Thoughts and Opinions - NOOOO (Twitter)

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NOOOO (Twitter)

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Category: News And Views
Forum Name: Thoughts and Opinions
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URL: http://www.tippmannsports.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=180902
Printed Date: 05 February 2025 at 9:39pm
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Topic: NOOOO (Twitter)

Posted By: mbro
Subject: NOOOO (Twitter)
Date Posted: 20 March 2009 at 11:55pm

I have said in http://tippmann.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=179530&KW=twitter&PID=2562790#2562790 - past threads that I have no idea what the point of twitter is. In order to figure out exactly what this thing is I decided a month or so ago to force myself to actually use the site to see what it was all about. I planned to use it then write a humorous article about my experience. Sadly a guy http://www.joethepeacock.com/2009/03/ultimate-guide-to-twitter.php - beat me to it (full text below if the site goes down). His article basically sums up everything I noticed with the site. I get two emails a day from the same two 'social networking experts' who follow and refollow me over and over again in hopes that I will finally just click follow on their profile so they can boost their number of followers. I have no idea how they find who they are following but aren't following them based on what is on the site but they do it.

THERE IS NO POINT TO TWITTER. IT MUST DIE.

This is what I learned.

The text of the article linked to above (it's getting digged and farked right now)

3.20.2009:
The Ultimate Guide To Twitter
2:16 AM

So, after spending a week exploring all the facets of Twitter after more than tripling my followers in 48 hours, I've become quite the expert on the darling of the social networking media marketing blitz thing whatever. I guess since MySpace died and all the kids left, it got boring reporting on predators talking to themselves (and stripperbots), so the media jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. (I could continue linking well into this sentence, but am now bored with finding links.)

And so, it seems, has everyone else. Tons of celebrities and social media experts and bloggers and SEO giants and other people who really have nothing else to do all day but think about themselves in 140 characters or less and share with everyone the enormity of those thoughts are on Twitter. And so, here's my Ultimate Guide to Twitter, for everyone who is considering hopping on the tool and formulating their Twitter strategy to fame and fortune.

First off, It's important to note that, if you actually have a Twitter Strategy, you're an idiot. This isn't an insult, it's just a statement of fact, and the more we know about ourselves as people, the more we can grow and evolve and achieve oneness. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but better you hear it from me than from someone you actually care about. The fact that you can't just enjoy a service for the silliness of it and actually decided to build a "strategy" around it exposes you for who you are. I'm honor-bound to point it out to you. You're welcome.

Now, in formulating your Twitter Strategy, you should decide if you're going to take the slow, arduous, hard-fought path of amassing tons of people who don't give a rip about you and only follow you in the hopes you'll follow them back so they can grow THEIR numbers, or if you'll take the quick and easy path and follow the top Twitterers who follow you back, insult them in various ways so they reply with your name, and watch your ranks swell.

You'll probably pick #2. It's the quick path to self-perceived glory, so I really have no doubt that that's what you'll do. I kinda did it the hard way, and I recommend the easy way. Why? Because no matter what you do, you will end up following these people anyway. It will happen. Just watch. And once you do, you'll figure out what I've figured out:

Twitter, by and large, is a gigantic circle-jerk of marketing and SEO "Experts" and conservative Republican deleted all together retards, all tweeting and following one another in the hopes that they'll get followed back to make their numbers look great, then go off and sell their strategies to companies. Oh, and Barack Obama.

There you go. That's all you need to know about Twitter in a nutshell, if you're planning on using it in a strategy of some sort.

If you're not, basically Twitter is a service where you can let people know when you're pooping, eating, or have a clever witticism which you will inevitably butcher so that it fits into 140 characters, confusing everyone. And by everyone, I mean the friends of yours who don't mind knowing all of these things and decide to follow you, which are the same friends who already know all these things about you, which means it'll get boring eventually. Until one of you follow Trent Reznor or one of the Marketing / SEO "experts" or one of the wingnut republican dumbos and the whole cycle described above starts up.

Enjoy!

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Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

Replies:

Posted By: Tical3.0
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 12:02am

lol

Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 12:04am

I use one at work to get news updates out.

I agree with you though, it is absolutely useless and idiotic. I hate it so much. Sadly, though, the general public loves it, and I have to accept it as a medium people will read news updates through.

Oh well.

Posted By: mbro
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 12:19am

agentwhale007 wrote:

I use one at work to get news updates out.

What about a normal RSS feed that allows you to use more than just 140 retarded characters?

I agree with you though, it is absolutely useless and idiotic. I hate it so much. Sadly, though, the general public loves it, and I have to accept it as a medium people will read news updates through.Oh well.

