Scripting News - Latest Comments in Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Portland window cleaning — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:00:15 -0000

Okay, I would agree twitter has gotten way too big, and this article proves it.

I began to realize just how big twitter was getting when I saw them on the cover of time magazine at the store. Twitter has gotten out of control.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

pauljacobson — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:51:55 -0000

Dave, do you see the new UI as this "Twitter 2.0" version of FriendFeed? Have they taken your advice into account when redesigning FriendFeed?

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

pauljacobson — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:49:53 -0000

Hi Ian

You made a point I was thinking about as I read Dave's post. Granted people on the suggested list are given an undue advantage and a huge leg up while other users have to work for their followings but people who have built up substantial followings still have the benefit of those followings.

It does burn a little that people who didn't spend a year or more building up their followings are granted the tremendous benefit of a massive following almost overnight.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

pauljacobson — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:45:09 -0000

I haven't built up a huge following on Twitter but I can imagine just how frustrating it must be if you have and you find some stranger blazing past you because her name is on a suggested list or because she happens to be a movie star.

We should probably separate the movie star type from the suggested list type. Movie stars picking up huge followings because of their fame is probably just a consequence of Twitter becoming more mainstream and with that come mainstream preferences.

I agree with Dave about the problems with a suggested list like this that has such a profound effect on users who are on that list. It is helpful, though, for new users to have a starting point so what is a better way to compile and present a list of existing users? A randomized list perhaps? Playing devil's advocate for a moment, populating the list with mainstream famous people is a good way to get new users involved.

Leo (and others) is certainly an icon but is he well known to mainstream users? It is very disappointing that he was left off the list and I can understand why he was angry. It is a tough one. I guess part of the problem is that it isn't clear on what basis the people on the suggested list were chosen. What were the criteria? What should they be?

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

dave — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:17:32 -0000

It's not a joke and I do care how many people follow me (I don't like the
term follower).

It's not self-promotion, my ego is fine, and I don't care how famous I am
(in fact I'd like to be less famous) but I care about influence. Our ideas
are all competing for attention. I think there are some bad ideas out there
that are winning, and I want to have my own and those I support get equal
time. I never want to drown out opposing views, but others do.

Hope that clears things up.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

judy — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:11:23 -0000

Are you really concerned about how many followers you have? Or are you joking? I quit Twitter for these reasons: all the self-promotion. It's another diversion from just being still. The sheep following the herder isn't my scene nor is being a tool for marketers. Perhaps, I'm just missing the point of it.
Thanks for your article though. Peace

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

judy — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:10:36 -0000

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

RiledUp — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:18:49 -0000

The main reason for this you got more followers the more will be able to see your updates, your news and your spams if your into it. This calls to mind if some people get to manipulate billions of followers by being on the watchlist like, If I have work hard to earn those thousands of followers I would also be pissed off to know this.
http://riledup.com

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

KaRi from ThePrimeSpot.com — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:09:37 -0000

I follow news sources on Twitter. Some national, although I am most of my sites are all about Long Beach, CA Suprisingly Obama and Google News follow me!

Recently I performed an experiment via twitter/blog (highlighting a text chat)
updating during the Academy Awards / Oscars. It DID prove my thoughts: That people would subscribe to get the latest moviestar news, then UNsubscribe when they learned I could care less about fake dialogue and I hate the paparazzi!

I follow YOU, Leo, Scoble, etc. because I am trying to learn about new technology via osmosis. I'm the one who called into Leo's show in 2005 about podcasting and he referred to me as the Long Beach "Queen of Media" (back then I also wrote for a Signal Hill /LB newspaper).

Anyway, it's ALL good.

If I owned a company, I'd write "updating projects via twitter" into the job descriptions. It can really be a productive tool, saving time and money!

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Nitin Nanivadekar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:19:38 -0000

Actually, RSS is a technology Twitter has taken to new level. But reduced the scope of a technology to a product.
After the stupendous RSS growth, we all know, RSS is now touted as "No Next big Thing". Same may happen about Twitter.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

ReTweet — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:40:40 -0000

I apologize for jumping to conclusions. I'm just frustrated as I have relied on advertising for my income now and then I see ad blocking plugins or people who praise blocking ads and seem to not care that this type of activity literally hurts people.

For example, I have a disease and have to pay about $500/month in prescriptions.

I dunno... just gets under my skin. But I guess overall I need to wake up and smell the coffee that traditional advertising is probably dead.

Anyway, lively debates are always good ;)

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Bloggeries — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:46:05 -0000

I think suggesting people is a good way to go but with a few tweaks. Possibly let people type in keywords that interest them and then match it to say a users bio or terms commonly used by that person or something to that effect. That way people will follow those that interest them and actually get engaged with twitter. Not just receive updates from people who will never engage them anyways. (Isn't that what Television is all about;it's asymmetrical).

