

How Twitter's Staff Uses Twitter (And Why It Could Cause Problems) - ddbb
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitters_staff_may_not_use_twitter_like_you_do_tha.php

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larrywright
This article borders on ridiculous.

I unfollowed the so-called 'power users' a long time ago. People like Chris
Brogan, Scoble, Guy Kawasaki, etc. There was too much noise and not enough
signal.

For my own uses, I couldn't possibly follow 1000 people. I would much prefer
to follow a smaller number of people and be able to read all their tweets. I
currently follow around 300, most of whom tweet a handful of times each day.
Following 1000 people who update dozens of times each day doesn't seem like
it's scalable. You would either have to ignore 90% of what you saw, or spend
the majority of your day watching Twitter.

The fact that Twitter employees use Twitter in the same way that most of their
users use Twitter is not worth complaining about. It's exactly what you would
expect. The fact that a handful of people (ab)use Twitter and take it to
extremes doesn't mean that anyone else needs to.

This sort of article is exactly why tech reporting gets a bad rap.

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symesc
Couldn't agree more.

The author appears unfamiliar with how Twitter actually works pragmatically.

Anyone following more than 100-200 folks on Twitter is likely in the category
of "Filthy Marketer."

Anyone routinely posting more than 3-4 times a day is likely also in the FM
category, or is a babbler begging to be unfollowed or banished to Facebook.

The Twitter employees are using the tool in its most elegant fashion.

Article = F.

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DLWormwood
I am both disturbed and scared by the tone of this article. This user seems to
possess both a sense of entitlement to using Twitter in a manner that the
developers did not intend, and an expectation that his usage patterns (and
even his worldview regarding social behavior) are somehow either "normal" or
"ideal." People with this level of gregariousness in real life terrify me,
because they inevitably try to get over-involved in your life or disregard the
entire concept of privacy.

People like should them just _go away._ Some of us like to keep to ourselves,
and choose who we associate with, thank you very much!

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gaius
_That's just a part of it for many of the rest of us; people also use it for
serious business, for research, for alerting the public at large about
important news_

I can tell you right now, whatever those people think they're doing on
Twitter, it is neither serious nor important.

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kscaldef
So, when Portland's Office of Emergency Management uses twitter to notify
people of severe weather alerts, or the public transit system tweets about
system breakdowns, that's not serious or important? Just because you assert it
doesn't mean Twitter can't be a useful broadcast medium.

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johnm
Any reliance on that service for life-critical things is clearly delusion,
incompetence, and downright frightening.

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kscaldef
Reliance on _any_ single service for life-critical things is just as you say.

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ivankirigin
This story is ridiculously stupid (and this is coming from someone who makes a
service that favored well in this review: Tipjoy).

If anything, twitter is defined by making as open a system as possible, and
letting the community decide how to use it. I think that's awesome.

It also makes it completely irrelevant how the employees themselves use it.

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jokermatt999
It seems that the author feels like since the employees don't use it how he
uses it, his needs will not be met when they decide to meet changes. It's a
decent point (see the fury resulting from the @ reply changes), but overblown
in this article.

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dougp
Wow. Not following over 500 people and only tweeting three times a day counts
as barely using twitter.

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axod
Yeah 500 people? Come on. I have _lunch_ with more than 500 people most days.
Unless you're following 100,000+ you're a nobody with no friends, and nobody
likes you. And unless you tweet at least every 10 minutes of your life
(including sleep - set your alarm - I do), you're letting yourself, and
humanity down. Now go up to your bedroom, and think long+hard about what sort
of person you want to be. A nobody? or a twelebrity!!!1!1£

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mmc
Honest question - what exactly does a "professional networker" do? Who pays
them, and for what?

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axod
I think it's the tech equivalent of an "it girl" in celeb-circles.

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redorb
Just had an idea, create a service, like a google/reader for different twitter
accounts you create. then create one for technology, news, friends + family
etc... a feature would be of course to have a few pre made profiles you could
start out with and edit

-

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burke
Read the comments on the site. It's disheartening how many people seem to
agree with him :(

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richcollins
"Twitter employees don't follow very many other people."

That's very unusual behavior on Twitter. Most people on staff are being
followed by more than 1,000 people

Complete non-sequitur

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sho
I wonder if the author of this article has noticed the correlation between
"people who don't use twitter all that much" (ie, the staff at twitter) and
"people who actually get things done" (ie, the staff at twitter).

I cannot imagine how anyone with a job manages the kind of usage the author
seems to expect at a minimum, unless your job title is "Twitter User". Words
are kind of failing me contemplating that point, actually. Who are these
people who can _afford_ to use Twitter all day every day, and still somehow
remain in the technocracy?

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twopoint718
This is _exactly_ what I thought: "Uh, what if the reason Twitter developers
aren't using Twitter much is because they are _developing Twitter_?"

