Twitter Round Up
December 15, 2010 7:36 AM Subscribe
Twitter Year in Review. The 10 Most Retweeted tweets of 2010. And The 10 Most Powerful tweets of 2010. [Via]
Could we get to Christmas first before we start reviewing the year?
posted by nomadicink at 7:41 AM on December 15, 2010 [8 favorites]
posted by nomadicink at 7:41 AM on December 15, 2010 [8 favorites]
tl;dr
posted by briank at 7:41 AM on December 15, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by briank at 7:41 AM on December 15, 2010 [5 favorites]
These lists are disturbing in two ways:
1) They reinforce the idea that tweets have to be retweeted or "powerful" to be important. Tweets are conversations with your peeps when your peeps aren't nearby.
2) The fact that all these conversations are being held in public such that they are overheard by everybody throughout all of time is probably going to be regretted by some involved at some point.
posted by DU at 7:47 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
1) They reinforce the idea that tweets have to be retweeted or "powerful" to be important. Tweets are conversations with your peeps when your peeps aren't nearby.
2) The fact that all these conversations are being held in public such that they are overheard by everybody throughout all of time is probably going to be regretted by some involved at some point.
posted by DU at 7:47 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
2) The fact that all these conversations are being held in public such that they are overheard by everybody throughout all of time is probably going to be regretted by some involved at some point.
I don't think Kanye or Bieber are going to regret it when they die drowning in all that money.
posted by public at 7:54 AM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
I don't think Kanye or Bieber are going to regret it when they die drowning in all that money.
posted by public at 7:54 AM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
Twitter to the rescue: When she crashed her bike in a forest with no cell phone reception, a gravely injured triathlete saved her own life when she tweeted out a desperate call for help.
How the hell does this work? Oh wait maybe she doesn't have at&t. lucky so-and-so...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:55 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
How the hell does this work? Oh wait maybe she doesn't have at&t. lucky so-and-so...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:55 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
> 2) The fact that all these conversations are being held in public such that they are overheard by everybody throughout all of time is probably going to be regretted by some involved at some point.
The thing I like the most about Twitter is that anyone - politicians, entertainers, athletes, pundits - who gets into a back-and-forth war of tweets comes across like a teenager frantically typing away on the edge of tears.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:56 AM on December 15, 2010 [8 favorites]
The thing I like the most about Twitter is that anyone - politicians, entertainers, athletes, pundits - who gets into a back-and-forth war of tweets comes across like a teenager frantically typing away on the edge of tears.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:56 AM on December 15, 2010 [8 favorites]
Tweets are conversations with your peeps when your peeps aren't nearby.
One of the things I like about Twitter is that it isn't just one specific thing. People are using it in all sorts of ways that nobody ever intended. I look forward to seeing new ways people use it.
posted by bondcliff at 7:58 AM on December 15, 2010 [10 favorites]
One of the things I like about Twitter is that it isn't just one specific thing. People are using it in all sorts of ways that nobody ever intended. I look forward to seeing new ways people use it.
posted by bondcliff at 7:58 AM on December 15, 2010 [10 favorites]
We "little people" have been making asses of ourselves on the internet for decades. Twitter finally lets celebrities sink to our level. It's truly a great equalizer.
posted by Zozo at 7:59 AM on December 15, 2010 [6 favorites]
posted by Zozo at 7:59 AM on December 15, 2010 [6 favorites]
When she crashed her bike in a forest with no cell phone reception, a gravely injured triathlete saved her own life when she tweeted out a desperate call for help.
She just whistled really really loud.
posted by inigo2 at 7:59 AM on December 15, 2010
She just whistled really really loud.
posted by inigo2 at 7:59 AM on December 15, 2010
And was rescued by a team of starlings! I'm getting into this...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:02 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:02 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Of the 'celebs' I follow on twitter - and these are'nt 'sleb' celebs but mainly journos and other supposedly intellectual types here in the UK - just about everyone has mentioned X-Factor at least once. I find that depressing in a very profound way. Oh and Wagner was robbed.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:11 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:11 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Stephen Colbert's tweets are consistently hilarious.
posted by zzazazz at 8:13 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by zzazazz at 8:13 AM on December 15, 2010
Can't believe Toy Story 3 wasn't one of the top ten trending films... bit iffy to me that
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:18 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:18 AM on December 15, 2010
No celebrity truly 'gets' Twitter and what it's best used for more than the Iron Sheik.
posted by delfin at 8:22 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by delfin at 8:22 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
There is no such thing as a "powerful" twitter.
