News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by puffoflogic on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @07:27PM (#33993101)
I have a theory about Twitter's often odd actions since Musk took over, although I fear HN won't like it because it may tend to paint Musk in a reasonable light:

I think that we are seeing the symptoms of a team (Twitter) who is not yet used to Musk's management style, whereby he says something like, "we should do X", and he means, "we should investigate and take reasonable actions which have the same effect as (the too-bold action) X". The team interprets the first statement too literally and actually does X, which isn't really what Musk intended. I developed this theory in the roll-out of Twitter Blue, because it matches what happened very closely: Musk publicly said "hey we're going to start charging for verification and it's no longer a mark of validated identity". The team jumped and made something overnight, but this was rolled back because it's not what Musk meant for them to do. Rather, what he meant for them to do was sit down, plan what to do, and then execute it - quickly, but not immediately. And that's what happened in the end, i.e. in the past few days.

This effect is exacerbated by the remaining employees at Twitter including those who are most eager to suck up to the new boss, frankly, leading to them jumping and doing what he said (over-literally).

Anyways, the same theory would explain the elonjet thing. Elon says, "hey posting people's real-time location is generally seen as a bad thing, like that elonjet guy, we should look into a policy against that." Overeager underling takes this as a commandment to ban elonjet. More reasonable people who are beginning to catch on to the management style go and actually develop the policy; once it's developed, it makes sense to just Ctrl-Z the actions of the overeager group.

Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by Arainach on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @07:43PM (#33993265)
On what do you base this claim? What is one example in the last 3 years where you think Musk's intention was to "investigate and take reasonable actions"?

Did Elon decide to investigate and take reasonable action when signing an agreement to buy Twitter? Did he do so when trying to weasel his way out of the deal?

Did he investigate and take reasonable action when making bids about hyperloop and tunnels that were stupidly low to block public transit efforts but then never came to fruition?

Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by phyzome on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @07:44PM (#33993286)
That might be a factor (and I've entertained this idea myself!) but Elon is also shown to be impulsive and tyrannical enough in his public words (and leaked communications) that I don't think this explanation is actually needed.
Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by mlyle on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @07:50PM (#33993345)
I think the team is afraid to stand up to Musk, and this makes things worse... but I think you're crafting an explanation where Musk isn't in the loop and pressing for things to happen immediately. This isn't consistent with Musk's public comments and tweets during the Blue rollout. E.g. he talks of having personally killed the gray checkmark, and that "Blue check will be the great leveler."

He even says at the time:

> Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1590384919829962752

> More reasonable people who are beginning to catch on to the management style go and actually develop the policy; once it's developed, it makes sense to just Ctrl-Z the actions of the overeager group.

and now elonjet is back to being banned, so this doesn't really make sense.

Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by HWR_14 on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @07:50PM (#33993350)
"Elon is just bad at communicating" is a reasonable take. But it's still his fault.
Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by johannes1234321 on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @07:51PM (#33993358)
> ded. I developed this theory in the roll-out of Twitter Blue

My theory around this is that this was a test to see which developers are willing to do what he says on a short timeline and are able to have the required impact across the stack.

Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by Morizero on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @07:54PM (#33993396)
Any management style that results in your direct reports doing things wrong isn't their fault. It's the manager who didn't communicate clearly, didn't correctly incentivize, didn't set the right example, didn't create pathways to desired outcomes, etc.
Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by moloch-hai on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @08:02PM (#33993476)
This theory presumes "really what Musk intended" is normally a meaningful concept.

As I say about my current and some previous employers' management, "the word 'why' doesn't apply here".

Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by m348e912 on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @08:35PM (#33993827)
>>I have a theory about Twitter's often odd actions since Musk took over, although I fear HN won't like it because it may tend to paint Musk in a reasonable light:

Reminds me of the "The Bear is Sticky with Honey" situation

Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by anonymoushn on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @08:46PM (#33993937)
As reported by insiders from other Musk companies, the issue is actually that Musk means everything he says, concerns himself with minutiae, and constantly demands insane and counterproductive things. These other companies have built up a layer of managers who are dedicated to lying to Musk and coaching their teams on lying to Musk while allowing actual useful things to get done instead of the things Musk would prefer. Twitter's current situation is what happens when a company lacks this protective inner layer.
Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by chasil on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @08:57PM (#33994059)
Elon can call Peter, and ask the Palantir people for the best snarky comment, policy, exposé, or forensic internal communication that Elon wants.

Some of what happened since the twitter takeover looks like bumbling incompetence.

Some of it is obviously assisted by very powerful people. Maybe it's just Elon's internal security and forensics team. Maybe not.

Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by kanbara on Thursday December 15, 2022 @12:52AM (#33995780)
when someone tells you who they are, believe them.

musk isnt some gratioud thoughtful genius surrounded by incompetence. he’s a malicious, selfish, narcissist.

and if you dont see that, well, nothing can be done about it. just look at his tweets and “enlightened centrism”. and that time he called a guy a pædo.

Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by phyzome on Thursday December 15, 2022 @06:51AM (#33998138)
Which time? He's done it multiple times now.
Re:“We’ve updated our policy to prohibit sharing someone els... by davidcbc on Thursday December 15, 2022 @12:41PM (#34002990)
The imaginary Elon Musk you invented still doesn't sound reasonable, he sounds like an absolute nightmare to work for