X marks the spot

[Puja]

Watching Elon Musk self-destruct has been frankly glorious. This started with him attempting to bully the site that was mean to him by using his chequebook, forcing them to sell to him when they didn't much want to, then that being turned around when he attempted to say "lol jk wasn't serious" and back out. Because of that failure to control his emotions like a big boy, he had to take out ridiculous loans in order to follow through with his massively overpriced bid to buy the site (interest alone each year is $1.2 billion), which are secured against the value of his Tesla stock.

Now, just 9 months later, Twitter is worth under a quarter of what Musk paid for it. Advertising revenue has literally halved. His genius plan to fire most of the staff has tanked advertising retention, as well as the website's reliability, leading to a further genius plan of him limiting page views on his advertising-funded website in order to reduce bandwidth demands. And, even better, every time he shows his whole arse to the world and embarrasses himself, Tesla shares drop in value - the thing which is the security for the ridiculous sized loans he took out. And he can't sell them to repay any of his debt, because that will make them drop even more in value because he's such a large shareholder that selling any sizeable amount would flood the market.

And now he is rebranding the whole company to "X", getting rid of the whole name of "Twitter" and "tweets", the latter of which is so ubiquitous and well known that "tweeting" is in the dictionary. The brand on its own is estimated to be worth $4bn of the value of the company alone and he is getting rid of it, apparently simply because he used to run an internet startup by the name of X.com and he was kicked out and is still hurt about this.

And, to cap it all off, he's done this rebrand without actually owning the trademark of using "X" for websites and media and commerce. Do you know who does own that trademark? Zuckerberg.

It's just beautiful. An utter masterclass in self-destruction.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

Presumably, it's now an X-social media company.

I've never particularly used twitter, only having an account for work, and then only for the purposes of google rankings; but it had been useful keeping up with what was happening in Ukraine - but getting ever less reliable, and frankly unreliable for the last few months.

I've not posted anything at all since Christmas; and de-activated my account yesterday.

Twitter will not be missed by me personally, and if it takes down Elon (it won't) then nor will he.

[Mikey Brown]

I saw the X thing and assumed it was a joke. I'm not sure what the stage after self-parody is but he seems to have arrived there.

I'm not holding out any hope that he won't still be a billionaire at the end of all this, but it's at least sort of funny knowing the realisation might finally hit him that the whole world sees what an entitled little baby he is.

[Which Tyler]

[Puja]

I saw the X thing and assumed it was a joke. I'm not sure what the stage after self-parody is but he seems to have arrived there.

I'm not holding out any hope that he won't still be a billionaire at the end of all this, but it's at least sort of funny knowing the realisation might finally hit him that the whole world sees what an entitled little baby he is.

There is actually a very real risk of him, at least temporarily, not being a billionaire. He owes $14bn to the banks - this seems paltry compared to his $200bn worth, but the problem is that a lot of that $200bn is based around the persona that Musk is some kind of genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. The longer the death throes of Twitter, sorry, I mean X, the more the shares of Tesla drop, until a point at which the banks start worrying that Twitter will be worth less than the interest calls on the debt and start mulling over whether they should call in the loans.

Elon cannot access $14bn in actual money very easily - as soon as he starts to sell stock in any large amount, the price starts to slide, especially if the reason for him selling is because he's fucked up so badly that his banks are asking for their money back. And, if it becomes received wisdom that he's not actually Tony Stark but is in fact a bit of a prat, then that slide in share value becomes a plummet as everyone seeks to get out before the bottom. Without his persona, he's left with a loss-making car company, a loss-making space vanity project, and a lot of pissed off investors and debtors. I could quite easily see him declaring bankruptcy within 12 months.

It wouldn't last - he's got enough reality defying fans that he could leverage their delusion and get himself back on top by claiming to've been cancelled - but it'd be fun to watch the ride. I'm just glad he's ineligible to run for US President.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

And, if it becomes received wisdom that he's not actually Tony Stark but is in fact a bit of a prat, then that slide in share value becomes a plummet as everyone seeks to get out before the bottom.

