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UPDATE: Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen Respond to Elon Musk Tweet (msn.com) 210

Posted by EditorDavid from the tweet-dreams dept.
UPDATE: Jeff Bezos and Marc Andreessen have now responded to Elon Musk's suggestion to create a homeless shelter out of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, "since no one shows up anyway."

And at some point over the weekend, Musk also suggested a new way that Twitter could use Dogecoin...

It all started when the newest member of Twitter's board of directors — Elon Musk — began tweeting new ideas for improving Twitter last night. "Everyone who signs up for Twitter Blue (i.e. pays $3/month) should get an authentication checkmark," Musk suggested, adding later that "It would massively expand the verified pool & make bot armies too expensive to maintain." Musk clarified that this checkmark "should be different from 'public figure' or 'official account' checkmark." And he also noted that Twitter Blue subscribers already get special features like a modifiable 20 second time window in which they can edit their tweets.

"And no ads," Musk suggested in another tweet. "The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive." Musk later offered suggestions about how to implement that subscription fee, according to the Associated Press. Musk suggested it "should be proportionate to affordability and in local currency."

And he added, "Maybe even an option to pay in Doge?" referring to Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

But moments later Musk tweeted a poll, asking his followers to vote Yes or No to this idea:

Convert Twitter's San Francisco headquarters to a homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway.

Within 16 hours 1,425,937 people had voted "Yes!" — a whopping 91.3% of all votes cast. (Versus just 135,877 votes for "No.")

Sunday night Bloomberg reported that Jeff Bezos, "a fellow billionaire, responded Sunday with a link to a report about an [8-story] homeless shelter attached to an Amazon office building, noting that a portion of Twitter's space could be converted, making it easier for employees who want to volunteer. Musk called the suggestion a "great idea...."

Homelessness is a particularly visible problem at Twitter's headquarters, located in a part of San Francisco where residents have grappled with urban decay and drug addiction.
Silicon valley entrepreneur/investor Marc Andreessen then posted his own three-word reply. Apparently in response to Bezos's suggestion that employees could volunteer more easily if if a portion of their building were a homeless shelter, Andreessen joked, "Every other desk?"

And five hours after Musk's homeless shelter poll, he'd moved on to yet another question, polling his followers for "Yes" or "No" votes on this idea:

Delete the w in Twitter?
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

UPDATE: Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen Respond to Elon Musk Tweet More

UPDATE: Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen Respond to Elon Musk Tweet

Comments Filter:

  • Just go all the way. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @01:37PM (#62434360)

    And rename twitter to shitter. Because that's what it is for human discussions. The place where shittiest form of discourse takes place.

    • And rename twitter to shitter. Because that's what it is for human discussions. The place where shittiest form of discourse takes place.

      Soooo, Gettr?

    • Re:Just go all the way. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @01:56PM (#62434392) Homepage

      That's because it's pretty much unusable for actual debate. I was thinking about the other day why that tired old song and dance of accusing gays of pedophilia is back in fashion. It dawned on me that because Twitter doesn't give you enough space to actually express a coherent thought, every debate is bound to devolve into personal attacks and name-calling because it's the only thing that will fucking fit.

      So, now instead of homophobes launching into lengthy rants about how they're afraid their kids will learn that gay people exist, I get people on Twitter calling me a "groomer". Thanks, arbitrary 240 character limit.

      • 240 is not arbitrary. (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 10, 2022 @02:21PM (#62434446)

        The fact that you post that means you were not around when Twitter launched, and what its original purpose was.

        This was during the days of flip phones, and no apps as you know them nowadays. Twitter was a way for someone...ON THEIR COMPUTER...to be able to send out a mass SMS message to phones, instead of having to do it individually. And 240 was the character limit for text.

        Twitter was not meant for discussion or discourse, it was a way to blast out messages to mobile followers via text who wanted to get your info quickly, without being tied to a desktop computer. This type of messaging ability was revolutionary, given the state of phone technology. With the advent of easy group messaging nowadays, you spoiled people will never have any idea what the limitations were back then.

        • Re: 240 is not arbitrary. (Score:5, Informative)

          by ttfkam ( 37064 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @04:53PM (#62434720) Homepage Journal

          It's 280 characters now and was originally 140 characters, because that was the maximum number of characters allowed over a single SMS message.

