# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442 "2022-04-25T22:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 60
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1181 "2022-11-18T01:50:40Z")
> > ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1182 "2022-11-18T01:51:44Z")
Maybe we need a Schadenfreude thread to deal with all this Elon Musk and Twitter business. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1183 "2022-11-18T01:55:25Z")
That’s hilarious, as are the [stories](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/technology/twitter-elon-musk-ftc.html?unlocked_article_code=Es5bC7Y4L08vpsBnZ_dRSv9as0W7HLmbqmC26pof5BWLSV47g_y7GUuKj3MiAZ0Q8EYwBD5E5Jat2UyyaaMJywnGgCqkveZl21DkiDLuEyFOfAqwajITEByRcFMM5qDjt1MPr4dSbGtnaX8eIvVwxEBfzEIvHrNX81yTYKXZScZTc5tmT2-Ch20BKsgabUuL5RLxzPizdUCFEcDaz1FNwh2G2e1ATWMOHVZNhmzt4JodHVB8yWIdoRtMpDocrdMkN2iE9EPGdn3Y2mYQBPWphljwcXgqQgpa-4V9DzJK4z-b3kSf3aUyfBVQR4Heq1kHiHOK70LiRM0lYthULwGsxA&smid=share-url) (gift link) that hundreds of employees took him up on his offer of three months of severance if they chose to leave, so that he’s trying to talk some people out of leaving. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1184 "2022-11-18T01:56:07Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > How many Scaramuccis has it been since Musk bought the company? I believe the traditional and proper use of the Scaramucci is as a measure of total longevity until extinction. Thus, at some point in the near future it will be said that Twitter lasted for _n_ Scaramuccis under Musk’s brilliant leadership, where “_n_” is likely to be quite a small number. Either that or it will be Musk’s tenure that is thus measured. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1185 "2022-11-18T02:03:48Z")
> ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1186 "2022-11-18T02:07:15Z")
I just realized what this reminds me of. Remember the movie Bananas? _Underwear must be changed every three hours, and must be worn on the outside so we can check._ ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1187 "2022-11-18T02:16:15Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > [https://twitter.com/justinwolfers/status/1593417193865330688?s=61&t=L8pj2BKh3t0OUGNyh2gipA](https://twitter.com/justinwolfers/status/1593417193865330688?s=61&t=L8pj2BKh3t0OUGNyh2gipA) - Mega-snerk ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1188 "2022-11-18T02:17:16Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I just assumed they were doing it on purpose, as Elmo is a name his critics call him a lot. Latest photo from Twitter HQ: [![](https://i.imgur.com/b80mOFN.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/b80mOFN.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1189 "2022-11-18T02:34:47Z")
> [@Mr.E](#): > > Wildly explicit sexual content has always been on Twitter and I don’t think it’s ever been against their terms of service. And yet… > **[Astronomer in Twitter limbo over 'intimate' meteor](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63626769)** > > An animated video of a meteor shower shared by Mary McIntyre was banned by Twitter's automated tools. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1190 "2022-11-18T02:49:45Z")
I realize that its not the final result, but I’m just curious what the current clock is at. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1191 "2022-11-18T02:53:09Z")
I got a chuckle out of the bolded part in this little nugget: 🤪 > Yoel Roth, Twitter’s then head of trust and integrity, had tweeted that the firm’s layoffs did not affect “most” of the 2,000 content moderators working “on front-line review”. **Mr Roth has himself since left.** I’m imagining the total number of employee departures represented here is 2,001, with Yoel Roth, the last to leave, turning off the lights on his way out. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1192 "2022-11-18T03:00:18Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I’m imagining the total number of employee departures represented here is 2,001, with Yoel Roth, the last to leave, turning off the lights on his way out. I have a mental image of a scene like the JMS cameo in the _Babylon 5_ finale – a guy flipping a switch on his way out, and a few minutes later the whole place goes kerblooey. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1193 "2022-11-18T03:01:02Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [x.com](https://mobile.twitter.com/TweetOfSteiner/status/1593407559125311488) Does the parking garage require a badge to _exit_? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1194 "2022-11-18T03:01:40Z")
