Elon Musk Buys Twitter

[The Stormbringer]

yo dawg, I heard you like X. So we made X so you can X while you X.

Its like when writers run out of ideas, and you end up with something called Element X, or Unobtainium. Is this that point in the simulation? Is this when our Developers ran out of ideas?

Developers? You misunderstand, this was entirely Musk and his decision. There were no devs involved, it's his brain-child 100%.

[Kathandira]

Developers? You misunderstand, this was entirely Musk and his decision. There were no devs involved, it's his brain-child 100%.

Sorry, my joke didn't land well, lol. I was referring to our lives being a simulation, and the this is the timeline where the Devs ran out of ideas.

[Karreck]

Sorry, my joke didn't land well, lol. I was referring to our lives being a simulation, and the this is the timeline where the Devs ran out of ideas.

Don't say it too loud, it will only make things worse! Like adding a real life Cousin Oliver to the timeline or something.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1683852156749729793

this fuckin loser out here continuing to push misinformation about the covid vaccine and shit

really, can a fuckin starlink fall in this god damned dangerous morons head yet? Twitter can't implode and completely fold soon enough.

[unfilteredJW]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1683852156749729793

this fuckin loser out here continuing to push misinformation about the covid vaccine and shit

really, can a fuckin starlink fall in this god damned dangerous morons head yet? Twitter can't implode and completely fold soon enough.

Did you see he had the fact check the community hit him with removed?

You know, the free speech guy?

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1683928997380648962

[Edge-]

Did you see he had the fact check the community hit him with removed?

You know, the free speech guy?

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1683928997380648962

Doesn't this happen pretty regularly? I feel like they added in the ability to remove community fact-checks specifically because this loser kept getting fact checked.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Tech bros: Centralized banking and fiat currency have ruined the economy and the world!

Also tech bros: We want to centralize all economic activity around Elon Musk's X .com and use digital currency that has no value beyond how people feel about it.

[postman1782]

Did you see he had the fact check the community hit him with removed?

You know, the free speech guy?

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1683928997380648962

Oh, you know he had it removed, doesn't matter if he was wrong or not.

[DarkTZeratul]

Over on the website formerly known as Twitter, but still actually known as Twitter, historian John Bull provides some much-needed context for X:

To understand Musk's renewed obsession with X and focus on financial services, you REALLY need to understand the X/Confinity merger that became PayPal. And, particularly, the Peter Thiel-led coup that kicked Musk out as CEO/Chief Strategist. Here's how that happened.

In early 1999 Zip2, the newspaper online directory service Musk had co-founded, was sold to Compaq for $300m. Elon's share of this was about $20m. Elon begins hitting up old connections from his time at ScotiaBank. He says he wants to launch "A Financial Superstore".

Having drummed up support, he founds a new company to take this forward. He immediately buys the x.com domain off Pittsburgh PowerComputer for 1.5 MILLION shares of A-Stock in his new company, X. Advisors express concern over X as a brand. Elon loves it. He describes x.com as "the coolest URL on the internet". X, he says, marks the spot for treasure. That's how people will see it he insists. He invests $12.5m of his own cash into X and begins trying to build an 'online bank'.

Musk's obsession with speed and disdain for regulation means X developers love him, but causes worry with the financial expert side. First Western, the banking partner, discover that accounts are being opened under fake names. The finance peeps try (but fail) to coup Elon out. In early 2000, X hits the news for a vulnerability that allows money to be moved between accounts with just account details. This is fixed, but spooks investors. Elon agrees with investor Mike Moritz from Sequoia to become CTO while Bill Harris (ex-Intuit) becomes CEO.

Meanwhile, over the road (literally), a startup called Confinity is making waves. It's funded by Peter Thiel, who is also its CEO, but is the brainchild of Ukrainian Max Levchin its CTO. Backed by Nokia, Confinity is making a way to 'beam' money between PalmPilots by infrared.

Need to skip A LOT here. But jump forward a bit and both X and Confinity ACCIDENTALLY create the same killer product as an offshoot of their main one: The ability to exchange money via email. Confinity pivot to this exclusively. X don't. Musk's goal is financial superstore.

