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[Ionian]

He doesn’t seem to have any understanding of how internet advertising works. Kind of a problem when social media platforms make all of their money from targeted advertising.

Even a non-technical executive would be briefed on this stuff a dozen times over by now if he or she had taken this job a month ago and would be up to speed.

Can confirm. Ex works for ads in Google HQ.

I worked in sales too, huge money. If you're smart.

A friend is also a head in Google ads, her husband is a science professor for a top college.

His salary (self admittedly) is nowhere what she makes.

He teaches Physics. She sells ads.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Musk should grow a stache imo

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Nothing really new or groundbreaking here but this is a decent write up on the advertising situation. Two ‘negative’ and two ‘positive’ quotes below. Last quote I think summaries very well the gist of the situation.

Musk not having real experience with a company so reliant on advertising is the root cause of the issues IMO. I still think he can make Twitter work, but his personal reputation is in the dumps and I’m not sure it will recover for a few years. He’ll need to spend some time & money on philanthropy to repair it. I would not be surprised to see him kicked out of Tesla CEO in the short to medium term.

Elon Musk’s Campaign to Win Back Twitter Advertisers Isn’t Going Well — The Wall Street Journal

Executives are promising big incentives and new technology while also trying to explain the actions of their new owner

apple.news

About 70% of Twitter’s top 100 ad spenders from before Mr. Musk’s takeover weren’t spending on the platform as of the week ending Dec. 18, according to an analysis of data from research firm Pathmatics. It’s a problem the billionaire can’t afford to ignore, since roughly 89% of Twitter’s $5.1 billion in revenue last year came from ads.


In meetings with advertisers in recent weeks, Mr. Musk’s lieutenants have tried to calm fears and drum up interest in the site. They’ve promised innovations such as ads that allow users to make purchases directly, more video capabilities and tools to keep ads from appearing near objectionable content, according to ad executives familiar with the meetings.


Some ad buyers said they will need to see changes at Twitter before they feel comfortable returning. Advertisers say they are concerned about Mr. Musk’s moves as owner and CEO, including his abrupt rule-making and controversial tweets. Just as it can be hard to separate the art from the artist, many advertisers are struggling to separate Twitter from Mr. Musk.


“He has made it so that advertisers can’t avoid the association. He created that vulnerability and he continues to double down on it,” said Irwin Gotlieb, a former chief executive of ad-buying giant GroupM.

Getting advertisers to return to Twitter won’t be easy. While many brands have halted their ad spending for various reasons, Twitter, unlike Meta Platforms Inc., has limited leverage on Madison Avenue. Advertisers quickly returned to Meta’s Facebook and Instagram in 2020 after a brief boycott, partly because advertising on those platforms is a significant driver of sales for many companies. Moreover, there is now a crop of new places for brands to spend their ad dollars, from ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok to streaming services such as Netflix Inc. to retail ad networks such as the one owned by Walmart Inc.


“Twitter is not seen as a go-to channel for brands looking to immediately generate sales or drive people to their websites,” said Craig Atkinson, chief executive officer of digital marketing agency Code3. Still, the platform can help brands generate buzz by tapping into a “cultural moment,” he said.

Despite the wave of advertising defections, many brands continue to spend on Twitter, including Amazon.com Inc., Walt Disney Co., Walmart Inc., PepsiCo Inc., and the National Football League, according to Pathmatics data. Ad executives said that entertainment companies, publishers and quick-service restaurants, in particular, have been actively spending on Twitter.

In dealings with advertisers, Mr. Riedy and his team voice confidence. Twitter is “seeing advertisers turn back on,” the sales team said in a recent email to a consumer packaged goods company, according to a copy reviewed by the Journal. “We are seeing increased confidence in the sentiment and performance for top brands.” the email said.

Some ad executives say that, given Mr. Musk’s business acumen, he could turn around Twitter, but only if he can create a stable environment for brands.


“Advertisers want predictability, but you don’t know what Elon is going to do at any given time,” said Code3’s Mr. Atkinson. “Advertisers can’t operate that way.”