Out of interest, how does being a bit or a prat distinguish him from Tony Stark?

[Puja]

And, if it becomes received wisdom that he's not actually Tony Stark but is in fact a bit of a prat, then that slide in share value becomes a plummet as everyone seeks to get out before the bottom.

Out of interest, how does being a bit or a prat distinguish him from Tony Stark?

Tony Stark is competent at something other than self-promotion?

Puja

[J Dory]

Without his persona, he's left with a loss-making car company, a loss-making space vanity project, and a lot of pissed off investors and debtors. I could quite easily see him declaring bankruptcy within 12 months.

Tesla made a 12.6 billion profit in 2022.

Space X we don't know as it's a private company, but it has 3 billion in launch revenues.

[Puja]

Without his persona, he's left with a loss-making car company, a loss-making space vanity project, and a lot of pissed off investors and debtors. I could quite easily see him declaring bankruptcy within 12 months.

Tesla made a 12.6 billion profit in 2022.

Space X we don't know as it's a private company, but it has 3 billion in launch revenues.

I stand corrected.

Puja

[J Dory]

He's still a cunt.

[J Dory]

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-66313916

An unfounded belief Covid vaccines are leading to a rise in heart problems, especially in young athletes, has been amplified by Twitter owner Elon Musk.

Bronny James - son of basketball legend LeBron James - suffered a cardiac arrest on Monday while practising.

In a tweet about the incident, Mr Musk said that "we cannot ascribe everything to the Covid vaccine, but by the same token we cannot ascribe nothing".

[Puja]

https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fb ... sn=scwspmo

[Puja]

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-66313916

An unfounded belief Covid vaccines are leading to a rise in heart problems, especially in young athletes, has been amplified by Twitter owner Elon Musk.

Bronny James - son of basketball legend LeBron James - suffered a cardiac arrest on Monday while practising.

In a tweet about the incident, Mr Musk said that "we cannot ascribe everything to the Covid vaccine, but by the same token we cannot ascribe nothing".

Frankly, I think it's SpaceX rocket launches that cause cardiac arrests. I mean, while there's no evidence showing that they do, there's also no evidence that they don't, you know...

Puja

[Sandydragon]

The amusing thing is that Musk wants to turn this into a multipurpose app, including banking. Noting the huge amount of effort banks put into keeping their online apps safe, is anyone really going to allow X to connect to their bank or would anyone really trust Musk given his somewhat cavalier approach to running a tech company?

[Puja]

The amusing thing is that Musk wants to turn this into a multipurpose app, including banking. Noting the huge amount of effort banks put into keeping their online apps safe, is anyone really going to allow X to connect to their bank or would anyone really trust Musk given his somewhat cavalier approach to running a tech company?

The year is 2025 and, after telling a literal Nazi who was telling me to get in an oven to fuck off, I am given a month's ban from X for threatening behaviour, and then get evicted because all of my financial matters are frozen.

Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

The amusing thing is that Musk wants to turn this into a multipurpose app, including banking. Noting the huge amount of effort banks put into keeping their online apps safe, is anyone really going to allow X to connect to their bank or would anyone really trust Musk given his somewhat cavalier approach to running a tech company?

The year is 2025 and, after telling a literal Nazi who was telling me to get in an oven to fuck off, I am given a month's ban from X for threatening behaviour, and then get evicted because all of my financial matters are frozen.

Puja

I suppose a sane system would confine bans to the 'twitter' side of the app, not the banking side . . . then again sanity is a bit of a high bar to set for Musk.

[Which Tyler]

[morepork]

Fuck social media. Fuck it in its ear.


Except for RR, naturally.

[Puja]

Fuck social media. Fuck it in its ear.


Except for RR, naturally.

We're not social.

Puja

[Donny osmond]

Thing is, there's actually a lot of good stuff on twitter, in between the bullshit.

[morepork]

Real life Bond Villain?

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... rlink.html

So any individual can have unfettered access to real estate in low earth orbit if they have the money to pay for it? I've no idea how many things this network currently controls access to, but someone wants to get this prick to pump the brakes before he stumbles into a monopoly on global communication.