For crying right out loud, c'mon.
posted by paisley henosis at 8:22 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
For crying right out loud, c'mon.
posted by paisley henosis at 8:22 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
That "10 most retweeted" list is solid evidence that Twitter is not for me. 60% celebrities talking about nothing at all, 30% jokes, 10% greeting card philosophy.
Seriously? One of the most important things on Twitter is the news that Justin Bieber flexed his abs? Seriously?
Twitter is the moment the internet passed me by and I officially became an old person.
posted by ook at 8:25 AM on December 15, 2010 [8 favorites]
Seriously? One of the most important things on Twitter is the news that Justin Bieber flexed his abs? Seriously?
Twitter is the moment the internet passed me by and I officially became an old person.
posted by ook at 8:25 AM on December 15, 2010 [8 favorites]
I am completely uninterested in Twitter.
But that Iron Sheik Twitter feed is indeed totally, totally awesome.
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:27 AM on December 15, 2010
But that Iron Sheik Twitter feed is indeed totally, totally awesome.
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:27 AM on December 15, 2010
The big story in the UK at moment is how twitter is being used to organise the protests against the current government and get out a less biased view as being put forward by the pro-government BBC (Bullingdon Broadcasting Corporation) via such groups as UK Uncut
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:27 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:27 AM on December 15, 2010
> pro-government BBC
It's been a few sexed-up dossiers since I saw those words written in that order.
posted by vbfg at 8:30 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
It's been a few sexed-up dossiers since I saw those words written in that order.
posted by vbfg at 8:30 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
Conan O'Brien? Powerful? How about, one of these things is not like the others.
posted by Splunge at 8:31 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Splunge at 8:31 AM on December 15, 2010
The big story in the UK at moment is how twitter is being used to organise the protests against the current government and get out a less biased view as being put forward by the pro-government BBC (Bullingdon Broadcasting Corporation)
Give it up. Seriously. It's as tedious as all those right wing bores proclaiming that the BBC was the Blair/Brown Broadcasting Corporation, even when the BBC was being filleted in the Hutton Enquiry and leading the cash for honours investigation.
posted by MuffinMan at 8:45 AM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
Give it up. Seriously. It's as tedious as all those right wing bores proclaiming that the BBC was the Blair/Brown Broadcasting Corporation, even when the BBC was being filleted in the Hutton Enquiry and leading the cash for honours investigation.
posted by MuffinMan at 8:45 AM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
Twitter to the rescue: When she crashed her bike in a forest with no cell phone reception, a gravely injured triathlete saved her own life when she tweeted out a desperate call for help.
This is sort of an edge case, where your cell reception isn't good enough for calls but is good enough for an internet connection. It doesn't say a lot about the utility of twitter; posting a status update to any social network would have worked as well. And SMS has a very low-level implementation that works in more marginal signal situations where an internet connection wouldn't stay up.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:01 AM on December 15, 2010
This is sort of an edge case, where your cell reception isn't good enough for calls but is good enough for an internet connection. It doesn't say a lot about the utility of twitter; posting a status update to any social network would have worked as well. And SMS has a very low-level implementation that works in more marginal signal situations where an internet connection wouldn't stay up.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:01 AM on December 15, 2010
proclaiming that the BBC was the Blair/Brown Broadcasting Corporation,
Yeah, well I'd agree with them there, soon as Campbell put the boot in. And of course the DG wasn't caught walking into Number 10 with a memo saying the good old corperation will do it's best to 'sell the cuts' (so please please don't break us up. Then of course there's the interview with Jody McIntyre
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:04 AM on December 15, 2010
Yeah, well I'd agree with them there, soon as Campbell put the boot in. And of course the DG wasn't caught walking into Number 10 with a memo saying the good old corperation will do it's best to 'sell the cuts' (so please please don't break us up. Then of course there's the interview with Jody McIntyre
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:04 AM on December 15, 2010
I like how the homonculi graphics push the text off the right side of the page, where a big slab of teal-green obscures 20-30% of the text. Highlighting the text does nothing, since the color slab of background appears to actually be (through some CSS magic wankery) in FRONT of the text. Truly, we have achieved Web 3.0, or at least 2.5.