 

[Punished Miku]

Nothing really new or groundbreaking here but this is a decent write up on the advertising situation. Two ‘negative’ and two ‘positive’ quotes below. Last quote I think summaries very well the gist of the situation.

Musk not having real experience with a company so reliant on advertising is the root cause of the issues IMO. I still think he can make Twitter work, but his personal reputation is in the dumps and I’m not sure it will recover for a few years. He’ll need to spend some time & money on philanthropy to repair it. I would not be surprised to see him kicked out of Tesla CEO in the short to medium term.

http://[URL][URL][URL]https://apple.news/AXB34U9o-SFWAr27YD7s2xw

[/URL][/URL][/URL]

He could replace Mike Lindell at the pillow company if he gets arrested. He would have to research pillows first though.

The guy is becoming openly political, and alienating all the main customers he's had in the past which tend to lean left stereotypically. He's alienated half the political establishment in Washington that propped him up with government grants. All other auto companies are going to be pushing electric vehicles to capitalize on the coming consumer tax credits. I don't think his reputation will ever recover. He can start warning everyone about AI and underpopulation and other dumb shit and I don't think he'll ever get the benefit of the doubt ever again. He has a future in the right wing ecosystem, but his broad apolitical support is dead.

 

[The Pleasure]

Elon said we could troll people if we pay five dollars a month for the twitter troll upgrade.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Post claiming Tesla is recalling every single car from fake Musk account starts chaos

A post by a fake Elon Musk account about a major Tesla recall has once again led to questions about the health of Twitter.

www.independent.co.uk

Mr Klein was already banned by Twitter in November, when he was one of a number of users who impersonated Mr Musk in protest against his ownership of the site and new rules about verification and parody. That suspension was lifted on Wednesday, and only hours later Mr Klein once again posted an impersonation of Elon Musk.

This time around, Twitter locked the account until Mr Klein deleted the content that broke Twitter’s rules, such as the profile image and name. Mr Klein shared an image of those rules alongside a mocking comment about Mr Musk’s espoused commitment to free speech.

The only explicit indications that the tweet was fake were in the name of the account – which included the word “parody” – and a Community Note that was appended on the end of it.

However, neither of those were visible until a user clicked into the tweet. Mr Klein had included the words “CEO Tesla Motors” after the name Elon Musk, which meant that the words “parody” were cut off by character limits, and those community notes are not visible until a tweet is viewed on its own.

Ever since Mr Musk took over Twitter, a range of celebrities have looked to undermine his management of the company by impersonating Mr Musk and posting other tweets. Questions have also been asked about verification, after Mr Musk allowed any user to buy a blue checkmark and make their account appear official, which was quickly exploited by a range of users to send posts impersonating other notable figures and companies.

 

[LegendOfKage]

 

[LegendOfKage]

He could replace Mike Lindell at the pillow company if he gets arrested. He would have to research pillows first though.

The guy is becoming openly political, and alienating all the main customers he's had in the past which tend to lean left stereotypically. He's alienated half the political establishment in Washington that propped him up with government grants. All other auto companies are going to be pushing electric vehicles to capitalize on the coming consumer tax credits. I don't think his reputation will ever recover. He can start warning everyone about AI and underpopulation and other dumb shit and I don't think he'll ever get the benefit of the doubt ever again. He has a future in the right wing ecosystem, but his broad apolitical support is dead.

Anyone who complains about this in the name of wanting an apolitical twitter, if they didn't complain about and criticize Twitter before Musk, is a complete hypocrite. That's especially true after everything that just came out with the Twitter files. At least Musk is keeping twitter itself MUCH more apolitical than the old Twitter did. If you didn't look at his tweets, you'd never guess any of his recent political takes. All that sort of thing is being kept off the sidebar. With the old guard, literally over 99 percent of donations went to one political party, and NOW you're suggesting that twitter isn't apolitical enough? For those of us who want an apolitical twitter, Musk has been much better. I don't think you're actually talking about apolitical support, or you'd recognize that.

