't know, "threads"
More interesting than a single letter
The artist formerly known as Twitter
The hacker known as 4chan
https://youtu.be/qiH65oumh1k
Was not expecting Peep Show when clicking that link. Great show!
If your goal is to reduce cost why would you waste money doing a rebrand.. so dumb
I believe his main goal is turning Twitter into something of an "everything" site where he's looking to combine the likes of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Discord, and Venmo/Paypal into a single service. I don't know if it was his goal when he bought it or if it has any chance in hell of working, but that's something he at least said (while probably drunk) fairly recently.
He has had this dream of an everything app for a very long time. I feel like he is trying to realize it now.
so Twitter was vi then he turned it into edlin and now he wants it to be emacs.
My first thought was an all-in-one "life subscription," kinda like how you can buy those iPhone + Apple One packages, but with Tesla (I don't know if Tesla has subscriptions to them -- but I'm sure they do), Twitter Blue, and Starlink. It's pretty dystopian and hecka freaky.
He should take a page of LINE app if he wants an everything app
This reminds me of when snapchat tried to entire the mobile cash industry with they snapchat pay service.
He also did $20k payouts to some of the worst Twitter users.
Yeah I saw that and cringed. Why would you give Andrew Tate money. It removes all plausible deniablity and proves that you want people like him posting on your platform.
Exactly. That is quite specifically what he wants.
"Arr, this ❌ marks where I buried 44 billion doubloons!"
*billion
Que?
Was Twitter ever really a left leaning platform in the first place? It pretty much always felt like it was filled with Russian bots and maga shit.
So I guess good job Musk for burning down a shit website? Lol
As a side note, Mastodon is legitimately fantastic. The community there is genuinely nice.
It was left leaning until about 2014. Then it slowly crept farther and farther right wing. Slowly bleeding users who didn't want to deal with the fascist jerks. Slowly converting fence sitters into fascist jerks by normalizing fascism by pretending it was just asking questions, just making edgy jokes, you know the drill. Next, 2016 came. That for me was when the bottom fell out of twitter. The Russian twitter bots were everywhere. And it took twitter way too long to deal with it. I think by that point, the platform was ruined. It was never going to grow meaningfully by attracting new people. It was just going to slowly decay as people looked for their friends and favorite creators on Reddit, Discord, Youtube, or wherever else they went. But that decay would have been slow until Elon tanked it. His efforts have chased off users in droves
Most new platforms are left leaning from the start, because left leaning people are more likely to try out new platforms. Once platforms get mainstream they will be picked up by right leaning media.
Sounds about right. oh well.
This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
Shh, shh, let it happen, let it happen. Meanwhile, want some popcorn? I made like 3 tubs worth of it
I'll take some...😂
🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿✖️
That's like, 3 bathtubs worth.
I'll take the popcorn but I'd rather watch another show. This one is getting so predictable.
It hasn't been too slow 🍿
alright now we're gonna have quite a big discussion as to what "x server" means. x11? twitter?
"guys x servers are down!"
"have you checked your .xinitrc? did you start x?"
"whats an x innit racecar? the x servers are down!"
"how do you use x without knowing what an .xinitrc is... oh"
meanwhile reddit gonna rename themselves to "wayland"
I mean, Debian setup setting up .xinitrc for me on my computer has made me not need to know what it is. I think I should.
I forgot too. I use Wayland now anyway
Before merging with Yutani?
STOP CLICKING ON THIS SHIT
Yea I'm just blocking this community. I'm tired of seeing this shit on my feed.
Just so you know, you don’t have to announce if you’re leaving a community. Just go. Nobody cares
I don't know i think it would be kind of cool to have a herald yell out when we come and go, like the medieval times.
Alright I’m sold, I take back what I said.
Do we have Lemmy bots? Sounds like a cool idea for a really annoying bot haha.
