Dan GillmorDec 11, 2022

Increasingly, I believe that the destruction of Musk's Twitter is crucial for the preservation of American democracy. I was neutral on this until the past few days. But it's now obvious that his intentions -- and actions -- are aimed in part at promoting right-wing extremism.

The Murdoch family is still the greater threat, but Musk looks set to supersede them as a force for evil.

#TwitterTakeover

Show threadMeow.tar.gz  Dec 11, 2022
@dangillmor I agree save for one point. The Murdoch family is still constrained by the need for advertiser revenue so they cannot go monkey shit. Musk has no such constraints.
Show threadKBSez ✅Dec 11, 2022

@ablackcatstail @dangillmor

But the bottom line is Twitter was not a profitable business before the buyout. That means they were surviving on cash flow to pay bills and employees - musk has killed that cash flow in a huge way.

No ad sales / cash flow means bills don’t get paid and I don’t think any of his investors are going to float him cash to get through the month… and their credit rating is crap now too.

Unless he’s going to start writing checks the sh!t is gonna hit the fan shortly

Show threadMeow.tar.gz  Dec 11, 2022
@kbsez @dangillmor I kind of hope it dies. Personally, I'd like to see Gopher make a come back. I miss the Gopher protocol. I know ... I am dating myself here. 😹
Show threadEd LinDec 11, 2022
@ablackcatstail @kbsez @dangillmor I thought Gopher would win because at the time I was communicating with the Internet via a telnet gateway and it looked so much better than the early web did on that and was easier to navigate.
Show threadEd Lin
@ablackcatstail @kbsez @dangillmor the problem was that U of Minn started telling everyone that you needed to pay them a royalty to use Gopher, that torpedoed its usage until later they went open source and reversed that, but the damage was done.
Dec 11, 2022 at 3:23amWeb
Show threadMeow.tar.gz  Dec 11, 2022
@edlin @kbsez @dangillmor Besides, the World Wide Web pretty much replaced Gopher. Still I liked it for what it was.
Show threadMark McCahillDec 11, 2022

@ablackcatstail @kbsez @dangillmor @edlin

I liked gopher too

Show threadSpodgod  Dec 11, 2022

@edlin @ablackcatstail @kbsez @dangillmor

I was there at the time and had *no idea* of that aspect of Gopher's history. Even now, I can imagine a reinvented Gopher being more useful in some cases.

Show threadEd LinDec 11, 2022
@spodgod @ablackcatstail @kbsez @dangillmor unless you ran a public Gopher site or followed that information on Usenet you wouldn't have known.
Show threadEd LinDec 11, 2022
@spodgod @ablackcatstail @kbsez @dangillmor I was there too. :)
Show threadWTFDec 11, 2022
@edlin @ablackcatstail @kbsez @dangillmor I will pay for nothing ever. They can pay us. 😂Without us they ain’t sh*t to put it colloquially.