@replygate #twitterfail #fixreplies #andallthat

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole @reply controversy (#twitterfail or #fixreplies). There is no question that my Twitter stream is a lot quieter these days. I find myself wondering what and who I'm missing out on as people I follow chunter away with others I don't know. Visible direct replies were like a door that would swing open to allow a brief glimpse of what was happening in the next room. Sometimes I went through and joined them, sometimes I didn't. Now that Twitter have tightened the hinges, that option is no longer available and the oppurtunities to learn and expand my network has been lessened.

However, now that I've had time to get used to the idea, I'm beginning to see some benefits.

For instance, I know that a lot of people who follow me aren't interested in football. While I'm not the world's most vociferous football Tweeter, I do enjoy watching a game on the sofa with my iPod Touch, chatting with others who are enjoying the same game as me. These days I no longer feel as though I'm burdening non-football folk with my guff.  Most of my soccer tweets take the form of conversations and replies with other people who like football and its unlikely that my non-football 'followers' would be following them too (to follow one football nut maybe regarded as a misfortune. To follow two seems like carelessness).

Knowing that I'm not burdening people with half conversations about things they're not interested in has allowed me to tweet with a bit more freedom. If Twitter is an enormous party, at least I no longer have to worry about being the loud mouthed football bore that everyone can hear from the kitchen.

Furthermore, if the Twitterverse could evolve a convention whereby you can reply publicly by adding characters prior to the "@" then we'd have the best of both worlds. Add character(s) if you want to share the secret of World Peace, don't add character(s) if you only want to share your thoughts on the modern interpretation of the offside trap. Another option is do what the admirably level headed Lee Stacey suggests and mention the person you're talking to in your tweet rather than use a direct reply.

Unfortunately, I've not detected such a convention emerging in my network which means that I either need to expand my network, or people are waiting for Twitter to put things back the way things were. How likely it is that this feature will return in quite the same way is not certain so we may have to make do and and mend instead.

tag: Twitter, #twitterfail, #fixreplies, football

Posted via email from redduffman