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shifuimam · Mar 18, 2009, 08:37 AM

This whole thread is becoming more and more amusing with every post.

I have never understood the appeal of Twitter. People must think damn highly of themselves to believe that everyone around them gives a crap about what they're doing every second of every day. It just seems like the Internet in general in the past decade has played a huge part in turning us all into self-involved, selfish tools. I mean, I get that blogging does that, too, but at least with blogging you're not attempting to constantly inform the world of your goings-on...

- - e r i k - - · Mar 18, 2009, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

I mean, I get that blogging does that, too, but at least with blogging you're not attempting to constantly inform the world of your goings-on...

shifuimam @ 11:33pm
I got an email tonight from the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library informing me that my library card expires in eleven days.

Sad, sad day.

Kids, I've had this card since I was like ten years old. I have my damn library card number memorized!

And now I'm going to lose that number forever, unless I pony up the $65 for a non-resident IMCPL card.

'Tis the end of an era...

starman · Mar 18, 2009, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

This whole thread is becoming more and more amusing with every post.

I have never understood the appeal of Twitter. People must think damn highly of themselves to believe that everyone around them gives a crap about what they're doing every second of every day. It just seems like the Internet in general in the past decade has played a huge part in turning us all into self-involved, selfish tools. I mean, I get that blogging does that, too, but at least with blogging you're not attempting to constantly inform the world of your goings-on...

....which is exactly what people thought of blogging when it first started. "Oh, let me tell you about my breakfast". It evolved.

Dakar V · Mar 18, 2009, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by starman

....which is exactly what people thought of blogging when it first started. "Oh, let me tell you about my breakfast". It evolved.

Which is what personal blogs still feel like. The places where blogs have taken off are technical or sports opinion blogs. (IMO, of course)

"Oh, let me tell you about my breakfast" is a great line, though.

shifuimam · Mar 18, 2009, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Hey, I never said I didn't have a personal blog. I don't, however, write posts every fifteen minutes outlining whatever mundane day-to-day thing I'm doing at the time. Not to mention that my LJ is way more personal than anything else I have online. I use it more as my own log/diary, which is why 99% of my posts are friends only or private.

And it does suck that I'm losing my library card number. It's like when you finally memorize your credit card number, and then you get auto-upgraded to a Platinum card with a new number.

Originally Posted by Dakar V

Which is what personal blogs still feel like. The places where blogs have taken off are technical or sports opinion blogs. (IMO, of course)

Indeed. Blogs about your random goings-on don't generally get a big following. Blogs with something worth reading do.

- - e r i k - - · Mar 18, 2009, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

Indeed. Blogs about your random goings-on don't generally get a big following. Blogs with something worth reading do.

Now replace the word Blog with the appropriate Twitter-equivalent and you might start to realise something.

shifuimam · Mar 18, 2009, 10:34 AM

I don't see how you can get anything worth reading in a 140-character limit. I like reading blogs with actual content, like political and social commentaries. Twitter is just way too devoid of content for me.

I mean, obviously there's a market for it - it's plenty popular. I just don't see any appeal in it for myself.

turtle777 · Mar 18, 2009, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

I don't see how you can get anything worth reading in a 140-character limit. I like reading blogs with actual content, like political and social commentaries. Twitter is just way too devoid of content for me.

I mean, obviously there's a market for it - it's plenty popular. I just don't see any appeal in it for myself.

I think it would have been great if the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library had twittered the whole world that your library card was about to expire. We need to know this stuff ASAP.

-t

Dakar V · Mar 18, 2009, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

I don't see how you can get anything worth reading in a 140-character limit. I like reading blogs with actual content, like political and social commentaries. Twitter is just way too devoid of content for me.

I mean, obviously there's a market for it - it's plenty popular. I just don't see any appeal in it for myself.

I find Twitter to be about brevity.
When dealing with boring persona blogs, that's a huge plus.

starman · Mar 18, 2009, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

I don't see how you can get anything worth reading in a 140-character limit. I like reading blogs with actual content, like political and social commentaries. Twitter is just way too devoid of content for me.

I mean, obviously there's a market for it - it's plenty popular. I just don't see any appeal in it for myself.

Content isn't about length, it's about saying the right thing the right way.

(see what I did there?)

It's also about asking people in your COMMUNITY about something and getting an immediate response.

Railroader · Mar 18, 2009, 01:38 PM

Brevity has its place.

shifuimam · Mar 18, 2009, 05:51 PM

I'm not saying that there isn't a demand for it...like anything else that's popular, while I may not think it's useful or cool, it's obvious by observation that others do.

I signed up for Twitter when I started my new job, because everyone else at work uses it. I check it once in awhile to see if there are updates from various sys admins on dev servers being down or whatnot, but otherwise it's just kind of...eh.

Warren Pease · Mar 19, 2009, 07:54 PM

SXSW is a lot of fun in general. Used to live in Austin, and it was always fun to see some good movies and catch some good shows. In addition to all the badge stuff, there are a ton of free shows and parties that cost nothing. If you're not super-picky (aka music writer) there's a lot of stuff to entertain and enjoy.

Will probably try to get work to pay my way for the interactive end of festival. Sad I missed the sproutcore stuff

...

On twitter, it's always fun to see how much you can cram into 140 characters. Makes your writing more interesting and concise. I never talk with friends on the phone, only use it to make arrangements to meet up later and talk face-to-face. Twitter allows you to post things while you're thinking about them, and can be a subject of conversation later...

- - e r i k - - · Mar 19, 2009, 08:05 PM

Don't worry, it took me a long time to "get" Twitter fully too. You need to make it work for you - no matter what you want from it.

This is pretty accurate and hilarious:
http://current.com/items/89891774/su...h_twitters.htm

Dakar V · Mar 20, 2009, 12:53 PM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

This is pretty accurate and hilarious:
http://current.com/items/89891774/su...h_twitters.htm

When the Fail Whale showed up, I started to lose it.

starman · Mar 24, 2009, 03:54 PM

Twitter isn't all about "what are you doing?". Follow the right people, and you get updates and links much faster than in your RSS feed.

eg: I'm sitting here (home sick...cough cough) and noticed that a friend of mine posted a link to an article about the future of Netflix. I also just got a tweet from Trent Reznor about updates to the NIN|JA site. In fact, following Trent is what got me into the new NIN|JA site the instant it opened.

So I think maybe some of you need to rethink Twitter. And btw: that cartoon is funny, but only in the sense that it's sensationalized. Not many people tweet every 10 seconds.