Elon Musk - the world's "greatest" spiv?

[dosxuk]

Disney and Apple, such lovely people! Good riddance to them.

Unfortunately for Musk, they have a lot more money available to spend on advertising than the conspiracy theorists, crypto scammers and back street pharmaceutical companies who are happy to have their adverts placed anywhere.

I don't think there would be a huge outpouring of grief at the closure of X because it runs out of money because of Elon's decisions.

 

[takno]

Unfortunately for Musk, they have a lot more money available to spend on advertising than the conspiracy theorists, crypto scammers and back street pharmaceutical companies who are happy to have their adverts placed anywhere.

I don't think there would be a huge outpouring of grief at the closure of X because it runs out of money because of Elon's decisions.

I could probably squeeze out a tear for Twitter, but announcing the bankruptcy of "X" is unlikely to move anybody.

 

[jon0844]

Unfortunately for Musk, they have a lot more money available to spend on advertising than the conspiracy theorists, crypto scammers and back street pharmaceutical companies who are happy to have their adverts placed anywhere.

I don't think there would be a huge outpouring of grief at the closure of X because it runs out of money because of Elon's decisions.

I loved the person who asked Elon what he could buy from Andrew Tate. And those saying they'll advertise NFTs, crypto and the like are hardly anything to be proud of (unless you're part of the grift and making bank).

At the end of the day, when X ultimately fails Elon will now blame the advertisers and play the victim.

Also, it isn't losing advertisers that will kill him off.. it's the many businesses that are actually (and quite surprisingly TBH) leaving the platform and no longer engaging with customers via the platform - and instead telling people to engage via things like Threads. Much as I am sure we aren't massive fans of Facebook, I think with the upcoming tweaks to Threads, some firms (including TOCs) may begin to tell people to get info from there - and will do the customer service chats on there (or via Messenger/WhatsApp).

THAT will eventually kill X and turn it into nothing more than a right-wing echo chamber like Truth Social or Rumble or whatever else.

 

[VauxhallandI]

Unfortunately for Musk, they have a lot more money available to spend on advertising than the conspiracy theorists, crypto scammers and back street pharmaceutical companies who are happy to have their adverts placed anywhere.

I don't think there would be a huge outpouring of grief at the closure of X because it runs out of money because of Elon's decisions.

Indeed, things come and go. I'm just amazed there are so many people who seemed a little fixated by him and X.

There are conspiracy theories but unfortunately the left have diluted the meaning and lines on this to the point it is often used to describe things one doesn't agree with.

 

[jon0844]

I think most people want X to survive because they find value in it, and Elon is slowly destroying it. That's why there's the fixation with him because he's an absolute buffoon, ala Trump or Boris.

I have a large following on there, and I get a lot of useful information on there. I can filter out the worst of things, but the changes now make things harder for me and my own engagement since I was told I had to pay for Premium to get my Tweets showing on other feeds. I don't wish to pay, so like many I am now on other platforms - all of which are struggling, but I do now think Threads has the biggest opportunity if done right.

Bluesky might be Twitter v2 but it's pretty much dead and the invitation system isn't working. If anything, it's stunted its growth and handed success to Facebook.

Mastodon is great in many ways - with a community feel about it that is akin to this forum, but for any subject. Problem is it isn't used by businesses and the business model means it's likely not to grow - and as costs rise for people running their own instances, and they ask for donations to keep going, they'll likely die off.

In many ways, despite awful leadership, Reddit is growing as a reliable source of information on many subjects. Again, the platform is full of nasty stuff, but you can mostly avoid it.

Elon needs to go. Twitter can be saved - it has plenty of users who have decided to leave but would return. It also has users who are clinging on in hope, but that won't keep it going forever.

 

[VauxhallandI]

I think most people want X to survive because they find value in it, and Elon is slowly destroying it. That's why there's the fixation with him because he's an absolute buffoon, ala Trump or Boris.

I have a large following on there, and I get a lot of useful information on there. I can filter out the worst of things, but the changes now make things harder for me and my own engagement since I was told I had to pay for Premium to get my Tweets showing on other feeds. I don't wish to pay, so like many I am now on other platforms - all of which are struggling, but I do now think Threads has the biggest opportunity if done right.

Bluesky might be Twitter v2 but it's pretty much dead and the invitation system isn't working. If anything, it's stunted its growth and handed success to Facebook.