posted by Eideteker at 9:12 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Eideteker at 9:12 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
bondcliff: "One of the things I like about Twitter is that it isn't just one specific thing. People are using it in all sorts of ways that nobody ever intended. I look forward to seeing new ways people use it"
Yep. I use it to follow amateur musicians and DJs (and the people who follow them) who might send out a last-minute Tweet about having a cam and mic set up at this or that club, performing live on Ustream. Watching the tweets pinging out to other people in the network, and then seeing people starting to blip into the Ustream channel to watch a spontaneous performance, sharing our thoughts with each other and sometimes encouragement with the musician (if she's got her laptop open while she's spinning) - it can be quite the experience.
Or, you can giggle at RealTalkCat.
It's a tool for communication, that's all.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:18 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Yep. I use it to follow amateur musicians and DJs (and the people who follow them) who might send out a last-minute Tweet about having a cam and mic set up at this or that club, performing live on Ustream. Watching the tweets pinging out to other people in the network, and then seeing people starting to blip into the Ustream channel to watch a spontaneous performance, sharing our thoughts with each other and sometimes encouragement with the musician (if she's got her laptop open while she's spinning) - it can be quite the experience.
Or, you can giggle at RealTalkCat.
It's a tool for communication, that's all.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:18 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
For some reason I read this is the '10 most retarded tweets of 2010' and thought: "I can find Sarah Palin's feed myself, thanks."
posted by empath at 9:27 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by empath at 9:27 AM on December 15, 2010
Hi! Is there where MeFites with nothing better to do shits all over Twitter for reasons that demonstrate they don't know what the hell Twitter is?
posted by dw at 9:31 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by dw at 9:31 AM on December 15, 2010
2) The fact that all these conversations are being held in public such that they are overheard by everybody throughout all of time is probably going to be regretted by some involved at some point.
Hehe, apparently a lot of publishers require tech-unsavy authors to be on twitter for marketing reasons, and so you get this weird generational clash where fans are tweeting at them and then the authors write blog posts where they're like "If I'm talking to my author friends on here about what I ate for lunch, don't butt in! It's private!"
Which makes me giggle.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:32 AM on December 15, 2010
Hehe, apparently a lot of publishers require tech-unsavy authors to be on twitter for marketing reasons, and so you get this weird generational clash where fans are tweeting at them and then the authors write blog posts where they're like "If I'm talking to my author friends on here about what I ate for lunch, don't butt in! It's private!"
Which makes me giggle.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:32 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Salvor Hardin at 9:34 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Hmm... this sort of thing is very much about the media view of how twitter is used ("you can use it to follow celebrities and retweet their sayings!"), and not so much about having a convenient way to chat with your mates, which is the main thing most people I know use it for. On the other hand, I did retweet number #4.
posted by Artw at 9:36 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Artw at 9:36 AM on December 15, 2010
Just about all of the top ten most retweeted were not what I expected, but I'm not surprised that's what they were.
I'm pissed that Time magazine gave Person of the Year to Zuckerberg.
Whoa, seriously? How the hell did they defend that? Wasn't he barely even in the top ten in the vote?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:38 AM on December 15, 2010
I'm pissed that Time magazine gave Person of the Year to Zuckerberg.
Whoa, seriously? How the hell did they defend that? Wasn't he barely even in the top ten in the vote?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:38 AM on December 15, 2010
There's a whole thread about it a click away. I think Joe misfired.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:39 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:39 AM on December 15, 2010
"In a royal first, Clarence House, the Prince of Wales’ private office, created a Twitter account to announce Prince William’s engagement to Kate Middleton. Not how Henry VIII did it."
Let's hope William keeps not following Henry VIII's precedent in marital matters.
posted by Kattullus at 9:48 AM on December 15, 2010
Let's hope William keeps not following Henry VIII's precedent in marital matters.
posted by Kattullus at 9:48 AM on December 15, 2010
Twitter was very useful for me last Saturday for tracking down the location of NYC Santacon. Finding out what goes on with the LIRR is helpful too. In other words, search for useful keywords. For keeping up to date with friends, there's Facebook.
posted by monospace at 9:52 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by monospace at 9:52 AM on December 15, 2010
I am dismayed to find that my pithy, amusing account of suffering through eating a corned beef sandwich with insufficient mustard was not one of 2010's top tweets.