          • To be a little more pedantic, the SMS message limit was 160 characters, but Twitter limited tweets to 140 so that they could reserve 20 characters for a username.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by _merlin ( 160982 )

              Actually, for US CDMA networks, the limit was 140 characters. GSM used 140-byte messages that could contain 160 characters in the 7-bit European GSM character set, 140 characters in an 8-bit character set, or 70 UTF-16 code units (70 characters from basic multilingual plane, fewer if characters from higher planes are used). The sender field isn't restricted to digits, so Twitter could just put the username there.

        • Twitter was a way for someone ON THEIR FLIP PHONE to send a mass SMS message to followers by texting 40404. The web interface was really secondary for quite a while.

        • Re:240 is not arbitrary. (Score:4, Funny)

          by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Monday April 11, 2022 @03:21AM (#62435394)

          Actually its a little-known fact that it's for backwards-compatibility with punched cards, a tweet has to fit on two 80-column punched cards (alongside metadata). That limit in turn came from Greek/Roman kollema, and they got it from Babylonian clay tablets.

          So if you're wondering why your 8GB RAM phone with its 100Mb/s link is limited to 140 characters, it's in case someone wants to send you a message incised into a clay tablet.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by JBeretta ( 7487512 )

        Pretty sure we're accusing Liberals of being pedophile friendly. I've got nothing against the gays. But your boy Bill Clinton sure spent a lot of time with ol' Jeffrey Epstein.

        Florida bans teaching K-3 kids about sexual orientation and your side loses it.. Just how early do you effing perverts want to start?

        I mean, it seems to me that a bit closer to puberty might be more appropriate. Maybe 6th grade? I'm okay with that. I'm also okay with teaching middle-school aged children about contraceptives and

        • I'd mostly agree with you but I think you're equivocating gender, roles and their development with the development of sexual behavior.

          But to be clear I think a lot of people are really going off the deep end when they're criticizing the Florida law.

          ---

          Continuums, intersecting categories, and complex relations are easily misunderstood

          • Re:Just go all the way. (Score:4, Informative)

            by fafalone ( 633739 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @07:24PM (#62434970)
            No, that's what the *supporters* of Florida's law are doing. They're equating e.g. the physical mechanics and STD discussion of anal sex with 'Sometimes two boys love eachother like a boy and girl usually do, and that's why some kids have 2 daddies.'. They're equating instructing kids on proper condom use with discussions about asking permission to hug someone. That is not age inappropriate for K-3, that's what's actually being taught while Republicans claim the former, and that's what the law prohibits. The law also prohibits teaching kids that adults shouldn't be touching their privates.
            Conservatives are, once fucking again, projecting when they accuse others of misstating what the law does, and thanks to the fantastically broad language prohibiting discussions about appropriate touching from adults, calling other people pro-child abuse.

        • I mean if that was the only thing the law does, you might have a point.

          But it isn't.

        • Re:Just go all the way. (Score:5, Informative)

          by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @04:03PM (#62434640) Homepage

          Pretty sure we're accusing Liberals of being pedophile friendly. I've got nothing against the gays. But your boy Bill Clinton sure spent a lot of time with ol' Jeffrey Epstein.

          Ironic, or sincere? Always hard to tell.

          In any case, you do know that Donald Trump spent a lot more time with Jeffrey Epstein, right? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u... [nbcnews.com] https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]

          Florida bans teaching K-3 kids about sexual orientation and your side loses it.. Just how early do you effing perverts want to start?

          If the law were clearly written as to state just that, it might make sense. But no. The law is very vaguely worded about exactly what is banned, and when. And it's not K-3. It is (direct quote) "in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

          that word OR means that it's illegal to discuss gender or sexual orientation not merely in K-3, but whenever it's not "age appropriate" (who defines that?) or "developmentally appropriate for students" (uh, what exactly DOES that mean?) " in accordance with state standards" (What standards? Who wrote them, and who appointed the people who wrote them?)

          I mean, it seems to me that a bit closer to puberty might be more appropriate. Maybe 6th grade? I'm okay with that.

          The law might allow teaching that in 6th grade. And it might not. It's a vague law that makes it unclear about what you can or cannot teach, what can or cannot be discussed, and in what grades.

          • The law is very badly written. In fact, it specifically mentions Kindergarten but Florida has universal public preschool which of course comes before K-3.

        • This is why so many on my side hate the folks on your side. You people divorced "reasonableness" and opted for "extreme".