HEAR YE HEAR YE, THE RIGHT AND HONORABLE SIR LORD JEMORGAN of LEMM.EE HAS DECLARED, ON THIS DAY THE 24TH OF JULY, THAT THEY ARE SOLD, AND TAKES BACK WHAT THEY SAID. LET US ALL APPLAUD THEIR OPEN MINDEDNESS.
THE LORD ALSO CARES TO INQUIRE ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTATIONS OF LEMMY BOTS AND THAT IT SOUNDS LIKE A COOL IDEA.
ALL HAIL JEMORGAN, MAY THEY LIVE LONG AND PROSPER
Well doesn’t that just make my pants a little tighter in a way that I’m 100% down for
How is anyone going to beg them to stay if they don’t announce it?
I didn't have to, but I did. You seem to care enough to write a reply?
Yeah, because sadly I can’t just silently unsubscribe from all the whiners who have to make sure to let everybody know that they’re not going to stay subscribed to a community lol.
And also, I just care about you buddy I don’t need to justify that. You have an awesome rest of your day.
Guys, I’m starting to think this Elon guy isn’t as smart as he claims…
No rich person is actually smart, they are all addicted to money and can't get help over it. But their moves in the business world are all calculated, this guy is doing exactly what he wants to do and their goal is to make money not to lose them.
How does this make him money exactly? lol
He is literally just killing off his website.
My guess: the same way the now called Meta benefited from stalling facebook and moving people to their other platforms like instagram. These marketers perceive everything in market terms, twitter is old and they need to release a brand new product to hook people up
I'm waiting for the next step when he tries to add features to make X whatever he envisions. Oh, those devs I fired. Hey, why can't we hire anyone? No one wants to work.
Counterpoint: Warren Buffet.
Money are an addiction just like smoke, sex or drugs. If you can't cope with being addicted to gold at the end of the day you are dumber than some kids
He's like any other punk born into millions.
Depends.
If he thinks Twitter is irreperably dying, this may be a way, in which he can get out of repaying the loans he used to (partially) fund the buyout of twitter.
If you're thinking this an "artist formerly known as Prince" sort of thing where Prince got out of a contract, I'm sure all the debt holders have the proper legal verbiage to have agreements remain valid in the event of a name change.
How does that get him out of the loans?
The lenders lawyer arrives at the Twitter office:
The bonesaw Saudi lenders :)
That makes me think of the theory about Saudi Arabia and probably other countries have had it in for Twitter since Arab Spring.
So this is just Elon doing as instructed: "Make Twitter disappear, but make it look like an accident"
Absolutely
depends how the loans worked.
I was assuming his majority shares of X (ex Twitter) collateral.
And that that he could just go "yeah, go on, collect on your collateral, I don't mind", because it's not worth anything anymore.
But admittedly I have no Idea how the contracts were drawn up, if this is possible and if his other money would be available to collect on.
At some point some creditor should be desperate enough to do a margin call, since the loan collateral is next to worthless.
An insight that's coming a couple of years too late though.
It's a joke.
I should've added a smiley face myself, sorry. I thought you were joking.
No worries. I'm genuinely relieved you were joking too!!
I'm telling you, he has Covid fog.
He has a cocaine addiction
…timelines kinda match up I guess?
Side affect from taking Ivermectin?
He got a company and a social media that is remarkable, and recognizable, and even has an action verb related to it, "tweet, to tweet, tweeting".
And he decided to piss on it and create the X app. Adding insult to injury is that it's again, another techy black and white logo. Of course, because that's the silicon valley trend isn't it, black and white clean minimalist corporate logo, no soul, no community, just corporate all along.
Who wants to tell him about Xorg and their product X11?
He will release X18
You mean the outdated piece of software that everyone (on Linux) used, which is slowly being replaced by multiple different implementations all based on the same standard? Seems to me like an apt (no pun intended) metaphor.
Mmmm yes. Can’t wait to X about this!