MUST LUNCH HARDER
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:20 AM on December 15, 2010
MUST LUNCH HARDER
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:20 AM on December 15, 2010
The 10 Most Retweeted tweets...
Ray's comparison of the traditional 'RT @' retweet vs Twitter's so called retweet function.
posted by Lanark at 10:25 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Ray's comparison of the traditional 'RT @' retweet vs Twitter's so called retweet function.
posted by Lanark at 10:25 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I am also surprised to not find myself on the "most powerful of 2010" list. I guess the folks at Twitter just couldn't decide which one of my grumpy tweets about PHP was the grumpiest.
posted by aparrish at 10:28 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by aparrish at 10:28 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I don't know anything about fonts, but the font they chose on that 'trends' page is awful. Only a few letters look bold and really distract from the lists themselves.
posted by graventy at 11:04 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by graventy at 11:04 AM on December 15, 2010
I never fail to be amazed at how many MeFites react with knee-jerk bewilderment to Twitter. It's not complicated, it's a straightforward communication tool, and it's invaluable in getting at-the-moment-it happens news -- for instance, if you were in Minneapolis on Monday and wanted to find out what stage plays and other performances were closed down for the evening as a result of the blizzard, Twitter got the info out faster and better than any other medium. And, because of its format, it forces a pith. Not everybody is good at it, but there is some epigrammatic wit on Twitter worthy of Oscar Wilde.
You'd think Twitter was nothing but hipsters talking about how great Jesus is the way it's treated here.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:26 AM on December 15, 2010
You'd think Twitter was nothing but hipsters talking about how great Jesus is the way it's treated here.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:26 AM on December 15, 2010
Er, Minneapolis on Saturday.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:27 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:27 AM on December 15, 2010
ts;dr
posted by sonascope at 11:37 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by sonascope at 11:37 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I set up a same-day service call with Charter yesterday, sending just one tweet and two Direct Messages. By the time I got home from work, my internet was fixed. I didn't have to call in to a call center, maneuver through a phone tree, wait on hold, or attempt to communicate with someone with a heavy Indian accent telling me to restart my modem for the tenth time.
That's the power of Twitter.
posted by litnerd at 11:52 AM on December 15, 2010
That's the power of Twitter.
posted by litnerd at 11:52 AM on December 15, 2010
Is there where MeFites with nothing better to do shits all over Twitter for reasons that demonstrate they don't know what the hell Twitter is?
YES EXACTLY THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS IS.
YES.
posted by ook at 11:52 AM on December 15, 2010
YES EXACTLY THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS IS.
YES.
posted by ook at 11:52 AM on December 15, 2010
it's a straightforward communication tool,
Exactly. I suspect that people bridle at the idea that it's some sort of world-changing shift in our communications culture (and to be fair, twitter is sometimes heralded as such), but the reality is that it is just a simple tool that can be used in a multitude of ways.
One that I, for instance, have used to change people's lives with my up to the moment reporting on what my cats are wearing, and what funny thing on TV I just saw.
posted by quin at 11:55 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Exactly. I suspect that people bridle at the idea that it's some sort of world-changing shift in our communications culture (and to be fair, twitter is sometimes heralded as such), but the reality is that it is just a simple tool that can be used in a multitude of ways.
One that I, for instance, have used to change people's lives with my up to the moment reporting on what my cats are wearing, and what funny thing on TV I just saw.
posted by quin at 11:55 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm a bit confused about #3 on the "most powerful" list. I'm thinking maybe rather than:
When she crashed her bike in a forest with no cell phone reception, a gravely injured triathlete saved her own life when she tweeted out a desperate call for help.
they meant:
When she crashed her bike in a forest with 1 bar of service and her attempts to call for help were repeatedly dropped, a gravely injured triathlete saved her own life when she SMSed out a desperate tweet for help knowing that it would piggyback in the beacon response to the tower and was therefore more likely to be received.
posted by atbash at 11:57 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
When she crashed her bike in a forest with no cell phone reception, a gravely injured triathlete saved her own life when she tweeted out a desperate call for help.
they meant:
When she crashed her bike in a forest with 1 bar of service and her attempts to call for help were repeatedly dropped, a gravely injured triathlete saved her own life when she SMSed out a desperate tweet for help knowing that it would piggyback in the beacon response to the tower and was therefore more likely to be received.
posted by atbash at 11:57 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
♫ tweet tweetly-tweet ♫
posted by blue_beetle at 12:13 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by blue_beetle at 12:13 PM on December 15, 2010
DU: "2) The fact that all these conversations are being held in public such that they are overheard by everybody throughout all of time is probably going to be regretted by some involved at some point."