          You understand this is a circular argument though right? The argument can be made that conservatives have constantly divorced "reasonableness" and opted for "extreme" with similar social issues like race, womens rights, gay rights, the AIDS crisis, music lyrics etc. The constant war againt women, gay rights, abortion and Republicans are quick to use laws to enforce those things when they can. This makes the liberals feel like they have to be extreme or if they give an inch they will lose more next time.

        • Re:Just go all the way. (Score:4, Insightful)

          by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @06:53PM (#62434908)

          I mean, it seems to me that a bit closer to puberty might be more appropriate. Maybe 6th grade?

          'Scuse me? I was chasing and wanting to kiss girls in Grade 1, had my first girlfriend in Grade 2, and was trying to hustle my teenaged babysitter when I was in Grade 3. I may be a bit of an outlier, but I suspect I'm not terribly atypical in developing sexual interests in early life. For me sex ed in Grade 4 would have been a bit late, never mind Grade 6 - not that it was an option at all in that era.

          Especially given the way entertainment and mass media have developed over the 5+ decades since then, do you REALLY think early sex ed is a bad idea? If so, why?

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by WierdUncle ( 6807634 )

            do you REALLY think early sex ed is a bad idea? If so, why?

            I can think of several reasons for being cautious about early sex education, that are not necessarily informed by conservative "Christian" values. I used the scare quotes there, because I find that many people who call themselves Christian do not actually adhere to the philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, as described in the Bible.

            One problem is that sexual feelings are usually incomprehensible to younger children, because they have no personal experience of them. It would be like teaching music to deaf people,

        • Teachers in Florida are about to adopt very carefully gender-neutral language when talking about their little scrublings, because calling a child a "boy" or a "girl" can get the teacher sued at their own expense.

          I'm just glad I live on the opposite side of the US from you guys. We're all either watching, horrified, or laughing at you by the way.

        • Re:Just go all the way. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Monday April 11, 2022 @05:42AM (#62435490) Journal

          Florida bans teaching K-3 kids about sexual orientation and your side loses it.. Just how early do you effing perverts want to start?

          You think that mentioning someone has a mom (i.e. female) and dad (i.e. male) is perverted? I mean I know "projection" is over used but wow, dude.

          I mean, it seems to me that a bit closer to puberty might be more appropriate.

          Up until puberty, we should pretend that parents are androgynous blobs then, because anything else in "inappropriate". Have you really thought this through?

          They simply said "no talk about sexual identity until the kid is in the 4th grade" PERIOD.

          Parent #1 and Parent #2 it is then until grade 4. No "mom" and "dad". Because teaching about sexual orientation is extreme and perverted.

      • Because as a progressive, even if you do not support grooming, you are the beneficiary if systems of advantage that harm children. That is why we cannot simply "not be a groomer", we must be actively Anti-Groomer.

        Your response is a symptom of groomer fragility. If you're a progressive who is accused by a conservative of being a groomer, do not disagree, deny or deflect. Accept the conservative feedback and thank them for their openness.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 )

      That's because it's pretty much unusable for actual debate. I was thinking about the other day why that tired old song and dance of accusing gays of pedophilia is back in fashion. It dawned on me that because Twitter doesn't give you enough space to actually express a coherent thought, every debate is bound to devolve into personal attacks and name-calling because it's the only thing that will fucking fit.

      So, now instead of homophobes launching into lengthy rants about how they're afraid their kids will lea

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      When I was 14 I got on the Internet for the first time and said a lot of stupid shit.

      Fortunately, I didn't have the ability or resources to do any actual damage.

      Unfortunately, Elon Musk has billions of dollars and the maturity of a 14 year old.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by alexhs ( 877055 )

      You're missing the point.

      Musk wants to rename Twitter to Tits, one letter at a time.

      • You're missing the point.

        Musk wants to rename Twitter to Tits, one letter at a time.

        Supports the thesis that Musk just wants to laugh at Twitter. He can afford the most expensive joke in history? He found the timing of standup comedy too difficult? Or maybe he got tired of the hecklers?

        But all in all, a pretty good FP branch. This is the current end of it, and it looks like about half of the discussion.