That's cool and edgy
xXxEloNxXx
vYv_El0n_vYv
I think they should go with 💩Shitter - it’s where most people use it anyway.
Shitter is an app for Mastodon on F-Droid. Dont know why they decided that. Back handed compliment of a name. Work on an app then call it Shitter ! ? IDK
You have my vote ;P
@chiz X is so easy to search in internet. So many results; it gets never boring! Very unique name and brand.
Spez: Write it down, write it down! Let's rename Reddit to Z! Employee: Why Z? Spez: What do you mean why? Does X make any sense to you too? Employee: All right, I should have never questioned you.
It's like B, C, D, V, R in programming.... If Reddit took X++ and someone else took X#, the unsearchable name trifecta would be complete!
.net is even worse.
Crying in former COM programming hell
What's V? I don't see it on the list. X++ is already taken, though... but I see a huge potential in Y*.
V. There is also Vale, which was originally named VLang.
I don't remember exactly what it is, all i remember is there's a unix-like operating system written in it
but Y
Let them B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLpCZH3HTAQ
Z, because the "Spe" was just an afterthought this whole time....
pardon me... I have been laughing so hard reading this thread, it was the best I could come up with! 😂
This is more baffling than accidentally destroying the brand, like he's been doing.
It's like he can't destroy his company fast enough😂
Yeah this really makes sure Twitter will be x'ed.
He really put afterburner on that dumpster fire.
Space-X, X AE A-12, trying to create a company named X since the 90's...
guys, I think elon musk is obsessed with Speed Racers Racer X. Why else would X be such a prominent motivator for this creature?
Any theories? Deal with the devil made at a crossroads? Or maybe he just was really used to railroad crossing signs as a kid and wants to relive those memories?
You know I had something typed up debating this, but being obsessed with Racer X does explain his family abandonment.
X is the naughty letter (rated X) in S3XY which is also the four tesla car model letter. 12 year old humor.
Wants to relive the 90s.
In a few years the only thing of value remaining of twitter will be the x.com domain
lol I clicked on the x.com link, then tried to close the "you should log in" shit by tapping the logo.
it just looks like a close button... 😂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOM
Christ, imagine being on the dev team that has to make this happen in a day.
good enough, musk?
edit: wait the actual logo looks basically the same as this but without the orange ring
Way too much effort. Just take this
𝕏
Take Twitter, change the logo.svg file, change the main color from blue to black, Ctrl+F all instances of Twitter, replace with X. Done
I mean, I bet it would just be impressive enough for Musk. The biggest hurdle would probably be getting the update through the AppStore in just one day.
edit: apparently they've already change the logo file on the website (at least in the login screen, I don't have an account)
Man, imagine having to ctrl+F X when the name changes again
idk about you, but when I think of my X, I think of a toxic place filled with hate, that I never want to go to or hear about again. Branding on point.
'Cos it marks the spot where he buried all his treasure, amirite?
I don't know about ALL his treasure, but he definitely buried 35 billion dollars in there. Never to be seen again.
I went and deactivated my twitter accounts today. I got Lemmy and when I do my own servers via my own app, I'll enjoy a twitter alternative again. Edit: Im saying this because my mind went to action not bitching. I think the X rebrand is like a sign of the times and the official "okay twitters dead" moment.
Last week I deactivated both my Twitter account and my Facebook/Instagram/Threads account, and it was truly a joyous experience. Just the sheer "screw you all" glee of it all. 10/10 would recommend.
I want to know, what are "tweets" and "tweeting" going to be relabeled as?
I can just see conversations like:
"Dude, did you see the latest X from Eminem?" "Yeah, I re-X'd it to all my buds!"
X gonna X it to ya.
Did you watch Eminem's latest X video? ~Strawberry
The brand is probably not going to be rebranded. Its either gonna be associated with X directly, or the verb will die.
This is not what most users signed up for when they signed up on Twitter.
Its because they signed up for Twitter
EnXittification happening. Let's hope the rest of the users finds their way to fediverse.