Also the number of followers a person already has should have no bearing on what names get suggested; should be completely about the contents of the users twitter stream. That way anyone using twitter has a fair shot of being suggested simply by adding value based around a certain set of terms.

The 99.98% of early adopters being left out are the ones with the skills and knowledge to build something better. Sadly, I can see twitter being like blogger. It started the blogging movement made it incredibly popular but nobody who is anybody uses it now...

We'll all be on individually hosted Twitpress platforms of some kind. Twitter will be filled with spammy accounts that make 5-10 updates and never return kinda like blogger. Sigh.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

shokk — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:44:36 -0000

Sorry, but the whole followers numbers game is silly. Why worry about these people collecting tulips? At some point they'll realize it not worth a thing and only a few were paying attention anyway. We can only really communicate effectively with a few at a time, so everything else is lost and wasted effort.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Chris Brogan — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:58:32 -0000

I'm with Darren. The moment a bunch of people just kind of blazed past me, I realized there was gaming. And until reading this post, I wasn't really that bothered by it, but Dave's right. As links are currency and as this traffic pathing opportunity is huge, it gets sad quickly to think of how "valuable" the mechanisms are to drive more attention.

Strangely, thinking about this made me more sad than vision-filled.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

jsinkeywest — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:38:27 -0000

Google and Twitter have their favorites
The whole thing is a joke
why would a person want more followers
so they can spam them with their get rich quick schemes?
If twitter went down tomorrow like magnolia I wouldn't loose no sleep
People need to get real.
DONT follow me thanks LOL
cool article stumbled

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Don — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:14:12 -0000

Uh, now? http://code.google.com/p/ja...

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

DaveGilliland — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:13:05 -0000

Yea, but how do you stop it... or do you really want to? Best I can see is to use it for what it is worth. If enough people get tired of it, a new platform will emerge and draw new users. Don't you think?

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

DaveGilliland — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:57:54 -0000

Yea, I always new this thing could get out of hand. But, who knows how to stop it. Best I can see is to use it for what it is worth. When people get tired of being "run over".. they will look for and other platforms will emerge. don't you think?

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Eric — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:04:24 -0000

So what if some accounts are promoted. They were probably picked because they are interesting, and provide mass appeal. Why shouldn't they be rewarded? Don't be a sore loser.

Like Bijan has mentioned as well as others - it's a feature designed to help new users get started... Not a conspiracy theory to move certain people to the top.

Besides, Followers is an antiquated measure of reach... I'm sure they'll figure out a better way to rank. The fact that Dave is sitting there and refreshing his twitter page to see if he breeched 20,000 followers is kind of sad.

If I'm Twitter, I love all the attention - but everybody should just calm down.

Is it me, or are we approaching a Social Media Bubble???

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Chris Buhr — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:44:38 -0000

I suggest it breaks down like this. (a) For some, it's a question of economics. There are individuals and companies using Twitter to increase web traffic, or to perpetuate a brand. Clearly being on the recommended list is a marketing coup. (b) For others, it's ego. These people have 'worked' for months to gain thousands of followers, and resent newcomers whose preferential treatment helps them rapidly ascend the ranks to the highest echelon of Twitter popularity.

There may be a few others who stand to gain nothing financially, and who claim not to be motivated by ego. Of these, I can only say they fall into category, (c), which is irrationality.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Rex Hammock — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:29:24 -0000

That's a question just like the asked in high school. ; )

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

dave — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:33:26 -0000

When will there be an instance we can try out?

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

fpaynter — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:22:13 -0000

We could call it Fonzi's Law.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Stuart — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:06:38 -0000

I'm willing to bet that 99% of people with over 5K followers who are getting bent out of shape about this are using supplemental means to inflate their follower counts much more quickly than they normally would. So in that light crying foul on the Twitter suggested users feature seems a bit disingenuous.

By summer you'll see 1,000s of people with over 20K followers - and there will be no requirement of quality or substance for them to reach that point. The more people use the automated tools to auto-follow, monitor for keywords, and bulk follow/unfollow with churn rates above 2,000 people a day -- all the numbers on Twitter are rapidly becoming separate from any real-world meaning.

I'd rather have 100 people follow me that actually read my tweets and interact with me, than 10K people following me who each have 10K people they follow and everything gets lost in the shuffle.

I unfollowed 4,000 people yesterday because it just doesn't make any sense to try and have a large #following / #followers.

Re: Why it's time to break out of Twitter (Scripting News)

Don — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:03:20 -0000

What about JaikuEngine as a way forward?

http://jaikido.blogspot.com...