(Loosely quoting a comedian I heard). Some day in the near future, when an alien race has landed on our planet after leveling it with powerful lasers, they'll rummage through the shit-heaps left behind and find our hard drives. They'll hold the hard drive up to their alien head and read them. They'll say "Wow, these people thought they were really important!"
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:14 PM on December 15, 2010
(Loosely quoting a comedian I heard). Some day in the near future, when an alien race has landed on our planet after leveling it with powerful lasers, they'll rummage through the shit-heaps left behind and find our hard drives. They'll hold the hard drive up to their alien head and read them. They'll say "Wow, these people thought they were really important!"
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:14 PM on December 15, 2010
I never fail to be amazed at how many MeFites react with knee-jerk bewilderment to Twitter. It's not complicated, it's a straightforward communication tool, and it's invaluable in getting at-the-moment-it happens news
In my case it's not knee-jerk bewilderment, it's genuine not-for-lack-of-trying bewilderment. I seriously do not have any idea how anyone manages to cull useful information from the flood of random chatter, pithy one-liners and out-of-context retweets and responses. If I follow too many people it's a firehose I can't keep up with, if I just follow a few real life friends I mostly end up seeing just their half of conversations with other people, it's like sitting in the room while they chat on the phone with someone else. And every time someone tries to describe a case where twitter was useful to them it always seems that just searching the web instead of searching twitter would have been equally or more useful. Every so often something convinces me to give it another go, maybe a different client or a different group of people to follow will make it work this time! But every time I rapidly end up either irritated or overwhelmed.
And it really does make me feel old and out of touch, because it does seem like it should be simple and obviously a lot of people do find it useful and there is clearly something about it that I just do not understand. I want to. I just don't.
But mostly I just saw an opportunity to snark about people who think Justin Bieber's abs are interesting, which I freely grant is completely orthogonal to twitter's usefulness or lack thereof
posted by ook at 12:17 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
In my case it's not knee-jerk bewilderment, it's genuine not-for-lack-of-trying bewilderment. I seriously do not have any idea how anyone manages to cull useful information from the flood of random chatter, pithy one-liners and out-of-context retweets and responses. If I follow too many people it's a firehose I can't keep up with, if I just follow a few real life friends I mostly end up seeing just their half of conversations with other people, it's like sitting in the room while they chat on the phone with someone else. And every time someone tries to describe a case where twitter was useful to them it always seems that just searching the web instead of searching twitter would have been equally or more useful. Every so often something convinces me to give it another go, maybe a different client or a different group of people to follow will make it work this time! But every time I rapidly end up either irritated or overwhelmed.
And it really does make me feel old and out of touch, because it does seem like it should be simple and obviously a lot of people do find it useful and there is clearly something about it that I just do not understand. I want to. I just don't.
But mostly I just saw an opportunity to snark about people who think Justin Bieber's abs are interesting, which I freely grant is completely orthogonal to twitter's usefulness or lack thereof
posted by ook at 12:17 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
...if I just follow a few real life friends I mostly end up seeing just their half of conversations with other people, it's like sitting in the room while they chat on the phone with someone else.
This used to be the case, but not anymore. If you're following someone, and they start out their tweet @ replying to someone you don't follow, you won't see it in your stream--you'd only see it if you were looking on your friend's Twitter page.
posted by litnerd at 12:25 PM on December 15, 2010
This used to be the case, but not anymore. If you're following someone, and they start out their tweet @ replying to someone you don't follow, you won't see it in your stream--you'd only see it if you were looking on your friend's Twitter page.
posted by litnerd at 12:25 PM on December 15, 2010
if I just follow a few real life friends I mostly end up seeing just their half of conversations with other people
Eh? Unless you go out of your way you shouldn't be seeing any of their responses except to people you also follow.
posted by Artw at 12:26 PM on December 15, 2010
Eh? Unless you go out of your way you shouldn't be seeing any of their responses except to people you also follow.
posted by Artw at 12:26 PM on December 15, 2010
Or what litnerd said. The whole thing wouldn't work at all if that were not the case.
posted by Artw at 12:27 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by Artw at 12:27 PM on December 15, 2010
If you do see that, and can't follow the conversation, clicking on the tweet itself will pull up the entire discussion on the right side of the page.
