Twitter

[ciphergoth]

I joined Twitter. I'm toying with the idea of filtering for quality a lot less when I post to Twitter - forward every link that briefly entertains me, Twitter about the slightest minutae of the day that amuses me to share. I generally find it hard to post now for some reason unless I think I've something worth posting, which is one reason why nearly all of my posts are public.

Those of you who have been there a while - what sort of Twittering is too much, outside the range of Twitter etiquette? Please don't say "post what you like" unless that's just what you mean - I do want to know what people actually think.

(Oh, also I might decide to do it and then not get around to it...)

Comments

[aidan-skinner.livejournal.com]

I'd probably draw the line at bowel movements, unless they're particularly interesting.

[phantas.livejournal.com]

you would be surprised how frequent they seemed to appear a while ago on my friends' tweets: apparently there was some kind of mischievous virus doing the rounds a month or so ago.

[aidan-skinner.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure norovirus would get many points on QI

[phantas.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. I'm pretty sure one of the people I follow that mentioned such things was a certain Stephen Fry while he was in Africa, I think...

[shadowdaddy.livejournal.com]

I couldn't let that comment pass without resurrecting this:

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/23/

never writing anything

[a-rob-z.livejournal.com]

I think you have a mild form of what I have - I never post anything because I never am quite sure that I have something worthwhile saying. Not ever going to twitter - I have enough trouble with this. I have almost certainly deleted ten times more words than I have ever posted and am literally hovering on ctrl-a del as I write now. Obsessively re-editing, I changed that twice then went back. This one is almost certainly too long, but I type fast sometimes.

For example anyway I just noticed the clock on my computer was ticking. Then I realised it was just in time with the ticking clock on the shelf next to the computer. Now was that worth saying. Not sure. I have a feeling the train of consciousness thing is reaching its sell by.

Re: never writing anything

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten into Twitter yet...though probably shall several years after everyone else. I know that in LJ I enjoy keeping in touch, and often find the diary type posts the most interesting.

[actionreplay.livejournal.com]

I post any shite I like to my LJ using the conventional means. Please do post whatever you wish. Don't feel you have a readership to 'entertain'.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Personally (and this is just me), if you average more than four posts a day I think you're being verbose ... one of my Twitter "friends" posts about 30 tweets a day, and I'm about to stop following him/her as it's just annoying ... it's like a person who says everything they are thinking ... stream of (un)consciousness ...

... I probably average around the one->two tweets a day, some days more, some days none. Which probably shows I don't use it enough.

[prolificdiarist.livejournal.com]

I Twitter a lot - http://twitter.com/inspirewithhope

I worry sometimes that I Twitter too much, but then I realised I don't mind if people follow me or not, so I just say what I want, for the most part. If it's too frequent/annoying/other for people, that's fine with me.

So, I guess the first question (for me) is are you thinking about Twittering more because you want to write or because you want people to read it? If it's the former, than I think just Twittering what you feel like is fine. Does that make sense?

Oh, and it depends if you want people to reply or not. If you'd like replies/interaction/conversation, that can be hard to manage if you post a lot. (By a lot I mean maybe two or three times in a minute; stuff like that). But then, it depends on your followers too...

I've seen so many uses of Twitter! Some people I follow post interesting thoughts in their head, some link to really interesting articles about entrepreneurship, some talk about yummy vegan food...

Anyways, I'm blathering; will stop now. Oh, except to say that looking at other people's Twittery things might help you decide, maybe?

Kx

PS If you want me to ramble on about Twitter more, I'm happy to do so! :)

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Icon love! I'm a huge Mark Titchner fan; and the more people castigate his design sense, the more I love it.

[prolificdiarist.livejournal.com]

Squeebounce!

I'm trying to find out where I can see his stuff in London; Wikipedia said two of the Tates, but not which ones, I think. Will go Googling again.

Kx

[ioerror.livejournal.com]

I think it's reasonable to twitter about whatever level of things you feel comfortable with. Some people I know only use twitter for security related stuff, sorta like old school irc (or modern day silc). Some of my friends use it for everything, almost like a tracking device and a bulk sms sending device.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lj_sucks_/]

That's what I do--post the random crap about what I'm doing, cool bumper stickers I see, random silly thoughts and the like to Twitter, and reserve my web site for actual thought-out postings.

