So, Elon Musk bought Twitter....

[shadowkat]

1. Mother: Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - what are people going to do?
Me: Soap Twitter has been trying to figure that out today. They've been discussing it since it happened. (Okay discuss is the wrong word - no one really discusses things on Twitter - they just post their reactions to things.)
Mother: Well considering you got in trouble on Twitter for calling a fictional soap opera character a bimbo - and they suspended your account for a few days...
Me: Yeah, apparently some folks are sensitive in regards to the word "bimbo"...

Soap Twitter: Oh nooo, Elon Musk bought Twitter. What to do? Where to go?
Soap Twitter: So uhm...have we decided which platform we're all jumping to?
Soap Twitter (looks around): Eh, there is nowhere interesting to go, is there? I mean Instagram doesn't quite work - plus Mark Zuckerburg is no better. And we don't want Granny FB...And Reddit is out...(I don't think they know what to do with Dreamwidth.)
Soap Twitter: I'm staying here to see what happens next.

Liberal Twitter: Oh nooo, Elon Musk bought Twitter! Where are we going?
Liberal Twitter: Mastodon!
Liberal Twitter: Eh...maybe not. Sounds complicated.
Liberal Twitter: Instagram!
(Some take off for Instagram, the rest are like, nah, I'll stay here and fight.)

Sigh. Why do you think the Dark Net exists? It's for all the paranoid souls who don't want to be seen by well ...

2. Romance novel...started a new one. It's a contemporary (which is dicey, since most of them are written poorly - I've no clue why). This one needs a better editor.

I can handwave a lot, actually. But this error is driving me crazy..

"Anya noted her entrance and waved her into the den of the T-Rex without bothering to rise from the clear glass - of course- sprawl of her desk. The other woman was all perfect makeup and poise, her glossy brown hair expertly blow-dried and her grape-colored dress hugging her svelt form while appearing business like.

According to the rumor mill, the other woman had set her cap for Gabriel Bishop. One of the general admin staff had heard Anya talking to the CFO's personal assistant about her ambition to be Mrs. Bishop. She'd said something along the lines of having him eating out of her hand inside a week."

I had to re-read the sentences three times to figure out who the heck the "other woman" was - and then I just began to mentally replace her with Anya. Folks? Friends of mine? Do not make your readers do that - it takes them out of the story. It threw me out of the story. I was busy figuring out who she was. Writing needs to be clear - not a puzzle.

It's not repetitive to use a character's name multiple times in a paragraph - if it's clear. Also, pronouns work - use them.

Now this is a popular and best-selling romance novelist. Not an amateur writer. And traditionally published. Frigging hell, was the editor asleep at the wheel?

[I've decided life is colossally unfair. Inept writers get traditionally published and make loads of money. And bored billionaire car manufacturers build spaceships and buy social media platforms, while millions are starving and dying of disease.]

3. Mother decided to give me the spoilery low-down on Sandition, except she can't remember the names of any of the characters. I kept getting lost. I'd have to interrupt her to get them straight. She also can't pronounce Sandition.

4. Crazy workplace

Rumor has it that we're going back on a kind of hybrid schedule this summer. 60/40, 40% remote, 60% in the office. Management will go first in their pilot program (because they have offices and windows and really no reason to want to come into the office...). Then the worker bees who are union represented. The stickler is getting the union to agree for a whole host of reasons. Some of which make a lot of sense - union, understandably so, doesn't like crazy org's desire to micromanage the hell out of the employees, and overwork them.

Anyhow, if they do it, they are doing it in blocks - which would work better. Come in say Monday, Tuesday, Wed, stay home Thursday Friday or vice versa.

If the union goes for it - it will start in July. Which would be nice - if that happens, I'll schedule all my teams meetings for home.

The union is worried they'll monitor our work by key-stroke tracking, which doesn't work for my group - we're in meetings, negotiating by phone, etc. We aren't typists or coders. Also, you could be writing literally anything.

Other than that, work's pretty slow at the moment. I'm waiting on everyone else. Which is nice - given me a chance to catch my breath.

Comments

[trepkos]

"life is colossally unfair."

Totally.

[lizzybuffy2008]

I will have to give up Twitter. I cannot stand Elon Musk and will not knowingly support anything he is part of. Not sure if I will go somewhere else or not; I mostly use it for pro cycling news. Maybe, this is the signal (for me) to cut back on social media. DW is the only one (again for me) that is not toxic.

[shadowkat]

If it's any comfort? Musk went into debt buying Twitter. Apparently he had to take out loans. So is now paying interest or rather Twitter is paying interest. And no, no one is going to pay to use Twitter. LOL! The whole thing is just absurd.

[svgurl]

You got your account suspended for calling a fictional character a bimbo? Wow, talk about questionable decisions. There are people on Twitter making real harmful comments about actual people and they don't get anything. I don't love Twitter as it is and I can't stand Musk, but I am going to keep it for now. I think most people will fall into that category, unless there are major unavoidable changes. I do like the few jokes about Twitter going the way of Tumblr. There's no way it'll make as much money as he is putting into it though.

[shadowkat]

Yep, it didn't last long - I complained. Or rather, I wrote them : "I think you suspended my account because I called a fictional soap opera character a bimbo?"

Several hours later..."Oops. You are right. We looked into it. This was done in error. Our sincere apologies."

I'm guessing someone on Twitter got upset and flagged me. People are weirdly sensitive about some words and not others. Bimbo = "frivolous female", it's not that bad. People are called worse things on Twitter.

***

Right now - they are doing polls on whether anyone will pay for Twitter. Answer? Nope. (I don't pay for social media, and apparently everyone else agrees with me.)

Musk took the company private, but it doesn't mean anything from a user standpoint. I think he did it because he thinks it's the platform that major things are discussed. I don't know...we'll see.

I find the whole thing amusing. There's been a flood of liberal folks who left FB for Twitter, back to FB (which technically has the same issues). And a flood of folks who left DW for Twitter back to DW. And soap twitter (who hates FB) is contemplating jumping over to FB. LOL!

I don't know why these billionaires buy these platforms. If it's because they think they can control the internet or internet discourse, I got news for them - it's too late to try that. We have too many platforms, and ways around it. I mean hello, the dark net. The time to regulate the internet is long gone.

Also, people can have discourse without using their platforms. And folks can create their own. (See Dreamwidth).

[yourlibrarian]

I daresay the fact he took out loans is at least as significant as the potential "free speech" concerns he has. Twitter already wasn't making money so I can't imagine there won't be changes afoot.

[shadowkat]

That's what I thought. He's $25 Billion in debt, and it's all falling on Twitter? Twitter is a lot of things, but it's not a money maker. And he's taking it private - so what, is he planning on charging for it? (No one will pay to use Twitter - it's not that entertaining.) Or is he planning on littering it with more ads - like Zukerberg does with FB and Instagram?

I don't know. Felt like a dumb move to me.