News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by perihelions on Sunday April 10, 2022 @11:45PM (#30984388)
- "CEO of Twitter has posted an image of text (from the iOS Notes app?)"

At least he made the effort to include accessible alt-text. (Interestingly, the accessible text differs *slightly* from the picture-of-text version -- different draft revisions? Even social media CEO's don't seem comfortable with this workflow).

edit: here's a diff with highlighting: https://i.imgur.com/R9wf2H5.png

I'm relying on Verge's transcription of the screenshoted text,

https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/10/23019802/elon-musk-not-jo...

Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by tallytarik on Monday April 11, 2022 @01:20AM (#30984965)
That diff is a great lesson in Plain English. The version that looks ~50% longer provides no additional information.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by smilespray on Monday April 11, 2022 @02:17AM (#30985303)
True for every language
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by ponco on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:25AM (#30985713)
I think their point is that less is more.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by smilespray on Monday April 11, 2022 @05:53AM (#30986595)
It was meant as a supporting statement rather than a correction. I write copy in several languages, and trimming fat is key.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by nickysielicki on Monday April 11, 2022 @02:22AM (#30985326)
These are widely different tones and messages, if you have the other for context. Especially the bit about how “we’re still in control”. Seems obvious that a takeover is imminent.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by sillysaurusx on Monday April 11, 2022 @02:56AM (#30985519)
Oh wow. I was honestly annoyed the conversation was a tangent about alt text. Then you all found evidence that he withdrew for takeover reasons. Time to eat some humble pie. (I also have blind friends, and suddenly feel terrible about diminishing the importance of alt text.)

What an interesting mistake. There must have been three or four messages. I wonder if the CEO acted alone or as a part of a team.

Talk about “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by stavros on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:29AM (#30985740)
But the alleged "takeover reasons" bit is in the published text, not the alt text.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by nickysielicki on Monday April 11, 2022 @10:41AM (#30989439)
Makes no difference, we now know he revised that portion of his message to emphasize autonomy and mulled over it. It’s a view into what he’s thinking.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by sillysaurusx on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:43AM (#30985819)
Haha.

Whoops. Time to bow out.

(Thank you for pointing out the mistake so gracefully. Have a good night.)

One problem with Twitter’s alt text is that it’s too short. I copy paste HN comments into alt text, but am almost always met with an error. In that situation I just link to the original comment, but the CEO couldn’t do that here.

Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by stavros on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:45AM (#30985824)
Hahah it's not your day today or seems :P
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by whywhywhywhy on Monday April 11, 2022 @07:34AM (#30987277)
Don’t think their current CEO ever came across as the “acts alone” sort to be honest.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by tallytarik on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:17AM (#30985660)
Where's the "we're still in control" bit?
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by throwaway4good on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:26AM (#30985721)
The final version's "the decisions we make and how we execute is in our hands, no-one else's".
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by tallytarik on Monday April 11, 2022 @04:36AM (#30986140)
Aha! I had interpreted it as a direct quote. That makes sense.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by stavros on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:28AM (#30985737)
It's the "our decisions remain in our hands" thing, if I understand correctly.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by alex_young on Monday April 11, 2022 @01:15AM (#30984942)
Perhaps the alt text is condensed to comply with a limit? Looks like the same information for the most part.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by gigglesupstairs on Monday April 11, 2022 @02:22AM (#30985333)
Yes, that was my first thought too. Not everything is a conspiracy or a mistake.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by throwaway4good on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:25AM (#30985714)
It is all very odd: Why mention fiduciary responsibilities, background check, formal approval, we are in control unless all these things were in question?
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by HWR_14 on Monday April 11, 2022 @07:03AM (#30987055)
It could be a legal CYA to explain why the board seat was tweeted about but didn't happen. It may be that list is standard boilerplate and needed to be referenced.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by qwertox on Monday April 11, 2022 @01:43AM (#30985096)
At least the alt-text makes sense. The image has so many mistakes in it. Words are missing, sentences left dangling. The alt-text was probably the template they gave him.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by pen2l on Monday April 11, 2022 @12:06AM (#30984542)
Thanks for the diff! But for the love of god would you please enable word-wrapping?

I'm so sorry to continue: please introduce some padding while you're at it; the text being so close to the window borders in stock emacs is so offputting. Signed with love, a recent emacs convert.

edit: I see word-wrapping now, thanks!

Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by perihelions on Monday April 11, 2022 @12:11AM (#30984570)
I've uploaded a new version with word-wrapping. Sorry for that!

Yeah, my emacs config is a work in progress.

Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by geenew on Monday April 11, 2022 @12:28AM (#30984681)
> my emacs config is a work in progress

And so it shall remain

Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by jamiek88 on Monday April 11, 2022 @02:14AM (#30985286)
> Yeah, my emacs config is a work in progress

Hahaha Sisyphus had a similar problem

Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by choonway on Monday April 11, 2022 @01:50AM (#30985131)
i wonder how the original text would have fared if it went through the grammarly filter instead.
Re:Elon has decided not to join our board by KarlKemp on Monday April 11, 2022 @10:59AM (#30989719)
It’s 1000 characters exactly.