Comments on: Is Twitter gone mad?

By: John Tuton

John Tuton — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:08:41 +0000

Just because someone has the fortitude to use Twitter to build a list and do so by offering prizes or giveaways, does not make it uncool.

I think there just might be a bit of jealousy in your comment.

I personally commend him for doing so because that is exactly what I am doing. I am building my list using Twitter as well as the methods offered in my free report offered on my twitter account (@buildurlist).

Check it out if you would like to find out how to build a strong list.

By: @aplusk @oprah have Tweeted us away.

@aplusk @oprah have Tweeted us away. — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:53:18 +0000

[...] are now familiar with my regular cyber squatting on Pat’s blog. Today 1 year after this post we are going to see if Twitter can be mainstream and still be interesting. In last few weeks [...]

By: The Center Of The Internet » Pat Phelan on Twitter. Unfollow the popular

The Center Of The Internet » Pat Phelan on Twitter. Unfollow the popular — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:08:59 +0000

[...] – Pat Phelan – Is Twitter Gone Mad [...]

By: Frank Roche

Frank Roche — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:34:49 +0000

Brilliant post. Twitter has changed…and I like what you say about depolluting it. I’m clipping down the “broadcasters,” as you call them. They gotta go. Then it gets interesting.

By: » The Twitter enigma and the road to being uncool

» The Twitter enigma and the road to being uncool — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:56:36 +0000

[...] friend Florian Seroussi, guest blogging on Pat Phelan’s blog, asks, “Is Twitter gone mad?”. Florian, no slacker on Twitter, takes on the reigning “Twitter Kings of Follow” (my [...]

By: Florian SEROUSSI

Florian SEROUSSI — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:13:58 +0000

@Stewart I read somewhere Scoble was called Twitter whore. He liked it!! Strange right…

By: Stewart Curry

Stewart Curry — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:12:46 +0000

Looks like someone was taking your advice – I read your suggestion about using sex to get twitter followers, then later on today I find myself being followed by a “silicon valley hooker” – as these things tend to find and follow clusters of people and I follow both Pat and yourself I’m assuming you got followed too – I didn’t include the link as I don’t think there’s any merit in promoting it.

By: Florian SEROUSSI

Florian SEROUSSI — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:27:16 +0000

@dennis Twitter has caught on so much attention because they are the only one to provide real-time multi-channel conversation.
I don’t think we should expect Twitter to make the tool different. Its a behavior problem. Users must learn to share an open conversation without hijacking the ‘noise’.
@Niall I agree with everything you wrote!! But I cannot get to use Jaiku

By: Niall Larkin

Niall Larkin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:07:08 +0000

The great thing about twitter is that is is flexible enough to support two very different types of relationships and allows people to fluidly change from one to the other. For example twitter performs very well as a medium between broadcaster and audience. It also performs very well as a medium between community members.

But it can take new users a bit of time to discover this.

I’m inclined to think that many new twitter users start by following broadcasters. They have probably come to twitter because they have gained a great deal from being an audience members of some the of the big bloggers. Then as they settle into the new medium that twitter is they begin to slide towards using twitter as a medium for community. Its a natural progression in the real world. We can all be as one audience to the big game but mediate new friendships in the watching and talking about the game during and after it has occured.

Twitter as a medium has a particular form that lubricates that progression from audience to community. Think about it. Of all the short, pithy, smart remarks you have enjoyed or chuckled at in your life the vast majority of them arise within light conversational chit chat and only make sense within that context. That’s a key part of the warmth and pleasure of community. Only a very few can be taken out of context a delivered to a mass audience. That’s the downside of the fact that audiences scale but communities don’t.

When new users come to Twitter from the blogosphere, they find the same familiar and cosy social objects (scoble and kawasaki) that they know and love. Except they find that in this medium they now seem kinda noisy and a little irritating. They sometimes start remarking about this to their neighbours and this is the little irritation that is often the start of driving them towards dropping a couple of lightweight pithy remarks and before you know it they are discovering the usefulness of twitter as a lightweight tool for community.

Post script: It strike me that this is something that doesn’t really happen on jaiku..a comment in a medium that allows threading consciusly or subconsiously rewards or encourages comments that prompt conversations as opposed to throwaway remarks. And that can make all the difference…

By: Alex Bellinger

Alex Bellinger — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:04:09 +0000

Dennis, if you use ‘track’ in combination with ‘follow’ routing twitter through Gtalk – it’s very easy to see conversations. It’s also a brilliant way to discover new people having interesting conversations.

If Twitter implements track across all it’s platforms it will truly become the killer app of the naughties