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Twitter — 18 Comments

  1. Yay! Grandad, your rants make me happy. I feel like Twitter is a big exciting party that I’ve gatecrashed and I’m hovering around uncertainly, trying to figure out how to join in the conversations. I blogged about it nearly a year ago, and I still haven’t figured it out: http://coffee-helps.com/2009/03/16/gone-in-140-characters-or-less/

    Why is it that the rest of the world understands it? Maybe you and I can go and start up a better party somewhere. One where we know what people are talking about. Maybe there are others who would be glad of it. Up until now, I thought it was just me…
    .-= Hails´s last brainfart .. Sleeping on a train =-.

  2. As usual, you put it better than I can.  Maybe the rest of the world doesn’t understand it but they are pretending the Emperor has clothes on?  They twitter away and just hope they are doing ‘the right thing’?  Maybe a Twitter aficionado can tell us what the rules are?

    I am hereby starting a new medium/party.  I am going to call it Web Logging [and I hope some dumb-fuck doesn’t shorten that name].  It allows for lengthy erudite twitters, and what’s even better – the responses are nicely laid out for all to see and read.

    Do you think it will catch on?

  3. I eventually joined twitter a while ago, not entirely sure what was going on. In the end I’ve figured it’s like a long series of Facebook status updates, but without the hassle of having to “friend” anybody, you just follow them and that’s it. They’re short enough you can skim them quickly, and just as quickly un-follow people who decide that the colour of the towels in Dunnes is noteworthy.

    Where I found it interesting is the hashtags, where you add something like #grandad to your message. You can search, and create RSS feeds, for these tags which means you can follow a topic of interest from complete strangers if enough of them start using it routinely. One I follow is #nama which has helped keep me up-to-date with the details of how we’re being robbed blind.

    But yes, “@headrambles: I agree” is just a useless message out of context. There’s just no helping some people.

  4. My problem is that I have a Facebook account but never use it.  I don’t think I have updated my status in years.  I noticed that about hashtags all right, and someone even used #grandad once.  The damned things eat into the 140 limit though.

    The main problem with Twitter is that if you wish to reply to someone, you can’t tell them what you are replying to.  There isn’t room to include their comment, and you can’t link, so it’s up to them to follow the ‘in reply to…’ link which is a pain in the hole.

  5. I’m a new recruit too… and I have no idea what I’m doing. I rather like the idea of micro writings (in addition to full-scale writings of course) but I’m at a bit of a loss as far as the whole social side of it goes. I like your analogy of the noisy hall; that’s exactly what it’s like in there.
    .-= J Adamthwaite´s last brainfart .. Tweet! =-.

  6. But what use are ‘micro writings’?  A one sentence scribble that is tossed to the wind?  Twitter is great for pissing people off though!!  😈

  7. Haiku. (etc.) Not that pissing people off doesn’t sound fun too!
    .-= J Adamthwaite´s last brainfart .. Tweet! =-.

  8. I wish you’d posted this on Twitter instead. It would have read..

    “I joined up with this Twitter lark a long time ago, just to see what all the fuss was about. I still haven’t found out. It is very difficult”

    I would have gotten the point in one tenth of the time.
    .-= rhodester´s last brainfart .. Douchenozzle =-.

  9. JA – It’s OK.  I could never understand Haiku either.  😐

    Cap’n – Who said that?

    TT – I have never tried farting helium, but I imagine the resulting high pitched squeak wouldn’t have quite the same effect?

    RhodesTer – And the rest?  Would you want to miss out on all that beautiful prose?  Not to mention the wit?

  10. Hi Grandad … ‘anonymity is the new wealth’ is mine … MINE, I TELLS YA, … all mine … you can use it though;) NO ONE ELSE. I’LL BE WATCHING.

  11. Tom Dunne or some of his researchers read your blog I think… talking about twinning, and how its only for local politicians to go on junkets… Sounds familiar doesnt it?
    .-= SAm Crea´s last brainfart .. Award ceremonies… =-.

  12. I once wrote a report for a company I worked for on a public policy issue when they were making representation to the government in the UK. When I was reading through the relevant piece of legislation many months later I recognised my wording in a number of places in the relevant Act of Parliament.

    I am THE LAW. Anybody wants custom-made legislation give me a call … and yes I do do Bar Mitzvahs. Closed Wednesday afternoons for alcohol. The value of your investment in me may go down as well as up.

  13. Nope – I still haven’t used my twitter account since the first week after my son set it up – I found it very strange…. but even though I don’t use it – I still get email messages saying that someone I don’t know is now following me on Twitter.

    Let them follow – I’m not going back there!!!
    .-= Kate´s last brainfart .. January Projects =-.

  14. Twitter is what you make of it. The content it sends your way depends on who you follow. If it’s a gigantic hall full of people, at least you get to pick the people in your hall, and you can evict anyone who bores or bothers you.

    I find it handy for sending out lines, links and ideas that interest me, be they from books, news, science, arts, language or whatever. And it’s always likely to surprise you. Sometimes a throwaway remark will kick-start a very interesting conversation with someone who before that was a total stranger.

  15. SAm – Everyone reads my intellectual outpourings.  Even the BBC.

    Cap’n – I think you may be codding yourself.  You write reasonable intelligibly, whereas laws are completely unintelligible.  Unless they translated your stuff?

    TT – It depends on whether there are any naked flames around.  I just make damned sure there aren’t any.  Flashbacks are a pain in the hole.

    Kate – I have some very strange followers too.  I don’t mind as long as they don’t mind my ignoring them.

    Stan – I must say the ones I like are the throwaway lines, the caustic comments and the odd good link.  It’s nearly time for me to take a peek into Twitter Hall.

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