But I will agree with you that even his personal takes can be alienating to users, and I feel they are a bad idea when his goal should be to make twitter as apolitical as possible. None of his personal views needed to be shared like this, and thanks to the stupid culture war, he's needlessly diving headfirst into that "us vs them" stupidity.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Tesla Is the Most Profitable Short Pick of 2022, With Nearly $14 Billion in Proceeds Since Elon Musk Agreed to Buy Twitter — Barron’s

Tesla shares plunged for a fifth consecutive daily of declines Thursday, adding more to short sellers’ returns from betting against the electric-vehicle maker. Tesla (ticker: TSLA) shares finished down 8.9% at $125.35, dropping as much as 11% to an intraday low of $122.26 on volume of more than...

apple.news

Short sellers, whom Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has made a point of targeting previously, are having a happy holiday if they bet against Tesla this year, S3 Partners’ Managing Director of Predictive Analytics Ihor Dusaniwsky said in a note. He pointed out that Tesla has been the most profitable stock to short in 2022.


“Short sellers have been backing up their TSLA short exposure for good reason, it is the most profitable short, in dollar value, of 2022,” Dusaniwsky said. Tesla shorts are up $15 billion year-to-date in mark-to-market profits in 2022, with a gain of $4.54 billion in December alone, according to S3 data.


“Since Elon Musk’s Twitter bid on 4/14/22, TSLA shorts are up $13.74 billion in mark-to-market profits,” Dusaniwsky said.

 

[Ionian]

Tesla Is the Most Profitable Short Pick of 2022, With Nearly $14 Billion in Proceeds Since Elon Musk Agreed to Buy Twitter — Barron’s

Tesla shares plunged for a fifth consecutive daily of declines Thursday, adding more to short sellers’ returns from betting against the electric-vehicle maker. Tesla (ticker: TSLA) shares finished down 8.9% at $125.35, dropping as much as 11% to an intraday low of $122.26 on volume of more than...

apple.news

That's really damning. Yet a goldmine for some if you get lucky.

Dangerous game though. Gotta have cash to burn, it's a gamble.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

The press is going HAM today.

This Is What It Looks Like When Twitter Falls Apart — The Atlantic

Elon Musk hasn’t finished his drama yet.

apple.news

David Karpf, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University and a longtime Twitter user, has been studying and thinking about the intersection of the internet and politics for years. When we spoke late last week, he predicted that the Musk drama would continue: “Every time he goes a couple days of getting a little worried that people are getting bored, he has to do something ridiculous.”

Caroline Mimbs Nyce: If Twitter becomes a parable of the modern internet, what do you think the moral takeaway will be?“Don’t let billionaires buy up giant social-media websites”?

David Karpf: There is a deeply baked ideology of the internet going back to the ’90s, a sort of West Coast ideal that engineers and entrepreneurs, particularly around Silicon Valley, are the modern heroes of society. They are innovating and building a better world. They’re the good guys. The bad guys are the old industries and the regulators who get in the way.

And these innovator-inventor heroes are the ones who are paving the way to a new and better world, because they’re such incredible geniuses. But the hero has to overcome resistance, and what we should do is cheer for him because of his genius and his brilliance. And 10 years ago, Elon Musk was the archetype of that story. He was really treated as the guy who is going to kind of save the world, between his electric cars and his rockets.

There’s a lot of problems with that story. But the most basic problem is that it’s utter horseshit. And what I hope comes out of this episode is that this becomes a cautionary tale that these people aren’t genius heroes. Turns out that Elon Musk is really bad at running Twitter, because he isn’t that special.

I hope that the cautionary tale of Twitter is to stop putting your faith in the mythology of the founder geniuses, because they ain’t that special. That’s not what’s going to save the world.

Nyce: What do you think the future of Twitter is right now?

Karpf: One of the things to keep in mind is just how fast Twitter’s devolution is happening. This is, what, maybe week seven of Elon owning Twitter?