Some of them are just too far invested to see the light. It's actually pretty sad to see twitter addicts fail to migrate to any of the plethora of alternatives.
Hell no. If there is one thing I learned from moving over to fediverse, it's that people are what make the site enjoyable or frustrating. As it is now, I enjoy the userbase here and on Mastodon, and the last thing I would want is for the most insufferable of Twitter users to come and ruin it. I'm happy most people who are quitting Twitter are joining the other alternatives. I would rather people join the fediverse as a more deliberate choice based on what we offer.
simpsons did it first
RIP his SEO. I know it's part of his goal for an "everything" app. But, this name is just terrible and is going to be a nightmare to look up. Not to mention how much history will refer to Twitter and not a single letter.
Y?
As much as I think that the Reddit and twitter soap operas are nothing but a time sink over what is a relatively simple cautionary tale, I can't look away from this train wreck. "Y, elon?" is the new "fuck u/spez".
What a fucking stupid move. And that's saying something at this point.
Well I guess twitter really is dead now.
I am pronouncing it "ex" as in ex-wife.
I thought that was already the name of Musk's child?!?
It's just the trump style of marketing. Do stupid shit constantly and the media will never shut up about you and people will never stop talking about whatever bullshit it is you're selling.
I'll believe it once the Twitter name and the birdie are both removed off the face of the site and gone for good. And even then I'm not entirely sure I'm going to care all that much.
@sab He is really dedicated into killing Twitter. This is basically a new service with the user data he purchased.
Wasn’t X the first name of paypal or something like that? He already owned x.com for a long time, i guess wanted to make use of that
Kinda.
Thiel backstabbed Musk before X became a thing, because he's a fucking weasel and Musk is a moron government contractor. It's also really funny he took the company while Musk was on honeymoon.
Paypal’s board brought Thiel in and ousted Musk. Thiel didn’t do that on his own, he was begged to come back.
X Gon' Give It To Ya
The one upside of this is that Tucker Carlson spent so much money rebranding to Tucker on Twitter and now it's wasted
I doubt anyone will want to see Tucker on X past the first couple minutes of hilarity.
But I'm old and I think they call that Molly now
Lmao I hope in a couple of years someone just takes the twitter branding and rebuilds it.
Not that I am a fan of twitter, may that plattform burn in hell, but just to shove it into Musks face.
If the domain lapses, and I doubt it will, someone should make Twitter.com a Mastodon instance.
If a domain squatter gets it... my money is on Twitter.com becoming either a porn site, or a casino.
As ancient internet tradition demands.
Twitter is Twitter. Facebook is Facebook too for that matter.
It's funny because Facebooks rebranding to Meta spouted the exact same BS about the metaverse being a platform for everything, something something AI, etc etc and it failed publicly and hard
I just don't understand
There is 0% chance this man is neither on drugs nor having a severe mental breakdown.
What if he's always been like this but just had the money to hide it?
He seems to have had some lucky moves, and the whole "Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, Boring" still look like a decent combo.
Everything else, looks like what someone with DGAF money would do to pass the time. At least he's not going on a safari collecting trophies, or something.
There are speculations he is under a very severe mid-life crisis.
Ah yes, an X for the company known for their ✓. I'm sure that won't be confusing at any point.
@Chozo @chiz Who cares? The company's dead, it's just the skeleton rattling thru the halls till every bone falls off.
Except that their business model of "bUt EvErYoNe Is HeRe" or "Mastodon/Bluesky is too complicated" seems to be keeping them afloat.
@Roundcat @chiz @Chozo They've lost MOST of their advertisers, and their paid subscribers are down to the folks who need their service and haven't yet figured out an exit. I don't think they have much time left, darlz.
I don't know about "MOST" as there are still a good amount of mainstream companies that advertise on the site. At least you wouldn't know it if you are still on the site constantly. And I'm mostly going on about the users there who don't like the changes there and constantly complain about them in articles or youtube, yet it is the only way they insist on engaging with their followers still.
