Twitter Abuse - Technology Evangelist

Aaron Landry put together a thorough post of everything he doesn't like about Twitter, or how Twitter is used by many people. It's worth a read if you're a Twitter user and have ever been frustrated with how some of the people you follow use the service.

Here's the short version.

Aaron doesn't like it when:

1. Public Repliers: People use the service as a public chat room where you end up seeing 1/2 of conversations.
2. Link aggregation: People dumping links on Twitter rather than using services like del.icio.us or Tumblr

3. Mundane situational tweets: Giving status updates on the weather, traffic, or daily complaints.

While there probably isn't an easy way to define right vs wrong when it comes to using a service like Twitter, I think many people have used it long enough to know what they'd like to get out of it.

My interests are similar to Aaron's. I like to learn something from the Tweets I receive. It could be breaking news, what my friends are doing, or stuff I find funny. Reading one sided conversations or dozens of tweets from one user turns me off, so I find other people to follow.

I also follow most people via RSS rather than SMS since hardly anyone says anything valuable enough to warrant interruptions. According to Google Reader's Trends reporting, I'm processing 123.4 tweets/day via RSS, which is just about right for my taste.

Great point, Sean. Although there is some value in sending a message to people capable of creating more valuable content than they have been. Some people respond well to unsolicited advice.

I could not disagree more on all points. Who are you, or anyone else for that matter, to decide what I tweet? I don't mean to be rude, but seriously, it's like TV, change the channel or turn it off (which you've said you do - I get that).

There are folks I follow that I don't really pay attention to. It's simple, nobody forces me to read every tweet. I basically jump in and out at will. It's usually enriching. I even barge into conversations. That's how it works. We're being social.

As far as links - are you kidding? I love the links, I almost always click them because it is generally mind-opening. It takes me places I would never have considered.

I just really am frustrated with "social-network" purists who only want Twitter and other sites to keep it in the family and only talk about social networking. That is weird. I like people and I like catching random thoughts.

If the Social Media gestapo had it's way, I wouldn't even bother with Twitter. I have made some great friends, and I mean friends in real life where we've met in person, had dinner, and talk on the phone periodically. We take care of each other. I even raised about $8k for a twitter user who was killed in a car accident. She made the most banal tweets you can imagine, but I loved them and her. Her husband and kids miss her and so do her Twitter friends.

Comments

1. Posted by: Sean on March 25, 2008 11:16 PM:

you can only complain about those kinds of things on twitter if you're following the wrong people... if you don't like conversations, you're probably not included in them.... if you don't like mundane updates, you're not interested in what that person is using twitter for...so..... unfollow... kinda of like unsubscribing from a feed you don't like reading.

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