        However my take on the broader topic is that Musk is basically a lucky gold miner, and he must love money a lot to wind up with so much of it, even if it's mostly virtual, so Musk probably t

    • Have you browsed here at -1? I mean before they introduced an ASCII art filter? I am beginning to realise that every place for public discourse is a cesspool of shit and the problem is not Twitter or Facebook, or Slashdot, but rather people. People are shit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by J-1000 ( 869558 )

      I hear a lot about how Twitter is bad, but ironically most of those comments seem to come from Twitter users. I was never a Twitter user until somewhat recently. Aside from a really weird UI that makes it hard to link conversations together, I've been impressed. It's like a big forum where all the well-known thinkers and industry leaders talk to one another. It's also a great source for breaking news. Pretty amazing really. Granted, I only have a handful of people I'm following, and steer clear of petty ski

    • Twitter has been much more civil recently. Russian troll farms being busy with trying to destroy Ukrainian democracy, rather than the American one, makes for a big difference. And the sanctions too, evidently.

  • More accurate description all things considered.

  • (sigh) (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @02:04PM (#62434402)

    Delete the w in Twitter?

    Apparently, Musk is 12 years old.

    • Re:(sigh) (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @02:15PM (#62434434) Homepage

      Apparently, Musk is 12 years old.

      The moderation in this discussion is going to get interesting. Musk not only is the world's richest manchild, he has a legion of stans who lose their shit if their golden child is criticized.

      The only thing weirder than Musk's fans are all the crypto and NFT scammers who name drop him constantly.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 )

      He does stuff like this all the time.

      I guess you never followed why Tesla's vehicles are

      S 3 X Y ... PS, the "Model E" is a trademark owned by Ford.

  • That can't possibly happen, can it [wikipedia.org]? T(w)itter may have found itself a new founder.

  • Big shock (Score:5, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @02:26PM (#62434460)

    'Within 16 hours 1,425,937 people had voted "Yes!" — a whopping 91.3% of all votes cast. (Versus just 135,877 votes for "No.")'

    The only surprise there is that almost 9% of Musk's followers actually chose to disagree with one of his ideas.

  • Unhealthy obsession (Score:5, Insightful)

    by belg4mit ( 152620 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @02:29PM (#62434466) Homepage

    Can we please stop fawning over every stupid thing some loud-mouthed "billionaire" gets involved with/goes on about? Especially anything tied to (anti-)social media?

    • Can we please stop fawning over every stupid thing some loud-mouthed "billionaire" gets involved with/goes on about? Especially anything tied to (anti-)social media?

      Apropos of nothing, why does this bother you? Are you somehow compelled to read every article or something?

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

      Huh? Some rich person seemingly aiming to take down twitter from the inside is not only tech news for nerds, and stuff that matters, it's also the life dream of everyone here on Slashdot.

      You may not like the man, but this is the single most relevant story to Slashdotters on Slashdot right now.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        I think most of you are just upset that you are not Elon Musk. While the rest of us are sitting here shit posting on slashdot, Musk is out there doing then things we sit here and wish we where doing. He built the first commercial, successful, space company. He made the first electric car that was actually useful. Plus he is in the process of giving the enter world internet.

        How many of us dream of buying a company that pissed us off and firing the ones that did it or closing the company. Musk did it.

        • Re:Unhealthy obsession (Score:5, Insightful)

          by DRJlaw ( 946416 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @05:41PM (#62434796)

          How many of us dream of buying a company that pissed us off and firing the ones that did it or closing the company. Musk did it.

          How is buying 9.2% of the stock "buying a company"? That's not even a controlling interest.

          Then he immediately agreed to a cap of 15% of shares in order to get a board seat, ensuring that he'd never get any sort of controlling interest. Good job.

          While the rest of us are sitting here shit posting on slashdot...

          Elon is busy shitposting in the Financial Times, with a $3 billion dollar megaphone that he's damaging the first chance that he gets.

          He built the first commercial, successful, space company. He made the first electric car that was actually useful. Plus he is in the process of giving the enter world internet.

          Assuming for sake of argument that that all that is true, lo, how the mighty have fallen. Now he's thrown away a week spouting bad ideas every 8-12 hours with the odd delusion that he's become a C-level executive rather than a minority shareholder.

          So really how much of this Elon hatred is just jealousy?

          If your dream is to be a globally recognized asshole, I suppose that you'd be jealous. For those of us with more practical dreams, this is more of a cautionary tale.

          • Musk only owns 9.2% of Twitter, but controls 100% of Twitter's stock price. If Musk says he's dumping it, it will crash. If he seems enthusiastic, it will hold. He controls things just as thoroughly as he would with 49% of the stock. He can't make unilateral decisions, but everyone on the board will listen seriously to even his stupidest ideas.

