Twitterpated
Posted on March 23, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 17 Comments
I just got a Twitter account (screenname: scalzi) so any of you Twitterphiles who want to add me to your friends lists (or whatever they call them on Twitter), feel free.
Posted on March 23, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 17 Comments
I just got a Twitter account (screenname: scalzi) so any of you Twitterphiles who want to add me to your friends lists (or whatever they call them on Twitter), feel free.
Category: Uncategorized
Taunting the tauntable since 1998
John Scalzi, proprietor – JS
Athena Scalzi, editor – AMS
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Oh, metoometoometoo.
It took me a good six months of puttering before I established a comfort level.
If it occurs to me to tweet, the rest of the thought process goes like this:
If I think it’s interesting, and I believe there’s a nonzero chance that someone will give a damn, and it can be crammed into 140 characters, then into the ether it’s flung.
Welcome to Twitter! You’ll probably have a bazillion followers in no time, even if you never tweet beyond the first two.
W00t, you’re on Twitter!
Twitter I think of as delayed, broadcast IM. Or world-broadcast texting. I don’t have a cellphone to Twitter with, though if I did, I would Twitter more often.
TwitterTools is a WP plugin I use to automatically tweet new blog entries.
And the various desktop clients (Twitterific or TWhirl) help a bit in catching up, and reminding one to Twitter.
I’ve had delayed conversations with some great people on Twitter. @UserName in the message is a special way to reply to other people’s Tweets. Recently people also use #tag to tag tweets for somethin’-or-other.
Twitter is great even to just follow what’s going on in specific places on the Twitt-o-sphere. For me, I like to know what distant friends are doing.
Hope you enjoy! Twittering is not necessarily for all, but I hope it is for you.
Here are some interesting people I follow on Twitter:
BarackObama (yes, it is indeed him! Doesn’t Twitter often, but it’s nice when he does.)
doshdosh (of DoshDosh.com fame, one of the most engaging Twitterfolks around)
problogger (of Problogger.net fame, though he mostly provides previews of what’s going to go on his sites, including his Digital Photography one, as well as Tweeting job postings on the ProBlogger boards from time to time.)
wilw (Wil Wheaton! He twitters life best of anybody I know)
TwitterLit (1st lines of a bunch of random books twice a day! Also provides link to Amazon page of said book)
warrenellis (the great Warren Ellis, the reason I joined Twitter. I love his tweets, they are awesome)
Othar (dunno if you want to; he’s one of the best examples of TwitterFic going around and abouts. From the folks who created Girl Genius.)
scalzi (nach)
I do not Twitter as much as I should. If I do, it’s to share links (there’s a lot of that going around with Twitter). And I really do need to surf Twitter more and find more folks; they do find me.
Any of y’all, follow me and I shall follow you. Unless you twitter, like, every second. :)
Heh, I should leave my twitter account.
http://www.twitter.com/ArachneJericho
Capitalization does matter on Twitter.
And how could I forget:
BadAstronomer (the one, the only, Bad Astronomer of Bad Astronomy fame. His blog is awesome for those who want to learn more about all things astronomical.)
I’m PixelFish on Twitter (although I kinda pay attention to my Twitter account about once a week comparatively.)
I added you.
BTW, to leave messages for people you can just type @username at the start of the message. :)
I’m also PixelFish on Utterz, which is kinda like Twitter in that you use your phone, but you can call in with your voice or send pics and video from your camera phone.
I hate twitter. Mac software developers with blogs have been twittering instead of blogging, removing a useful source of knowledge.
It was bad enough when Mac/Objective-C programming discussions went from a few central newsgroups and mailing lists to a vaguely defined bunch of blogs. Now they’ve dwindled into tweets.
“Friends lists”? Please. That’s so 1999 LJ. It’s “bunch of Twits”.
Jon H. – If I’m on the web, I tend not to use Twitter. I used Twitter and Utterz while running around with the cell. (Although my boyfriend called a moratorium on voice Utterz after I narrated a particularly harrowing drive through a blizzard. He said the narration was making him nervous.)
On Twitter “friends” are called “followers,” which frankly i find kind of creepy. Granted, not quite creepy to prevent me having my own Twitter, but still, a little creepy.
I haven’t really investigated Twitter for myself as I don’t text message very much, but I know that on other blogs, Wil Wheaton’s for example, there is a sidebar with that individual’s Twitter entries/broadcasts. Is there a Twitter sidebar application for your Whatever?
The sidebar and other neat things come with Twitter Tools.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/
@Jon H 7:
Twitter serves RSS feeds for each individual user on demand (I actually use this in one case because to follow would be… awkward).
Twitter is a great platform for pared-down status updates.
Ooh, goody — even *more* ways to stay glued to my Twitter feed.
If you’re not already, you might try using the Twhirl client — makes the whole Twitter experience better/easier.
ben wrote: “Twitter is a great platform for pared-down status updates.”
I am not a server. I don’t need a logging mechanism.
John, for some reason your tweets refuse to show up on my timeline now that I’m “following” you. Annoying, that.
I tend to say something on it about once a week. Just too many social network options these days!
Karen, Twitter is weird sometimes with the following; I’ve seen that issue before. Something to do with how Twitter is constructed.
Here is what I do:
1. Visit person’s twitter home page (http://www.twitter.com/UserName and caps matter)
2. Click the button under their pic and choose to unfollow them.
3. Let the magic fady effects resolve.
4. Click the button under their pic to follow them again.
5. Let the magic fady effects resolve.
Following people from anywhere other their Twitter home has not been reliable for me. On their own home page, ’tis fine.