Mastodon is great in many ways - with a community feel about it that is akin to this forum, but for any subject. Problem is it isn't used by businesses and the business model means it's likely not to grow - and as costs rise for people running their own instances, and they ask for donations to keep going, they'll likely die off.

In many ways, despite awful leadership, Reddit is growing as a reliable source of information on many subjects. Again, the platform is full of nasty stuff, but you can mostly avoid it.

Elon needs to go. Twitter can be saved - it has plenty of users who have decided to leave but would return. It also has users who are clinging on in hope, but that won't keep it going forever.

Fair enough if you are invested. I don't use it so it means nothing to me.

What annoys me however is this "right wing conspiracy echo chamber" line trotted out. Well I saw plenty of pages in the last three years that we the left wing equivalent.

It's basically a sh!t hole all round outside of a basic way of connecting your offering with others. However let's describe as what it is and not weaponise it as the other bad people, my people are right rubbish.

 

[brad465]

Oh dear:

Elon Musk’s record $55bn Tesla pay package voided by US judge

Delaware judge rules that billionaire CEO ‘dominated the process’ to determine his remuneration

on.ft.com

Elon Musk’s $55bn pay package from Tesla has been voided by a Delaware judge, who ruled that the unprecedented remuneration was improperly approved by the electric-car maker’s board of directors and had short-changed the company’s shareholders.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Ouch... Will he have to repay anything he's already received? With whatever the US equivalent of statutory interest is on top?

 

[JamesT]

Ouch... Will he have to repay anything he's already received? With whatever the US equivalent of statutory interest is on top?

He didn't actually receive that in cash. They were stock options, which according to other news reports he hasn't exercised. So it's taking away something he only had on paper.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

He didn't actually receive that in cash. They were stock options, which according to other news reports he hasn't exercised. So it's taking away something he only had on paper.

Ah... so this is more a loss of image than anything else?

 

[JamesT]

Ah... so this is more a loss of image than anything else?

It's also a loss of control. The more of a company's shares you own the more you can set the direction. Elon has previously said he wants to have 25% of Tesla, without these options he only has 13%.

 

[takno]

It's also a loss of control. The more of a company's shares you own the more you can set the direction. Elon has previously said he wants to have 25% of Tesla, without these options he only has 13%.

I'm not sure of the logic of his threat to roll some of his other rubbish startup ideas into Tesla if they would only give him a massive amount of free money and control. I have the tiniest suspicion that he doesn't really get the concept of running a real company with real finances in a non-zero-interest-rate economy at all.

 

[Lucan]

I'm just amazed there are so many people who seemed a little fixated by him and X.

There are all sorts of reasons to take notice of what Musk is up to.

For a start, as one of the richest men in the world it is as well to know what he is doing, or intends to do, with his money : for example, relevant to this forum, he uses it to finance his personal and obsessive vendetta against railways. His Tesla electric semi (articulated HGV) is largely motivated and presented with the intention of undermining rail freight (very significant in the USA). Similarly, his "taxis in a tunnel" operated in Las Vegas by his Boring Company is Musk's demonstration of an alternative to rail based metros, not that it is a very effective one.

Secondly, no-one is more fixated with Musk than his own huge fan base, including some very wealthy ones like Arab princes and his own I-wannabe-like-Musk friend Branson. Branson has been daft enough to have blown $3/4 of a billion of his own and investors' money on trying to develop Musk's bonkers Hyperloop idea, before his Hyperloop One company finally went bankrupt a few weeks ago. Branson, like many, failed to realise that Musk only proposed Hyperloop to divert funds and priorities away from the Californian high speed rail project, and "Hyperloop will make railways out of date!" has also been cited by HS2 objectors and anti-rail people generally in the UK. We need to keep a watch on what Musk will do next on the Hyperloop front, some say he will revive it, but I hope not.

A significant member of Musk's fan base is the USA government itself which has been bankrolling his SpaceX company with $billions of taxpayers money for development, never minding that most of that development is going into Musk's vanity project for a fleet of Starships to found a Mars colony, with him as the king. Originally it was to be a million people by 2025 or something as ridiculous. But almost all actual flights of Starships so far are best described as billionaire firework displays, culminating in the detonation of the 3400 tonnes of propellant; incredibly, a SpaceX spokeswoman defined success as "clearing the launch tower". One Starship of a superceded design seems to have been fired off the launchpad (and exploding) simply to vacate it for a newer model. These are the actions of a man claiming he is the saviour of humanity because his electric cars are replacing the use of fossil fuels.