I don't think the general public accepts it yet. How many non journalism majors do you know that use it? I can name one and I know a decent amount of people in my city. It is a media fad.

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Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 6:04am

MBro, the average population is too retarded for RSS feeds

Posted By: sinisterNorth
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 7:20am

I can't stand it. The fraternity I'm in uses one and it's just a pain.

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Pumpker'd; (V.) When a pump player runs up and shoots you at point blank range because you thought 20bps made you good.

Posted By: Benjichang
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 11:25am

I too, have never seen the utility of Twitter.

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irc.esper.net
#paintball

Posted By: MeanMan
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 12:05pm

Facebook pisses me off enough with all the friend updates. Do people TRY to spell things wrong, just to anger me? I swear, theyre like 5th graders that cant make a sentence.

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hybrid-sniper~"To be honest, if I see a player still using an Impulse I'm going to question their motives."

Posted By: WGP guy2
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 2:25pm

MeanMan wrote:

people TRY to spell things wrong, just to anger me? I swear, theyre like 5th graders that cant make a sentence.

Yes.

If there is one thing I can thank this forum for, it is showing me that good grammar and spelling is still required on the internet. In fact, I have learned most of my grammar knowledge from being on this forum.

Posted By: mod98commando
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 3:06pm

mbro wrote:

What about a normal RSS feed that allows you to use more than just 140 retarded characters?

Thank you, my thoughts exactly. When I found out what twitter was, I thought it was one of the most pointless things in the world and I think less of everyone that uses it just for personal updates. My friend made an account on twitter so he can use it for updates on his website which is forgivable but I still wouldn't do it. It's just an entire website wrapped around the concept of an RSS feed only they gimped it with a low character limit and turned it into a lame fad.

choopie911 wrote:

MBro, the average population is too retarded for RSS feeds

Well then they can either broaden their knowledge a smidge or be left out. When I started college I wanted to get an old firebird and turn it into a nice car. I knew nothing about cars when I bought it, but now I'm teaching myself what I need to know in order to restore my car. If people can't learn to use something as simple as an RSS feed, they don't deserve it.

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oreomann33: Everybody invades Poland

Rofl_Mao: And everyone eats turkey

Me: But only if they're hungary

Mack: Yeah but hungary people go russian through their food and end up with greece on everyth

Posted By: Gator Taco
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 3:11pm

I despise the new Facebook homepage. I've recently pretty much left myspace in exchange for Facebook. Now I don't have to be blinded by ugly multicolored flashing layouts and have my ears raped by what my friends "music".

I have no need for another social networking site.

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http://www.last.fm/user/trailgator01 - last.fm

Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 3:12pm

mod98commando wrote:

mbro wrote:

What about a normal RSS feed that allows you to use more than just 140 retarded characters?

Thank you, my thoughts exactly. When I found out what twitter was, I
thought it was one of the most pointless things in the world and I
think less of everyone that uses it just for personal updates. My
friend made an account on twitter so he can use it for updates on his
website which is forgivable but I still wouldn't do it. It's just an
entire website wrapped around the concept of an RSS feed only they
gimped it with a low character limit and turned it into a lame fad.

choopie911 wrote:

MBro, the average population is too retarded for RSS feeds

Again, you're an average person. Theres a significant chunk of the population that is a lot less intelligent, motivated, capable, etc than you are.

Posted By: High Voltage
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 3:14pm

WGP guy2 wrote:

MeanMan wrote:

people TRY to spell things wrong, just to anger me? I swear, theyre like 5th graders that cant make a sentence.

Yes.

If there is one thing I can thank this forum for, it is showing me that good grammar and spelling is still required on the internet. In fact, I have learned most of my grammar knowledge from being on this forum.

That is sad.

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Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 3:44pm

mbro wrote:

agentwhale007 wrote:

I use one at work to get news updates out.

What about a normal RSS feed that allows you to use more than just 140 retarded characters?

I don't think the general public accepts it yet. How many non journalism majors do you know that use it? I can name one and I know a decent amount of people in my city. It is a media fad.

1) People are not as responsive to our RSS feed. We have one, it's just not used much. The way we measure it is the Web site traffic. When I send out Twitter updates on news and sports, we get a traffic spike. Nothing when we just use the local content RSS dispatch.

2) General public, maybe not. But my audience is college students at a 50k+ major university, which is the key demographic that uses Twitter. Tons and tons of people here use Twitter on a regular basis. Maybe it is just a regional thing, but it is popular here. Our sports Twitter account has a lot of subscribers.

