
The Argument Machine - __chrismc
http://powazek.com/posts/3368
======
jcutrell
There's a lot of this that I agree with, but there's also a lot of it that is
limited by personal experience. I for one have never had a fight on Twitter -
the closest thing being when I complained about my poor Comcast service - so I
can't say I resonate with all of these things.

However, something that should be pointed out: brevity is not inherently the
cause for misunderstanding. Brevity is a constraint. Don't try to say hard
things in fewer words if you don't understand wit. And, perhaps as
importantly, don't say witty things who don't understand them. This is a
lesson every good marketing class will teach you, and Ogilvy preached:

"Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious
jargon."

But, I suppose when you force the masses to be brief, they won't think of
Ogilvy.

~~~
fraying
True! Brevity is only one part of the equation. But it's clear that being
unable to explain yourself completely is one ingredient of a hot
misunderstanding pie.

------
petercooper
I think a lot of the antagonism you _see_ from certain open source communities
comes from Twitter nowadays. (That is, angry debates exist everywhere, but it
leaks out of Twitter better than someone going crazy in an IRC channel.)

Ten years ago, you had to write a blog post and hit publish.. and that gave
you a chance to reflect and retract. But now you can tap out a gut reaction to
the latest drama and keep the feedback loop going.

This is all just based on personal observation and therefore unscientific, but
I suspect most communities have similar levels of antagonism between members
and topics up for internal conflict. Those communities whose members are
communicating more on Twitter, however, have dramas that rumble on for longer
and get more external coverage than those sheltered away on private mailing
lists and IRC channels.

~~~
fraying
Yes! This.

------
VLM
"But every time I see some innocuous tweet spawn another long, bile-filled
thread of awfulness, I become less interested in tweeting."

He's giving us the answer we all want to hear; what we appeal to. Reality of
course is the opposite, and manufactured drama attracts a lot better than
education, for example.

The article's argument is something like if people wanted to learn something
they'd go to wikipedia or stack exchange, but they don't, they want to read
(manufactured) drama. So twitter makes money off them. It would be a much
harder sell for twitter to move into SE or wikipedia's turf, so they don't and
shouldn't if they want to make money.

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TeMPOraL
> _" If Twitter cared about avoiding arguments, there are so many things they
> could do: remove the outdated character limit, let us edit tweets, create
> progressive circles of privacy, don’t let retweets out of our networks, slow
> the whole thing down, and encourage smaller communities."_

If they try to do this, they may as well tell their users to move to Facebook
and close shop.

Twitter is what it is precisely because of, not in spite of, these
"limitations". Like most new media it's defined in terms of constraints it
has. Without them, Twitter will be no different than everything else.

~~~
fraying
I realize that. Writing that sentence gave me a cold chill. But I kept it in
because I thought it was important to list some solutions, even if they were
things Twitter would never do.

Still, I think there are ways a community tool could be designed to discourage
angry arguments without becoming Facebook, which has its share of problems,
too.

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CurtMonash
I was hoping this would be a Monty Python reference.

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gngeal
_So you set out to create a device that would ensnare normal, rational people
and turn them into ranting lunatics._

You mean like a mosque or a church? _ducks_

~~~
skj
Unfortunately people don't start out rational. It's something they have to be
taught.

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schenecstasy
How dare he post this on his personal blog? That post is the property of
Medium.

~~~
fraying
I posted it there, too. [https://medium.com/from-powazek-
com/ff85e8c2b2f7](https://medium.com/from-powazek-com/ff85e8c2b2f7)

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auggierose
Is "supervillian" an actual word?

~~~
hyperpape
I think so:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervillain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervillain)