The strength and focus that HAS gone on X's email payment processor has mostly been due to David Sacks, one of Elon's hires who he trusts and who spotted the huge potential. He keeps Musk grounded with eyes on this while Elon is ALSO pushing into riskier financial service stuff. But Harris (X CEO) sees Confinity and X are BOTH in a death spiral. They are BLEEDING cash fighting. He speaks to Thiel. Thiel suggests a merger. Musk fights this. But ahead of another funding round, Harris threatens to quit, spooking investors. Elon says "He held a gun to my head."

The firms merge. Harris and Thiel insist the new firm (X) focus on email payments, ideally on Confinity's PayPal platform. Elon INSISTS financial superstore is the future. When Thiel and Harris fall out over strategy, Elon persuades Thiel to help coup Harris out. Elon is now CEO. Thiel, and Levchin, are initially fine with this. Musk has promised to focus on email payments, and to improve PayPal first. Financial superstore a "future thing". But over months Levchin realises that Elon has become obsessed with porting PayPal ENTIRELY to Microsoft not Linux. Months of dev time, with X burning $12m a month, is lost to Musk's obsession with PayPal V2. A complete rework on Microsoft. It's BEYOND a bad plan. Microsoft servers and MSSQL CANNOT scale enough at the time. But Elon decrees it. He even decrees a launch with no rollback option.

Elon also orders the killing off the PayPal brand. He orders paypal.com routed to x.com. Logos phased out. Decrees it should now be referred to as X-PayPal and described as part of the X family of financial services. He's not letting the dream go. This obsession with X as a brand causes enormous concern as it CONTINUALLY goes down terribly with consumers. Vivien Go on focus group testing: "Again and again, the theme of 'Oh God, I wouldn't trust this website. It's an adult website' and 'I just wouldn't trust that".

Meanwhile, Thiel finds out via X's financial wizard, Roelof Botha, that the financial superstore side stuff is WORSE than Musk has let on. X is offering credit on almost no identity checks. Combined with the V2 fiasco, Thiel and others realise X is on the verge of failing. Thiel and some other key figures approach Elon and BEG him to abandon Paypal V2, and his strategy of trying to become a one-stop global financial service. Thiel points out they only have $65m left in the bank. Musk refuses. They have to go for "the grand prize" he insists.

Thiel, Levchin, Botha and Sacks now cross the rubicon. They decide to coup Elon. They quietly gather the signatures of a lot of the Confinity loyalists on a mass-quit threat. On 19th Sep 2000, as Elon is taking off for Europe on his honeymoon, they make their move. Thiel and Levkin are board members. The other four are Musk, Malloy (repping another major investor), Moritz and Hurd (Chair). As Elon is in the air, Thiel asks Hurd to summon an emergency board meeting by phone.

Over the phone, Thiel and Levkin reveal the PayPal V2 and financial issues to Malloy, Moritz and Hurd, who had no idea about them. They're sympathetic to Elon as founder and visionary, but horrified this was all done without board approval and at the mass-resignation letter. With Elon out of the country, he can't work his in person magic. He insists over the phone that the financial superstore is the big win. All this is in service of that. It doesn't work. Malloy, Moritz and Hurd side with Thiel and Levkin. Elon is out as CEO before he can fly back. Musk is devastated and furious. "Sneaky Backstabbing Bastards" he describes them as, but to his credit recognises he can't fight it and presents a public image it was a mutual decision. Thiel becomes interim (and later permanent) CEO, orders the end of V2 and a focus on PayPal.

Hopefully you can see the roots of this whole X pivot thing now. Musk has decided that the way to save Twitter and regain his genius status is to fall back on his unrealised vision from 1999. Build "the world's financial nexus" as he described it then. I think it's a TERRIBLE idea. The world's moved on. He's doing the tech equivalent of drunk-DMing his highschool girlfriend to tell her she's still hot. But you can see the origins now. He thinks this is the genius idea that got away. And that this time nobody can coup him.

[Captain N]

Every passing article about Twitter being X keeps reminding me of the Dead Parrot sketch from Monty Python.

[Edge-]

Every passing article about Twitter being X keeps reminding me of the Dead Parrot sketch from Monty Python.