I thought that one to three months in, very little would have changed. And then he went in and trashed the place immediately in a way that has seemed surprisingly sloppy.

If this had been spread out over the course of a year, then people would have had time to migrate to competitors and figure out what’s what. And I still think that’s going to happen. But right now, we’re kind of in this moment of, like, My God, how has Twitter not fallen completely apart, both technically and also on the community level? I’m pretty sure this is actually what falling apart looks like; it’s just happening so fast that people don’t really have a place to migrate to.

Right now people are looking around, saying, “I guess I’ll start with a Mastodon account?” Competitors need more time than they’re being given, because nobody really expected him to set the place on fire as fast as he has.

Nyce: Do you think Elon has done anything right as Twitter CEO?

Karpf: I mean, basically, no. But there’s one thing that he’s done that he probably deserves a little defense on. I think even if he hadn’t bought Twitter, a decent portion of the people working on Twitter would have gotten fired this year. A bunch of those layoffs would have happened just because 2022 is the year that companies like Twitter are realizing we’re no longer in a “build tons of new things” moment. The way he’s handled the layoffs is abominable and classless. But the fact of the layoffs is the one thing that I’d say, “Okay, it’s gross, but a lot of those would have happened anyway.”

 

[Amiga]

The press is going HAM today..

Not trending on Twitter so didn't notice.

Mainstream media are shouting in the forest. Something will happen to them because it's an industry that can't afford to be ignored.

 

[rnlval]

He's abided by every poll result so far.

Of course, this is just another bot honeypot.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Not trending on Twitter so didn't notice.

Mainstream media are shouting in the forest. Something will happen to them because it's an industry that can't afford to be ignored.

I tend to stick to normie news and it seems like everyone has a strongly worded op-Ed this week. Before I had to specifically look for coverage.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Jet tracker is back, albeit with a 24 hour delay.

https://twitter.com/ElonJetNextDay

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Jet tracker is back, albeit with a 24 hour delay.

https://twitter.com/ElonJetNextDay

This kind of shit should be banned. Doesn't matter if it's a popular celeb or a no-name joe six pack. Or a 24 hour delay or real time. Tracking someone's every move and posting it on the internet is dumb as hell. It's basically stalking. No different than putting a tracking tag on someone's car and uploading the location for everyone to see.

 

[PSYGN]

This kind of shit should be banned. Doesn't matter if it's a popular celeb or a no-name joe six pack. Or a 24 hour delay or real time. Tracking someone's every move and posting it on the internet is dumb as hell. It's basically stalking. No different than putting a tracking tag on someone's car and uploading the location for everyone to see.

Always thought it was creepy.

 

[Sonik]

Jet tracker is back, albeit with a 24 hour delay.

https://twitter.com/ElonJetNextDay

Yay, the creepy as fuck account certain geniuses decided it's a worthy hill to die on is back!

 

[Punished Miku]

Yay, the creepy as fuck account certain geniuses decided it's a worthy hill to die on is back!

Its literally public information. Maybe dont fly somewhere every day. Or pass a law to make the info private.

 

[Toons]

This kind of shit should be banned

Lmfao why? This stuff is already available.

Someone you dont know know what car you drive, where you live and how long you lived there, and where you've gone in the last 6 months. Its all pretty available info if you know where to look.

You name is taken when you take flights. Your payment info. Which is all registered with everything else you have.

I take a toll road and they've got my name, face, car, address, etc

 

[Maiden Voyage]

This kind of shit should be banned. Doesn't matter if it's a popular celeb or a no-name joe six pack. Or a 24 hour delay or real time. Tracking someone's every move and posting it on the internet is dumb as hell. It's basically stalking. No different than putting a tracking tag on someone's car and uploading the location for everyone to see.

The location is just the guys private jet. The tracking doesn’t extend beyond that. If he doesn't want to be tracked, he can fly first class on any airline.

 

[IntentionalPun]

It's public data and there's no real getting rid of it from the internet.

I still find those accounts pointless and a bit creepy. So sue me. All kinds of shit is public data, that doesn't mean it can't be creepy to use that data in certain ways.