      • I seriously hope that his next step is to start a social media platform to compete with Facebook, to also destroy them.

        How about "SpaceBook"? Sounds similar and has tie-ins with Space X.

    • The headline is always basically, "Man posts brainfart on Twitter. Others respond." It's like all the noise you get when one of the royals in the UK gives birth - the tabloids run pages & pages of copy about it every day for as long as it's profitable, which basically amount to "Woman has baby."

  • The Onion has it right (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @02:37PM (#62434480)
    Musk's tweets are some kind of pathetic cry for validation [theonion.com].

  • It really sucks for twitter that they have just added a member to their board of directors that appears to have no idea how their business actually works.

    At $3/month they would have to get around 111million subscribers to make up for the lost revenue from advertising - which is about 25% or their user base - and then remember that a reasonable percentage of those users are in areas of the world where $3/month is not a reasonable expense...

  • Another explanation for his occasional social media "gaffes". I, for one, welcome corporate kleptocratic overlords who aren't afraid to get high and have fun.

  • So... this is the man we gave $100 billion to (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @03:13PM (#62434544)
    Yeah, I know the muskheads are gonna mod me down. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda karma to burn.

    But seriously, for anyone who gets to read this before it's -1 look into his businesses. With the exception of Paypal (which he was not a founder of but which he did have an exist clause that required them to pretend he was) they've all succeeded thanks to gov't subsidies. His electric cars? Subsidies? Space X? Who do you think his customer is?

    I mean, for ****'s sakes he literally bought his way into Iron Man to pretend to be Tony Stark. Who falls for that? The dude has 1 patent and it's a design patent. That he got help with...

    He's basically a welfare queen. But it's like that old line from the pirate who met Alexander the Great:
    • it's not him per se, it's the hero worship he's managed to buy his way into. I'd really like us to stop worshiping our ruling elites. I don't enjoy being ruled over by a guy that shit posts to twitter.

      I suppose to the /. crowd 'l trolls it's a bit like seeing one of your own make good. Maybe if we keep the worship up he'll start posting Hot Grits and Greased Up Yoda Doll memes.

  • Some people have been deriding various twitter posters as "twits". The equivalent without the W would be vuagely obscene.

    ("And if there's anything I hate it's vuageness")

  • How much actual effort will they take to verify someone's identity? Phone verification and check via credit verification companies (not for a credit check, but identifying that they are known)? I mean, why can't bots and spammers pay $3 a month? I don't get it. Some of those bots are making a hell of a lot more than that.

    • Not to mention pre-paid credit cards.

      He does have a point though: if accounts are free, you are paving the way for trolling accounts and misinformation bots. By adding a paywall, you are thinning the number of such accounts.

      What should be the perfect fee per month as to not push legitimate users away is another question entirely.

  • Anonymity is absolutely essential for democracy. I am sure Silence Dogood (aka Benjamin Franklin) would agree,

  • Nah. A better idea would be to replace the last three letters by a single "s".

  • So he's attention whoring (Score:3, Interesting)

    by aerogems ( 339274 ) on Sunday April 10, 2022 @05:33PM (#62434782)

    As just one member of the board of directors it's not like he has the power to implement many of these things, so all he really seems to be doing is just attention whoring. "Hey, lookit me! Lookit me!" You'd think between Tesla, SpaceX, and the other companies he has going he wouldn't have any time to waste on stupid Twitter polls. If he has this much free time, maybe he should head back to Fremont and deal with the rampant sexism, racism, and good old boys club that are rampant in that plant by multiple highly credible accounts. You know, as is his legal obligation under California and United States law.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      Musk attention-whoring, proposing nonsense ideas, and being powerless to actually do anything close to what he suggests?

      That's never happened before.

  • So with this idea a well funded propaganda (er, PR) campaign can buy bots for $3/mo for a month to have thousands of 'blue check' accounts attack a target or promote/demonize an idea. I'm sure that'd never be abused...

  • all the people who bid up TWTR 30% (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    are now starting to wonder if Musk isn't just throwing around billions as an elaborate troll/entertainment

  • Andreessen could not be reached for a comment. Musk blazed.

  • If they want to help the homeless (and of course they don't) they could just donate a tiny sliver of their wealth to a sustainable program for building shelters, rehab / education / employment / health to help the homeless out of that situation. But they don't give a fuck. All they care about is making some pathetic joke about Twitter.

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