Andrew Lee, is that you?

Summary: So it looks like the new owner of Twitter will 'bid adieu' to what he bought last October; the general consensus is that it's a suicidal move

JUST when you think there's nothing left that can bury Twitter even faster (well, the longer it runs, the deeper the losses) Elon Musk pulls a fast one.

"While Twitter is imploding," an associate noted today, "it is still used as a disinformation service to confuse and manipulate the general public. The press who mistake it for an information service are a very big part of that as they treat it as a credible source rather than hearsay. Similar for the politicians which abuse it in place of an official communications channel."

"Many people probably don't know this (or cannot remember this), but when Freenode was collapsing (an exodus of users in 2021) the Freenode network temporarily nymshifted, pretending it was rebranding as Joseon for personal (and political) gain."This was discussed quite a lot today in IRC, but here's a quick recap with many links at the bottom. It is very widely understood that Twitter the brand (name and logo) is quite likely it most valuable asset. It is broadly recognised (internationally) and politicians are nowadays expected to "just have a Twitter".

Many people probably don't know this (or cannot remember this), but when Freenode was collapsing (an exodus of users in 2021) the Freenode network temporarily nymshifted, pretending it was rebranding as Joseon for personal (and political) gain. It did not last long. It caused endless confusion, it did a disservice to the name Joseon (delusions of grandeur), and there were technical difficulties not just associated with recognition/reputation/familiarity.

"Changing the name of Twitter will probably exacerbate things because the new name will associate the company only with its darkest days while leaving behind a decade and a half of mostly positive "buzz"."Now we are learning of artificial limitations in Twitter [1], more vapourware [2], an epic loss of revenue [3], and growing concern about "clones" [4], even if they don't mature fast enough (Facebook released its own a tad prematurely, looking to capitalise on the walled gardens fiasco). It's a lousy proposition [5,6], replacing one evil master with another evil master or one horrible platform with an equally bad if not worse one. Twitter envisions itself as a blogging [7] turf, but what sane person wants to start a blog in a platform which may not even exist in a couple of years? Some media falsely believes that Facebook just needs to copy everything to assure "success" [8,9], but that's hardly so simple. As we noted the other day, people who leave Twitter for Threads typically end up giving up on "both dictators". The "FOMO" effect isn't there anymore.

Twitter admits that it is still losing money [10] (even after so many layoffs and other cuts) and it will get even worse if it pays people to stay [11]. From a purely financial point of view, Twitter seems insolvent already [12-15] and there's reputational risk associated with it becoming more bigoted [16], in effect rewarding bigots. That assures alienation of many politicians.

Changing the name of Twitter will probably exacerbate things because the new name will associate the company only with its darkest days while leaving behind a decade and a half of mostly positive "buzz". ⬆

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. 2023-07-22 [Older] Twitter is limiting the number of DMs unverified users can send

2. 2023-07-21 [Older] Elon Musk says xAI will use Twitter, Tesla data to train AI systems

3. 2023-07-19 [Older] Twitter loses nearly half advertising revenue since Elon Musk takeover

4. 2023-07-19 [Older] Instagram’s Threads Adds Some New Features, Still Falls Short of Being a True Twitter Clone





5. 2023-07-19 [Older] Threads takes the Twitter route, imposes rate limit on posts

6. 2023-07-18 [Older] Threads Continues to Copy Twitter's Worst Elements With New Rate Limits





7. 2023-07-18 [Older] Twitter is working on new publishing tools for long-form articles

8. 2023-07-17 [Older] Five Features Threads is Still Missing to Be a Twitter Killer





9. 2023-07-17 [Older] Threads Needs These Five Missing Features to Be a Twitter Killer





10. 2023-07-17 [Older] Elon Musk says Twitter revenue has dropped 50%, cash flow is still negative

11. 2023-07-16 [Older] Twitter Has Begun Paying a Select Group of ‘Creators’





12. 2023-07-16 [Older] Musk Says Twitter Is Losing Cash Because Advertising Is Down and the Company Is Carrying Heavy Debt

13. 2023-07-15 [Older] Twitter Has Begun Paying a Select Group of ‘Creators’

14. 2023-07-15 [Older] Elon Musk says Twitter’s ad revenue has dropped by 50 percent





15. 2023-07-16 [Older] Musk Says Twitter Is Losing Cash Because Advertising Is Down and the Company Is Carrying Heavy Debt

16. 2023-07-14 [Older] Right-Wingers Are Making Bank Off Musk’s Twitter Affiliate Money