But that's pretty low on my worries of privacy concerns w/ online shit considering we are talking about private jets here lol

The data CAN be used to stalk someone, but if you are at private jet owning level... you are gonna probably need decent security to get by in general.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

It's public data and there's no real getting rid of it from the internet.

I still find those accounts pointless and a bit creepy. So sue me. All kinds of shit is public data, that doesn't mean it can't be creepy to use that data in certain ways.

But that's pretty low on my worries of privacy concerns w/ online shit considering we are talking about private jets here lol

The data CAN be used to stalk someone, but if you are at private jet owning level... you are gonna probably need decent security to get by in general.

You don’t look up your coworkers political contributions? I do but I’m weird.

 

[IntentionalPun]

You don’t look up your coworkers political contributions? I do but I’m weird.

Heh, no lol

To my point though.. that's data that's out there. It's public.

But if you made a Twitter account announcing your co-worker named Tom Smith's political donations called TomSmithsPoliticalDonations that would still be fucking creepy lol

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Heh, no lol

To my point though.. that's data that's out there. It's public.

But if you made a Twitter account announcing your co-worker named Tom Smith's political donations called TomSmithsPoliticalDonations that would still be fucking creepy lol

I just look up by employer, not individual. I don’t really do anything with the info.

 

[Kraz]

Elon should talk more about the source of his personal feelings regarding assassination coordinates. It should tie in well with saving the world.

 

[DeafTourette]

This kind of shit should be banned. Doesn't matter if it's a popular celeb or a no-name joe six pack. Or a 24 hour delay or real time. Tracking someone's every move and posting it on the internet is dumb as hell. It's basically stalking. No different than putting a tracking tag on someone's car and uploading the location for everyone to see.

It tracks his private jet. Not his car, train, first class American Airlines flight. All you'd know is where his jet lands. That's it. Not where he goes from there.

 

[Nobody_Important]

I'm fine with the Jet thing. It's publicly available information for one thing and given his position I think the public should know where he is going.

 

[gothmog]

If you need me I'll be over here running the software and server teams.

 

[Nobody_Important]

If you need me I'll be over here running the software and server teams.

Buy me a horse.

 

[LegendOfKage]

This kind of shit should be banned. Doesn't matter if it's a popular celeb or a no-name joe six pack. Or a 24 hour delay or real time. Tracking someone's every move and posting it on the internet is dumb as hell. It's basically stalking. No different than putting a tracking tag on someone's car and uploading the location for everyone to see.

I can accept it with the 24 hour delay, although a longer delay would likely be even safer, and maybe there's an argument to be made there. But yeah, posting someone's real time location seems absolutely unnecessary and needlessly dangerous, "public knowledge" or not.

 

[BadBurger]

I just wanna say, even though it's public info, it's really weird that anyone wants to track Musk's plane. And I get him taking action against the accounts that did that.

I mean just take a few steps back and imagine if there was a Twitter account dedicated to tracking where you drove each day. Really fucking disturbing right? Wouldn't you be like "why in the world are you doing this?".

 

[Kenpachii]

I just wanna say, even though it's public info, it's really weird that anyone wants to track Musk's plane. And I get him taking action against the accounts that did that.

I mean just take a few steps back and imagine if there was a Twitter account dedicated to tracking where you drove each day. Really fucking disturbing right? Wouldn't you be like "why in the world are you doing this?".

That shit would make me paranoid.

 

[funkygunther]

I just wanna say, even though it's public info, it's really weird that anyone wants to track Musk's plane. And I get him taking action against the accounts that did that.

I mean just take a few steps back and imagine if there was a Twitter account dedicated to tracking where you drove each day. Really fucking disturbing right? Wouldn't you be like "why in the world are you doing this?".

You are not a billionaire or celebrity, there is no comparison. And traffic cams are already tracking where you drive each day.

 

[BadBurger]

You are not a billionaire or celebrity, there is no comparison. And traffic cams are already tracking where you drive each day.

