Are lists just for filtering incoming tweets, or can you use them to broadcast selectively to users in a list? The latter is quite useful. The former is something any smart client should already be able to do.
ianrosenwach
· 2 months ago
Great post. I wrote about how Twitter needs some filters, and compared it to the highly filtered television.
Twitter needed to structure their data more - it's chaos! The average user is going to have a very, very hard time cutting through the clutter. I propose there are a limited set of Twitter users creating useful content, and the crowd need to group these users to make it easier for NEW Twitter users to get active.
I think everyone who doesn't like pure chaos will eventually index and categorize their following/followers into lists. <3 Reading Lists; I still can't believe that someone or thing actually got a reading list patent.
Those who are on the SUL, with lists, will still have the inorganic popularity driven flow of garbage. Their lists will get more eyes and list follows.
steven healey
· 2 months ago
.
AA
· 2 months ago
I have to follow people in order to put them in the list? Brizzly let's me put people in the group(list) without following them. If Lists are filters/groups, than technically I should be following "everyone" on Twitter.otherwise why would I create a list if I'm following few people?
dave
· 2 months ago
I'm not sure if you actually have to follow them.
I constructed by Berkeley list by clicking on each name in the list of people that my berkeleynewbie account follows. Whether that ended up making me follow them or not is something I haven't checked out yet.
Tony Buser
· 2 months ago
I see lists people put you in show up on your profile page. Can you remove yourself from a list someone else puts you in? That page is going to get clogged with spam.
dave
· 2 months ago
No kidding. I also want to be able to see a "friendly" name.
Tony Buser
· 2 months ago
Considering half of my followers are spammers, that Lists Following You page is going to quickly become useless.
Also, since Lists are being handled like virtual users with their own following/followers and a kind of profile page, they need a Bio line for descriptions.
Very interesting post. I'm not sure if I agree with the value of lists as a ranking mechanism, however. As you pointed out, abuse of this mechanism for ranking would be trivial, and the likelihood of "auto-listing" joining the "auto-follow" phenomenon seems high to me. While I'm certain that some influential users will maintain lists of other influential users, I doubt that the lists of the 2nd order users and beyond will really add much ranking value. Meanwhile, the manual effort involved in maintaining lists for ranking purposes is high, especially as influence changes over time.
I view the lists feature as a simple one -- a means of categorizing Twitter users into interest groups. Everyone fits into some group or another, whether they are influential or not, and to me the value of lists is greater as an organization scheme than as a ranking mechanism.
That said, I am biased. I work for Topsy and we offer a platform that among other things already ranks users on Twitter and defines their influence level (0 to 10). We offer a simple and open REST/JSON API to the community to allow this influence information (and much more) to be used by anyone.
We would be overjoyed to receive any feedback you might have, so let us know if you have thoughts for how we can improve and extend our platform.
Thanks,
brian@topsy
Liz
· 2 months ago
Any chance of getting unblocked? I've been in purgatory for quite a while although I don't know what my sin was.
@nwjerseyliz
richardmx
· 2 months ago
At the most basic level, this really makes the overall Twitter experience considerably more useable for those of us following at least hundreds of users. Reading relevant, segregated feeds is really the only way of getting constant updates from a number of sources reliably and consistently, without them it all just moves too fast.... Genius!
kiminnb
· 2 months ago
I have the lists feature turned on as well, and I'm just not getting why I would want it - any ideas? Is it just to share what I like with others? Will it change the way texts are sent to my phone? Confused!!!
AA
· 2 months ago
I used to think that the list feature by Twitter would be helpful to those who are prominent and have achieved things, someone who would you want to follow. These people would leverage their work and fame and they'd promote their circle of friends so others like us could follow them. For example, if I'm an author of a famous book and I have followers than I'd want these followers to follow my colleagues and like minded people. This ultimately helps my followers as well as my friends.
