6 ms·
People use twitter for announcements and then for comments on those announcements. Very few people have actual conversations. When a conversation does happen, i
by penprog 12y ago
People use twitter for announcements and then for comments on those announcements. Very few people have actual conversations. When a conversation does happen, it's usually the root poster agreeing (or disagreeing) with the person that tweeted at them. I don't see anyone going to twitter with the initial intent of conversing with someone. Nobody goes onto their computer and says "Hey I'm gonna go message this person on twitter so we can have a conversation"
Twitter isn't a conversation platform
- jacquesm 12y agoTell that to my mobile phone provider, who no longer accepts email as a viable support request path, but insists on me starting up a conversation with them on twitter or facebook (I don't have facebook, so that leaves twitter), requiring private information (so I have to 'follow' them first, and they have to 'follow' me in return), is one D away from exposing private info and in general totally unsuitable for the purpose.
- penprog 12y agoSo because your mobile phone provider is incompetent twitter is a bad platform? Who is your provider btw? That sort of bad acting should be named and shamed (on a platform like twitter perhaps?)
- jacquesm 12y agoIt was merely meant as an illustration of why some people hold 'conversations' on twitter. The provider is Vodafone.
- tweakerbee 12y agoOne simple solution: send them an old school registered letter. They'll have to read it, or at least sign for it. In that letter you can let them know how displeased you are, and announce that you will a) continue to send registered letters and b) will change telco as soon as you can.
- scrollaway 12y agoNot so much a solution or even a workaround, more of a way to take a stand.
- stormbrew 12y agoConversation (yes, often about announcements) is the main thing I use twitter for. To me twitter, at its best, is basically a giant irc channel with some filtering features. Now you've seen one. I think you're confusing emergent with wrong, tbh.
- throwawayaway 12y agototally agree. at least you can have someone moderate channels on irc though.
- pbreit 12y agoYou're just flat out wrong. That's why there's a tab dedicated to replies. Twitter conversations can be incredibly interesting and benefit all participants by being public. Twitter's setup hugely encourages @ing people in your tweets.
- taude 12y agoExcept conversations are badly broken. So many people don't hit the actual reply, so conversations get cut off, often restarted, and thus become fragmented, which makes them hard to follow and participate in. Sometimes it works. Often it doesn't. I think this is what the OP was talking about.
- hoggle 12y agoI guess it depends on which Twitter client one uses, I've never had a cut-off conversation with Echofon.
- pbreit 12y agoVast, vast majority use twitter.com or the Twitter mobile apps.
- RBerenguel 12y agoBut this is not a problem of the platform, but of how users are using the platform. I rarely have conversations on twitter (i.e. most are just a couple of replies long at most) but I occasionally have a 20+ post. If you hit proper reply, it works. If you don't, it doesn't (or does really badly), but this is a user fault, not a platform fault.
- noamyoungerm 12y agoIf users have difficulty properly using the platform, the platform is at fault. An arbitrarily naive user should never have to fight the platform to do what he wants.
- kalleboo 12y ago> I don't see anyone going to twitter with the initial intent of conversing with someone. They're you're either blind or not looking very hard. Twitter is a conversation platform. A shitty one perhaps, but one nontheless.