DISQUS

Scripting News: What a first-time Twitter user sees (Scripting News)

  • atul · 7 months ago
    Reminds me of Cable television. It looks like a 140 character version of cable tv. Lots of channels to surf but nothing worth watching (with the exception of @google tweet maybe)
  • Rex Hammock · 7 months ago
    No wonder people don't get Twitter.
  • John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises) · 7 months ago
    In essence it illustrates the main problem with any "follow x users" approach. No matter which x users you choose, some users are going to be much more active than other users. Pity the poor person who got excited about seeing Mandy Moore and Ashley Tisdale tweets - they're drowned out by all the other stuff in the feed.

    Of course, things are subject to change depending upon the time you look at the feed. If you check on Saturday, at least all the #followfriday stuff wouldn't be there.
  • .LAG · 7 months ago
    I don't get it: @adventuregirl, which is clearly a spam account, is a "suggested user" now? the other ones are well-known celebrities or media figures, but based on your first screenshot, they're not actively engaged, at least not as much as "adventuregirl." ...what a shame. That said, I can't remember what I saw when I first logged on, back in May 2007.
  • Marshall Kirkpatrick · 7 months ago
    Dave, looking more at @AdventureGirl, I wonder - is she really a spam bot or just a person that we look at and consider toxic? I'm not actually seeing much in the way of affiliate links there. I mean, her profile page looks like a train wreck to me - but so does most of cable TV and lots of people like that. Maybe I haven't looked close enough though and she really is a robotic spam bot and not just a vapid spam bot.
  • dave · 7 months ago
    You're probably right -- it's best not to jump to conclusions.
  • tojosan · 7 months ago
    I agree about the problem with follow x users and the problem with following celebs. Likely to get several accounts that are either spammers or not engaged.

    Perhaps better would be to recommend folks that have good follow/follower balance, a certain ration of straight posts to @ posts and below a certain ratio of link sharing.
  • interstar · 7 months ago
    I got this *without* explicitly signing up to their suggestions (or they were pre-checked or something) when I created a new account a couple of weeks ago.

    It's dire. Sad, sad, sad.