I've started using X a lot more in the last few months since I built an app that let's you track habits with a tweet called Xtreeks (yeah, I know..).

I enjoy the product, but wish they'd spend more time making the core elements of the product work. For example, aspects of the API just don't work as expected, like for some reason search and mention endpoints do not have support for long form posts (>280 characters) enough though X supports posts with thousands of characters. The result is the API appears to work for some posts and just silently fails for others.

In addition to the API issues, we've struggled with inexplicable labeling/suspension and shadow banning, even on the personal account I've had for over a decade (seemed to be triggered by using my VPN). I understand the desire to control spam, but it seems excessive. Or if you do it excessively, at least provide adequate tools/support to request review.

On my app's X account I paid for both API access ($200/mo) and the Verified Org status ($2,000) and had a hard time getting support that took days to reply, when it did reply at all. And when the person replied they had nothing to do with the account label process, so weren't able to help, which was quite frustrating. It was fine since this was a little side project, but if this was a business at scale and I was paying that much in addition to ad spend I'd be furious.

Anyway, I know nothing about the Head of Eng or what's at the root of these issues, but I'm a big fan of X and hope they're able to fix these things. It's such. valuable tool. I'm even fine if it's pay to play, but if someone is on the higher tiers of your paid plans the support should be available when they need it.

> For example, aspects of the API just don't work as expected, like for some reason search and mention endpoints do not have support for long form posts (>280 characters)

At the risk of sounding blunt, they probably fired the people who actually built the API at Twitter and it's now (internally) in maintenance mode. They very openly don't care about giving other companies data -- even with the new pricey API tiers -- or making the non-app/-website experience good at all. I doubt any of the new item types -- Articles, ordered media in tweets, etc. -- even have an API exposed.

The API is broken by design, even before Musk took over they slowly crippled it so you would only use official Twitter apps.

It’s been 3 years, which seems like a normal tenure in tech, I don’t recall seeing front page headlines every time an employee leaves another company.

> Wang first joined Elon Musk’s X in July 2023 and has been an integral part of the company’s leadership, often serving as a conduit between Musk and the rest of the company’s engineers. More recently, he was seen internally as X’s defacto head of engineering and product

How do you get three years from the article?

It's been like 20 months.

Given what Elon has said about valuing people who work long hours and have an "extremely hardcore" work ethic, I can't imagine it's healthy to stay for too long.

Well deserved.. On web, I get labelled as a bot for no reason and its so bad I just stopped using it on web...

They seem to be one of those sites that intentionally makes their Web version suck, to push you to the app. The behavior predates Musk, even, and during the first few months of his ownership this markedly improved (I assume as a side effect of ripping a bunch of stuff out) before getting even worse.

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I don't think I've ever seen this message resolved by reloading

This has gotten worse for the web in general because AI bots are going nuts.

When I saw this headline I thought it was going to be a blog post about announcements of heads of engineering leaving at a given company X.

I hate that stupid name.

> Thanks to the growing profile of xAI and Musk’s newfound political influence, X’s business appears to be turning around. The company reportedly just obtained a $44 billion valuation from investors — the same price Musk paid for Twitter in 2022.

What? I don’t get it. So almost 3 years and “growing profile” to reach the same valuation? What was the growth for?

I wonder how many of those investors have skin in the game and are sycophantically trying to avoid Musk leaving them holding the bag.

Musk severely overpaid for X. The valuation is not the same as the price someone paid for it or would pay for it. Someone could today buy it at twice the valuation, it would be dumb, but they could.

Musk actually wanted to terminate the sale, but the twitter board chair pursued legal action to force the sale[1] at the $44 billion discussed here.

If Bret Taylor did not force Musk to pay that severely inflated price, Donald Trump would likely not be president today. Not all heros wear capes.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon...

Are you sure? He used it to help get Donald Trump elected, and now Musk has an unassailable position in government and tremendous power to steer government spending to his businesses, and to cripple the agencies that regulate them.

You're assuming it was a business transaction. Of course not. Musk never intended to make a direct profit.

As a political transaction, if anything, Musk paid very little for what he got.