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Comment by wereallterrrist | Hacker News Reader

Can we please stop falling for this obvious tactic? How many days in a row does he have to do something seemingly-unhinged, and then follow it with some spectacle of a poll to shift the narrative? Is it really that easy?

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I don't even think he's doing it on purpose, I think he's completely in over his head.

Someone referred to Elon as "speedrunning being a forum moderator", or "running a Lowtax" and yeah, so far.

Dark, considering Lowtax’s end.

One of Musks children has already abandon him/estranged themselves.

IIRC child custody issues is what did Lowtax in.

> The "this is a forum mod meltdown, at scale" joke keeps popping up because it's not a joke — it's recognizing a persistent pattern in bad governance of a mediated social space.

https://twitter.com/eaton/status/1604632585849765889

This is exactly true. I was a kid (like, around 10 years old) who ran a handful of online forums, on one of those free managed-hosting "proboards"-likes. A lot of these patterns bring me back to the mid-200Xs.

Yes, pretty much. Anyone who's run a community or been involved in one with more than a few hundred people understands that one of your most important jobs is working with community members to implement unpopular policies - which is to say, people will take their medicine if you make a good case that it'll help them!

The main difference between Musk and Lowtax is that Lowtax actually built something rather than buying it.

And, on a historical level: the thing that Lowtax created laid the cultural groundwork for Twitter's success. Weird Twitter didn't appear spontaneously; many of them came from SA and similar communities.

Specifically fyad

SA was built on DPPH and FYAD reaped the cultural benefits of the influx of fresh blood.

Lowtax, at least for a while, had a Poster's Heart, something Musk does not and will never have.

>Poster’s Heart

Thank you for making me explain to my wife why I was cackling at my phone.

These things are not necessarily in conflict: "I don't know what I'm doing so I'll throw a high-voltage poll out there" is a somewhat predictable action for a panicking narcissist to take.

It can be both.

Twitter's biz model is not his sweet spot.

In the chaos of that learning curve he can still take the piss.

It may be a subconscious tactic.

I think it's important that this community in particular bear witness to Musk's actions, as Musk's potential employees are largely drawn from this community.

I think you mean competitors..

Both are true and quite important, yes.

It’s possible that in Elon’s mind having a poll dictate that he step down could be a face saving measure.

Of all the suggestions of his internal mind-state, this one seems most likely to me. He needs a way to get out without quitting and being "forced" out when nobody can really do that is better than saying "fuck it" and walking away.

I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "shift the narrative". The fact that Musk is considering stepping down as head of Twitter is an entirely reasonable thing to be interested in as a followup to bad decisions he's made as head of Twitter.

If he stepped down, I would forever wonder what would have happened, had he stayed on!

It's been incredibly interesting so far.

Obviously it is that easy, otherwise this article would not exist and would not have so many comments.

Wow so you real are one of the ones who believes Musk is playing 4d chess, huh?

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