Posted By: mbro
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 8:41pm

http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDBlog=69 - Drew from Fark.com's take on the twitter fad. I still do not get this.

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Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

Posted By: Peter Parker
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 8:45pm

I have never twitted, but that won't stop me from forming an opinion. My initial take on it is that:

twitter::blogs
as
SMS::email

Seems like it might serve a purpose for folk who don't have computers and live entirely by their phones. Otherwise, kind of silly.

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"E Pluribus Unum" does not mean "Every man for himself".

Pop Quiz: What do all the Framers of the Constitution have in common?

Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 8:46pm

Peter: your comparison is correct, but the question is: Who cares?

Why does anyone care what I'm doing? How is this interesting:

"At the foodcourt"

"decided on subway"

"is eating in the mez"

"is in class till 6"

Who cares?

Posted By: Peter Parker
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 8:56pm

It's not.

And neither is anything on Facebook, MySpace, and 99% of blogs.

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"E Pluribus Unum" does not mean "Every man for himself".

Pop Quiz: What do all the Framers of the Constitution have in common?

Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 9:02pm

Peter Parker wrote:

It's not.

And neither is anything on Facebook, MySpace, and 99% of blogs.

That's just because you have no friends

Posted By: Peter Parker
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 9:06pm

lol - actually, I was horrified when a law school classmate of mine asked me if I was on Facebook yet. Then she told me that most of my class has now joined. I am officially a holdout.

I can actually see some theoretical benefit to Facebook, but I have yet to see any FB/MS page that was anything other online navel-gazing.

I do belong to LinkedIn, which has turned out to be quite productive and useful. Same concept, just with an actual structure and goal.

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"E Pluribus Unum" does not mean "Every man for himself".

Pop Quiz: What do all the Framers of the Constitution have in common?

Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 9:08pm

Peter: to me Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with friends I grew up with/ went to highschool with, but now don't see since I don't live in the same city. It's also perfect for planning events, such as pub nights, new years, a bbq,etc

also, a convenient way to share photos and videos from these events/ trips after the fact, all on the same website.

Posted By: Peter Parker
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 9:14pm

... and that would be the use I could see. Certainly hosting this information in some fashion is easier than endless emails.

When it is a collaboration tool I can certainly see the value. But am I wrong to think that much of the usage is not that productive?

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"E Pluribus Unum" does not mean "Every man for himself".

Pop Quiz: What do all the Framers of the Constitution have in common?

Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 9:19pm

You're spot on the money. Facebook is largely just a procrastination tool, with very occasional constructive applications.

Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 9:23pm

Peter Parker wrote:

But am I wrong to think that much of the usage is not that productive?

If you think looking at bikini pictures of attractive coworkers and classmates isn't productive, then sure.

Posted By: Peter Parker
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 9:40pm

agentwhale007 wrote:

attractive coworkers and classmates

I have heard rumors that such things exist. They remain unconfirmed.

(ok, that was both obvious and a little mean. but hey - it's the internet.)
(EDIT - btw, the classmate in question posed in Playboy back in the day. But that probably isn't important for this discussion.)

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"E Pluribus Unum" does not mean "Every man for himself".

Pop Quiz: What do all the Framers of the Constitution have in common?

Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 9:41pm

agentwhale007 wrote:

Peter Parker wrote:

But am I wrong to think that much of the usage is not that productive?

If you think looking at bikini pictures of attractive coworkers and classmates isn't productive, then sure.

Totally guilty.

Posted By: Tical3.0
Date Posted: 23 March 2009 at 11:18pm

choopie911 wrote:

agentwhale007 wrote:

Peter Parker wrote:

But am I wrong to think that much of the usage is not that productive?

If you think looking at bikini pictures of attractive coworkers and classmates isn't productive, then sure.

Totally guilty.

Was litterally just doing that...

Posted By: Benjichang
Date Posted: 31 March 2009 at 2:45pm

I was incredibly bored today in Human Diversity, and ended up making a Twitter account for the hell of it. I know I'm probably going to cancel it after awhile, but I decided I can't criticize something without trying it first.

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irc.esper.net
#paintball

Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 31 March 2009 at 2:51pm

Seriously guys, can we keep a closer eye on the language in stuff we're posting?

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?

Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 31 March 2009 at 3:51pm

Heck I even cancelled my last.fm since I didn't see the point.

Posted By: procarbinefreak
Date Posted: 31 March 2009 at 5:44pm

Peter Parker wrote:

agentwhale007 wrote:

attractive coworkers and classmates

there are some... the fellow summer students are the best :-D