@nobodyzhome @hu_logic @rodhilton The basic interface of Twitter isn't difficult.
I, and most SW engineers, could write something that resembles Twitter and works for a few hundred people as a weekend side project.
...but getting it to scale to millions of people and synchronize across the globe with redundancy, automation, dealing with attacks, bots and content moderation is a multi year project.
Elon almost certainly doesn't understand the second part.
Twitter's latest "feature" is basically confirmation of what I've been alleging: viral and high-engagement content is algorithmically forced into timelines at the expense of the content from actual accounts you follow, which is why you see better engagement on Mastodon with a fraction of the followers.
Go to an account you follow and check the view count for their latest tweet.
Notice how much smaller it is than their follower count.
We've all been shadowbanned by time-on-platform targets.
Simple example of what I'm talking about...
Last night Ford tweeted about their 2023 Bronco Sport. As of right now, their Tweet has 36.2K views, but the account has 1.4M followers. 2.5% of their audience saw it.
At the same time, Tesla tweeted about their Model Y. As of now, 24.3M views on their tweet, 18.8M followers. 129% of their audience.
If I was an executive at Ford, I would be *pissed* about this.
He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software & Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit I've ever heard anyone say, so when people say he's a genius I figure I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.
Jeff Haluska
Rod Hilton