A couple of days ago Amy asked if I was going to join Twitter. I responded
Convince me that I need Yet Another Login For A Service That I’ll Be Incredibly Unlikely To Use? :-)
This morning, I signed up. Honestly, it’s incredibly underwhelming. For one, they really need to speed things up. Before I started typing up this post I clicked Amy’s “request to follow me” link. It’s still loading. Adding an update or tweet or whatever the hell…
Break in the action. Amy’s “request to follow me” link finally did something. It loaded a blank page. Did it go through? Was there an error? It’s a mystery! I’m going to click it again and hopefully not spam her a second time.
…it’s called took a couple of minutes to go through. This is…
Great, now Amy’s twitter page isn’t even loading. This is a fantastic display of technology in action. I can’t even load their front page to see if there’s some sort of twitter blog or status report or anything that might give me some indication that this is either normal behaviour or some kind of freak occurrence. Oh wait, the front page loaded to a blank page.
So yeah, Twitter. Why should I sign up for a service that’s going to make me try to load a page, wait five minutes to see if it loaded, reload the page, get a blank screen, and generally waste my time?
#1 by TinyTony on May 15th, 2008
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My biggest problem with Twitter is that it implicitly engenders a social expectation that we need to tell people what we’re doing. It’s the modern day equivalent of your parents constantly asking where you’re going, who you’ll be with, and when you’ll be home.
I left home for a reason. So I could mature and be my own man. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to live in a perpetual state of pubescent dependence?
#2 by Zach on May 15th, 2008
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Welcome to Twitter: the site that is always down at just the wrong time! Keep this close: http://istwitterdown.com.
#3 by Alasdair Allan on May 15th, 2008
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After the first time I signed up, I’ve rarely (if ever) used the website. Instead I use Twitterific on the Mac, a much better experience.
#4 by Jemimus on May 16th, 2008
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I use the Twhirl desktop client for both Twitter and Friendfeed, which like Twitterific, and Twitterfox, are very nice to use.
The inherent value of Twitter lies in the quality of the post of people you follow, or your interest in what they have to say. If a person you follow posts too much useless information “I am eating a sandwidge” , etc, you simply unfollow them.
But remember, even if only 1 out of 10 messages is usefull for you, it still has that added value, and requires quite little mental overhead.
I have both personal friends, a-list bloggers, a number of websites and services, and many professionals that do similar work to me on Twitter.
Its already proven its value. Of the course of the day I see a stream of information I find interesting coming down via my desktop client. Work-related posts that other sysadmins put up, are often response-worthy, and we often end up having mini-conversations about these topics.
What is your username on Twitter?
I am at: http://www.twitter.com/jemimus
#5 by Amy on May 16th, 2008
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For the few people I follow (with 1-2 exceptions they’re all people I count as offline friends) it’s like having a secret snark line. A few seconds at the website or using my cell phone and blammo! snark distributed.
#6 by Ms. Canspice on May 16th, 2008
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Jemimus, before you attempt something as complicated as an argument in favor of using Twitter please learn some basic spelling and grammar. I had to read your post three times in order to understand everything you said.
Consider the inherent value of word processing software that includes spelling and grammar checking.
#7 by Sam on May 19th, 2008
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You’ll need to read why twitter matters and you don’t.
Some choice excerts
obey Obey OBEY !
#8 by Garrett Nafzinger on June 30th, 2008
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I wrote a blog post at http://www.nafzinger.com which talks about understanding and engaging with Twitter. Feel free to take a look.
Garrett
#9 by Chris on July 3rd, 2008
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A friend of mine, tired of explaining Twitter over and again to people (apparently a lot of people don’t get it), wrote up her own take on Twitter: http://www.snipe.net/2008/07/what-exactly-is-the-point-of-twitter/