The last thing we should want is to allow this megalomaniac loose cannon his continued free rein and continued wastage of money and resources. I do my best to disenamour people of him.

 

[brad465]

Twitter has been even more of a cesspit of late than before, mainly in connection to Russia-Ukraine. I suspect it's a perfect storm of related events coinciding: the Russian Presidential election is next month, the US is wrangling over the aid bill, Tucker Carlson is still in Russia, and Musk is still trying to compromise/appease what should not be. All this has generated a lot of heated debate and I imagine bot activity in particular. I've largely gone off the site but go on when I need to find certain things out, but even when not looking for stuff related to the above, the feed gets filled with it.

 

[brad465]

Blue ticks appearing out of nowhere now, and apparently Musk is planning on giving them out for free to any account with over 2500 followers:

Elon Musk's X causes confusion as free blue ticks make a comeback

Numerous bewildered users suddenly found their accounts had a 'verified' badge - including the person behind the popular Larry the cat parody.

news.sky.com

X has caused confusion by reinstating free blue ticks for some users - a year after it began charging for the service.

For years, Twitter blue ticks effectively served as verification badges and were given to celebrities, politicians, journalists, and other influential accounts for free.

However, months after Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44bn (£38bn) in October 2022, the platform stripped verification badges from accounts and instead began offering them as part of an $8-a-month premium service.

The move caused confusion as a large number of fake accounts pretending to another person or an organisation obtained verification simply by purchasing it.

On Wednesday night and Thursday morning, some bewildered Twitter users noticed their blue ticks were back despite the fact they hadn't subscribed to X's premium offering.

Comedian David Baddiel was among the users whose tick has made a comeback, while Jonathan Pie - who is a fictional character created by Tom Walker - also found himself in possession of one.

Since the premium subscription was introduced, blue ticks have commonly been seen as a sign of support for Musk and his X strategy - which led to multiple accounts sharing instructions on how to remove the symbols through setting changes.

X has not officially addressed the latest move though Musk said last week that all accounts with more than 2,500 verified subscriber followers would receive premium features - including the tick - for free.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Blue ticks appearing out of nowhere now, and apparently Musk is planning on giving them out for free to any account with over 2500 followers:

2500 verified followers, not 2500 followers - so it's not as generous as it looks.

I suspect it's just a way of hooking people into paying for Premium as it gives free access to that as well; very likely it'll last long enough that they'll get used to it and then at some point it'll change again and they'll find they have to pay in order to keep their Premium access...

 

[birchesgreen]

I have thought of paying for a blue tick but i decided to just stay being annoying for free.

Meanwhile, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Tesla Cybertruck Owners' Forum Is Already Full Of Tales Of Broken, Malfunctioning Cybertrucks

From brake light malfunctions to full-on failures, if you want to know just how bad things are with the Cybertruck, check the owners forums.

jalopnik.com

From gunky surfaces to embarrassing off-road exploits to malfunctioning after going through water, the stainless steel Tesla Cybertruck seems like an all-around mess. We cover a lot of those concerns here on Jalopnik, but if you want an even clearer picture of just how dire owners of this machine have it, look no further than the Cybertruck owners forums.

We decided to check out the forums for ourselves after we spotted a tweet by @salsadrunkard that featured a screenshot of a Cybertruck owner detailing how their truck broke down a mile from the delivery center. It didn’t take much digging to find the forum and the thread itself on Cybertrucks Owners Club. The initial post reads:

Took delivery today, AWD.. made it 1 mile down road, started getting steering error, flashing red screen, pulled off side of highway now the truck is dead and I’m waiting for a tow truck. Dealer couldn’t do anything for me. It was great for 5 minutes.. tried everything, restarting, screen is stuck black and keeps beeping
Tesla really rushed these trucks out, what a nightmare.

 

[Strathclyder]

I have thought of paying for a blue tick but i decided to just stay being annoying for free.

Meanwhile, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Tesla Cybertruck Owners' Forum Is Already Full Of Tales Of Broken, Malfunctioning Cybertrucks

From brake light malfunctions to full-on failures, if you want to know just how bad things are with the Cybertruck, check the owners forums.

jalopnik.com

And a smidge of begrudging pity for those who have sunk cash into these things.