Why should that matter? Being rich means people get to invade your privacy?

Again, I just don't get it

 

[funkygunther]

Why should that matter? Being rich means people get to invade your privacy?

Again, I just don't get it

It’s public information not invading any privacy, the more famous you are the more people will find value in your information. It’s very simple. Trying to cherry pick one aspect of a celebrity’s lifestyle to draw an emotional comparison with the average person is disingenuous.

 

[BadBurger]

It’s public information not invading any privacy, the more famous you are the more people will find value in your information. It’s very simple. Trying to cherry pick one aspect of a celebrity’s lifestyle to draw an emotional comparison with the average person is disingenuous.

I'm not trying to appeal to anyone, just sharing a random thought on a discussion forum man. WTF

 

[funkygunther]

I'm not trying to appeal to anyone, just sharing a random thought on a discussion forum man. WTF

Yes and so am I, there is still no comparison to be made between us and them…Musk used his power to remove the account from the platform he owns. If he wanted to he has enough power to try and influence laws to change. Again something that is not afforded to us.

 

[BadBurger]

Yes and so am I, there is still no comparison to be made between us and them…Musk used his power to remove the account from the platform he owns. If he wanted to he has enough power to try and influence laws to change. Again something that is not afforded to us.

Lets remove all pretense and rewind. Imagine if some random person was tracking your every move. Every hour. Every minute. And making it public on social media for all to see.

You know what, nevermind. I guess you're cool with that stalkerish behavior. I'm not, so I guess there's no point to this discussion.

 

[funkygunther]

Lets remove all pretense and rewind. Imagine if some random person was tracking your every move. Every hour. Every minute. And making it public on social media for all to see.

You know what, nevermind. I guess you're cool with that stalkerish behavior. I'm not, so I guess there's no point to this discussion.

again you’re trying to make an equivalence that isn’t there, for me to imagine this single aspect of this person’s life as it were my own I would have imagine all aspects of their life all working together and weighing against each other

 

[Nobody_Important]

I'm not trying to appeal to anyone, just sharing a random thought on a discussion forum man. WTF

Yes and so am I, there is still no comparison to be made between us and them…Musk used his power to remove the account from the platform he owns. If he wanted to he has enough power to try and influence laws to change. Again something that is not afforded to us.

Guys you're both sexy as fuck.

Quit fighting.

 

[BadBurger]

Guys you're both sexy as fuck.

Quit fighting.

I will armor guinea pig head butt you

 

[EviLore]

Lets remove all pretense and rewind. Imagine if some random person was tracking your every move. Every hour. Every minute. And making it public on social media for all to see.

You know what, nevermind. I guess you're cool with that stalkerish behavior. I'm not, so I guess there's no point to this discussion.

USA vs UK in a nutshell

 

[funkygunther]

USA vs UK in a nutshell

yes USA people pretend they're playing the same game as billionaires

 

[EviLore]

yes USA people pretend they're playing the same game as billionaires

And UK people pretend that not having the Bill of Rights is fine

 

[funkygunther]

And UK people pretend that not having the Bill of Rights is fine

is that the law that allows private jet tracking to be public information?

 

[Nobody_Important]

I will armor guinea pig head butt you

 

[YCoCg]

Can we get a thread name change Lionel Hutz style? New title:
Elon Musk Likely to Step Down From Twitter? NO, POLITICS!

 

[LegendOfKage]

I just wanna say, even though it's public info, it's really weird that anyone wants to track Musk's plane. And I get him taking action against the accounts that did that.

I mean just take a few steps back and imagine if there was a Twitter account dedicated to tracking where you drove each day. Really fucking disturbing right? Wouldn't you be like "why in the world are you doing this?".

I would guess the intent was to take someone talking about saving the planet with electric cars and suggest that they're a hypocrite because they take a private plane all over. But yeah, there's no reason at all to show that sort of data in real time. Even a week or month later would serve the same purpose without any of the potential risk, but I'm glad there's at least a day long delay now.