For no reason at all I’m reflecting a few years back when CWA contracts were renegotiated every few years at a large telco where I worked. It was always high drama because a strike meant managers would need to perform duties for the striking craft workers. The conventional wisdom, supposedly born of experience, was that for the first 2 weeks, everything would run smoother than before. This is because only urgent maintenance was prioritized. Routine maintenance was deferred until the expected strike end. And for that same reason, everything went to hell in about 2 weeks. The maintenance debt caught up, the scabbing managers couldn’t service it, and everything started breaking. It’s hard to predict how it will be for Twitter. In cloud environment, even if you don’t change your software, everything the software depends on is exposed to constant change. I imagine that Twitter, having operated at web scale for over a decade now, has things pretty well automated and hardened against the effects of change. I also think it won’t need to run with zero people. There’s enough of a skeleton crew to keep things going. And it seems apparent that there’s a big enough overlap between Musk worshippers and anxious H1-B visa holders that he can probably run a skeleton crew indefinitely. I expect the website will continue running for as long as Musk cares to pay for resources and the skeleton crew. Don’t get me wrong, Twitter has been glitchy as hell for my lately. I don’t think there will be any new features anytime soon (if ever). But Musk will want to recoup his investment as best he can, even if it’s only pennies on the dollar, and Twitter has to stay running at least that long. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1195 "2022-11-18T03:02:22Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Does the parking garage require a badge to _exit_? Yeah. Some do. My last job required swiping to get out of the lot. Theft preventage? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1196 "2022-11-18T03:07:33Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > : > > [https://twitter.com/ZoeSchiffer/status/1593391604785504257?s=20&t=MfpvjVBmVvZwE8T4X02JJA](https://twitter.com/ZoeSchiffer/status/1593391604785504257?s=20&t=MfpvjVBmVvZwE8T4X02JJA) [https://twitter.com/ZoeSchiffer/status/1593391954301054976?s=20&t=MfpvjVBmVvZwE8T4X02JJA](https://twitter.com/ZoeSchiffer/status/1593391954301054976?s=20&t=MfpvjVBmVvZwE8T4X02JJA) And it’s all on Twitter. For now. Twitter is its own modern Cassandra. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1197 "2022-11-18T03:09:00Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > It’s hard to predict how it will be for Twitter. In cloud environment, even if you don’t change your software, everything the software depends on is exposed to constant change. I imagine that Twitter, having operated at web scale for over a decade now, has things pretty well automated and hardened against the effects of change. I also think it won’t need to run with zero people. There’s enough of a skeleton crew to keep things going. And it seems apparent that there’s a big enough overlap between Musk worshippers and anxious H1-B visa holders that he can probably run a skeleton crew indefinitely. The catch is that the various modifications made recently to implement Musk’s brainstorms (blue checkmars for anybody who forks over eight bucks a month, turning off the microservices to figure out which ones they actually need) might disrupt that originally robust system in unpredictable ways. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1198 "2022-11-18T03:17:46Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Does the parking garage require a badge to _exit_? I think it’s mostly to prevent passing your access card to someone else who wasn’t authorized to park there. And it’s not just parking garages, but sometimes exits from the buildings themselves. The last place I worked required an access card both to enter and to exit. The card activated rotary security doors that only allowed one person in or out at a time. The card would not allow you to enter if it had not registered an exit. Again, to prevent unauthorized admittance. Of course there were emergency exits in case of fire, but those activated all kinds of alarms. Anyway, this ought to cement Musk’s reputation as “the guy who thinks of everything”! 😃 I mean, I’ve heard of “disruption” used in biz-speak as a positive quality, but Musk’s disruption here is more akin to that of a large pile of dynamite. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1199 "2022-11-18T03:25:02Z")
Pretty sure the guy who said he was in charge of managing badge access and got laid off is a parody account: > ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1200 "2022-11-18T03:26:12Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Pretty sure the guy who said he was in charge of managing badge access and got laid off is a parody account: Impossible. He paid eight bucks! Doesn’t he realize Elon gets to KEEP that if he gwts banned? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442.md?page=59) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442.md?page=61)