Or say I'm a twitter account of a charity organization and there are real people who follow me (the charity). Now I will (the charity organization) create a list of my partners, supporters, or clients, etc, and ultimately would let my followers connect dots and extend their reach (multiplying businesses).
That was my understanding prior to them launching the list, but I'm not really sure where it's going as it has certainly not helped me directly (me, the average twitter user/follower who is not prominent, nor have business to promote).
BUT, if they have launched the lists so I could manage 5000 followers easily, than I'm sorry, I don't like to follow 5000 people blindly hence I don't need any list to manage people beyond my control.
claredavis
· 1 month ago
Help please. I've created 2 twitter lists but when I click the link from my home page I get a blank feed. Is this because none of my friends have the list feature? Many of them have tweeted since I create the list with them on it, but still nothing in the time line.
elucid media
· 1 month ago
The LIST are WONDERFUL, lol. They are better than follow friday and all that messy tweeting... my growth rate was really high since i started using them. U can find good ones at Listorious.com in different categories or you can follow mine which is in the top 170 lists thus far at http://twitter.com/elucidmarketing/socialnetwor... Once u start to follow the list we put you on the list to network with ones already listed. Thanks and great post here, see u again, Elucid !!!!
All Comments
Twitter needed to structure their data more - it's chaos! The average user is going to have a very, very hard time cutting through the clutter. I propose there are a limited set of Twitter users creating useful content, and the crowd need to group these users to make it easier for NEW Twitter users to get active.
My post can be found here - http://ianrosenwach.com/index.php/2009/09/twitt...
<3 Reading Lists;
I still can't believe that someone or thing actually got a reading list patent.
Those who are on the SUL, with lists, will still have the inorganic popularity driven flow of garbage. Their lists will get more eyes and list follows.
I constructed by Berkeley list by clicking on each name in the list of
people that my berkeleynewbie account follows. Whether that ended up making
me follow them or not is something I haven't checked out yet.
Also, since Lists are being handled like virtual users with their own following/followers and a kind of profile page, they need a Bio line for descriptions.
Very interesting post. I'm not sure if I agree with the value of lists as a ranking mechanism, however. As you pointed out, abuse of this mechanism for ranking would be trivial, and the likelihood of "auto-listing" joining the "auto-follow" phenomenon seems high to me. While I'm certain that some influential users will maintain lists of other influential users, I doubt that the lists of the 2nd order users and beyond will really add much ranking value. Meanwhile, the manual effort involved in maintaining lists for ranking purposes is high, especially as influence changes over time.
I view the lists feature as a simple one -- a means of categorizing Twitter users into interest groups. Everyone fits into some group or another, whether they are influential or not, and to me the value of lists is greater as an organization scheme than as a ranking mechanism.
That said, I am biased. I work for Topsy and we offer a platform that among other things already ranks users on Twitter and defines their influence level (0 to 10). We offer a simple and open REST/JSON API to the community to allow this influence information (and much more) to be used by anyone.
More info about our influence system is here - http://labs.topsy.com/influence/
Your Topsy profile, showing your influence (10), bio, and links posted is here - http://topsy.com/twitter/davewiner
For more info about the Topsy Otter API, you can go here -- http://code.google.com/p/otterapi/
We would be overjoyed to receive any feedback you might have, so let us know if you have thoughts for how we can improve and extend our platform.
Thanks,
brian@topsy
@nwjerseyliz
Or say I'm a twitter account of a charity organization and there are real people who follow me (the charity). Now I will (the charity organization) create a list of my partners, supporters, or clients, etc, and ultimately would let my followers connect dots and extend their reach (multiplying businesses).
That was my understanding prior to them launching the list, but I'm not really sure where it's going as it has certainly not helped me directly (me, the average twitter user/follower who is not prominent, nor have business to promote).
BUT, if they have launched the lists so I could manage 5000 followers easily, than I'm sorry, I don't like to follow 5000 people blindly hence I don't need any list to manage people beyond my control.