Elon's Twitter

[Frelga]

Rather than continuing to clutter the already busy WTF thread, I thought perhaps a dedicated place to chronicle the Twitter Odyssey is needed.

Yesterday, Musk ordered the employees to commit to a "hardcore" (long hours of unpaid overtime and constantly changing demands) mode by 5pm or agree to take 3 months severance.

With predictable results.

Last week, he ordered everyone to stop working remotely and report to the office.

Today.



Tomorrow?

[River]

Fired the person who pays the electricity bill? Or did someone glitterbomb the C-suite? Or did Elon tank Twitter even faster than Trusk tanked the pound?

[elengil]

Looks like the head of lettuce is set to win yet another race.

[N.E. Brigand]

Tech reporter Kylie Robison says that she's hearing that of the approximately 3,700 Twitter employees remaining yesterday -- there were about 7,500 employees when Musk took over in late October -- some 75% have left rather than agree to Musk's "harcore" requirements. Apparently some number of those c. 1,000 remaining can't leave because they are foreign nationals employed on work visas.

[Frelga]

The lockout is said to be prompted by concerns that the Shrodinger's employees may sabotage Twitter on the way out. Because sabotage-minded engineers will be powerless to cause any damage while connected remotely.

[Dave_LF]

I guess that puts Musk one up on Lake in the veepstakes

(this is a joke... I think)

[N.E. Brigand]

He paid $44 billion for this.

[River]

Musk isn't a citizen by birth and is therefore unqualified to be VP. Could be in line to be Secretary of Commerce or something though.

I don't think Twitter engineers need to take any action at all if they want to sabotage Twitter. All they need to do is walk away and leave their desks as is. If they're as diligent about documentation as the engineers I work with, anyone who tries to pick up their project(s) will be f*cked.

[N.E. Brigand]

Heh.



(OMB = Office of Management and Budget. Shortly after the election two years ago, Joe Biden announced he would be appointing Tanden as its director. But that position requires Senate confirmation, and Senator Joe Manchin, mercurial Democrat of West Virginia, was upset by some feisty tweets she'd issued over the years, so Tanden withdrew from consideration. She's now the White House Staff Secretary.)

[N.E. Brigand]

Musk isn't a citizen by birth and is therefore unqualified to be VP. Could be in line to be Secretary of Commerce or something though.

I don't think Twitter engineers need to take any action at all if they want to sabotage Twitter. All they need to do is walk away and leave their desks as is. If they're as diligent about documentation as the engineers I work with, anyone who tries to pick up their project(s) will be f*cked.

As this red panda notes, there are still other possibilities for Musk:



(That's one of the best Twitter accounts, in my opinion.)

Apparently some ex-Twitter employees who quit today report still having staff access to their workstations . . .

because the people who would have been in charge of disabling that access also quit.

[Dave_LF]

Let’s not forget the real victims here—the prediction marketeers who went all-in on “will Donald Trump be back on Twitter before 2024?” a month ago.

[Frelga]

As far as I can tell, which is pretty near, this is not a joke. Also Elon replied to say thank you.

I was laid off from Twitter this afternoon. I was in charge of managing badge access to Twitter offices.

Elon just called me and asked if I could come back to help them regain access to HQ as they shut off all badges and accidentally locked themselves out.

Edited to copy paste Twitter text instead of the link, because linking to the site that may not outlast a lettuce seems illogical.

[elengil]

Let’s not forget the real victims here—the prediction marketeers who went all-in on “will Donald Trump be back on Twitter before 2024?” a month ago.

nonono the real victims here are people trying to make contemporary art and being foiled by the speed of change

twitter.JPG (52.91 KiB) Viewed 4412 times

[Frelga]

Actually. I should probably stop posting links to Twitter and start copying text/images, or half my posts could become unreadable in a week.

[N.E. Brigand]

Nice: "This place has more false endings than The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

[River]

On a more serious note, I've found Twitter to be an invaluable source of information during disasters. The local sheriff's departments, Offices of Emergency Management, police and fire departments all post information about road closures and evacuations to Twitter. Often the Twitter feeds update faster than the OEM websites so I suspect the emergency communications folks are aware of the power of the platform and have protocols for using it. I wonder what will fill the gap if Twitter fails or is just operating so poorly it can't be relied on when the creeks are rising or the flames are spreading or there's an active shooting or something else is brewing.

[elengil]

On a more serious note, I've found Twitter to be an invaluable source of information during disasters. The local sheriff's departments, Offices of Emergency Management, police and fire departments all post information about road closures and evacuations to Twitter. Often the Twitter feeds update faster than the OEM websites so I suspect the emergency communications folks are aware of the power of the platform and have protocols for using it. I wonder what will fill the gap if Twitter fails or is just operating so poorly it can't be relied on when the creeks are rising or the flames are spreading or there's an active shooting or something else is brewing.

That is a very real concern, and I hope that this shows the critical importance of such platforms to affect real life and real situations (*we* all know this but a lot of people don't seem to) and that something that can be made more stable fills the gap for such information sharing.

[Dave_LF]

It has also been my main source of on-the-ground, primary-source information about both COVID and Ukraine. I would be substantially less informed on both subjects if I'd had to go through journalists.

[River]

Yes, and there were some feeds I turned to for election coverage. If you know how to cull out unreliable content it's an amazing information source. Note: I don't have a Twitter account. I only lurk.

It's occurred to me, though, that with a bunch of Twitter engineers released into the wild, the gap will get refilled. They'll know how to invent around the IP.

[Dave_LF]

With Amazon and Facebook laying off too, there will be all sorts of engineers available to build new things, given the capital...