Twitter WTF?!

[Dalek]

I just don't get the point of this site. I just reggistered yesterday and still don't see what's the point. You just post some random shit, that you could post in your myspace/facebook status or even your skype mood, and a huge bunch of people may by some strange coincidence see what you posted. Can someone pls explain twitter to me?

[Corvidia]

Some of us use it for memebombs and I use it to follow people like Warren Ellis as well. Also, you can follow immediate updates on various happenings. The Mumbai bombings, Iran's post election protests, and the Bat Nha Monastery stuff that's happening right now, etc.

[Cramulus]

Can someone pls explain twitter to me?

[Captain Utopia]

Twitter is cool because it made a lot of people realise that they had nothing more significant to say that couldn't fit into 140 characters or less. Twitter is shite because most people take the fact that they can't write anything of significance as meaning that they shouldn't even try.

It's livejournal for the commitment-shy, everyone posts drivel so it's not intimidating to get into, and it works on crippled mobile devices quite well.

In other words - it combined the right technology with the right social interface at the right time.

Oh, and it's also quick to spread news via it, since emails take like.. so much time to type, so it was the source for some breaking news stories, some news outlets started using it which legitimised it further.. and here we are today.

UPDATE: Cram wins. Again.

[Golden Applesauce]

It's also nice in that a post like, say,

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090928.html

which doesn't have any explanation besides a title and a link can be a full twitter post instead of 1/10th of a forum or "real" blog post.

[Dalek]

Lol, I inserted a quote, but something happened, and it doesn't show up

[Triple Zero]

the actual great thing about twitter is that it breaks a lot of news stories first.

[Requia ☣]

I started reading twitter literature.  Serials done at 140 characters at a time.  Its an interesting medium that way.

I also use it for mass coordination with other people, at least ibn theory, haven't had a need to send anything over it.

[Golden Applesauce]

Lol, I inserted a quote, but something happened, and it doesn't show up

You just had [img] tags around the text.

I wasn't being entirely facetious - a lot of human communication boils down to "Hey guys, check out this cool thing I found."  Twitter (among other things) lets you convey that with a minimum of wasted space.

[Kai]

The inherent problem in that being that most of the "cool things" are a waste of time.

[Golden Applesauce]

The inherent problem in that being that most of the "cool things" are a waste of time.

Ahem.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=17231.0

[Kai]

The inherent problem in that being that most of the "cool things" are a waste of time.

Ahem.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=17231.0

Notice I'm not annoying about it, I don't text it to you, it's tucked away in a quiet area of the forum and anyone that wants to read the occassional updates (which are never current) is free to or not. Obviously I think some of the articles are cool, but I'm not like GUYS, YOU HAVE TO FUCKING SEE THIS SHIT!1

I'm also not limited in the length of my communication. Elevator speeches are so much bullshit.

But you're completely right, it's too much like soundbites. I'll quit doing it, since you obviously think twitter is such a more elegant way of communicating.

[Golden Applesauce]

The inherent problem in that being that most of the "cool things" are a waste of time.

Ahem.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=17231.0

Notice I'm not annoying about it, I don't text it to you, it's tucked away in a quiet area of the forum and anyone that wants to read the occassional updates (which are never current) is free to or not. Obviously I think some of the articles are cool, but I'm not like GUYS, YOU HAVE TO FUCKING SEE THIS SHIT!1

I'm also not limited in the length of my communication. Elevator speeches are so much bullshit.

But you're completely right, it's too much like soundbites. I'll quit doing it, since you obviously think twitter is such a more elegant way of communicating.

Sorry, that got taken the wrong way.  (My fault for not even posting a complete sentence.)  I meant that there really is a lot of interesting stuff* (you have 30+ pages in one thread alone) to spread the word about, not that the stuff you were posting wasn't interesting.

*taking into account that 90% of everything is crud.

[Kai]

Recently, I had a conversation with someone about e-book readers, that Kindle wasn't the best choice due to no personal upload ability and no ability to actually KEEP what you purchase, if Amazon decides to take it away; that a sony reader was a better choice. He immediately asked me if I read Google's blog, because he just heard the same thing last week from there. I said no...and now, I wish I would have reacted with horror. I had turned into an opinionated soundbite rather than a means of real conversation. I'd rather make my manner of communicating as convoluted as possible than I would descend into speaking short opinions all the time. I don't want to have an opinion any more, everybody's got them, and they're all bullshit, including my current ones. I'd rather eschew all but those necessary for principle, so I can really communicate with people, rather than playing a subconscious game of dominance, who's smarter than/knows more than/more widely read/more experienced than whom. Because of this, twitter is to be avoided.

Right now I'm reminded of several new personal boundaries I've been making, so I can control the terms of interaction and avoid "twitteality".

[Golden Applesauce]

Recently, I had a conversation with someone about e-book readers, that Kindle wasn't the best choice due to no personal upload ability and no ability to actually KEEP what you purchase, if Amazon decides to take it away; that a sony reader was a better choice. He immediately asked me if I read Google's blog, because he just heard the same thing last week from there. I said no...and now, I wish I would have reacted with horror. I had turned into an opinionated soundbite rather than a means of real conversation. I'd rather make my manner of communicating as convoluted as possible than I would descend into speaking short opinions all the time. I don't want to have an opinion any more, everybody's got them, and they're all bullshit, including my current ones. I'd rather eschew all but those necessary for principle, so I can really communicate with people, rather than playing a subconscious game of dominance, who's smarter than/knows more than/more widely read/more experienced than whom. Because of this, twitter is to be avoided.

Right now I'm reminded of several new personal boundaries I've been making, so I can control the terms of interaction and avoid "twitteality".

Um, no offence intended?