The thing about Mastodon and Lemmy to users who exclusively use those sites is they are themselves a bubble. There are weeks I spend most of my web activity on kbin, and would believe reddit is on its death spiral. Yet I peak over there, and it's about as active as when I left it. I even see articles about reddit or twitters activity recovering that I never see get shared here, because at the end of the day, the narrative we want to hear is "Corporate site is dying, we are the future!"
I think Reddit will still be around, but when it comes to Twitter, the acquisition saddled the company with billions in debt amounting to around a billion in yearly interest repayment. Twitter already was barely making ends meet before that, and it only lost revenue for all the stupid decisions being made. Even if it was exactly as profitable as before, it wouldn't be enough anymore.
One day Twitter is simply going to stop working, or close off so much it becomes unusable, unless Musk personally tries to keep it afloat at expense of his own fortune, or someone is dumb enough to buy it off of him and do the same.
I also see a lot of wishful thinking in the Fediverse, but this is not the case here. People there may not want to move on, but it's not gonna keep it afloat. I already see a lot of people making their escape plans and linking alternative platforms every day.
@Roundcat @chiz @Chozo I know! And I mostly agree. I don't go to Reddit, unless I get a link from there but I do sometimes go to Twitter bc I had 30K+ folks I knew there, and I miss them. It rly is dying tho. Nothing but Nazis screaming bile, and stuff doesn't work half the time. The bile is acceptable, but not working? Nobody pays for stuff that don't work. Not for long.
That'll solve all the problems.
Same shit sandwich, new brand
With what staff? Rebranding is fucking expensive.
Elon thinks all you need to do is change the site CSS and maybe do a press release, and he's famous enough that the rest will just take care of itself.
He's not entirely wrong.
In business, a poor person doesn't get to try, a middle class person gets one shot after putting everything on the line and a rich person can afford to fail a dozen or more times until they hit a winner. Elon has enough money that he can basically try an infinite number of times and at least some of those are going to work.
Logo that was in the GIF Musk posted looks an awful lot like X11 logo.
You mean the logo of their new neighbor, https://x.org/ ?
So.... is this just like a really dumb cost-cutting measure to stop paying fees for the twitter domain/brand name or something, since he already owns the name "X"?
Nope, it's literally nothing more than the fact that Musk, like the cringey edgelord that he is, thinks the letter X is the coolest. He'll be painting go-faster stripes on Twitter next. Or the X logo will be on fire or something.
he literally named his kid Xæ
dude just loves throwing out Xs
like an illiterate narcissist handing out unsolicited autographs
A domain is like 10 bucks a year. This is just ego
I saw rumors of this a few weeks ago but didn't think anything of it. Is the domain changing too? Part of this the Comcast to Xfinity move, rebranding to drop association, I think. But Twitter's brand wasn't that bad so I don't know.
x.com already redirects to twitter. I suspect that will be changed to the other way around soon enough (twitter redirecting to x)
Knowing him, he'll forget to remove the first redirect
WTF did Elon even bring to PayPal when he merged with Confinity if he still has control over the x.com URL and name? It certainly wasn't competent leadership.
Myabe he managed to hire well or something?
He bought the domain back later, actually.
no.
if they change it i will leave the next day
Why are you even there still? Mastadon has been a solid alternative for me for a while now.
Absolutely nobody I know is on Mastodon, and despite my efforts, they won't move because it's "scary" or "bad" or some bizarre shit.
Yes, I'm frustrated.
I met a bunch of new people on mastodon. Sometimes you gotta. :(
im on mastodon too mabye i should put up a post of if i should leave twitter or not
Why tf are you still there lol. Were all the other terrible changes not enough?
i am leaving now pretty much
@chiz Its coming... Almost.
I mean he got this cool domain some time ago and really wanted to use it for something.
WeeChatX is the best opportunity.