Elon Musk goes Off the Rails

[RichVR]

Me and Qt3. Multiple times a day. p(

[DaveLong]

I turned off all Twitter notifications on my phone, which until the Musk purchase, I really appreciated because they were often helpful, useful, entertaining, or all three. I’m ready to move on to something else, but I don’t think there is anything else yet.

[Alstein]

Ultimately, it’s one of those things where we just need to pick something, hope it works, and if it doesn’t , try something else. Just like we did before Twitter.

We can’t wait around for another corporate overlord to pretend save things, and I know after Twitter I don’t want algorithm-based social media.

[DaveLong]

Yeah, none of these other things seem like the right thing though.

Like, this is where Google should just pull Google+ out of mothballs, rename it, and they’d win.

[KevinC]

Alexandra Petri has some thoughts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/30/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-money/

Free speech is when you pay me money for goods or services. That’s free speech. When you do not give me money, that is censorship. Every second that you spend not paying me money for my services is another arrow stuck into the craw of liberty. Ah, liberty bleeds, and I weep for her! Please give me thousands of dollars; it is the only thing that can save her. Even if you must give them to me in small increments of $8 at a time, that is better than nothing. I believe that if you give me enough money (speech), we can still rescue this godforsaken country!

You might have thought that free speech was when a corporation gave a lot of money to a politician. This is a very, very important form of free speech, and it is getting freer all the time! But that is certainly not the only kind of speech you can make. Just as important is when you take your small-dollar amounts and press them into the hands of a billionaire, or when an advertiser does the same thing with a larger dollar amount.

Why I remember when our Founders, our brave Founders, fought so strongly and so bravely for free speech. Benjamin Franklin stood there begging and beseeching the business owners of his day to put their advertisements in his Poor Richard’s Almanac. Everyone knew then as they know today that the only true free speech is when you pay somebody money to run advertisements for your business. The Bill of Rights is absolutely clear about this. Why do you think it is called a bill if not because rights require somebody to pay money to somebody else?!

[Alstein]

I’d go back to Google+ in a heartbeat.

That said, no matter what I’d keep mastodon and my comfy corner of sweet floofy weirdos.

[KevinC]

Let’s all go back to IRC. Make mIRC Great Again.

[Menzo]

Shockingly, Musk lives in an all-too-familiar world of made-up facts.

Apple Is Actually Buying More Twitter Ads Despite Elon, Data Shows

[RichVR]

@KevinC

Let’s all go back to IRC. Make mIRC Great Again.

Usenet:

alt.binaries.free.speech

[wavey]

The EU makes a point of reminding Musk of the penalties they can impose if moderation is inadequate, after implying that Twitter isn’t up to standard:

[The EU] reiterated the punishments for breaches of the act, which include fines of up to 6% of global turnover – which would be around $500m in Twitter’s case – or a temporary suspension of the service if refusal to comply endangers people’s life and safety.

EU raises prospect of big fine or ban if Twitter fails to follow new legislation

[rei]

Musk's Twitter Shenanigans Have Tanked Tesla's Reputation

The comments are a hoot.

[strummer]

@RichVR

@KevinC

Let’s all go back to IRC. Make mIRC Great Again.

Usenet:

alt.binaries.free.speech

Think I’ll just go back to telnet.

[RichVR]

Actually it’s kinda scary how fast I typed alt.binaries. :p

[easytarget]

@KevinC

Let’s all go back to IRC. Make mIRC Great Again.

Having once upon a time run a couple different BBS’s I’d like to throw FidoNet’s hat into the ring.

[BennyProfane]

Nah, let’s go back to Archie and Veronica, etc.

[ReptileHouse]

Y’all are giving me some serious flashbacks here. Mostly good ones. Mostly.

[Ephraim]

Twitter really just is a fancy form of Finger.

[Timemaster_Tim]

@BennyProfane

Nah, let’s go back to Archie and Veronica, etc.

So… Gopher rules and Google drools?

[Thrag]

Are you hearing faint modem noises in the background too?

I used to know the guy who wrote Searchlight BBS. Though I ran Telegard on my own BBS. Which was run off a second line ran into my dorm room by breaking into the phone cabinet in the basement and patching the line from an empty room to the second pair on my phone line.

For maximum nostalgia I looked up BBS on the wikipedia and this is the reference image:

[rei]

Twitter is just fingering plan files