SuperGeekery: A blog probably of interest only to nerds by John F Morton.

A blog prob­a­bly of inter­est only to nerds by John F Mor­ton.

Remaking Twitter thoughts

I cre­at­ed my Twit­ter account in 2007. It’s been my favorite social plat­form. The con­tent and con­nec­tions to peo­ple I get from Twit­ter aren’t repli­cat­ed on any oth­er plat­form that I’ve tried.

There’s an obvi­ous prob­lem with my love of Twit­ter, and I’m not talk­ing about the bad things it may or may not do to soci­ety. Twitter’s finan­cials have nev­er been good, and a com­pa­ny that reg­u­lar­ly los­es mon­ey is unsus­tain­able.

I want some­one to save Twit­ter because I like using it. I’m addict­ed to Twit­ter. Per­haps @elonmusk has the skill to res­cue Twit­ter.

The hard­est part about watch­ing @elonmusk’s actions from my out­sider per­spec­tive is his seem­ing cru­el­ty to his employ­ees and oth­er humans in gen­er­al. There also appears to be a smug joy in inflict­ing this pain. This flip­pant cru­el­ty is now part of Twitter’s brand.

Per­haps Elon, through force of will and deter­mi­na­tion, rebuilds Twit­ter, and it reemerges with few­er of the bad parts, spam bots, dis­in­for­ma­tion, etc., and more of the good, an addic­tive mix of hot takes, news, memes, and con­nec­tions.

As I’ve said, I’m addict­ed to Twit­ter, and a bet­ter Twit­ter is some­thing I’d want to con­tin­ue using. That still leaves me with the ques­tion: Why be so brazen­ly cru­el in the process of rebuild­ing Twit­ter?

A great prod­uct can over­come neg­a­tive brand asso­ci­a­tions, but it doesn’t have to be that way. A great prod­uct that peo­ple also like is in an even bet­ter posi­tion to suc­ceed.

Post­ed on Twit­ter on Nov 19, 2022, but then removed after increased frus­tra­tion with the direc­tion of Twit­ter.

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