I follow a lot of news sites, and they tend to tweet news before it shows up anywhere else. And with local organizations, their web sites are often not robust enough for them to instantly update it -- they would have to call whatever freelancer updates the site for them. But, with Twitter, they can just Tweet pertinent information. And so organizations tweets happen much faster than web updates, and when you're dealing with fast-moving or breaking information, that's vital.
I follow very few people, comparatively: 444, while I am followed by 1,371. And most of the people I follow tweet infrequently, and a lot of who I follow are organizations who provide news I need. The only problem I have ever had with Twitter is when I follow too many people, so I pare back often, and when one person decides to Tweet every 30 seconds, and so pushes all other news out of my feed. But, then, those people make it easy for me to decide who to unfollow.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:30 PM on December 15, 2010
I follow a lot of news sites, and they tend to tweet news before it shows up anywhere else. And with local organizations, their web sites are often not robust enough for them to instantly update it -- they would have to call whatever freelancer updates the site for them. But, with Twitter, they can just Tweet pertinent information. And so organizations tweets happen much faster than web updates, and when you're dealing with fast-moving or breaking information, that's vital.
I follow very few people, comparatively: 444, while I am followed by 1,371. And most of the people I follow tweet infrequently, and a lot of who I follow are organizations who provide news I need. The only problem I have ever had with Twitter is when I follow too many people, so I pare back often, and when one person decides to Tweet every 30 seconds, and so pushes all other news out of my feed. But, then, those people make it easy for me to decide who to unfollow.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:30 PM on December 15, 2010
I've been following Astro Zombie for about 45 minutes now.
posted by Sailormom at 12:43 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Sailormom at 12:43 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Eh? Unless you go out of your way you shouldn't be seeing any of their responses except to people you also follow.
I just took another look -- tweetdeck (still sitting here from my last attempt at this) is still showing responses to people I don't follow. The twitter website does filter a lot of those out, which is new since the last time I looked, and is awesome -- as is the fact that you can now click a tweet to see the conversation it's part of -- but what's left is still a whole lotta incomprehensible, stuff like:
"Touché, @guyIdon'tfollow. Touché."
".@guyIdon'tfollow planning on being there looking forward to it"
"#acronymIdon'trecognize @guyIdon'tfollow send help asap"
(Is that leading "." there specifically to defeat the filtering out of side conversations? There are a few of my friends who appear to be doing that consistently, and if that's the reason for it my opinion of those friends just dropped a notch or two...)
I follow very few people, comparatively: 444
Holy fuck. That's "few"? Maybe my friends are just blabbermouths, but I start to get overloaded at about 20 or so.
Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to derail this into a 'Teach Grampa Ook How To Twit' session. Also there are people standing on my lawn so I have to go now.
posted by ook at 1:06 PM on December 15, 2010
I just took another look -- tweetdeck (still sitting here from my last attempt at this) is still showing responses to people I don't follow. The twitter website does filter a lot of those out, which is new since the last time I looked, and is awesome -- as is the fact that you can now click a tweet to see the conversation it's part of -- but what's left is still a whole lotta incomprehensible, stuff like:
"Touché, @guyIdon'tfollow. Touché."
".@guyIdon'tfollow planning on being there looking forward to it"
"#acronymIdon'trecognize @guyIdon'tfollow send help asap"
(Is that leading "." there specifically to defeat the filtering out of side conversations? There are a few of my friends who appear to be doing that consistently, and if that's the reason for it my opinion of those friends just dropped a notch or two...)
I follow very few people, comparatively: 444
Holy fuck. That's "few"? Maybe my friends are just blabbermouths, but I start to get overloaded at about 20 or so.
Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to derail this into a 'Teach Grampa Ook How To Twit' session. Also there are people standing on my lawn so I have to go now.
posted by ook at 1:06 PM on December 15, 2010
"We always ignore the ones who adore us, and adore the ones who ignore us."
I don't do that. This sounds like high school poetry, or emo lyrics.
That was the #2 retweeted tweet! How many people retweeted that, exactly? (60 people icons?)
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 1:12 PM on December 15, 2010
I don't do that. This sounds like high school poetry, or emo lyrics.
That was the #2 retweeted tweet! How many people retweeted that, exactly? (60 people icons?)
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 1:12 PM on December 15, 2010
(Is that leading "." there specifically to defeat the filtering out of side conversations? There are a few of my friends who appear to be doing that consistently, and if that's the reason for it my opinion of those friends just dropped a notch or two...)
You're exactly right. It's useful sometimes, when you're replying to one person but making a point that your other followers might find interesting. But if it's just a one-on-one conversation, yeah, that's kind of weird.
posted by litnerd at 1:12 PM on December 15, 2010
You're exactly right. It's useful sometimes, when you're replying to one person but making a point that your other followers might find interesting. But if it's just a one-on-one conversation, yeah, that's kind of weird.
posted by litnerd at 1:12 PM on December 15, 2010
Ray's comparison of the traditional 'RT @' retweet vs Twitter's so called retweet function.
I can nod my head in agreement with some of Ray's points but I have to say this one is baffling. I mean, it can be annoying to get the same RT from several friends (for me, nothing so far I can't scroll past) and unknown icons on one's following page is more a UI problem than anything, but fundamentally? "Stuff from strangers which you didn't ask for" that came from a friend who obviously thought enough of it to share with you isn't called spam.
It's called a quote. Regardless of whether or not you can edit it and/or put in your own two cents when you pass it along.
posted by Spatch at 1:27 AM on December 16, 2010
Some people ask "what if the original tweet is too long"? I say that if you really can't shorten or edit it, then forget it. Why punish your followers by injecting spam into their stream? Your followers are looking for stuff from you, not from strangers. Stuff from strangers, which you didn't ask for and don't recognize, has a name: it's called s.p.a.m.Wait. If you don't have the ability to edit a quote or a message you wish to share with your friends on Twitter but you share it anyway, it's spam and it's punishing?
I can nod my head in agreement with some of Ray's points but I have to say this one is baffling. I mean, it can be annoying to get the same RT from several friends (for me, nothing so far I can't scroll past) and unknown icons on one's following page is more a UI problem than anything, but fundamentally? "Stuff from strangers which you didn't ask for" that came from a friend who obviously thought enough of it to share with you isn't called spam.
It's called a quote. Regardless of whether or not you can edit it and/or put in your own two cents when you pass it along.
posted by Spatch at 1:27 AM on December 16, 2010
If nothing else, I would like to thank Clarence House for proving that it is possible to write well, with proper spelling and grammar, in 140 characters or less. They didn't even use a URL shortener.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:10 AM on December 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:10 AM on December 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
>"We always ignore the ones who adore us, and adore the ones who ignore us."
I don't do that. This sounds like high school poetry, or emo lyrics.
I had the complete opposite reaction to that. I would like to believe I don't do that anymore, but I totally recall the days when I used to. I think it's a fairly normal thing to do until you get older and actually value your friends/family...
Anyway, I find it's just one more thing to add to the list of "shit I did out of ignorance and, once finding-out/realizing what I'm doing, immediately change about myself".
posted by StarmanDXE at 10:52 AM on December 16, 2010
I don't do that. This sounds like high school poetry, or emo lyrics.
I had the complete opposite reaction to that. I would like to believe I don't do that anymore, but I totally recall the days when I used to. I think it's a fairly normal thing to do until you get older and actually value your friends/family...
Anyway, I find it's just one more thing to add to the list of "shit I did out of ignorance and, once finding-out/realizing what I'm doing, immediately change about myself".
posted by StarmanDXE at 10:52 AM on December 16, 2010
>Could we get to Christmas first before we start reviewing the year?
Then how will people know what New Years resolutions to make?
posted by StarmanDXE at 10:54 AM on December 16, 2010
Then how will people know what New Years resolutions to make?
posted by StarmanDXE at 10:54 AM on December 16, 2010
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posted by delfin at 7:39 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]