"Have I ever told you the story about when I threw the game-winning touchdown pass at homecoming?..."

Which is wild, because like...all he has to do is look to other companies he owns for validation. Space-X proved all the doubters wrong and I don't want to imagine how incredible their balance sheets probably look. Lots of money to recoup from the development phase, but they're absolutely monsters. Telsa is still the most hilariously overvalued car maker in the world (supposedly investors are starting to remember they make cars and aren't a tech company, actually) and his stupid fuckin truck is about to start rolling off the line. He's putting microchips in monkey's brains so the mass of adoring Elom simps who don't trust the gub 'mint will have him inside their literal heads instead. Boring company...I dunno what they're up to but hey he sure killed a lot of legitimate rail projects and interest in rail with his bullshit hyperloop shit (reminder: the biggest accomplishment may actually just be a 1 lane tunnel under the Vegas strip where Tesla's driven by human beings travel rofl).

On the one hand I'm kinda exhausted with how much oxygen that absolutely brainworm ridden bigot whose own fucking daughter disowned him and won't speak to him, consumes. On the other hand, watching an egotistical billionaire implode and light gigantic piles of money on fire in in public while he constantly calls even more attention to himself and his hilariously awful decisions is truly delightful.

[Cthulhu 2020]

So this piece of shit website is auto banning anyone with "shit" in their username.

"shita" is a common part of many Japanese names.

I'm sure you can see where this went.

https://twitter.com/highgai/status/1683773681305260033

[Mekh]

So this piece of shit website is auto banning anyone with "shit" in their username.

"shita" is a common part of many Japanese names.

I'm sure you can see where this went.

https://twitter.com/highgai/status/1683773681305260033

Read somewhere that the rebranding is on hold in Japan, because the visual kei band X Japan is holding a broad set of rights and one of its members is famously litigious. So this might be a deliberate, petty, Musk-level act of revenge.

[diller]

So this piece of shit website is auto banning anyone with "shit" in their username.

"shita" is a common part of many Japanese names.

I'm sure you can see where this went.

https://twitter.com/highgai/status/1683773681305260033

Ethnocentrism is very common part of Anglosphere in general but especially the US - 'why are they different from us'.

[Kathranis]

Every time I click over to Xwitter I'm just taken aback by how tacky that X logo looks. Reminds me of 90s web design.

[Edge-]

So this piece of shit website is auto banning anyone with "shit" in their username.

"shita" is a common part of many Japanese names.

I'm sure you can see where this went.

https://twitter.com/highgai/status/1683773681305260033

Well this isn't very Freeze Peach Absolute Vodka of Elom. I thought he was for radical Freeze Peach?

Also, shocking that a racist shitlord gives directives without asking for feedback or remembering that there are other cultures and languages in the world rofl. I hate that $44B in theoretical money (since that's all it is, not real cash) went towards this absolute travesty of a waste of everyone's time, energy, and resources instead of literally anything productive.

Like building the worlds largest butter sculpture. That would have been money better spent, somehow.

[Shadowferal]

'Sesame Street' Just Perfectly Trolled Elon Musk After He Announced Twitter's 'X' Rebranding

[PACOX]

Heard someone say theres no way a billionaire could be doing all of this without actually knowing what they were doing. In other words, Musk must have a plan. That person obviously didn't know how Mush actually got his money or how most extremely wealthy people do.



Musk did not come up on his own. He was born with a safety net and will always have that safety net. Some people forget his isn't making poor financial mistakes like a normal person who can barely afford to bet on a college education. He can literally afford to take million dollar L's because the amount of wealth and privilege he was born into allows him to recover. There's no hidden genius behind those eyes, just someone who can afford to fail until he eventually fails upward.



He is quite lucky because 60 years ago the government would have absolutely taken SpaceX from him or found a way to remove him through several means after all the dumb shit he has been doing. An agency like FTC (or maybe just the FTC) would have been created to but it's boot on the neck of all social media platforms until they secured special powers and privileges from said platforms.

[Edge-]

'Sesame Street' Just Perfectly Trolled Elon Musk After He Announced Twitter's 'X' Rebranding

When Sesame Street is dunking on you it's time to call it quits.

[Shadowferal]

O...that poor X..