To add extra failure to their mix, what happened with Celsius has since been relegated to footnote status thanks to FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried’s colossal crash and burn.
A year ago, we had three splashy players announce moves to Tampa Bay:
As bad as this news may seem, I’m compelled to remind you of a line that John Perry Barlow was fond of trotting out: “Bullshit is the grease on the skids of innovation.” Attention is a key element of building a tech hub, and the hype from our new Tampa Bay residents has helped shine a light on our local scene.
Twitter might revoke the policy by the end of this week. It wouldn’t be the first time since Elon took charge that they did something rash, then undid it hastily.
(I added some additional emphasis to that first sentence.)
Never mind by the end of the week; they revoked the policy by the end of the day! At 9:50 p.m. EDT on Sunday, December 18, Molly White (@molly0xFFF on Twitter) tweeted:
policy page and tweets announcing it are now gone.
As I keep saying: at Twitter, there is no plan, just knee-jerk responses to stimuli.
If you’re still using Twitter, ask yourself why.
And if you’re still working at Twitter and there isn’t something like an H-1B, medical insurance, or a much-needed contribution to the household income keeping you there, ask yourself why twice.
Because this is a Twitter story, there has to be a dumb twist: Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, recently donated to the Nostr project. Once again, because this is a Twitter story, there has to be an even dumber twist: that Jack’s donation was in Bitcoin — 14 BTC, or $235,000 as I write this (it was $245,000 when Coindesk wrote the story about the donation).
What doesn’t Twitter allow anymore under the new policy?
The Promotion of alternative social platforms policy page says that Twitter will remove “any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs)” to the services listed above, or even any mention of your handle on those services, such as:
“follow me @username on Instagram”
“username@mastodon.social”
“check out my profile on Facebook – facebook.com/username”
The policy also states that “technical or non-technical” workarounds, including “plaintext obfuscation” (including the classic “I’m so-and-so at instagram dot com”) is a violation of this policy.
What does Twitter still allow under the new policy?
The page is a little more vague about links that aren’t a violation of the policy, which are summed up as links to social media platforms that “provide alternative experiences to Twitter, and allow users to post content to Twitter.” Presumably YouTube falls under this category, as does LinkedIn. The page also says that cross-posting to Twitter isn’t a violation of this policy, but only because it it were, it would be nearly impossible to enforce.
What are the consequences of posting something that contravenes the new policy?
First, there are violations at the per-tweet level. For tweets that count as “an isolated incident or first offense”, they have the option of deleting the offending tweet or temporarily locking your account. Repeat offenses mean getting locked out permanently.
Then, there are those violations at the account level — that is, where you mention one of the forbidden services in your Twitter bio or account name. As a matter of fact, as I write this, I am in violation of this new policy:
The policy states that anyone who does this will have their account temporarily suspended until they remove any mention of the offending services. Additional violations will result in a permanent suspension.
It’s just more evidence that there is no plan, just knee-jerk responses to stimuli
From the haphazard way they’ve been managing their own staff to disasters like the Blue Check program to the “Apple is kicking us out of the App Store!” non-event to capricious account suspensions to this, it should now be quite evident that there’s no plan being executed here — just a seat-of-the-pants scramble based on whatever whim Elon happens to have at the moment. I feel terrible for anyone who’s still working there.
This is NOT the time for premature compliance; this is the time to seek better places to post
If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance that you have a Twitter post or bio that points to something on one of the now-forbidden services. Before you change that post or bio to comply with the new policy, consider:
Twitter might revoke the policy by the end of this week. It wouldn’t be the first time since Elon took charge that they did something rash, then undid it hastily.
Do you really want to comply with such a policy?
My recommendations:
Stop feeding the beast. End your use of Twitter. Keep your account so that someone else doesn’t take your Twitter identity, but don’t use it.
Find better places to post. Use the social media services that meet your needs and that aren’t under the control of a raging narcissist whose id is out of control.
If you like long-form tweeting or “tweetstorming,” consider blogging. It’s a better medium for longer-form posts, and it gives you control over everything, from content to presentation, and it means you really own your content.
Pictured above is an AI-generated illustration of a magazine featuring Elon Musk. Note that his gun hand has a few too many fingers — or is it Schrödinger’s trigger discipline?
Dr. Janice Glasgow, Professor Emerita, Queen’s University, Canada.
Back when I was a computer science student at Crazy Go Nuts University, the professor teaching the AI course — Dr. Janice Glasgow — said that this question would stump just about every conversational artificial intelligence system at the time:
If someone is sitting in the waiting area of a bus station, what’s the likelihood that they’re wearing a tuxedo?
This was back when “AI” most often referred to rules-based AI, which was based on programmed sets of rules and facts. In effect, they were made of a big collection “if this, then do that” instructions. These systems generally “learn” only through their programming; expanding their knowledge typically means doing more programming.
Today, “AI” is generally used to refer to machine learning, which take a pool of data (generally, the bigger that pool, the better) and use it to “train” themselves by making predictions based on that data and adapting to feedback (often provided by humans) on those predictions. These systems generally “learn” from “experience”. Expanding their knowledge typically means providing them with more data and feedback on the predictions they make based on that data.
Tuxedo Mask might make an appearance at a bus station…
For a rules-based system to be able to answer the question “How likely is a person waiting at a bus station to be wearing a tuxedo?”, it would not only have to be able to parse an English question, but it would also have to know what a bus station is, what a tuxedo is, and general rules about clothing, different levels of formality and other social rules (many of which are unwritten), and of course, how terrible bus stations are.
ChatGPT seems to be pretty good at answering “artifical general intelligence” questions, or at least pretty good at faking it. I thought I’d ask it Dr. Glasgow’s question, and this is how it replied:
It is unlikely that someone sitting in the waiting area of a bus station would be wearing a tuxedo. Tuxedos are typically worn for formal occasions such as weddings, black tie events, or proms. It is more common for people waiting at a bus station to be dressed in casual or practical clothing that is suitable for travel. That being said, it is always possible that someone might be wearing a tuxedo for any number of reasons, but it would not be a typical or expected sight in a bus station waiting area.
I’m bringing back the Tampa iOS Meetup in 2023 under a new name: Tampa Bay Apple Coding Meetup. If you’re in the Tampa Bay area and want to learn how to program Apple devices in Swift, this meetup will be for you!
I’ve got a fair bit of experience showing people how to build applications for Apple devices and technologies, from doing presentations on coding augmented reality apps for the iPhone…
…to co-authoring the book on iOS development…
…to writing all sorts of apps:
These meetups will follow my usual modus operandi:
We’ll define a simple app that we want to make for the iPhone/iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, or other Apple device.
Then we’ll look at the tools and techniques that will allow us to create that app.
And finally, you’ll code along with me as we build the app together. You’ll leave the meetup with either a complete app, or at least a part of the app that you can continue working on.
The goal is to help you learn coding or sharpen your skills by building apps for the preferred devices of the digerati!
I’m currently working on getting a space for the first meetup of Tampa Bay Apple Coding in January — watch this space for announcements!
