Musk bought it, fired four

[tangor]

Walked in carrying a kitchen sink.

Fast moves on first day as owner. How soon things change/occur on the web facing side is TBD.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

"Let that sink in".

It was a bathroom sink and he used it as a briefcase on his first day apparently. The sink is going into his personal office bathroom according to maintenance staff. Quick to make changes indeed.

It's public that CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal are out but not clear if officially fired or if they left voluntarily, yet. The 3rd in command, so to speak, head of trust & safety and legal, Vijaya Gadde, is confirmed to have been fired, her words.

Who is the 4th? A member of legal most likely?

[not2easy]

Twitter's general counsel, Sean Edgett, was also set free in the first wave.

[tangor]

I suspect that those fired aren't all that unhappy: reported the top three are getting golden parachutes (about $204M) AND a full year's salary.

That should cover a few cappuccinos here and there. :)

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

They certainly won't be worrying about paying their bills unlike most people losing a job.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Spoke too soon, the top execs were to receive golden parachutes but Mr Musk has fired them "for cause", they may get less than they thought. [msn.com...]

I wonder what the justification was to terminate them for cause. It's easy to assume it was to save money but if the executives contest it, which they would, we'll all find out during court proceedings on the matter. You can't fire for cause unless they broke the law or company policy.

Rich people problems, lol.

There is a Nov 1st deadline to fire other employees because they too would be due compensation after that date, as per the agreement. I feel for them but it's not time to be talking poop about the new boss online and many are taunting the turkey...err...twit. Some of them right on Twitter.

[ronin]

He's fired the entire board...

Elon Musk fires entire Twitter board to take sole control
[telegraph.co.uk...]

and as much as 25% of Twitter employees (nearly 2000 employees) may be told to clear their desks...

Musk appoints himself CEO of Twitter as employees brace for mass layoffs
[theguardian.com...]

[ronin]

I wonder... if Musk envisages blue ticks on Twitter like https:// on the web?

Ten to twelve years ago some websites used https:// but most used http : //.

Around 2017-18 there was a huge sea change.

Today, any legit site will be using https:// .

If blue ticks become the standard for legitimacy on Twitter and each blue tick costs $240 per year, that's a huge non-ad-based revenue stream for Twitter.

[engine]

If blue ticks become the standard for legitimacy on Twitter and each blue tick costs $240 per year, that's a huge non-ad-based revenue stream for Twitter.

I'm sure they will be legitimacy for spammers.

Also, if that's meant to be a revenue earner, I don't think it'll raise as much as is required.

Turning it over to become a paid service is challenging, especially when there are so many other ways to communicate.

Clearly, this is his latest "toy" until he gets bored.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Media says: Elon Musk fires entire Twitter board to take sole control

That's one way to describe taking a company private.

He's fired the entire board...

Any firings had to be complete by Nov 1st, it was part of the purchase agreement that he would owe every remaining employee compensation after that date. He said he would do this months ago to take the company private, if he could. Firing the board is a required step to that end, if that's what he's doing. [news.yahoo.com...]

If he holds true to his promises he's going to make Twitter code open source soon.

Clearly, this is his latest "toy" until he gets bored.

Doubt it. He has said his life goal is to make humanity multi-planetary. His companies align to that end. Better rockets were needed, he worked with NASA and made them happen. Better electric vehicles were needed, he made them happen. Building better habbitats and tunneling into Mars were going to be needed, he is pushing the science on both with his other companies. Sounds like a horrible person doesn't it?

A communication system was also needed, he created Starlink and bought Twitter. He could have bought a newspaper to influence people like other elites did but that hasn't been his goal with other companies, I doubt it's the goal here. He's ripping the influence and control by the few on the many out of Twitter in fact.

Forgive me if I don't join the Elon bashing train, 3 days into company ownership. Betting against him has been a bad idea thus far.

[ronin]

Forgive me if I don't join the Elon bashing train

Count me in as another non-basher. I don't agree with everything he does. But I certainly don't disagree with everything he does either.

I left Twitter six years ago (in late 2016), because I found the increasingly acrimonious atmosphere rather unpleasant.

But that wasn't what really disappointed me about Twitter.

What really disappointed me, was four years before that, back in 2012, when Twitter fully turned away from its potential to evolve an accessible, realtime, open API model* and became (for a very large segment of their audience) a platform for following companies and celebrities

See Dalton Caldwell's thoughts (shortly before he founded App.net) here:

[daltoncaldwell.com...]

It strikes me that with someone like Elon Musk at the helm, we might, once again, be able to see all sorts of potential in Twitter that we haven't seen in the platform for the entire last decade.

* I remember at that point thinking about the Internet of Things and wondering if in the very near future, Twitter might be the channel via which, if you were at the supermarket, you might message your fridge and ask it how much milk you had left.

[ronin]

What really disappointed me, was four years before that, back in 2012, when Twitter fully turned away from its potential to evolve an accessible, realtime, open API model* and became (for a very large segment of their audience) a platform for following companies and celebrities

Intriguingly, in this piece, it appears even Jack Dorsey had his doubts about what Twitter evolved into, given its original roots were somewhere else entirely:

Then Jack reveals the real reason he departed…

“Yes, a new platform is needed. It can’t be a company. This is why I left.”

Elon asks what a new platform should look like.

“Open-source but encrypted, like the Signal messaging platform, and should run without ads. The platform started as a protocol. It should have never been a company. That was the original sin.”

Source: [medium.com...]

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Intriguingly, in this piece, it appears even Jack Dorsey had his doubts about what Twitter evolved into

Of course he did, it was supposed to be a platform for people to post messages on. It became a tool to prevent, and some argue create, opposing views somehow, complete with a Twitter culture team.

Look what happened to Japan's Twitter AFTER Elon fired the Japan culture team members, users now find it much more peaceful - [forbes.com...]

Japanese Twitter Trends Shift Away From Politics To Pop-Culture After Curation Team Is Laid Off

Tools to curate user feed content should be in the hands of individual users, not Twitter, imo.