How trivial is too trivial? Well, if you do it every day, it's probably not worth noting. But hey, it's not like anyone has to read it.

[babysimon]

I'm still trying to get my head round this. I feel like I don't want people to post more than every couple of hours on average - but bear in mind that I have no idea what I'm talking about...

[phantas.livejournal.com]

be sure to select the "@replies to the people I'm following" or you may be somewhat overwhelmed, say, on a Friday afternoon, from my side: I tend to comment friend's tweets a lot. own tweets depend a lot on the days. I did borrow something from the late Jaiku of replying to my own previous tweets; at least it means less changes of my status on Facebook.

[redcountess]

I find I'm posting more tweets now that I have TweetDeck, and I worry that I'm twittering, as it were, especially as I seem to be posting a lot more links and "I'm doing x" type posts. I guess it's something to keep an eye on.

[reddragdiva]

You need to spend more time considering yourself inherently witty and charming. Anyone can manage charm in 140 characters. Go wild with fragments.

[wildbadger.livejournal.com]

I'm slightly too perfectionist on LJ posts, and Twitter gets round that...

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

For me, regularly posting fewer than about 4 or 5 a week and you're not really visible; regularly tweeting more than 6-10 times a day seems excessive. A rough mode of 1-6 a day seems 'normal'.

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I could contribute to this, but not particularly intelligently this soon after waking up. I probably post more than many people like on LJ, so I've been able to take my 'Hey this is funny' energy and move it to Twitter.

This article is what's influenced both my using Twitter and how I use it. I think I used Livejournal for ambient awareness before, but Twitter handles a certain level of it much better than LJ. God only knows it's made me write on LJ less.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

Given that I tweet about 12 times a day against your one, I'd definitely say you had capacity to tweet more.

Twitter, IMHO, is more for the "might interest someone" fragments rather than "must be useful".

[seph-hazard.livejournal.com]

God knows I don't care. I find it possible to be interested in the most ridiculous minutae of other people's lives, especially if I have some sort of an investment/interest/etc in said life, as I do yours.

I can imagine myself using twitter more now that some sub-section of 'everyone else' is there.

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

I dont really get the Twitter thing. I dont usually bother reading Twitter posts.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

A few times a day (like 3 or four 'sessions') is fine but more than 3 in a row I think is ehhh. I am enjoying Twitter, it helps me with my verbosity problem (or that's my excuse).

Just don't push it to LJ and you'll be fine :)

[yoyoangel.livejournal.com]

My intention (although I keep forgetting) is to use Twitter as I have habitually used my Facebook status - which is to say whatever I happen to be thinking or want to announce to my friends, about 1-4 times a day.
You've just reminded me to set up the link between Twitter and Facebook, actually.

[yoyoangel.livejournal.com]

The only person I follow who I think might twitter too much is Stephen Fry!

[prolificdiarist.livejournal.com]

Heh, he does Twitter *a lot* doesn't he?!

I Twitter loads too as you'll no doubt realise soon! :)

Kx

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I think four times a day is fine. I used to find people who twittered more than that irritating, but now I follow a few very verbose twitterers and actually it turns out to be fine; I just never bother to catch up with twitter. But I do think some people prefer to follow people who don't twitter too often.

Also, you should mind the content of twitters; I am, for example, interested in the fact that you have acquired new hens, and that they have laid their first egg. But daily egg reports become wearing. (I'm mentioning this because I think the chances that the perpetrator is on your friends list is quite small). The trick with twitter is to avoid the routine.

I twitter less than I should. The other day, I clearly should have twittered "Things you don't often see on your way to work; a double decker bus impaled in the front of McDonalds". But I didn't think of it till later.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

As much as you like, and I do mean that. Twitter isn't something where people should expect to be able to read their entire feed every day anyway - it's more for dipping in and out of in odd moments - so there's no such thing as "too often." Part of the point of it for me is also to get a sense of community by sharing parts of people's lives that I don't otherwise see, so there's also no such thing as "too dull", because knowing (say) what colour trousers Doris is wearing every day gives me a little bit of the sense of familiarity with Doris that I would get from seeing her in person every day.

I haven't felt like I've had much time to twitter since the New Year - must try to do it more often, because I do enjoy it.